Those of you who have been long time followers of MillersTime/GoSox (all three of you) no doubt know that I am a big fan of Wash. Post sports writer Thomas Boswell. I always feel I learn something from his columns.

He wrote another one the other day entitled A Different Kind of Moneyball, wherein he looked at the recent deals with Pujols (and to a lesser degree the ones with Reyes, Wilson, Buehrle, and Bell) and asks, “How much is too  much?”

The article is worth reading, in part because of the chart below, where Boswell takes a look at ‘how 15 of baseballs greatest hitters fared after turning 32.’

For those of you who love ‘inside baseball,’ Here’s more grist for the mill.

(Note for the table below – Williams (5) DiMaggio (3), Musial (1), and Mays (1) lost a total of 10 full seasons in their primes for WWII and/or Korea. Average games through age 31 should be 1700)

OPS+ Before OPS+ After Games Before Games After
Age 32 Age 32 Age 32 Age 32
Babe Ruth 212 199 1,350 1,153
Ted Williams 193 187 1,273 828
Ty Cobb 185 145 1,805 1,229
Lou Gehrig 183 166 1,538 626
Rogers Hornsby 177 168 1,689 570
Stan Musial 172 144 1,524 1,502
Jimmie Foxx 170 129 1,834 483
Frank Thomas 169 136 1,371 951
Willie Mays 159 151 1,534 1,453
Hank Aaron 157 151 1,806 1,492
Joe DiMaggio 157 152 1,111 625
Mel Ott 157 150 2,015 715
Frank Robinson 156 149 1,786 1,022
Manny Ramirez 156 150 1,383 919
Average of 16 170 154 1,612
Albert Pujols 170 1,705
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