Fantasy Baseball Thoughts: Albert Pujols Age, Neftali Feliz, Joe Nathan and Others

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One of the stories on Baseball Nation yesterday was this one discussing Albert Pujols true age:

How Old Is Albert Pujols? - Baseball Nation
Maybe someday we'll know for sure when Albert Pujols was born. Until that fine day, all we can do is madly, wildly speculate. Which is so much more fun than actually knowing.

Included in this article was a link to an article written by Joe Posnanski, where he discusses Pujols age:

Joe Blogs: Pujols and Respect

Unlike Jordan and Tiger, Albert Pujols really was sold short for most of his life. He had come to the Kansas City from the Dominican Republic when he was still a kid, and he hit baseballs so hard and had such an adult-looking body that it was assumed that he had lied about his age. This led to many side effects. He was a phenomenal high school hitter, but he was not even selected first team All-Metro by The Kansas City Star -- this was in part because of his shaky defense as a shortstop, but there was also some real animosity toward him by other high school coaches because of the supposed age factor. He was not drafted out of high school, and again the retroactive reasoning is that he did not seem to have a natural defensive position but it seems more likely that the age rumors had sunk him. He was legendary his one year at Maple Woods Community College -- it is believed his done strike out a single time, and he crushed monstrous home runs. The St. Louis Cardinals, famously, drafted him, but not until the 13th round.

I never knew that about Pujols, and really makes me think how so many scouts missed out on him, as he was not drafted till the 13th round, and there were questions about his age going back to high school. Rob Neyer has questioned Pujols age several times over the last few seasons, and ESPN's Keith Law has stated in his chats that it is a common belief amongst MLB front office people that he is older than his stated age.

And there is more from Jonah Keri:

[A]t this year's MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, six of us were asked to write down on a piece of paper how old we thought Pujols was, as a secret ballot exercise. The group included two front-office types, a scout, a baseball technology guru, Rob Neyer, and myself. I was the only one who guessed that Pujols was the age he says he is.

It will be very interesting if he gets the contract he wants this offseason.

More fantasy baseball thoughts after the jump:

There is a common belief that Citizen's Bank Park (CBP) is a hitter's park, but the guys over at The Good Phight, SB Nation's Phillies site, did some research to dispell that myth. Fantasy owners take note.

Bandbox Schmandbox: Citizens Bank Park Is Not Playing Like A Hitter's Park - The Good Phight
Despite its reputation, Citizens Bank Park has been one of the fairest parks in baseball in recent years. It has not been either hitter-friendly or homerun-friendly.

Here's an excerpt regarding the number of home runs hit by the Phillies and their opponents in CBP vs on the road:

2) For the past 4 years, Citizens Bank Park has NOT been easier to hit home runs in

 

Since 2008, there have been 2.5% more homers by both teams in the Phils' home games than in their away games: 2.18 per game at CBP, 2.12 at the other parks.  But how does that 2.5% boost compare to the majors' true bandboxes?

 

Cellular (CHW): +32.1%
Yankee (NY): +31.2%
Coors (COL) +29.5%
Arlington (TEX): +26.7%