Albert Pujols

eless innings today, while striking out six, and also helped himself by doubling and scoring a run. Albert Pujols has officially entered beast mode, as he jacked two more homers today, including the first of his career against former teammate Jeff Suppan. Over his last 14 games, he's batting .460 with seven home runs, six doubles, 17 RBI, 10 walks, and a 1.000 slugging percentage in 50 at-bats. He now has 47 home runs for the season, just two shy of his career high of 49 and he now has three and a half weeks left to pass that mark. The guy is unbelievable. As for his partner in crime, Matt Holliday, he left the game today after stumbling across first base on a ground out with what the team is calling a bruised knee. He had a minor injury a few weeks ago and it didn't phase him, so even though I cringe every time I see him or Chris Carpenter stumble, I'm not worried about this particular injury.

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Carp then mowed down the Dodgers long enough for the offense to get going a bit when Albert Pujols tied the game with a leadoff homer in the fourth inning. 

A quick side-note on Pujols: he now has 39 homers on the year, which is two more than he hit during last year's MVP season. He also has 105 RBI which is just 11 shy of his total from a year ago. He's leading the National League in homers, tied with Prince Fielder for the lead in RBI, and is third in the NL in average at .325. The Marlins' Hanley Ramirez is leading Pujols by quite a bit in that department, batting .357 after Sunday's game, but if he cools off and Pujols, who currently has a 12-game hitting streak, remains hot, he still could catch Ramirez for a shot at the triple crown. The guy is just nuts. Hopefully they'll lock him up this offseason.

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Monday night, I spoke with my buddy Mike about baseball. We talked about fantasy where I'm selling the farm for draft picks in my keeper league more shamelessly than the Pirates are trading for prospects, but also about how Pujols' slump had to be nearing its end. I don't know what it was that got him so on again in such a hurry. Perhaps after he flew out in the first, making what was his only out of the game, a Mets fan heckled him, asking him," How do you like them apples?" Now, I have great respect for Albert, but his English isn't the best, so perhaps he misinterpreted the comment as a challenge to hit the apple in center field. Seven innings later, he accomplished this feat. Two innings later, after Mark DeRosa was plunked to give the Cardinals the lead, he officially went into beast mode. He clubbed his second bomb of the game, metaphorically bitch-slapping the Mets. He looks like he actually bitch-slapped one of them in this photo. I suppose he also could've been offering Omir Santos a high five as if to say," Hey, it's not your fault that I'm this awesome."

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The only difference was that Albert Pujols was running the first time, so it would’ve been a double either way. We ended up getting a pop up, a walk, and a ground out with the throw coming home to eliminate Ryan at third. The replay showed he was safe, but the umpire kept the Dodgers alive by missing the play. Pujols followed this up by battling to a full count, fouling off a few pitches, and eventually lined a single to center over Matt Kemp’s head to win it. It was nice to see Pujols put a charge into the ball after struggling for most of the night. It’s clear that his timing isn’t completely in sync, as he just hasn’t been stinging the ball lately. It was his first RBI in nine games. It must be nice to not be hitting well and still manage to go 3-for-7.

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Regardless, I think it's interesting to listen to Cubs fans talk about the Cardinals, especially Albert Pujols. Here are just a few examples...

I recently went to a Cards/Cubs game at Wrigley and every time Albert stepped to the plate, I heard people accusing him of being "on the juice". Now I realize too many great players have used steroids, HGH, etc in the past 1-2 decades, but unless Albert has been juicing since day one, I highly doubt he's using anything. From the day he came to the majors, he's been the same size and hit .300+ with 30+ homers and 100+ RBIs. Bonds, A-Rod, McGwire, Sosa, Canseco...all those players that have been accused or found guilty of using steroids had huge changes in performance. Bonds, A-Rod and Sosa were 30/30 or 40/40 players and then all of a sudden became 50+ HR sluggers. McGwire put on 30+ pounds and Canseco...well, he's his own story. Maybe I'm biased, but I say Albert is clean and definitely should be considered innocent until proven guilty.

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p some of the atmosphere and to see if I can get close enough to Clark Street to maybe grab a ball. Albert Pujols has come close to hitting it out of the park in regulation play, so he might have a shot when he’s being grooved pitches. That being said, I’m a little worried about him heading into this competitive batting practice extravaganza.

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Soriano might me one of the laziest players in baseball. His lackadaisical run after an Albert Pujols single later in the game turned it into a double for Albert. El Hombre may not run out every ground ball and full speed, but if there’s a chance to make a play, he’s going to do so and he certainly took advantage of Soriano’s ineptness in the outfield. When healthy, the Cubs have to of the laziest players in the league on the left side of their field, with Aramis Ramirez at third base. This guy constantly got booed in Pittsburgh for not running out grounders before the Pirates gave him away to the Cubs in what seemed to be more of a promotional item than a trade. Sure, both of these players contribute to the Cubs offense and are probably given more respect at the plate than Ryan Ludwick and Rick Ankiel by pitchers, but I’d rather have our pair that injures themselves running after fly balls in the outfield than the Cubs’ pair of bums any day.

