Tag: Albert Pujols (Page 11 of 14)

      SI.com’s MLB 2009 midseason awards

      July 6, 2009 /

      Jon Heyman of SI.com hands out his 2009 midseason awards as baseball’s All-State Game approaches.

      AL MVP
      1. Joe Mauer, Twins. Looks like it’ll be three times for an AL catcher winning a batting title, with the previous two winners also being Mauer. Superb pick by former GM Terry Ryan and those great Twins scouts taking Mauer over the higher-priced Mark Prior. Terrific defender. On a level by himself.

      NL MVP
      1. Albert Pujols, Cardinals. No contest here. His numbers (33, 82, .336) are crazy, even for him. The absolute best.

      AL Cy Young
      1. Zack Greinke, Royals. He doesn’t have that sub-Gibby ERA anymore (now there’s an breakable record), but he has generally been the best pitcher in the league. How else to win 10 games with that offense?

      NL Cy Young
      1. Tim Lincecum, Giants. What happened to that slow start? He’s 9-2 with a 2.23 ERA and 141 strikeouts. The Giants have to get off their duff and try to lock this guy up.

      AL Rookie of the Year

      1. Ricky Romero, Blue Jays. Toronto was ripped for taking the left-hander a spot ahead of Troy Tulowitzki, but he’s 6-3 with 2.85 ERA.

      NL Rookie of the Year
      1. Colby Rasmus, Cardinals. After a poor spring he’s showing the talent that everyone saw in him last spring (10, 32, .282).

      You can check out the rest of Heyman’s awards here.

      Heyman’s awards are littered with young players, which is great for the game of baseball as it tries to shed its steroid image. Players like Mauer, Greinke and Lincecum (just to name a few) are helping turn around baseball and make the game fun to watch again. It seems like more teams are playing small ball these days and it’s making for tighter games and more exciting finishes.

      Baseball seems fun again.

      MLB

      National League All-Star voting–who is leading and who should be

      July 4, 2009 /

      Last week we picked apart the American League all-star voting. Well, this week we will look at the National League, and after last night the starters have all been selected (aside from pitchers). You ready?

      First base
      Leader: Albert Pujols, St. Louis Cardinals
      Mike’s pick: Albert Pujols, St. Louis Cardinals.       Well, this one is a no-brainer. Is it possible that Albert gets better with age? Yes, and his numbers border on staggering. 81 games in, he’s batting .336 with 31 homers and 82 RBI and a slugging percentage of .748. That projects to 62 homers and 164 runs batted in. What’s more, dude has a .993 fielding percentage. There is little doubt Pujols is the best player in the game, and he gets to flaunt it in front of his hometown crowd a week from Tuesday.

      Second base
      Leader: Chase Utley, Philadelphia Phillies
      Mike’s pick: Chase Utley, Philadelphia Phillies.       This one is also a no-brainer that the voters got correct, though as a Mets fan it pains me to say that. Utley has 17 homers, 54 RBI, he’s batting .303 with 16 doubles and a .980 OPS—all unbelievable numbers for a second baseman. This guy is a gamer.

      Shortstop
      Leader: Hanley Ramirez, Florida Marlins
      Mike’s pick: Hanley Ramirez, Florida Marlins.       This is getting to be a trend, but the numbers in the National League don’t seem to lie, do they? Hanley is batting .344 with 13 homers and 58 RBI, 26 doubles, 12 stolen bases and a .972 OPS. By comparison, he is hitting 119 points higher than JJ Hardy and 132 points higher than the slumping Jimmy Rollins. Case closed.

      Third base
      Leader: David Wright, New York Mets
      Mike’s pick: Mark Reynolds, Arizona Diamondbacks      . Wright was leading the league in batting for quite a while, and he’s currently hitting .333 but with just 5 homers and 42 RBI. By comparison, Reynolds has clubbed 22 home runs with 57 RBI while batting a respectable .271. At a power position, I’m giving the nod to the guy barely anyone gets to see play.

      Catcher:
      Leader: Yadier Molina, St. Louis Cardinals
      Mike’s pick: Brian McCann, Atlanta Braves.       This is close, because Yadier’s brother Bengie has 10 homers and 46 RBI for the Giants, but McCann is batting .311 with 8 home runs and 33 driven in, with 15 doubles and a respectable .988 fielding percentage.

