Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
April 17, 2007
Worried About Pujols

Cardinals Diaspora vents frustration about Albert Pujols:

But for the first time in roughly 5 years Albert Pujols stepped into the box with the bases drunk, a closer on the ropes and a chance to salt away a comeback win that should have never happened- and I kind of got the feeling like he wouldn't get the job done. As much as the Waterboy and I tried to fool each other into thinking the W was imminent, deep down we weren't confident. Solomon Torres was. 3 pitches and an infield fly later, the crowd filed out with 45,000 similar thoughts- what happened to Albert?

The conundrum is hard to verbalize, though. I mean, this man has pretty much been the epitome of clutch for his entire career. He's made the extraordinary look routine and the routine look like child's play. His determination made him not only the most feared hitter in MLB, but a Gold-Glove fielder as well. So to sit here and bitch is like telling Gissele to toss off because she's got a mole on arm. On the other hand, I think we can all agree on the fact that Pujols is way, way off. He's way out in front of pitches, his patience is shot- it's a hot mess.

Please repeat after me: "Anything can happen in 100 at bats."

Albert Pujols has 47 at bats so far this season. The 95% confidence interval for hits for a career .330 hitter is 9 to 21. Albert is 8 for 47, which puts him just barely of the the range. Okay, maybe you should worry a little, but two hits today and he's back at the low end of the range. Another two weeks like this however, and Cardinal fans can really start to worry.


Posted by David Pinto at 10:49 AM | Sluggers | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Maybe he's only a true .325 nowadays. Or, maybe the temperature effects hitting stats a little bit, so he's truly a .315 hitter in April and October, and a .335 hitter in the warmer months. Or it could just be one of the 5% of cases that falls outsite the interval. You're right, and even 600 ABs can show a stark variability in batting average. There's always guys who strike out the same number of times two years in a row, and put up BAs that are .60 to .70 points different.

Posted by: Mike at April 17, 2007 12:12 PM

well, i think albert was traumatized by hitting that homer offn brad lidge in game 5.

poor brad has had to take so MUCH **** from the reporters that albert is feeling too guilty to swing.

yeh.

that;s the ticket.

either that or he's washed up. so my stros can take him offn the cards for, say, eric bruntlett - an underappreciated guy who Knows How To Win

Posted by: lisa gray at April 17, 2007 12:37 PM

the funny thing is, fans in philly keep saying "you don't hear anybody in stl worrying about pujols like we're worrying about howard."

Posted by: Tim at April 17, 2007 01:05 PM

It's still early, I know, but Pujols has not been hitting line drives at all. All but 7% of his batted-balls are grounders or flyballs, and his BABIP is only .135 thanks to that. Give him a few weeks to adjust his swing to correct for whatever is causing him to hit so many grounders, and we'll see how he's doing then. If he still can't hit balls squarely, well, then there might be an issue.

Posted by: Marc Normandin at April 17, 2007 01:31 PM

Maybe A-rod stole his mojo.

Yeah baby!!!

Posted by: crg at April 17, 2007 02:34 PM

A year or two ago, Jeter had a really bad start...stretched into May didn't it? He recovered pretty well. Every player has an off month or an off year once in a while. I'm starting to wonder if he's trying to play through an injury though.

Posted by: Devon Young at April 17, 2007 05:54 PM

It seems to me that the declining quality of the other Cardinals' offensive players has to be a factor here. Why would any pitcher give Pujols anything? The rest of the order is pretty pathetic at this point.

Posted by: beckya57 at April 17, 2007 06:41 PM

I think you have to relax a little. Alberts prior performance in these situations was astounding. Maybe Albert is just coming down to earth. Maybe he is human after all

Posted by: Chris at April 18, 2007 01:53 PM
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