When you think of players who are notoriously slow starters in the game of baseball, such names as Mark Teixeira of the New York Yankees quickly come to mind. But Albert Pujols who many have gone as far as saying will go down in history as the greatest ballplayer to ever play the game when his career is all said and done? Though he's had a few slightly sluggish starts to his standards when kicking off the season, nobody saw the future Hall of Fame slugger who signed a $254 Million pact with the L.A. Angels during the off-season, beginning his new 10-year deal in the worst slump of his distinguished career. Through the first 18-games, Pujols, a 3-time NL MVP and former batting champion, remains homer-less in 2012 and has logged a whopping 4 RBI's this season while hitting an anemic .232 to start the year. At this rate, not even the rally monkey could help Pujols find his swing.
Now hit-less in 19 straight at-bats, spanning over a career-worst five-game stretch, Pujols and the 6-12 Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim who many predicted would give the 2-time defending American League Champion Texas Rangers a run for their money in the AL West, have instead found themselves 8.5 games back in the division where they currently own the distinction as cellar dwellers. Meanwhile, the defending champion St. Louis Cardinals who decided to pass on offering Pujols the long-term deal he coveted, seem to be doing just fine without him having been energized by off-season acquisition Carlos Beltran who the team signed to help fill the void Pujols would leave on offense. Unlike Pujols, Beltran has been off to a blazing-hot start, connecting for 5 home runs, driving in 10 RBI's and stealing 5 bases before running into an 0-for-18 skid just recently. But even after taking his slump into account, Beltran is still hitting .033 points higher than Pujols. Currently atop the NL Central at 12-7, it's likely that the Red Birds and their fans have already forgotten about arguably the greatest player to ever don a Cardinals uniform.
Though it's still early, it's hard not to compare the early disappointment of Pujols to Adam Dunn who after solidifying himself as one of the game's premier sluggers for so many seasons, simply couldn't translate his power numbers from the National League to the American League when he relocated from Cincinnati to the south side of Chicago last off-season. Fortunately for the Halo's, Pujols and company still has another 144 games left to help turn the ship and find their stroke. We all know an end to Pujols' home run drought is inevitable, but assuming his struggles at the plate continue, how much longer until Angel fans begin to shower the 9-time All-Star with boo's?
Follow me on Twitter: @FraserKnowsBest
In 2003, Arte Moreno bought the Anaheim Angels for $184 Million, today he spent $331.5 Million on two players -- last year's ace of a Texas Rangers ball club that made it's second consecutive World Series appearance in C.J. Wilson and arguably the greatest hitter to ever step foot on a baseball diamond in Albert Pujols. Less than 24 hours ago the St. Louis Cardinals and Miami Marlins were leading the Albert Pujols sweepstakes along with another unnamed team. This morning that unnamed team was revealed as the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim emerged to snag the 3-time NL MVP and former batting champion, shaking and reshaping the Major League landscape as we know it in the process.
The pair of blockbuster moves began with Pujols and the Angels agreeing on a 10 year, $254 Million contract which includes a no-trade clause and is second in Major League history only behind Alex Rodriguez' record-setting 10 year, $275 Million deal with the Yankees signed back in 2007. The Angels followed the mammoth signing of Pujols by inking Wilson to a five year deal worth $77.5 Million.
Having amassed 10 straight seasons with a batting average of .300 or higher with at least 30 home runs and 100 runs batted in, Pujols is coming off what was considered a down year in which he still managed to hit .299 with 37 homers and 99 RBI's despite an early slump coupled with a wrist injury that sidelined the 2-time Gold Glove Award winner for two weeks. With Pujols hitting in a lineup that's expected to welcome back one of it's top run producers in Kendrys Morales next year who's missed the last season and a half due to a fractured ankle, the Angels should see a drastic increase in the runs department, an area in which Anaheim finished in the middle of the pack in 2011. The addition of Pujols also erases the dreaded memory Angels fans had following the 2008 season when the team failed to sign their mid-season acquisition Mark Teixeira to a contract extension before eventually losing him via free agency to the Yankees. The Angels front-office made up for it by landing a future Hall of Fame first baseman who can eventually be moved to a designated-hitter role in the latter part of his career.
As for Wilson who Angels fans became quite familiar with the past few seasons serving out of a pitching staff with the division-rival Texas Rangers, the 2011 All-Star will most likely be plugged into the no. 3 spot in an Angels rotation that includes Jered Weaver, Dan Haren and Ervin Santana. With an already lethal front three, the addition of Wilson easily makes Anaheim's rotation one of the best in the American League as well as leave a dent in Texas' pitching staff. The 31 year old left-hander will be returning to his old stomping grounds as Wilson grew up just a stone's throw away from Angels Stadium in Orange County. Last year Wilson logged a solid regular season finishing with a win-loss record of 16-7 with a 2.94 ERA and a 1.19 WHIP in 223 1/3 innings over 34 starts, but suffered from a poor postseason where he went 1-5 with a 4.82 ERA in 10 games (9 starts). Many thought his sub-par performance in the postseason would decrease his value, but with a new contract worth more than $70 Million I think it's safe to say he did alright.