      Outfield
      Leaders: Raul Ibanez, Philadelphia Phillies
      Ryan Braun, Milwaukee Brewers
      Carlos Beltran, New York Mets
      Mike’s picks: Raul Ibanez, Philadelphia Phillies
      Ryan Braun, Milwaukee Brewers
      Brad Hawpe, Colorado Rockies      Ibanez is having a career season, batting .312 with 22 homers and 59 RBI, and Braun just continues to rake, with 16 home runs, 58 driven in and a .326 average. But Beltran, while he plays in the biggest media market and makes mega-bucks, is not going to get my all-star nod over Brad Hawpe. Beltran is hitting .336, but has just 8 homers and 40 RBI. Hawpe is hitting .328 with 13 homers and 56 runs batted in, 25 doubles and a stunning .993 OPS. If Manny Ramirez was playing most of the season, he’d probably be on this list, but I can’t consider a guy who’s only played 28 games, regardless of why he missed all that time.

      Starting pitcher
      As you all know, pitchers are chosen by the managers and will be announced this Sunday.
      Mike’s pick: Tim Lincecum, San Francisco Giants. Last year’s NL Cy Young winner got off to a slow start, but has been mowing hitters down lately, to the tune of 8-2 with a 2.37 ERA and league-leading 132 strikeouts with just 28 walks in 114 innings. Arizona’s Dan Haren is a close runner-up, with a 7-5 record for a crappy D-Backs’ team, and a league low 2.19 ERA with 113 K’s and 0.81 WHIP.

      Relief pitcher
      Mike’s pick: Heath Bell, San Diego Padres. When this former Met helped christen Citi Field by mowing down his ex-teammates in April, I thought it was just a phase. But dude leads the NL in saves with 22, and is 3-1 with a 1.34 ERA and 36 strikeouts in 33 innings of work. And here’s the best stat of all—Bell has saved or won 74% of his team’s wins. If he keeps that up, Bell will contend for the NL Cy Young and even garner some MVP votes.

      Barstool Debates, Bullz-Eye Sports Channel, Fantasy Baseball, Happy Hour, MLB

      SI.com’s MLB All-Star Team

      June 30, 2009 /

      Tom Verducci of SI.com put together his MLB All-Star team, where he fills out his roster with players that deserve to go to the Midsummer Classic based on their production over the first half of the season and not just the popular ones, which seem to make the ASG on name recognition alone.

      American League

      First base: Kevin Youkilis*, Justin Morneau, Russell Branyan. By far the deepest, toughest position to call in baseball. What about Mark Teixeira, Carlos Pena and Miguel Cabrera? They deserve to go, but there is no room.

      Second base: Aaron Hill*, Ben Zobrist, Ian Kinsler. Surprise! Combined previous All-Star selections for this trio: one. Hill, 27, and Zobrist, 28, already have set career highs in homers and Kinsler, 27, is just two behind his highwater mark.

      Shortstop: Jason Bartlett*, Derek Jeter, Marco Scutaro. Bartlett, a career .276 hitter entering this year, was batting more than 100 points above his career average. Scutaro, the most patient hitter in the league, is having a breakout year at 33 and could join Alex Rodriguez and Cal Ripken Jr. as the only shortstops in the past 50 years to get 100 walks. And that Jeter guy is still pretty good.

      Outfield: Jason Bay*, Torii Hunter*, Carl Crawford*, Adam Jones, Ichiro Suzuki. Hunter turns 34 next month and is having a career season, far outpacing his previous highs for on-base percentage and slugging.

      Pitcher: Zack Greinke*, Roy Halladay, Kevin Millwood, Felix Hernandez, Justin Verlander, Cliff Lee, Jared Weaver, Edwin Jackson, Jonathan Papelbon, Joe Nathan, Mariano Rivera, David Aardsma. Heavy on young starting pitchers, the AL staff is light on one ingredient: left-handed pitching. Lee is the only lefty.

      National League

      First base: Albert Pujols*, Prince Fielder, Adrian Gonzalez. A similar story to the AL logjam. Todd Helton, Ryan Howard and Lance Berkman all have good arguments for being All-Stars, but they can’t all go.

      Second base: Chase Utley*, Freddy Sanchez, Orlando Hudson. Over the past four seasons Utley’s RBI totals, in no particular order, have been 102, 103, 104 and 105. This year? He’s on a pace for 113.

