Pujols

[78crusader]

145 at bats into the season and he's still hitting below .200.  Soon-to-be-corrected anamoly, or the beginning of an epic decline? Before you answer, consider his BA the last four years: .357, .327, .315, and .299. 

Interesting that someone noted today Pujols' slugging percentage is .275. Josh Hamilton could go 0 for his next 271 at bats and still have a higher slugging percentage than .275. That says a lot about how good Hamilton has been, but may say more about how bad Pujols has been.

Paul

[vuweathernerd]

i'll admit, i haven't watched a whole lot of angels games this year - not because of any particular dislike, but it's still somewhat painful to see pujols in a jersey that isn't the birds on the bat. but what i have seen is not good. his timing is off and his swing just doesn't look quite right. there's a lot of speculation that he's nursing some kind of arm/elbow injury that's wreaking havoc on his game. and the stress of trying to live up to that monster contract certainly doesn't help.

but i do believe this is a decline in his abilities. he's shown in the last couple years that he's not going to produce forever. if he can get to 20 homers and hit .270-.275, it'll have been a successful year, based solely on how the first 6 weeks of the season have gone. his days of .340/45/120 are done. in years past, he's been able to spray the ball all around the field, which was part of his success - you never knew where he would put the ball, and that has an effect on how the defense will play you. this season, he has been a pure pull hitter. everything is going to the left side of the infield. indicates a slower batspeed and timing being off. and before, he could center the ball on the sweet spot and murder any number of pitches. now, he's rolling over on everything, hitting the top of the ball, and sending weak grounders to short and third. but most noticeably, in the last couple of years, he's been expanding his strike zone - swinging at pitches that he never would have touched in his first 7 or 8 years in the league. his strikeout rate is up, and his batting average is down. and it's gonna keep going that way as his career advances at this point.

this contract will prove the utter stupidity of giving 10/$250M contracts to anybody, much less somebody in their 30s. and the angels and arte moreno shot themselves in the foot by backloading the hell out of that contract. he's making something like $15M this year, but in the last five years of the deal he signed, he'll make between $25M and $30M every year. nobody's gonna trade for a guy with that kind of a salary - it ties management's hands. not resigning with the cardinals may be a blessing in disguise for them, as it gives the team much more financial flexibility than they'd have had otherwise.

[bbtds]

Yes, I think it has been one heck of a bad start but I really believe Pujols is going to suddenly get jump started and be very hot. His stats won't be as good as last year which also started slow but not as slow as this season. The area that Pujols excels in is knowing his opponent and studying their habits. He's without much of his support (LaRussa, McGwire & Molina) and he is trying to study many many pitchers that he hasn't faced before. It will happen for Pujols but to a lesser degree than last year and that in and of itself makes the contract the Angels gave him a very bad move for them.

[valpotx]

He will definitely pick it up, but I am very much enjoying his lack of success after last season  .  The fact he is failing miserably for our rivals is just icing on the cake lol

[78crusader]

Pujols was 1 for 4 last night, so after 36 games he is hitting .197.  He is in his 12th season.  Just for comparison, in his 12th season, Aaron's numbers were .318/32/89, and Ted Williams was .345/29/89.

Paul

[StlVUFan]

On the other hand, I would be shocked if he had an Adam Dunn year when we get to October.  I think Albert is tons smarter as a hitter than Dunn.