Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
October 16, 2006
Pujols Injured

Albert Pujols is playing with a bad hamstring:

The St. Louis Cardinals' star has been nursing a right hamstring injury for several weeks and is under orders to run under control. Manager Tony La Russa said the injury also has affected Pujols' ability to drive the ball.

"He doesn't have that big power push," La Russa said. "He's not going to be generating as much power, but he can still generate base hits. Just got to be careful running."

Why would you announce such a thing?

"Mostly I mentioned it so when people watch him running I don't have to answer questions later on about him jogging," La Russa said. "You probably noticed, he's laboring when he runs."

If I'm the Mets, and I know Albert can't generate as much power, don't you pitch him differently? If you think he's going to damage you pulling the ball, you might pitch him away. If you don't, you might go inside more. Is this just a mind game La Russa is playing? Albert seems to hit the ball pretty hard. Something here just doesn't make sense.


Posted by David Pinto at 11:10 PM | Injuries | TrackBack (0)
Comments

I don't know, he's looked a little off to me; even the idiot Fox announcers noticed earlier in the series although they attributed it to a slump. I'm sure the scouts for the Mets and the Mets themselves have noticed so it's probably not news to them.

Posted by: JeremyM at October 16, 2006 11:51 PM

LaRussa is very upset with how Pujols has been treated in the press recently. Also, I understand people in the new stadium have learned how to boo. Pujols' recent lack of performance with all this I believe prompts LaRussa's points. He wants to protect this particular player from the groundswell of negative publicity and possibly being booed.

Posted by: susan mullen at October 17, 2006 12:46 AM

Well let's just say that if Pujols connected on that fastball by Perez Sunday night, it was going places. His swing looked pretty powerful to me.

Posted by: Mark Catanzareti at October 17, 2006 01:49 AM

Tony La is blowing smoke, and achieveing 2 goals at the same time. He is trying to get into met pitchers heads, they have been effective vs Prince Albert. second, he is providing cover for his ego bruised star. Fox idiots will bang this drum for all it's worth. Just more La Russa lies, but his media lackeys will do the work for him.

Posted by: abe at October 17, 2006 11:12 AM

Its a trap.

If you were pitching for the Mets, would you want to go inside?

Moot point because Glavine is on the mound. Just as certain the the sun will rise in the morning, Glavine will pitch to the outside corner.

Posted by: Rally at October 17, 2006 01:00 PM
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