Has any HOFer ever finished out their career worse than

olb31

Albert Pujols. One of the top 20 players of all-time, but boy he looks beyond washed up. The Yanks wouldn'y play AROD the last year and he looked like the best player ever the year before compared to what Pujols looks like this year.

swish54

Before my time, but Willie Mays was supposedly really bad in 1973.

doubledragon

You know I remember reading a story about how the fans of St Louis thought Albert Pujols was a jerk. I would like to say, that what I read isn't true. Pujols hit his 2000th rbi and said the fan could keep the ball. In my book, Pujols has a lot of class.

dontippet

My first guess was Willie Mays as well.

olb31

Of course he read my post and just hit a HR. Yes Mays was about this bad, good observation. Willie's last two years he was about this bad, his age was 41 and 42. Albert is currently 39 this season. But very similar.

DBesse27

Show us your Pujols cards....

brad31

Steve Carlton was pretty bad in his post Phillies career.

Unknown

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Stone193

Not saying worse than Pujols but Mantle disappointed me by staying too late at the party.

1967 - 144 games - .245 BA, 22 HRs
1968 - 144 games - .237 BA, 18 HRs

This brought his lifetime BA down below .300

I think Babe Ruth may have stayed too long also?

PROMETHIUS88

@olb31 said:
Of course he read my post and just hit a HR. Yes Mays was about this bad, good observation. Willie's last two years he was about this bad, his age was 41 and 42. Albert is currently 39 this season. But very similar.

Yeah, 39??? Most likely closer to 44

Nathaniel1960

Broadway Joe over his last three seasons had a TD/INT total of 22/49.

Desert_Ice_Sports

Derek Jeter in 2014... Historically bad.

.313 slugging percentage and 24 extra-base hits in 145 games.

doubledragon

Mike Tyson lost his touch late in his career.

doubledragon

And his mind.

nam812

@olb31 said:
.......Albert is currently 39 this season............

Says who? lol

fiveniner

Phil Rizutto

Tabe

Babe Ruth hit .181 for the Boston Braves. Still hit 6 homers in 28 games, including 3 in one game, but was pretty terrible otherwise.

Tabe

Willie McCovey hit .204 with just 1 homer in 48 games for San Francisco in his final year.

lwehlers

albert has been horrible this year so far and last year too. if he was not making so much money the angels would probably release him by now. here is my pujols rookie I have owned since 2002.

orioles93

Reggie Jackson wasn’t to good his last 5 years.

daltex

Very few are like Mike Schmidt. Realized he couldn't do it anymore and hung it up two months into the season.

lwehlers

I think that ken Griffey jr did the same thing in his last year and retired at midseason I think.

Cooptown

I opened this up thinking it was going to be about Miguel Cabrera....

doubledragon

Just imagine how many home runs Ken Griffey Jr. would have had if he stayed healthy all those years.

lwehlers

@Cooptown said:
I opened this up thinking it was going to be about Miguel Cabrera....

Cabrera is also struggling at the end of his career. ever since he had that triple crown year it has been down hill from then to now.

doubledragon

If Griffey Jr. had stayed healthy, he would probably be the all time home run king. I always thought he had the best home run swing. The prettiest home run swing.

orioles93

I think Cabrera could have some good seasons yet if the Tigers would stop playing him at first base. He should be a full time DH at this point to save his knees. Not sure why they keep running him out there in the field. He doesn't have the power he used to but he can still hit for average and drive in runs.

Another question could be, how many guys get better at the end of their career that aren't steroid related. Current example: Nick Markakis. He was good at the beginning of his career from 2006-2011, then regressed from 2012-2014. Then went to the Braves and has gotten better. He never had big power, but his average, doubles, walks, rbi all got better.

electrode

Wayne Gretzky was a defensive liability,when Wayne got hurt and was unable to play the Rangers were winning when #99 returned to the ice the Blueshirts started losing more than what they were winning so the next year he hung up his skates.

Tabe

@orioles93 said:
I think Cabrera could have some good seasons yet if the Tigers would stop playing him at first base. He should be a full time DH at this point to save his knees. Not sure why they keep running him out there in the field. He doesn't have the power he used to but he can still hit for average and drive in runs.

Nah, the problem with Cabrera is that he is overweight and out of shape. He'd be fine if he lost 40 lbs.

handyman

Not a HOF but looked amazing for a good while. So basically no comment. But it made me think of this guy.

Who is
Chuck Knoblauch

His 1990 score card was going for like 6-8 bucks at one time!!

daltex

@lwehlers said:
I think that ken Griffey jr did the same thing in his last year and retired at midseason I think.

