Albert Pujols

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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ays hard to get a consensus on a guy.

In baseball, it's pretty clear for the most part.  Albert Pujols mashes.  Johan Santana deals.  You aren't going to say that Pujols is a great hitter because he has a great offensive line (writer's note: this is the case for Emmit Smith. OVER-RATED, duh duh duh-duh-duh, OVER-RATED!).  In the NFL, it's such a crap shoot.  What's more, in Sunday football, you sign a guy who fits with your 'plan'.  The thing is, those plans, more often than not, change before the player's contract is up.  Salaries are structured in such a way that releasing a guy before his contract expires often results in the dreaded 'dead money' which means you owe a guy some coin and you can't sign anyone else becuase he's still on the books.  So it's like a 2 for 1 whammy in your mouthpiece.

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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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