At any moment…I expect Bob Fishel to step in and say Pujols isn’t retiring.
A track record as one of the best hitters in baseball history is a nice thing to fall back on when you’re off to a 5-for-23 start.
“Not to be cocky but I know I can hit,” the Angels’ new slugger said before going 1 for 5 in the Angels’ loss to the Twins on Thursday. “I showed it in the spring. ... It’s not going to go away like that (snaps fingers), from one day to the next.”
Pujols showed more concern for the 2-3 record the Angels took into Thursday’s game than his own .217 average.
“It’s a slow start for the team. This is not about me,” he said. “We could be 4-1. You look at our lineup, nobody’s started hitting yet. It’s a long season. You have a tendency as a player to press to try to get off to a good start.
“I think I can recall in ‘03 when I won the batting title, I think I had a really bad start that year.”
...Those pitchers are certainly taking a familiar approach to pitching Pujols, trying to jam him with hard stuff inside at times and getting those ground balls to the left side.
“It’s always been that way,” Pujols said. “Just make sure you don’t miss in there (or else) it’s going to be a home run.
“They’ve got their scouting reports. I’ve got mine.”
Repoz
Posted: April 13, 2012 at 05:49 AM |
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1. Just a Guy Posted: April 13, 2012 at 09:02 AM (#4105453)In April of 2003 Albert hit .382/.470/.691. The only other month he OPS'd higher was June.
He just said he had a bad start in 2003, not a bad April. I mean, this April isn't even half over yet.
Or maybe you're right and he just caught Andy Pettite disease.
EDIT: I mean, I am a Mariners fan, so question answered already in a sense. But really, I would love nothing more than to see Pujols implode.
Yes. Even though the Angels are one of the teams that the Blue Jays would be in battle with for one of the wild card spots, I would still love to see a great player have a great season.
Especially since I have tickets to an Angels/Jays game and I want to see him at his best (when Romero Ks him 3 times).
Clearly he meant 2005 and said 2003. Either misspoke or misremembered. (2007 would fit here, too - started 1-for-17, finished with a 1000 OPS.)
Nah, I'm right there with you. Course, I'm a Rangers fan...
EDIT: To pose a silly fandom rule, I think we all get one or two superstars to root against. It's when you start rooting against a bunch of superstars, or most superstars, that you move into bad person / bad fan territory.
Does anyone else follow ARod on Facebook? I find his posts weirdly compelling.
But I want him to fail, and I am happy when he does.
Albert Pujols
Mark Texiera
Tim Lincecum
EDIT: To pose a silly fandom rule, I think we all get one or two superstars to root against. It's when you start rooting against a bunch of superstars, or most superstars, that you move into bad person / bad fan territory.
I don't particular root against Pujols, or anyone really since Bonds stopped playing, I do think it would be hilarious if immediately upon signing that giant contract, he completely cratered.
Pujols and its not even close.
Albert Pujols
Mark Texiera
Tim Lincecum
For 2012, it's a no brainer. For the length of the remaining contract...
I'd guess you could make an argument for about 20 (including pitchers), but very few of those would be clear cut.
A couple days earlier: "I like to start every week with some positive energy. Each Monday I'm going to pick a quote to share on Facebook, so here's the first ARod Energy Quote of the Week. Have a great week everyone.
“It's the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen."
- John Wooden"
And yesterday he posted that he was "happy to be back in the greatest city in the world."
The comments are incredibly bland and inoffensive, but that's what makes them interesting IMO.
And I hate the Yankees with every fiber of my being, but often find myself rooting for ARod. It's weird. I guess I like happy endings and hope that one day he'll turn into a real little boy.
I just appreciate watching baseball greatness and I have a hard time ever rooting against the true superstars. Every great modern player is a kick in the jewels to the BITGOD fans and sportwriters that like to come up with excuses to discredit the current game. And we can all agree that crotchety old people could use a few more kicks to the jewels, right? :)
The players I tend to root against are the ones that I think were always overrated (Dunn, Ryan Howard), and the ones that are approaching major milestones that will cause people to overrate them if they get there (Damon, Vizquel, Konerko).
Now the NBA is the exact opposite. I dislike and root against many of the top stars.
