Foxx and Pujols have almost identical career slash lines, including Jimmie’s decline. Through age 31 Foxx had 463 HR, 2217 hits, 1485 runs, 1625 RBI, and 2 seasons of OPS+ higher than Pujol’s career high, with: 205, 200, 188, 186, 182, 182.

Foxx had 7853 PAs to Pujols’ 7433. So a difference of + 18 HR, 194 runs, 144 hits, 296 RBI in 420 more PAs. Pujols had a slight edge in doubles.

At 30:
Foxx .349/.462/.704/1.166 50/175
Pujols .312/.414/.596/1.011 42/118

31:
Foxx .360/.464/.694/1.158 35/105
Pujols .299/.366/.541/ .906 37/99

So I think these numbers ( and even numbers slightly better) HAVE been seen at this point from a 31 year old with around the same number of plate appearances.

But as i said before, for Pujols to do that through age 40 would be something no one else has done.

Geez – to me he’s just a guy that makes a living writing about baseball – sometimes he writes stuff that makes sense – sometimes her writes stuff that seems like he’s in a hurry and hasn’t thought through what he writes. Sometimes he even writes sheer foolishness. Regardless, I read his column and say he’s right about in the middle of the pack as far as Sportswriters are concerned; of course you could say as one poster did about Left Fielders – that’s not meaningful because all left fielders are bad.

In the 1950s his type of sportswriters were saying black ballplayers weren’t “smart” or “fundamentally sound” or some such other nonsense to explain their lower salaries. Heyman, baseball has not use for your racist nonsense. Shame on you Matt for not calling him out on it.

Falsifying documents to gain immigration status is a very common practice. Who is to say that Pujols’ family did not do it to gain entrance into the US.

Maybe Alberts parents thought he may have a chance for a college scholarship. So they got him papers stating that he was a year or so younger than he actually was. That would give him a distinct advantage over the kids he was competing against in Jr. high and high school.

What if for example, Pujols’ dad was a convicted felon in the DR. He cannot legally enter the US so he gets papers, IDs etc. for the entire family.

People get deported all the time for entering the country illegally. There are others whose age has been called into question, Vlad Gurrero for one, I dont see why Albert should be any different.

I did it in 18 months. So it’s possible to do it quicker…

In any case Jon Heyman saying Pujols should produce a Birth Certificate sounds a lot like Donald Trump asking Obama to produce a Birth Certificate.

Why would he even get 9 years, let alone MORE than 9 years, when his real age IS 31? Since when is anyone in baseball expected to play at a high level until age 40? That is very rare, especially outside of the “performance enhancing” era. Yeah, A-Rod is signed through age 42, but he’s already gone through injuries and is no longer an elite player.

Pujols has been great for 11 seasons. The odds of him being great for 20 full seasons are pretty low, whether he is 31 or 33 or 27.

Among all-time greats there is not a single player that went 20 years and through age 40 as an above average player without missing significant time. Even Barry Bonds missed his age 40 season, and I was going to leave him out anyway. Hank Aaron was pretty good through 40 but he missed a full season’s worth of games from his 37-40 seasons. Almost all of the greatest players had significant injuries and diminished skills by 37 or 38.

Pujols might end up being the greatest of all-time, but is he in a class completely by himself?