And I’m sure it’s not original, but:

given that a replacement-level team wins ~40 games, and that no one wins more than 110 games, the relatively small max WAR totals make a lot more sense. Pujols isn’t 8-10 wins out of 95; he’s 8-10 wins out of the marginal 50 that a good Cardinals team is relative to the worst possible MLB team. And saying that Pujols is 20% of the difference between the 1962 Mets and a 95 win team sounds about right – no one could argue that he alone makes that club into even a respectable group. But add 3-4 of them and you’re near .500, and if you could somehow add 5 Pujols to Marvelous Marv, et al., you get a winner.