Back when I was a blood-sucking vampire, Bain Capital was one of my primary clients, so I had some interactions with Romney. Oddly enough, he's really natural, personable, and charismatic one-on-one.
Unfortunately, you don't interact with every voter one at a time.*
*Or fortunately, depending on your political feelings.
Romney: "Boy, I love baseball. Some of the most regular guys I know are my pals in the baseball business. John Henry, Frank McCourt, Hal Steinbrenner, Alex Rodriguez... Oh, and the CEO of Rogers Communications! A-Rod and I went to a barbecue on his megayacht in Dubai."
What if the Yankees have more than two superstars?
I don't think it'll ever get better than 2009. A-Rod carried the Yankees on his back in the postseason, they win the WS, but he's still... A-Rod. I like the guy and root for him, but if 2009 didn't redeem him in the eyes of the public and media, I can't see how anything will.
He grounded out in his first at bat of the season. That must be what he's referring to--that was the only time all season he was hitting below .300.
Wow, MCoA, that reflects my feelings exactly. I'm happy to give AROD credit for an amazing resumé of successes, but gosh I love to see him fail.
Pujols, I don't have nearly the same antipathy toward. I hate it when he succeeds (the 2011 World Series is going to torment me till I die), but it's a hatred of my team losing to the more badass individual, not a sort of "why can't that insufferable individual stop playing the sport I love" kind of thing :) Tom Seaver used to affect me the same way. I knew lots of Phillies and Cubs fans who just execrated Seaver and hated his clean-cut personality and everything, and I hated it when he beat my team(s), but man, he was the best pitcher I ever saw. I really admired his work.
I also don't get rooting against superstars. Or, rather, rooting for them to crater.
Manny doesn't strike you as aggressively dumb?
I know some of you dislike his writing but Bill Simmons has articulated the 'sports hate' feeling a few times. I agree with it 100%. I tend to hate players that I feel are overshadowing players I like. Unless they continue to be impressive then I give them grudging respect.
Sports Hate
I think I pretty well represent the views of those of us who participated in the Angels game thread yesterday, and the consensus is that this season is pretty much over.
Well, the Red Sox season is supposedly over, so I guess we are close to having the playoffs set.
They probably served panda tenderloins and unicorn steaks.
Dumb, but not "I'm gonna keep opening my mouth and showing you how dumb I am."
I can bet a lot of the players I like are normal-dumb, just not aggressively so.
The 180 OPS+ was actually just for the 54 games he played for the Angels that year. His overall OPS+ for 2008 was 152. Not that it changes your point, it just stood out for me cuz I could've sworn that Tex was never THAT good. 180 is Pujols in his prime level good.
Oops...you know, I looked quickly at his page and had the same thought -- i.e., I was surprised that he'd had a season like that. Guess I should have looked a little more closely.
When ARod joined the team, and everyone turned on him, I rooted FOR ARod and even harder against Jeter. I couldn't stand the people who tried to tell me that Jeter was more valuable than ARod.
Just in the last year or so, I've slowly started to cheer for Jeter. I think it comes from the super-aggressive people who make silly statements about Jeter, like that he's not a HOF player. I recognize that he's not as good as Tim McCarver would have me believe, but I also understand that he's still a HOF player and (generally) a nice guy (in public).
ARod, on the other hand, after he finally showed his stuff in the 2009 playoffs and won his World Series, has immediately dropped of my "like" list. I was artificially keeping him on the list in hopes he'd finally get his playoff success, and now that it's happened, I find him to be fun to root against.
You bump up the feelings about him to "tolerate", you cheer his successes for the team, and you wait for him to give you a reason to hate him again (forced trade).
This is more or less what people do with Tim Tebow in the NFL. I root against Tebow, but not because I hate Tebow, but rather because I hate Tebow's fanboys and I want them to suffer. Tebow ends up being an innocent bystander.
This is true, I think, for any national-caliber politician. Back when I was in college in NH, I saw a bunch of presidential candidates in person, and they were all (well, all but John Kerry) incredible in person. They radiated charisma.
Television adds 10 lbs and sucks away 50% of your charisma, I think.
Oddly, I root for Tebow because of everyone constantly talking about how much he sucks.
