[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by G1911

These documents often don’t exist in the Dominican Republic and other places, or are easily forged, or are created long after the fact. Proving age is difficult in much of the second and third world. That Pujols is probably older than he officially states is old news, and was floating around well before the Angels contract. (https://www.insider.com/albert-pujol...his-age-2021-3). It was a common joke when he was still a Cardinal.

One would think this would discourage the Angels. One would also think that Pujols wouldn’t get his age mixed up, as he has several times, if it was true. But then again Moreno doesn’t exactly make brilliant signings.

I don’t know if it is true; I don’t have access to relevant documentation that may be extant or to sources in the Dominican. But it’s not particularly uncommon, and it puts his career into the normal decline and fall if he his, as has long been suspected, a couple years older. I think it’s likely Pujols is just a bit older than he says, that there is nothing peculiar about his decline.

If he's 43 or 44 now that's awfully damn old for anyone except maybe Julio Franco to still be playing and even semi productive. And it sure doesn't make the Angels look good, unless maybe the thought was they would get 3 or 4 really productive years out of it even if he was older than officially stated. It's also pretty unusual to be playing 10+ years in decline, no?

In hindsight the Cardinals made a brilliant move.