Albert Pujols went 4-for-5 with two homers, a double, and six RBIs yesterday, including a game-breaking grand slam that he apparently "called" shortly before the at-bat:
After opening the third inning with a fly out, Pujols returned to the Cardinals clubhouse to review video. There he predicted to assistant hitting coach Mike Aldrete that his next at-bat would ricochet off the yet-to-open Royals Hall of Fame behind the visitors bullpen in left field. "He didn't say he might hit the Hall of Fame. He said he would hit the Hall of Fame," Aldrete recalled.
Pujols returned in the fourth inning against Royals starting pitcher Gil Meche with the bases loaded and one out in a 4-4 game. Pujols and Meche reached a full count. By then Meche had shown Pujols every pitch in his repertoire except a change-up. When Meche finally threw the pitch, Pujols swatted it some 423 feet off a Hall of Fame window.
Not quite Babe Ruth territory, but amusing nonetheless. Actually, my favorite part of the whole story is how Pujols' teammates reacted when asked about his grand slam after the game. Here are some examples ...
Kyle McClellan: "If it's 3-2 and he gets a strike, he's going to hit it. He's going to drive it. There's not a question."
Adam Wainwright: "Face it, I'm playing with the best player of all time. It's ridiculous. You almost have to focus on what you're doing because you can get caught up in what he's doing. He's that good."
Khalil Greene: "He makes it look easy. I mean, how many guys in the league try to do that?"
Skip Schumaker: "After the second home run we just laughed. It's just so easy. It's a higher level. It's like he's here and everybody else is at Triple-A."
One of the surest signs of greatness is when the amazing becomes routine, and judging by those quotes from his teammates Pujols has definitely reached that stage. Even setting aside the whole "called shot" aspect yesterday's grand slam was his third in four at-bats with the bases loaded this season and tied him with Stan Musial for the most in Cardinals history with nine.
Pujols is hitting .329 and leads the league in on-base percentage (.448), slugging percentage (.722), and OPS (1.169) while being on a 60-homer, 160-RBI pace. As manager Tony La Russa put it: "He does it over and over again. It's impossible to describe how great he is."
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Weren't they saying these same things about McGwire, Sosa, Clemens...
What are you saying baxnnex? There has never been a hitter that is as clutch as Albert. Pitchers shake in their boots when he comes to the plate in a "game on the line" situation.
to a point, but none of them every really hit .330 plus and most of them had good teams around them.. Pujols is a strictly one man show.... since the quality of MLB pitching has deteriorated for years, it's not surprising guys can dominate.. Pitching was so much better in the '70's '80s and '90s....
Wait til that ENTIRE LIST is made PUBLIC.............
The ONLY SAFE Players are from the RED SOX, they were Lucky
no player EVER USED PED'S..........
Impressive no matter how you look at it, so let's admit that saying he leads the league in on base and slug % naturally means he'll lead in OPS, right? It makes the line seem more impressive, but it is redundant.
Ha, I thought the exact same thing.
After the mess baseball has been through the last few years, it's good to have some stellar athletes like Albert putting on a show like he did yesterday without cheating. No steroids here, just pure talent and ability. He's bringing back integrity to the game one slug at a time.
That's unfortunately what they said about Manny. You just never know these days - it's sad to say
Could you imagine if he had good hitters in front of him?
"You almost have to focus on what you're doing because you can get caught up in what he's doing."
Shouldn't Wainwright be focusing on what he's supposed to be doing regardless of what Pujols is doing?
Or is this just an example of why Wainwright's career hasn't exactly gone that well?
Hasn't gone that well?
He was the World Series MVP and is career 35-20 with a 3.50 ERA, 383 K's to 163 BB's. This season he is 8-4 with a 3.58 ERA, 84 K's to 36 BB's.
Not saying those are superstar numbers, but you can't say his career hasn't gone that well.
Actually David Eckstein was the World Series MVP. Regardless, Wainwright did have a excellent series, he just wasn't the MVP. After that performance there were high expectations of him, that he hasn't quite performed up to.