While the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim get set to kick off an era in which they think will bring the ball club its first World Series title since 2002, the St. Louis Cardinals on the other hand are preparing for the post-Pujols era less than two months after he helped them claim their 11th Championship in franchise history. Though the Cardinals still have a nucleus of talent on offense, Pujols' departure leaves a void that only free-agent first baseman Prince Fielder can fill. And with the money still in tact that the organization tried offering to Pujols, don't be surprised if they end up spending it on a much younger slugger named Prince.
Follow me on Twitter: @FraserKnowsBest
After pulling off one of the most improbable runs during a pennant race and squeaking passed the Atlanta Braves by a mere one game in the wild card on the final day of the regular season, the St. Louis Cardinals continued their late season dominance into the postseason and beyond. Facing a highly favored Texas Rangers ball club that was making its second World Series appearance in as many years, the Cardinals' miraculous run coming to an end was almost inevitable. One win away from winning their first ever World Series title and sending the Red Birds packing, the Rangers went into the final frame of game 6 needing only one out as Texas' closer Neftali Feliz stood on the mound with a 7-5 lead to face a kid raised in St. Louis by the name of David Freese. Little did he know he'd go from hometown kid to hometown hero in a matter of seconds for his late-game heroics.Down to his final strike in a 1-2 count with two men on and two outs in the 9th inning, Freese hit a game-tying 2-run triple just out of Nelson Cruz's reach in right field to force the game into extra innings. With some breathing room for the first time since the games early going, the Cardinals appeared to have stolen all the momentum as the game went into the 10th inning. That was until the Rangers' All-Star sluggerstepped up to the plate. Josh Hamilton who was stuck in a homer-less drought in his last 82 at-bats picked the perfect time to connect for his first when he hit a 2-run home run off St. Louis' closer Ryan Motte to once again give Texas the lead and a shot at slamming the door for good. Former Rangers great and now owner of the ball club Nolan Ryan thought that would for sure be the outcome as he and his wife began celebrating in the stands as Hamilton rounded the bases. But even that lead would be evaporated by yet another St. Louis rally.
An RBI ground out by Ryan Theriot and an RBI single by Lance Berkman in the bottom half of the inning would tie the game at 9,eventually setting up the hometown kid for an encore. In the 11th inning, Freese, the 28 year old kid who started it all by tying the game up in the 9th would come up big yet again this time winning it with a walk-off home run to deep center field. It was then that you almost knew the Cardinals winning it all was destiny. And with a former Cy Young Award winner on the mound at home in game 7, the Rangers didn't stand a punchers chance as skipper Ron Washington decided to stick to his guns and counter with the less experienced Matt Harrison. In a less thrilling final game that lacked the back and forth excitement and late-game heroics that game 6 had to offer, the Cardinals eventually went on to defeat the Rangers in route to a 6-2 win, giving St. Louis their NL leading 11th World Series title second to only the New York Yankees (27). Meanwhile the Rangers became only the 8th team in MLB history to lose back-to-back World Series'.For the casual fan of baseball there's no way you could've scripted a better outcome coming into the year than the one that transpired before our very eyes. Not only were the Cardinals long shots to win it all, but the fashion they did it in is just mind boggling. Not to mention a legend would be born in October by the name of David Freese who so fittingly was named World Series MVP after taking home NLCS MVP honors and setting a record for the most RBI's in a single postseason by driving in 21 runs. 
Though nobody saw the Cardinals reigning supreme or Freese's out of the blue success prior to the season, the biggest shocker of them all has gotta be the decision of one Tony LaRussa. Having been at the helm for 16 years in St. Louis where he won two of his three World Series rings, the 67 year old LaRussa stunned the baseball world on Monday by announcing his sudden retirement only three days after winning it all. What makes his decision to hang em up so surprising is that he's never expressed a possible retirement in the past. In addition, no Major League manager has ever walked away from the game after winning a World Series in the same year making LaRussa the first. Currently third on the all-time list of winningest managers with 2,728 wins, LaRussa being inducted into Cooperstown in a no-brainer. The biggest question mark regarding LaRussa's departure, however, is if it'll have any lasting impact on Albert Pujols' decision as the 9-time All-Star gets set to hit the free-agent market. After all, LaRussa is the only manager Pujols has played under in his entire career.
