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A reader of the blog asked me how Albert Pujols's struggles this season affect his free-agent prospects this winter, and I forgot to answer it. I answer that Pujols has not adversely affected his value at all. Before his hopefully minor injury today, he had gone 3 for 3 with a home run--bringing his season total to a non-meager 17--and raising his batting mark to .279. A normal Pujols batting mark is anywhere in the neighborhood of .315-.340, with a frightening boat-load of runs batted in (RBI) and runs scored. Put simply, unless he is badly hurt and misses a great deal of time, the monster is becoming locked in. The reason seasonal averages are still important in baseball is that no player, no matter how great, is unmitigated terror-inducing perfect all the time. But the truly great ones can slog it out over 162 games, put up the numbers, and make you tremble in fear as the opponent most of the time (in other words, Pujols). He's gonna make a borderline unholy amount of money this winter, and frankly, rightly so. I think he's the best player I ever saw. So far, anyway.

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