How do you know he's not on steroids..? Until they can test for hgh every body is suspect. Albert looks pretty big to me & I would not rule him out as a roid head. Warning track fly balls become homers
It's only a matter of time before he tests positive.
He will NEVER test positive, he doesn't need that $#it, he's THE NATURAL man!
r u serious, would u bet your life on that,,,,,,,,
Why are Big Papi's numbers way down? I don't believe Pujols juices. I belive that many players numbers are way down now though. More injuries as well, with longer recovery times on the DL.
Wainwright is 35-20 lifetime with a 3.50 ERA and a successful stint as a closer in the playoffs for a WS winner. How has his career "not gone that well?"
And the detractors keep flinging stuff just HOPING to be right. Pathetic. There are some players out there with some integrity, anonymous cowards. Once his name is connected formally, then you cowards can talk your trash. But until then, you need to quit slandering.
agreed, AP has always been the same size since his first day in MLB. he's the complete package, leader, clutch hitting, and a gold glover to boot. I'm sure he loves hearing the sceptics badmouth him, but i'm pretty sure he's squeaky clean and is the definition of integrity for MLB.
Curious, when did Pujols go in the draft? If I remember right he wasn't considered a top prospect by any means. Do you think there is a better draft day bargain then him in all of sports? I'm guessing he is up there with Brady.
The thing that aggravates me is that if caught, Pujols will be fully accountable for his actions but these clowns will never be accountable for their comments if Pujols is truly clean. Innocent until proven guilty, people, not the other way around.
I wish people would just embrace his greatness instead of doubting it, I'm sure he's been tested recently/weekly and the game needs a story like his to be REAL!
Adam MT: Pujols was drafted in the 13th round. And you were correct, Pujols was amazing in both High School and College but for some reason was written off by scouts. The Rockies were supposedly the team most interested in him but passed. Imagine what he would be doing at Coors Field?
As for other bargains though, I think Piazza takes the cake as a 62nd Rounder. Not too often you see one of those in the Hall of Fame.
Pujols has welcomed each and every person who has doubted him with the same response. "If you doubt me, test me". Why don't they make public the players who test negative. Good money say Albert is at the top of the list for those who test negative for PED's.
Quick note to the Dewitt family: EXTEND HIS CONTRACT NOW!
I'm sorry for the (few) people who won't be able to tell their grandkids about Albert El Hombre Pujols someday, passing on to them the love of the game and the man, that my mother gave to me with her tales of Stan the Man Musial's feats when she was growing up. You're so proud of your "cuteness" in finding ways to cast aspersions on this great man, that you're totally missing a once-in-a-lifetime experience to watch, root for, and yes, love, the best baseball player in this generation. You are trading in your 2 minutes of "fun" today on this blog, at his expense, for a lifetime great stories you could have relished sharing, if only you weren't so small-minded. I feel sorry for you.
Wow, you people are a joke. THERE IS NO TEST FOR HGH. You can test him all day for the cheap mexican donkey juice - but why would he take that when he can get the lab created juice that nobody can test for? That's just dumb. I like watching the bombs being launced just like i did sosa & mcjuice but there is no way to prove Alberto doesn't have a juicey medicine cabinent. You are the same people who were saying bonds is sooo great, why would he need roids, he's THE MAN!!! Yeah Barry!!! Then, oops, dude rubbed every new age juice all over himself... Maybe 20 of his home runs in his record breaking year would have been fly balls to the warning track.. Could be the same with Alberto.. You don't know, so get off his nuts - sad but true - you may never know, but you can't call him the greatest ever when he could be inflating his stats with juice. Maybe there was a reason he was drafted in the 13th round - could have been launching tons of fly balls.. Now they go out of the park with a little help from his friends (peds)... YOU DON'T KNOW B/C THERE IS NO TEST AVAILABLE!!!!! Get over it, it's a fact!!! Flyballs to the warning track become dingers, 5 mph extra on the fastball... It does make a good player great - stat wise at least....
Hyperbole much, Jim? Anyway, HGH doesn't do much for increased strength; rather its positive effects with regards to athletic performance involve resistance to and recovery from injury.
