Just Call Him The Machine

In honour of The MLB All Star Game I think it should be brought to the fore front the greatest player in the game Albert Pujols. Pujols was voted to be the starter at 1st base for the National League in his hometown in St Louis. In addition he has also been chosen to be the player to catch the first pitch by President Barack Obama ...not too shabby. Doesn’t hurt that he is ripping it up in the first half. (73 runs, 102 hits, 32 HR, 87 RBI, 10 SB, and a .322 AVG and .723 SLG). Those are just this years half season numbers, at least 85% of players would take those numbers for a full season. He is a former World Champion, gets along with the media and is a fan favorite (which is more then what can be said by some of the other "stars") and also holds a Gold Glove award. Just goes to show you that he is not just a one trick pony, he is an all around great player.

When all is said and done there is a good chance that we will be able to look back and say that Albert Pujols was the greatest slugger of his era. It is too bad that it will probably be grouped into the steroid era but maybe that makes it even more impressive as long as he stays out of the steroid cloud. You don’t want to come out and say that this is the one guy who is doing it clean because we have been saying that for years then are shocked when "anonymous" tests are leaked to the media but of all the people in the game we want to believe that Pujols is doing it the right way. If in fact he is clean, as most believe that he is, he has a chance of going down as one of the true greats. Over the course of his first 9 seasons he has continued to throw up gaudy numbers and not just in one category. He is an all around hitter, he hits for Average, Power and RBI Production. Nothing proves this more then his numbers from this year. At the All Star break his has a legitimate chance of taking a run at the triple crown (leading his league in average, RBI and home runs). The last time that has happened was 1967 when Carl Yastrzemski managed the feat.

He is so good that almost every time you hear his name on the radio or on TV during the highlights the announcers always say "Why do they keep pitching to this guy??" The guy is a machine (as seen in this SportsCentre commercial ). That is a good question, I hate seeing players intentionally walked all the time like Barry Bonds did when he was hitting everything in sight but the comes a point when you just can’t justify having this guy beat you every night. It should be that if you can’t get the guy out, get someone who can, but it isn’t that simple apparently. I suppose that the main problem with that plan is that there doesn’t seem to anyone out there who is up to that daunting task. You can’t really stop him you can merely hope to contain him. As Dan Patrick says that only way he can be stopped is with a shot gun and league rules frown upon that.

Fans are in for a treat every time he comes to the plate. If he makes a run for the triple crown then you will start seeing cut ins on other sports every time Albert Pujols steps to the plate.

MAN-SHAM!

When they say that it is Just Manny Being Manny I don’t think this is what they had in mind.

In shocking news LA Dodgers outfielder Manny Ramirez has been suspended immediately for 50 games after testing positive for a banned performance-enhancing substance. Up until this point there was never a finger pointed toward Manny and his name was never in the forefront. Who would have thought that Manny would get suspended while ARod has not, despite much publicised reports of past use. Of all the players that could suffer the wrath of the performance-enhancing crackdown one would think that Manny and Albert Pujols would be the 2 biggest and most unlikely to become linked. There has not been much attention given to either of these two but at least in Manny’s case there is.

In the Steroid era I guess nothing should be surprising but I find this, for lack of a better term a little shocking just because Manny is such a pure hitter. I stress hitter, not power hitter. He has one of the best eyes in all of baseball, the most patients at the plate and probably the smoothest right handed swing of all time. Of all the superstars who may or may not be using one would have thought that Manny wouldn’t need it. I mean if he doesn’t have the same power numbers he is still going to be a dominant hitter. Why take the risk of killing your reputation. You are not going to make more money then you are already making. How big must your ego be to jeopardize your career and place as one of the games all time bests? Is it due to injury or rehab, perhaps but how could we ever know for sure.

You can be sure that Theo Epstein and the Boston Red Sox are glad to have Jason Bay in left and not Man-Ram. I don’t think he will be getting too much support in this matter from Beantown that’s for sure.

This only goes to prove that no one can be above suspicion and that the drug cloud is still looming over baseball.

I feel bad for those who actually do it right and do it clean...but I guess how do we know if there are any in the game that are, how can we not paint everyone with the same brush?