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This should help the club, especially the regulars like Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina, who have played the majority of the Cards’ games this season. They will then head to Pittsburgh, Pujols’ home ballpark away from home. He has a career average of .386 at PNC Park in 62 games with 20 home runs and 57 RBI. His .731 slugging percentage is his second highest in NL parks, behind only a .788 mark at Atlanta’s Turner Field.

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Louis Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols. During his eight seasons with the Cards, big Al has averaged 39.9 homers, 191 hits, 110 RBI's, and held a batting average of .334. All the while maintaining his family values, moral integrity and dedication to being the best in the bigs. Griffey Jr. is still plugging along and with his untarnished name he can pass this torch onto our next underdog winner. In all fairness, Pujols truly does not appear to be a threat to let us down, as most of his predecessors have. If we can have a chance at a guiding light, let us hope that a trust in Pujols will bear good fruit.

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agree with almost every award this year for the first time I can remember in I don't know how long. Albert Pujols, who should be on MVP number five by now (2002-05 and 2008), actually got his second. He was much better than Ryan Howard in about every category other than home runs and RBIs. Of course, if you have two good hitters, and one has about 60 more at-bats more with runners in scoring position, one would assume that the hitter with that many more at-bats would finish with more RBIs. This was the case for Howard. Pujols also did more with less. Howard had last year's MVP in Jimmy Rollins leading off in front of him, with perhaps the best offensive second baseman in Chase Utley batting in front of him as well. Throw in speedster Shane Victorino and the power of Pat Burrell as protection, and you arguably have the most potent lineup in the National League.

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We were done, the season would be over in a few short at-bats. And then Albert Pujols put a Brad Lidge slider into orbit7. This gave me hope, and one short year later, my hope was rewarded. 

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The NL is “stuck” with Lance Berkman, who’s having a heck of a year, instead of Albert Pujols, whom NL skipper Clint Hurdle had to hand-pick after fans passed on him. Pujols, for those of you who have been asleep since 2001, has been arguably the best hitter in baseball since then. And Ryan Braun’s a whiz with the bat—when he makes contact—but not such a great defender in left. Might you want to shift Nate McLouth, a reserve who normally plays in center, to right instead, since Nate’s OPS is 16 points higher even than slugger Braun?

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ne, that might make him an enticing trade commodity when Soriano returns.

The other injury was to Albert Pujols, one of the best hitters around. A friend emailed me about my Manny Ramirez paean a few days back to counter that Pujols was a far better hitter, and my response to him (both in the blog post and now) is that Pujols hasn't had the longevity of Manny, and is just starting to show the wear and tear of playing baseball every day. Pujols has been one of the top five hitters in baseball since he burst onto the scene in 2001, with 5 straight years of .300/.400/.500 ball (including four straight .300/.400/.600 years). That's only seven years, however, and Manny's been doing his magic consistently for almost fifteen.

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These are amazing numbers for their careers, and both should add on to them in the near future. Albert Pujols has some pretty eye-popping statistics, better than Manny, but he's only been doing this Superman act for half as long.

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Louis Cardinals

How badly will Albert Pujols elbow problems affect his performance?

The fact that he is even attempting to play is incredible as the pain Pujols is reportedly feeling in his

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ty years ago, most players made so little they often had to get part time jobs in the off season.

Albert Pujols’ elbow continues to be a problem and he seems intent on playing through it. For those of you who read Buzz Bissinger’s 3 Nights in August, you know that Pujols suffered from elbow problems then and played through them even though he had to give the ball to some one else to throw in from the outfield. There is no doubt that he has a high tolerance for pain. At this point it seems that Tommy John surgery is inevitable, the only question is when. Tony LaRussa has implemented his own set of rules to protect Pujols as much as possible and delay surgery until after the season if possible. With the outlook for the Cardinals this season ranging from bleak to dismal, why not go ahead and get the surgery now? St. Louis is clearly moving towards rebuilding and it doesn’t seem to make much sense for Pujols to endure the kind of pain he must be feeling and risk further injury and potentially missing a significant portion of next season when the Cardinals might have a better shot at contention.

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gue, who will lead at what category, who will win the awards, and who are the flops.  Enjoy!1B Albert Pujols2B Chase Utlery3B David WrightSS Hanley RamirezC Geovany SotoOF Carlos LeeOF Alfonso SorianoOF Matt HolidaySP Johan SantanaSP Roy OswaltSP Jake PeavyCLOSER Billy Wagner or Bob Howry or Kerry Wood

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