I was going to say it depends on the work ethic. Like anyone else outside of Cincinnati in the 1970s, I didn't like Pete Rose, and suddenly he was maniacally devoted to helping the Phillies win, and it was hard to dislike him anymore. On a lesser scale (because he switched leagues), I really started to like Will Clark after he joined the Rangers. An irritating personality (I even disliked Clark's voice, with his squeaky high Old-New-Orleans accent), but he was a 100% pro ballplayer.
AROD is puzzling because he too has a superior work ethic, but I still dislike him. With Will Clark, you got the sense that he just wanted everyone else in the infield to stop staring into ####ing space and keep their eye on the ####ing ball. With AROD, it was more like "playing shortstop is easy for me, I don't know why I have to play beside these kids who aren't as good as me, I wonder if they like me; gee, the team would be better off if I could call the pitches ..." I found myself longing for Will Clark to return.
It's easy to tell one person what they want to hear. It's hard to tell one million.
Unless, of course, you say "free pizza!"
I didn't enjoy a single minute of Tom Glavine. A single second.
The trick, of course, is being able to make voters feel like you're interacting with them one at a time. Bill Clinton is an absolute master of this. This effect is massively magnified in person. If you should ever happen to be a in a room with him, you'll notice that he has a sort of gravitational pull.
Now, now, he wasn't THAT fat.
Really? Seems a bit high to me. Top 10 maybe?
Luke Scott is a star?
Gary Sheffield, Atlanta Brave -- I hated him with a passion that would approach Harveys Wallbanger.
By the way, anyone have an update on Harveys' health?
I didn't enjoy a single minute of Tom Glavine. A single second.
Funny, I never stopped enjoying his career. ;)
By the way, anyone have an update on Harveys' health?
Did something happen? I've noticed he hasn't been around much. If you're reading, Harveys, hope you're well.
IIRC, Clinton was alleged to have said something like: "The key thing is sincerity. Once you learn to fake that, you have it made."
I agree. Hard to see him breaking into the Mays, Ruth, Bonds, Johnson, Williams, Wagner, Cobb inner circle. He's probably in the next group with Musial, Aaron, et al. BTW, speaking of declining OPS+, ARod's numbers are pretty alarming.
I think we can build up sufficient energy. I'll help: Ned Yost is the most brilliant manager of the 21st century!
Ask anyone around Philadelphia for their memories of Len Dykstra as a Met. Eventually, Dykstra gave just about everyone a reason to hate him again.
Francouer for President!
Or cause him to have a stroke if he hasn't already.
I sure do hope that info is wrong.
It isn't. I talked to Lisa about it. HW unfortunately did in fact have a stroke.
####. Thoughts are with HW and his family, wherever they are.
Yeah that sucks big time. Here's to hoping it was minor and he makes a full recovery.
Based on what Lisa said, it was definitely not minor. Sorry to bring the bad news. Haven't emailed her in a few weeks, though, so we can hope he is doing better.
Very, very sad news about Harveys. I was wondering where he'd been. Really, just terrible news.
I can drop Lisa a line and ask.
At his advanced age, I don't think we can completely discount the possibility of Alzheimer's.
Strokes are really weird. My grandfather probably had 10 in his life (5 major) and fully recovered every time (put a new roof on his house at age 80). A good friend of mine in her early 40's had one ~4 years ago, and still has substantial paralysis on one side. My wife's uncle had one last April, was barely lucid and in a nursing home for a month (thought he was never coming out), then they switched his meds, and he was fine and home within a week.
The brain is an odd animal.
Edit: best wishes to HW, of course
Having David Wells in the Sox rotation instead of Pedro Martinez was an absolutely terrible exchange for me as a fan.
shawon dunston.
Yeah me neither, it must have been one of the ones where y'all discuss baseball.
He meant it exactly as phrased I think. Nothing of significance beyond the fact that a great player didn't remember some bad stretches.
Oh, give me a break. We'll be fine. The starters and hitters will come around the the arson squad will blow some late-inning leads. It will turn out just fine as long as everyone stays healthy.
DFAing Rich Thompson is extra stupid, though.
I can well imagine a player not remembering a bad stretch like that if the team is winning anyway.
For example: Morgan had a bad WS in 1975 by the stats, but the Reds won, and if you watch the whole thing it seems like he's always right there, doing something well.
Don't be silly. It was about hot dogs!
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