      Third base: David Wright*, Pablo Sandoval, Mark Reynolds. It’s been a very weird season for Wright, who has hit just four home runs, including only one on the road, and seen his rate of strikeouts soar — all while leading the league in hitting (.339).

      Outfield: Raul Ibanez*, Brad Hawpe*, Ryan Braun*, Justin Upton, Matt Kemp, Hunter Pence. Philly fans already love Ibanez, and why not? In late and close situations he’s hitting .415. (Special mention for the injured Carlos Beltran.)

      Pitcher: Tim Lincecum*, Matt Cain, Dan Haren, Josh Johnson, Yovani Gallardo, Chad Billingsley, Javier Vazquez, Ryan Franklin, Heath Bell, Jonathan Broxton, Trevor Hoffman, Rafael Soriano. Only one starting pitcher older than 28. And you thought the AL was light on lefties? Not a single lefty on the staff here. Sorry, Johan Santana.

      Glad to see that Zobrist, Scutaro, Hudson and Sandoval are getting some recognition from the national media, because all four have been fantastic for their clubs in the first half of the season.

      It’s amazing to see the logjam at first base for both teams and to think that Gonzalez is third best at the position in the NL. I love the youth on both squads and the pitching for the NL is sick (and Santana didn’t even make Verducci’s team).

      Too bad these two rosters won’t look like the official ones. It’s nice that fans have a vote in baseball, but most of them abuse the option by only penciling in players from their favorite teams. It completely defeats the purpose of giving fans a voice when it comes to selecting the ASG teams.

      MLB

      Report: Cardinals to go after Holliday

      June 29, 2009 /

      According to a report by the St. Louis Dispatch, the Cardinals are “redoubling efforts” to acquire A’s outfielder Matt Holliday, who is 29 and will be a free agent at the end of the season.

      Even though the club acquired utility man Mark DeRosa from the Indians over the weekend, St. Louis manager Tony La Russa still wants to add a bat to serve as protection for Albert Pujols, who is essentially exposed in the Cards’ lineup with nobody hitting around him.

      Holliday certainly isn’t setting the world on fire with his bat (he’s hitting just .274 with 8 HRs and 39 RBI) this season, but he could certainly get hot in the second half, especially if he winds up back in the NL were he’s used to the pitching.

      The Cards actually tried to acquire Holliday last fall, but weren’t unwilling to part with the prospects that the Rockies wanted in order to complete the deal. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch speculates that the Red Birds would be willing to include Ryan Ludwick and either reliever Jason Motte or Kyle McClellan, plus a prospect.

      St. Louis already has enough offense to battle the Brewers in the NL Central, but if they could acquire Holliday to go along with the addition of DeRosa, the Cards might be able to create some separation in the division.

      MLB

      Albert Pujols helps Tony La Russa make history

      June 21, 2009 /

      Facing the Kansas City Royals, Albert Pujols went 4-for-5 with two homeruns and six RBIs. His offensive display also helped manager Tony La Russa reach his 2,500th career win.

      “Is it special? Yeah, because I got family and friends here,” Pujols said. “But it’s nothing different than every day of my routine.”

      Some routine.

      Pujols finished with three home runs and 10 RBIs in the sweep, helping ignite an offense that outscored Kansas City 29-11 over three games.

      “He does it over and over again,” La Russa said. “And it’s just impossible to describe how great he is. But when he does something like this, this is really great. It was the difference. His production is the difference in that game.”

      It certainly was the difference in the fourth inning.

      Trailing, 4-3, the Cardinals sent 13 men to the plate and came away with eight runs and an 11-4 lead.

      But it was Pujols who supplied the back-breaking blast, a jolt that crashed off the windows of the Royals Hall of Fame building in left field, an estimated 423 feet from home plate.

      Congratulations to Cardinals manager Tony La Russa who joins Connie Mack and John McGraw as as the only managers in baseball’s lengthy history to reach 2,500 wins. As for Albert Pujols, the dude is incredible. Barring injury or a sudden loss of power, Pujols could go down as one of the top three right-handed hitters of all time (the other two being Hank Aaron and Willie Mays).

      We’re not even at the All-Star break yet and here’s Pujols’ stat line: in just 69 games Pujols is batting .329 with 26 homers, 56 runs, 68 RBIs, and has even chipped in 9 stolen bases. After much speculation about whether Pujols was entering the season with a nagging injury, its fairly obvious that he is all right. He’s having a career year and making guys like me who have him on their fantasy team more than pleased.

      MLB

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