Watched the last two innings of the Cardinals-Giants game last night. The Cards are a game out of first place in their division. If they don't have Albert Pujols, they're in dead last. He is the only player in that lineup that matters. He's a legitimate triple crown contender this season. From his ESPN player profile:
Pujols is clearly the game's current best hitter, and it remains a mystery why he isn't pitched around more like Barry Bonds was. Pujols now has 30 homers and 77 RBI on the season.
No idea who wrote that but he isn't watching the same games I'm watching. I've seen Pujols play 50-60 times over the last two seasons or so. Everyone pitches around him. Everyone is careful with him. The Giants walked him intentionally last night ... twice. He was on deck when Rasmus ended the game with a homer. Rasmus saw nothing but fastball strikes because the Giants didn't want to walk him and face Pujols with a runner on base. How Pujols is hitting the way he is with the pitches he sees is amazing. If he saw half of the juicy pitches the guy batting in front of him sees, he'd break every hitting record on the books. He's the best player in baseball.
70 days until football season ...
Quote of the Day
The agreement was at my father's insistence as he wanted to protect my inheritance - this is perfectly normal in our countries of origin, France and Germany. My father taught me the value of hard work and family values.
Katrin Radmacher
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: "Not sure what that means exactly, but I'm reading a lot of Sylvia Plath and watching some Japanese game shows in search of fresh ideas."
"He is the only player in that lineup that matters."
The Twins recently took two of three in St. Louis. In the game they lost 5-3, Pujols hit 2 2-run home runs. In the each of the others he was held to a double and went 1-3 and 1-4. There just wasn't much of a threat other than Pujols, at least in that series.
I didn't see that middle game and I don't know what went wrong for the pitcher. I did see Joe Nathan go at him in the first game and he sent Pujols down swinging in the 9th. Like any batter, he can be got. Better be darn careful about it though.
Would like to have seen Nathan v Pujols. He can definitely be got but it's dismaying to me to see so few teams try. He's almost like Barry Bonds now. The Dodgers walked Bonds five times once. Man, if you don't want to play, stay home. Instead of installing the DH, MLB should have gotten rid of the intentional walk.