I feel sorry for you people bashing Albert. You are missing the experience of watching the most exciting baseball player of this generation to get your 2 minutes of negative "cutseyness" posted to this blog. My mother passed on her love of the Cardinals and Stan the Man Musial's amazing feats to me. It is a positive part my life. You will never be able to pass that love of the game or how you witnessed Albert El Hombre Pujols' fanfastic career on to your grandkids because you have no regard for true greatness. No, I don't feel sorry for you after all--I feel sorry for your Grandchildren!
I think its sad that we're even having this conversation. Lets face it, Ibanez is in the same boat, and its impossible to have a player in baseball performing at a high level without a hint of skepticism. It doesn't help that the other best player in baseball (A-rod) who we were all hanging our hats on to bring this sport back, turned up to be dirty. Still, I agree that while skepticism is a part of our era, we need to not question the integrity of a man who has never given us just cause to doubt it, and hope for the sport's sake that he isn't a cheater. Albert is now the face of the league...and I for one look forward to seeing what he does. The real tragedy here though is that baseball (i.e. Selig and his cronies) have allowed things to get this bad. The future of this sport hinges on the integrity/believability of the stats guys are putting up. Get the message and do something about it!
I'm a diehard Cubs fan, but for the sake of baseball I really hope Pujols isn't juicing. If he is, there goes baseball's last shred of dignity.
Sadly, Ive had my doubts about this guy for a while, when it comes to being clean. His trainer from a few years back was a known HGH distributor, and Alberts build is hardly that of a human being. I love the guys attitude, as well as his game, but in this day and age, sadly, its guilty until proven innocent.
Its definitely sickening, but some of the posters here have it right...all these teammates talking about how great Albert is reminds me of all the Red Sox players talking about how amazing it was to watch Manny on a day to day basis, and I was willing to believe Manny was clean. Lets just hope as Albert goes for Barry Bonds* 762* homers, he did it the way Hank Aaron did it. The right way.
I wouldn't put PEDs past any player in baseball today, even a guy like Pedroia. HOWEVER.... we have no reason to discredit these guys before there is any evidence. I'm all for Pujols. I pray he clean because baseball needs it. Do i think he is infallible? No. But i'm not going to lynch the guy. Let him do his thing. If he ever tests positive then he'll have to face that. Enjoy the game, guys.
After Bonds (who EVERYONE knew was a cheater), most people jumped on the A-Rod bandwagon hoping that a "clean" player would just turn around and break Bonds' record.
I think people have a right to be skeptical at this point - I know I certainly am. There are very few players in the last 20 years that would actually suprise me if they were to be named as PED users... pitchers OR sluggers. In fact, the only guy I've really "trusted" in the last few years was Greg Maddux because he doesn't even look muscular.
Quite frankly, my skepticism extends beyond baseball at this point. I wouldn't be surprised to someday find out the Tiger Woods had a secret weapon that helped him dominate...
Two other guys, in addition to the aforementioned Greg Maddux, who have put up great #s that look nothing like roid/hgh users -- one over the course of a career and one who has emerged this year: Tom Glavine (career), skinny as a rail; and Ben Zobrist (this year) equally skinny.
So now we can simply tell if s person is using PED's by simply looking at them? Lance Armstrong is a rail, so he must be clean?
I actually think its aronic that some of you, are only pointing fingers at Pujols. Is Arod totally off the hook now? How about Ryan Howard? I remember him in college, he sure wasnt as big as he is now. How about Ryan Zimmerman, David Wright, and BJ Upton, there has been a lot of talk that all 3 of these guys grew up playing together, maybe they were all shooting juice in each other? IMO John Smoltz has to be looked at as well, Vlad, Josh Hamilton, Chipper Jones, Jimmy Rollins, Carlos Beltran, Zack Greinke, Carl Crawford, Johan Santana, Jake Peavy, Mark Texiera, and Chase Utley.
Why? because they are good and there has to be a reason that they are superstars. Forget hard work and dedication, everybody in the league is a cheater.