OK, but Griffey was pretty bad his last six years. Schmidt wasn't good in 1988, but better by far than any of Griffey's last six.

dontippet

@daltex said:
Very few are like Mike Schmidt. Realized he couldn't do it anymore and hung it up two months into the season.

I remember watching this on TV.

grote15

Ichiro

orioles93

Harmon Killebrew wasn't very good his last 4 years, Tony Perez his last 6 years, Willie McCovey his last 3 years, Jim Palmer his last 2 years. There are probably more. I don't think it's uncommon for even the greats to have poor seasons at the end of their careers.

orioles93

@daltex said:

@lwehlers said:
I think that ken Griffey jr did the same thing in his last year and retired at midseason I think.

OK, but Griffey was pretty bad his last six years. Schmidt wasn't good in 1988, but better by far than any of Griffey's last six.

Griffey's last 6 were 2005-2010. His average season from 2005-2009 was .261/.349.482, 26 HR, 77 rbi, 24 db, 64 bb/88 ks. That's not really that bad. His last season was bad, and he quit in the middle of it, and the season before it was bad, but he still hit 19 homers and walked 63 times in just 454 PA.

doubledragon

If you follow Nascar, the you'll know that after winning 7 championships, Jimmie Johnson can't seem to win one race these days.

sayheywyo

Pete Rose, slam dunk HOF, hung on too long, hit like .219, bet on his own team and the rest is history. The only Hall he'll be in is in own home...………….

Estil

@doubledragon said:
Just imagine how many home runs Ken Griffey Jr. would have had if he stayed healthy all those years.

Probably would've broken Aaron's HR record.

craig44

Pujols has been considerably below average for the previous 2 seasons. the scary thing is that he is signed for 2 more years.

JoeBanzai

@orioles93 said:
Harmon Killebrew wasn't very good his last 4 years, Tony Perez his last 6 years, Willie McCovey his last 3 years, Jim Palmer his last 2 years. There are probably more. I don't think it's uncommon for even the greats to have poor seasons at the end of their careers.

Killebrew was still good his last full year (1972 OPS+ 138) He was between 90-95 OPS+ after that but couldn't run any more.

Hate that the Twins released him and he played final year with K.C.

rounding3rd

Pujols will likely limp along long enough to pass Mays on the all-time HR list...

TheThrill22

Dale Murphy

doubledragon

I mean, for years and years Pujols was the best in baseball at his job. Nowadays, it's Mike Trout. I just wonder how Trout will perform at the end of his career.

fergie23

I wish Pujols would hang them up but he has millions and millions of reasons not to.

Robb

craig44

@doubledragon said:
I mean, for years and years Pujols was the best in baseball at his job. Nowadays, it's Mike Trout. I just wonder how Trout will perform at the end of his career.

unless he retires young like a koufax, he will plateau then start the decline. it happens to them all, the only difference is how long they decide to hold on.

81 Topps Guy

Jim Palmer 0-3 with a 9.17 ERA in 1984, small sample size but brutal. Ernie Banks 3 HR and sub .200 average his last year is in the team photo too.

shagrotn77

@doubledragon said:
You know I remember reading a story about how the fans of St Louis thought Albert Pujols was a jerk. I would like to say, that what I read isn't true. Pujols hit his 2000th rbi and said the fan could keep the ball. In my book, Pujols has a lot of class.

So Pujols isn't a jerk based on this alone? Lol. The Cards not resigning him is one of the best moves (or non-moves) they ever made.

miwlvrn

@olb31 said:
Has any HOFer ever finished out their career worse than Albert Pujols.

Probably not the worst example out there, but as fun of an idea as it was for him to have one year playing where he grew up, I'll say that Mike Modano's last year was pretty disappointing (yes I realize much of that was time off due to a freak injury, but still...).

rmh111985

Roy Halladay had a rough 2012 one year after finishing 2nd in Cy Young voting, and had to hang it up after an atrocious 2013 as a result of shoulder problems. Hung it up that December when he knew he couldn't pitch through the injuries anymore.

doubledragon

@shagrotn77 said:

@doubledragon said:
You know I remember reading a story about how the fans of St Louis thought Albert Pujols was a jerk. I would like to say, that what I read isn't true. Pujols hit his 2000th rbi and said the fan could keep the ball. In my book, Pujols has a lot of class.

So Pujols isn't a jerk based on this alone? Lol. The Cards not resigning him is one of the best moves (or non-moves) they ever made.

Did the cards not resign him because he is a jerk? To be a jerk or not to be a jerk, that is the question.

doubledragon

I just think it was classy to say he didn't care if the fan kept the ball, because the fans are what really matters.