Posts tagged AlbertPujols at FanHouse

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.

Albert Pujols, in a game that's still going on, has just hit his 300th career home run against Bobby Howry of the Chicago Cubs. Pujols had today and tomorrow to hit the home run to become the fifth fastest to that milestone, and he did it.

Here's the odd part about the home run that was just touched on in the broadcast: the home run went off the fair pole and on to the field, which at the time would have avoided a whole "will the fan who catches the ball give it back or try to extort a little money off of it" dilemma. But Cubs left fielder Reed Johnson took the ball and flipped it into the stands. So he basically gave a winning lottery ticket to a lucky fan! Not that it was a 756th or even a 500th, but still, that was Pujols' ball and Johnson threw it away.

But the fan who caught Johnson's toss was caught by a Cubs fan. And true to Cub fans, threw the ball back to the field. Crisis averted.

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing matchups

San Diego Padres (32-47) vs. Minnesota Twins (42-36) - 3:35PM Est.

I tried to put an end to it yesterday by mentioning it in the On Deck, but apparently the On Deck Curse is only effective when I lead the post with it. So today, now that the Minnesota Twins have climbed within a half-game of the White Sox and won their last eight games, the Twinkies are getting the star treatment.

As I've already explained in recent days, I have no idea how the Twins are winning so much this season, yet here they are. Earlier this month the Twins were three games under .500 and 6.5 games behind the White Sox, and I thought their record then was a lot more indicative of the type of team they had.

It was only a matter of time before the suddenly resurgent Tigers and maybe even the Indians passed them by, and the Twins became merely a footnote in the 2008 season. All they've done since then is win, win, and win some more.

In the two weeks Albert Pujols has been on the disabled list, the Cardinals have gone 6-6 and only lost a game on the Cubs in the NL Central standings. So even though things weren't nearly as bad as they could've been, I'm guessing they're more than a little happy to get their slugger back ASAP. Lucky for them, Pujols sounds like he's ready to play against the Tigers tonight:

"If I'm ready to play first base, I think I'm going to play first base," Pujols said, adjusting his stance of the day before. "If I feel the same way I feel today, I think I'm going to be playing (Thursday).

"Something crazy has to happen ... for me not to play."

It sounds like Pujols has no intention of DHing and that he's headed right back into the full swing of things. So he's playing with one elbow and a strained calf and he's probably still going to get right back into the swing of things and pick up where he left off with his .475 OBP and .631 SLG. He says that something crazy would have to happen to stop him from playing, but i bet he goes 3-for-5 even if he gets abducted by aliens this morning and is makes a Space Jam-esque return on a spaceship five minutes before game time.

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups

Chicago Cubs (45-28) vs. Chicago White Sox (41-31) - 2:20PM Est.

You know how when you're watching a game on television, whether it's football, baseball, or anything, and the game is being played by two rival teams that the announcer tells you to "throw their records out the window!" You know what I'm talking about? I hate that. That's one of the stupidest things that announcers can say.

Why should we throw the records out the window? I mean, if one of the teams is 12-1 and the other is 2-10 I don't care how long they've been rivals, I'm pretty sure that 12-1 team is going to steamroll the other one. So no, I will not throw that record out the window.

Now this afternoon, for the first time ever, the White Sox and Cubs will be meeting head-to-head in the regular season while both are currently holding down first place in their division. Still, the two teams are moving in opposite directions right now. The White Sox just scored 37 runs in a three-game sweep of the Pirates, and the Cubs are limping home after losing three in a row for the first time this season down in Tampa.

Of course, when these two teams meet, it doesn't matter who is playing well and who isn't. In fact, you can throw their records right out the window (son of a...)!

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups

Los Angeles Angels (42-29) vs. New York Mets (34-35) - 10:05PM Est.

Now that Willie Randolph has finally be freed by the evil, classless, New York Mets, his replacement Jerry Manuel gets his first shot at pissing off Mets fans everywhere tonight. Will Jerry make it through 7AM Wednesday morning, or will he be dispatched in the middle of the night?

I mean, the Mets actually won last night, and they still fired Willie in the middle of the night. What would have happened had they lost? Would he have been publicly flogged in Times Square?

Besides, is Jerry Manuel really going to be any better? I had the "honor" of watching him manage my White Sox for five years, and although he won the manager of the year award in 2000, the rest of his tenure was basically known for being extremely boring. Though, maybe that's what Omar Minaya wants.