Albert Pujols

[Goose]

.248/.347/.426

What the hell?

[all4phillysportsfan]

It's still early

[Grandstander]

It isn't just Albert, the entire Cardinal team seems to be swinging diseased lumber this season.

They have scored 118 runs...last in all of MLB.

They are batting .238....28th out of 30 teams.

OBA .304....29th out of 30 teams.

Slugging. 330.....last in baseball.

They have hit a collective 18 homeruns.

They must all be drinking bad water straight out of the Mississippi.

[Nocahoma]

*cough*steroids*cough*

[all4phillysportsfan]

You guys aren't saying the same about Ryan Howard are you? He's hitting .205 with 6 homeruns.

[Nocahoma]

Well, since I was kidding about Pujols, no. Howard is hurt, anyway. Besides, no one would ever say anything bad about a Philly player that a Philly fan didn't say first.

[all4phillysportsfan]

Howard is a great player when he is on his game. Pujols will go on a tear and be back to where he was.

[BMW]

Well either way Howard has had 2 seasons, Pujols has been like .330/40/120 for like 6 years in a row.

[all4phillysportsfan]

Howard and Pujols are struggling along with Texeira, and Sexson. 1st base curse?

[bedir than average]

No, Sexson has been basically a league average first baseman for some time now.

Those other guys are good.

[bigheadache]

Tex and Berkman are beginning to pull out of their early season woes, but the firstbaseman who has been swinging the hot bat is Derrek Lee. Hasn;'t shown much power though.

[jtur88]

In my opinion, the problem is LaRussa, and has been for what, 5 or 6 years, and the chickens are coming home to roose. He has micromanaged a talented bunch of ballplayers, and I don't know why they have put up with it for so long. He has done some things right, that I admire, but overall, the team would have done better (expecially in the post-season) if LaRussa had adopted the Stengelesque posture of sleeping through the game.

[Grandstander]

Originally Posted by jtur88

In my opinion, the problem is LaRussa, and has been for what, 5 or 6 years, and the chickens are coming home to roose. He has micromanaged a talented bunch of ballplayers, and I don't know why they have put up with it for so long. He has done some things right, that I admire, but overall, the team would have done better (expecially in the post-season) if LaRussa had adopted the Stengelesque posture of sleeping through the game.

The reason Albert Pujols is slumping is Tony LaRussa's micromanaging?

Huh?

Could you provide us with a little cause/effect linkage which explains your theory? Exactly how does LaRussa's frequent mid-inning pitching changes cause Albert to hit less in 2007, when LaRussa behaved in exactly this manner in all the other years when Pujols was hammering the ball?

Would you also explain why LaRussa's ruinous micromanaging of the Cardinals failed to prevent them from winning the WS last season? Also, how about a few words on how despite LaRussa's ineptitude, the Cardinals managed to win their division in six of the eleven seasons LaRussa has been there, including the last three in a row? With a different manager, would they have won all eleven division titles?

Further, you apparently are are placing your reliance on some prejudicial image of Casey Stengel when you characterize him as sleeping in the dugout. Do you actually know anything at all about Stengel's managing style? The great Yankee dynasty era, '49-'60 under Stengel, was marked by what has probably been the most complex system of platooning players ever. Only Earl Weaver comes close in terms of creative use of different players in differing positions.

You need not take my word for this, look it up. In 1949, Stengel's first year, only one player had more than 150 games at one position, the next most was 128, the most by an outfielder was 112. Was it just the personnel he had on hand? Skip ahead to 1951...one player with 144 games at one position, one with 141, no one else with more than 121 games. Skip ahead to 1955...most games at one position was 147. Skip ahead to 1957..most games at one position was Mickey Mantle..144 games in centerfield. Four of the eight positions in the field featured players who had fewer than 100 games at that position. This was always Stengel's pattern, right up to his last year in 1960 when he had a complicated three man platoon catching...Howard, Berra and Blanchard, with Berra also serving as one half of the leftfield platoon with Hector Lopez. Gil McDougal and Clete Boyer platooned at thirdbase and McDougal also filled in for Bobby Richardson at second against certain pitchers.

With the Mets, the sleeping in the dugout business was a fictional creation of Howard Cosell and, of all people, Jackie Robinson. This was 1962, the Mets first year, and on a pre-game radio program, Cosell and Robinson were generally mocking the Mets and they made some jokes about Casey being so old that he needed to nap in the dugout during the game. Robinson also made some comments about how Casey wasn't taking his managing job seriously enough. The Mets players all denied that Casey ever slept during games and Stengel himself said that Jackie was just "Chock full of nuts."

You can bother to learn what Stengel was actually like...or you can go with some imaginary assumption based on Stengel's age and eccentric reputation. The man was not slumbering through games.

[jtur88]

This thread stopped being about Albert when somebody said:

"""It isn't just Albert, the entire Cardinal team seems to be swinging diseased lumber this season.

They have scored 118 runs...last in all of MLB."""""

I blame the same person Ive been blaming for the past 7 opr 8 years, when I see them blow playoff after playoff.

[cardinals_10]

First off a manger is responsible for putting the best players on the field and give his team the best chance to win. If a player cannot hit the ball, it is the players fault for not hitting. Saying it is the mangers fault is stupid.

Now with the playoff issue. In 2000 we lost because we had not been in that situatin in four years and it was a completly different team with little experience. In 2001 nobody was going to beat Johnson and Schilling. 2002, we had some injuries and did not hit well against the Giants. 2004, we lost our ace and our 3-4-5 hitters did next to nothing in the World Series. 2005, beside Carpenter and Mulder, the pitching was not good and the offense was not good especially with Rolen on the shelf. 2006, we were healthy, we hit, we pitched great, and oh yah we won the World Series, but La Russa probably had nothing to do with that (not).

La Russa is one of the best managers in the history of the game. It is not his fault Pujols cant hit.