As the 2022 fantasy baseball season nears its end with the playoffs on the horizon, we’ve seen a power resurgence from a future Hall of Famer. He’s slowing creeping up Fantasy Baseball Rankings and he could very well be available on your league’s Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire. The fact that Albert Pujols is going to the Hall of Fame as one of the best first baseman we have ever seen, at least of this era, is insignificant to our current cause. All that really matters from a fantasy baseball perspective is what is taking place in 2022 right in front of our eyes at this current moment. Taking it one-step further, it is quite difficult not to be enamored by what Pujols is doing for the St. Louis Cardinals this month.

 

The intention here is not to make this an ode to Pujols great career, and instead to appreciate what we are currently seeing in August. Ultimately, our attention is on how it affects our fantasy teams both from a seasonal and DFS perspective.

With Pujols retiring at the end of the season, there are no future considerations here as this is the end of the road for the first baseman. In fact, it has been a few years since Pujols was truly fantasy relevant, but the large factors in that were due to his subpar batting average and limited playing time.

To put it frankly, it looked Pujols was really going to complete his career as a true non-factor and it appeared that the Cardinals were just hanging onto him for nostalgia’s sake. Then starting in July, something began to click for Pujols and he hit .320 in in 55 plate appearances with three home runs, seven RBI, and seven runs scored.

At that point, it really was still just a nice story, but then August game. In action through August 25th, Pujols was hitting .432 with seven home runs and 14 RBI. That is when you simply begin to enjoy the ride and forget about everything else.

There are not many tomorrows left for Pujols and if he hits, let him play. In addition, how can we really ignore the hot streak that he is currently in the midst of?

For good reason, there is a lot of buzz surrounding Pujols and what he is currently doing on the field. He provides us with highlight moments on a nightly basis in what feels like 2010. It is perfectly normal and reasonable to be swept up in the excitement and turn back the clock to previous eras of fantasy baseball when Pujols was flying off the board at the beginning of drafts.

While Pujols certainly aged and is not the same player he once was, it is not like he simply forgot how to hit either. It worth noting though that Pujols’s 11.4% barrel-rate is his highest mark since Statcast began tracking batted ball data in 2015 and the same can be said for his 48.6% hard-hit rate.

From the perspective of a fan, this makes for a great story, but we are here to win fantasy championships. That means the careful use of Pujols down the stretch, and also being cognizant of your investment as he very clearly is no longer in the prime of his career.

Pujols has 101 plate appearances against left-handed pitching and 139 against right-handers and the results could not be more different. While enjoying the platoon advantage, Pujols has ten home runs and 18 RBI while batting .398 compared to four home runs, 14 RBI, and a .189 batting average against right-handed pitching. Keep this in mind when both investing in and utilizing Pujols for the remainder of the season.

Separate nostalgia from what we are currently seeing, but also make sure to enjoy the last month of the career of one of the best first baseman to play the game.

 

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