Pujols with a few holes in his bat

Back on May 6, the Toronto Blue Jays lost to the LA Angels, 4-3. It wasn’t exactly the most memorable game except for one at-bat. In the bottom of the 5th, on a 2-2 pitch, Albert Pujols hit his first dinger of 2012, a shot to left over the head of Eric Thames.

It was Pujols, you may remember, that was one of the marquee signings of the 2012 offseason. He signed with Los Angeles for an astronomical sum: $254 million over 10 years, the second-highest contract in MLB history. And this season has not been kind to him.

To be fair, we’re talking about a poor season by any players’ standards. This far in 2012, Pujols is at .196/.234/.275, his lowest career numbers by a wide margin. He’s having problems getting on base, is striking out a lot (17 times in 34 games) and not hitting for power: his home run against Toronto is still his only dinger. His value is dropping. Baseball Reference has his WAR at -0.4.

Despite a slow start to 2012, Pujols’ May has been even worse than his April. He hit his first home run, but his overall stats are down: his on base percentage has dropped almost 100 points to a dismal .170. Remember: this is someone who is considered an all-star hitter; a dangerous person at the plate. And he’s not just hitting poorly, he’s not even getting on base two times out of 10. For comparisons sake, Derek Jeter’s OBP is in the .430s, his best since 1999. And Jeter isn’t even leading the AL.

As Pujols’ season started on the wrong foot, he started taking flak from all over. Just type his name into Google News and you’ll find articles with headlines like: The Deceptiveness Of Albert Pujols’ Home Run and Pujols no more?‎ And it’s not hard to see why. A superstar not playing up to expectations is an easy sportswriting trope, much like an underhanded pitch right at belt level. And it’s not as if his hitting is putting the Angels in freefall. 

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But that game was interesting as a meeting of two stars who were underperforming this year: Pujols and Toronto’s Jose Bautista. On one hand, Bautista’s the owner of a .198/.325/.413 slash line. His OPS+ (OPS adjusted for ballpark and league) is the lowest it’s been since 2009. And his Baseball Reference WAR is at 0.3, the lowest he’s had since 2008.

But he’s on a hot streak right now. Over the past week, he’s hit three home runs and a .727 slugging percentage, mostly against the underwhelming Minnesota Twins. On the 11th, he hit two solo shots in a 7-6 loss. It’s miles better than his April, where he hit .181 with a .633 OPS. What’s more is how he’s doing it, without a great history of coming on. Other than his last two seasons, Bautista’s been a pretty average player. He doesn’t have the career numbers that Pujols does that suggest a mean.

This past weekend, Pujols’ Angels have been facing another formidable AL slugger: Texas Ranger Josh Hamilton, who’s been hitting home runs like nobody’s business.

In the last week, Hamilton’s hit nine home runs, posted an astronomical 2.009 OPS and blown away pitching. In the first game of the Texas/LA series, Hamilton went 3-for-4 with two solo shots to right. He hit another there the next day and has 18 so far.

Hamilton is dominating the AL the way Pujols used to in the NL. There’s a lot more to baseball than hitting homers, but consider this: he’s hit more than San Diego has as a team. Or look at his overwhelming OPS+ of 247. Last year, Bautista led the majors with an OPS+ 181. Only Barry Bonds (three times), Fred Dunlap (in 1884!) and Babe Ruth have ever finished a season with numbers like that.

Bautista and Hamilton are just two of the AL’s power hitters in 2012. In Chicago, Adam Dunn is (finally) off to a hot start and so is Curtis Granderson in New York. In Toronto, Edwin Encarnacion might be the best slugger.

While the sports media keeps asking what’s wrong with Pujols (which could be pretty easily explained with his age), it feels like there’s an edge of frustration.

For so long, Pujols has been one of the best hitters in baseball, and as so many of his peers go through May on a tear, it’d be a lot easier on the networks if the guy they invest so much in covering started hitting again. After all, Toronto might have Bautista and Encarnacion, but it’s the Angels that play the marquee Sunday night game on ESPN.

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