Posts tagged AlbertPujols at FanHouse

From the Windup is FanHouse's daily, extended look at a particular portion of America's pastime.

For the first time since the Clinton Administration, Yankee Stadium will be dark this October. The only thing more popular in America than the Yankees, is hating the Yankees, so it seems unlikely that your average non-New York baseball fan will be shedding a tear over the absence of the Bronx Bombers.

The network executives at FOX and TBS, on the other hand, can't be too pleased. People either love or hate the Yankees. Either way, they tune in to watch them in October.

The biggest draw in baseball won't be on the game's biggest stage next month, and the television types have every reason to wring their hands about the enormous void left in their wake. But hope is far from lost.

The 2008 postseason should offer plenty of storylines to keep viewers captivated -- and bean-counting executives happy -- even without the Yankees to kick around (or dote upon or whatever it is your average baseball fan likes to do with them).

From The Windup is FanHouse's daily, extended look at a particular portion of America's pastime.

We've been discussing the MVP award frequently here at FanHouse recently ... like what the definition should actually be, and someone tried to push Aramis Ramirez as a candidate before he joined the rest of his teammates in a slump and removed himself from contention.

Some good points were made, and we've even discussed a MOP (Most Outstanding Player) award as an alternative, which would just be given to the best player. My immediate thought was that Albert Pujols would win the NL MOP every single year. I digressed into the thought that MVP voting is never consistent because people like variety. Sure, Barry Bonds won a ton, but it would have been outlandish to give some of his to other people. The BBWAA actually did hand one to Jeff Kent that Bonds deserved, so even then they craved change. It would appear the same thing is happening this year with Pujols. Again. Can you believe he only has one MVP?

A quick glance at Albert Pujols' stats makes it easy to forget he's been playing hurt all year. His .369/.466/.649 is a big improvement on his "down" year last year and it's given him a career high OPS+ of 191 to date. The fact that he's got an tear in his ulnar collateral ligament seems like an afterthought with numbers like that. Still, it's there and Pujols is considering off-season surgery to fix the problem.

"I'm thinking about it; I'm thinking really hard," the first baseman told the local station. "There's just a lot of things next year going on, the All-Star Game (in St. Louis), the (World Baseball) Classic, you know. But I think in the long run the sooner that I get it done the better it's going to be for me because I'm going to heal quicker than if I wait two or three more years. But it needs to be done."

The Post-Dispatch is careful not to say this, but reconstructive surgery on a torn ulnar collateral ligament is Tommy John surgery. Since he's a first baseman, he likely wouldn't miss the full year that the surgery costs pitchers, but he'd almost certainly miss some significant time at the beginning of next season if he has the procedure. Indications in the article are that there's going to be a bit of a fight over this. The team doesn't think surgery's necessary but Pujols seems to be pretty serious about it. Teams fighting stars ... that never goes well.

From The Windup is FanHouse's daily, extended look at a particular portion of America's pastime.

Though it shouldn't be, as Brinson told us yesterday, the NL Cy Young race is likely a closed deal as things currently stand -- unless Brandon Webb keeps laying eggs. The Rookie of the Year race won't even be a contest with Geovany Soto running away with it. The MVP, however, is wide open.

In order to make sure we leave no stone unturned, let's examine the criteria. First of all, there are two predominant methods taken when people want to argue about MVP.

1. Bloggy/Spreadsheet Guy Who Never Played Baseball Method: Look at VORP. Whoever has the highest VORP should be the MVP, because the game of baseball isn't played on a field with human beings. It's played on a computer spreadsheet with robots that don't feel emotion or pressure.

2. Old, Stubborn Writer Guy Method: Check out the Triple Crown numbers for the everyday players on contending teams. If you have a 1.500 OPS and 200 steals and play Andruw Jones (circa 2003) defense on a last place team, you just don't count. You can't possibly be valuable to a team unless said team is good.

Nothing like a set of circumstances -- Orlando Hudson's season ending surgery in this case -- to force a playoff caliber team into acquiring the services of one Mr. Hustle, David Eckstein. And it appears that, based on what Fox's Ken Rosenthal is saying, Eckstein will be traded by Sunday night and most likely to the Snakes.

Eckstein, 33, is almost certain to be traded before the deadline for setting postseason rosters at midnight Sunday. While talks are fluid, the Jays currently are more inclined to trade with the D-backs, sources say.

Now, you may be asking yourself, "Isn't O-Dog a second basemen?" Why, yes, yes he is. So Eck would not actually be playing shortstop, which is certainly a shame given the cannon arm that he possesses.

The biggest downside of this entire theoretical transaction is that we will be subjected to countless columns, pandering in nature, that detail the hustle-y nature of David Eckstein and how his grit, toughness and ability to take control of a game with his sheer determination -- skill does not matter, I say! -- can put a team over the top.

Oh, and if the Diamondbacks actually win the World Series? Night-horse of epic proportions, folks. We already hear about Eckstein's presence as a leader on an Angels and a Cardinals club that won the World Series -- it was not Troy Glaus or Albert Pujols that prevailed triumphantly, mind you -- and how he inspired victory. This would be disastrous.

UPDATE: Eckstein is a Diamondback! Scrappiness will abooooooooooound! Bud Selig's evil plan has come to fruition and the Snakes will be rewarded with eternal hustle. Muhahahahahhaha. No, seriously, they gave up Chad Beck to the Blue Jays for him and MLB.com make sure you know he was once World Series MVP. For depth purposes it's not a bad deal, hitting wise, well, not so much.

