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It's hard to believe, but Albert Pujols is playing this season with a high grade tear in the ulnar collateral ligament of his throwing arm. His .342/.494/.575 line certainly helps hide it, even if the hyper-critical would say that his power isn't quite where it used to be. Intent on keeping his star healthy, Tony La Russa said before the season he'd try to get Pujols regular downtime. Unfortunately, it's proving harder than he expected.

With a day game against the Rockies today, it seemed like an ideal time to give Pujols some downtime. Except that the Rockies threw a lefty and benching Pujols against a lefty is "not my favorite thing to do," according to La Russa. It's clearly not his favorite thing to do: Pujols has started every Cardinals game this year except for one.

What does this mean? I have no idea. I mean what do you make of a superstar playing first base on a badly injured elbow? What's the threshold for that thing staying together? 142 games? 156? Honestly, I'm just guessing. But if Pujols doesn't get regular days off and Pujols is hurt down the stretch with the Cardinals still in a pennant race, La Russa is probably going to be sorry.