If I've learned one thing in all of my years watching the National League Central, it's one simple rule; do not, under any circumstances, insult Albert Pujols. Last night, while holding a 3-1 lead in the seventh inning, Carlos Villanueva celebrated in the Cardinals' faces last night after escaping a bases-loaded jam with a 3-1 lead in the seventh. The Cardinals responded with a season-saving four-run rally in the ninth. From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

"I guess he did us a favor. He woke up a sleeping giant, obviously," said first baseman Albert Pujols.

[...]

Rather than coolly walk to his dugout, Villanueva struck a flex pose that did not escape Pujols' notice. Villanueva further inflamed the situation, according to Pujols and several teammates, by pointing and screaming at the home dugout. Pujols quickly rose from a crouch in the on-deck circle and responded to Villanueva, who replied by cursing Pujols in Spanish.

Pujols started the resulting eighth-inning rally with a double and as a result of the comeback, the Cardinals are still 3 1/2 games behind the Brewers in the wild-card race instead of the 5 1/2 game deficit a loss would've given them. Given the two teams' schedules the Brewers probably still have the upper hand in the race, but it feels like they may have awoken the sleeping giant last night. Giving Albert Pujols more determination to destroy you is always a bad idea.

Nothing's ever gonna keep you down.

The story of 9-year old Jericho Scott being banned from his Connecticut little league for being better than the other kids makes me mad about a number of things I can articulate (adults who are supposed to be an example to kids packing up and going home because they're losing, talent being treated as a liability, children being lorded over by crybabies) and a number of things I cannot (graaaaaah).

Hopefully the story of Jericho (no, not that one) will keep spreading until the idiots who did this will truly be held accountable, someone else will be put in charge of the organization, and Scott will be able to pitch as much as he wants wherever he wants.

Seriously, what is [fornicating] wrong with you? Tonight's late-night Dugout is after the jump. For extra fun, click on the picture of that kid who is terrible at baseball (or here) for an off-site article about my childhood baseball experiences.

July 31 is rapidly approaching. Buy or Sell lets each team know where they stand.

The Cardinals are in an interesting position coming up to this deadline. They might be in contention, but they're not as good as the Cubs, Brewers, Phillies, and Mets, which is who they're likely contending for playoff spots between. Buying now might mean giving up a guy like Colby Rasmus, but selling means giving up hope in a season that they might not be out of contention yet.

The one place the Cardinals need the most hope is their bullpen. The pen's been rough all year and that was exploited on Saturday night by the Pirates, who came back from a 10-4 deficit in the eighth inning and an 11-10 deficit in the tenth against the Cardinals' shoddy pen. They're not going anywhere with the pen they have now. They could also use one more outfielder and maybe a shortstop to round things out.

So what do the Cards do? I've seen them linked to guys like Jason Bay and they'd certainly be interested in a reliever like Damaso Marte or Brian Fuentes or George Sherrill (or anyone with an arm attached to their shoulder), but at what cost? Isn't a core offense with Albert Pujols, Rick Ankiel, Ryan Ludwick, and Rasmus with a staff aced by Adam Wainwright a pretty good core to build from? I'd advocate selling here, but they don't have a whole lot to see with. Their best bet is probably to stand pat.

It's hard to imagine a better way to kick off the mad dash to baseball's trade deadline than with the Brewers and Cubs pulling trades for big-name pitchers within two days of each other. Of course, those moves raise a pretty big question: who's the favorite to win the division now? Let's break it down.

Definitely not favorites: Pirates, Astros, and Reds. The Reds are young and exciting but at least a year away, the Pirates seem to be meandering down the right road but they're still way down the path in the wrong direction, and the Astros are a disaster area.

The Cardinals: This team perplexes me. By all accounts they shouldn't be very good, and yet they've still got the second best record in the NL and are ahead of the Brewers in the Wild Card standings. They probably won't join in the arms race with the Cubs and Brewers, but they get Adam Wainwright and Chris Carpenter back from the DL in pretty short fashion. Still, they're short on offense besides Albert Pujols and Ryan Ludwick, it's hard to know what to expect out of Carpenter after missing most of a season and a half, and Kyle Lohse is a prime candidate to turn into a pumpkin.

I'm guessing a lot of you are like me in that as soon as you hear the name Brad Lidge, you immediately think about Albert Pujols hitting a ball about 750 feet off of him in the 2005 NLCS. Of course, I also think about the walk-off that Scott Podsednik hit off of him in game two of the World Series about a week after that as well. The Pujols one sticks out more though because it's not often that we get to see a man's spirit crushed on national television.

After that home run, Brad just wasn't the same for the Astros, he'd been ruined. So when the Astros sent him to Philadelphia this offseason, I thought it would be a nice change for Brad. I had no idea the change in scenery would affect him as much as it has though. A 2-0 record with a 0.77 ERA and 19 saves in 19 chances, yeah, the Phillies will take that. In fact, they'll take three more years of it.

Philadelphia Phillies closer Brad Lidge has signed a three-year, 37.5 million-dollar, contract extension.

Lidge is 2-and-0 with 47 strikeouts in 35 innings and set a club record by converting his first 19 save opportunities this season. He didn't allow an earned run through his first 17 appearances (17 innings), which was the second-longest by a Phillies pitcher to start his career with the team.

Lidge would have been a free agent at the end of the year, but considering how things have been working for him in the City of Brotherly Love, you kind of figured a deal would be worked out sooner rather than later.