Albert Pujols
Albert Pujols
A Preview of the 2006 St. Louis Cardinals
2005 Overview:
The 2005 Cardinals were led by one of the greatest offensive player's in baseball, Albert Pujols (.330 41 117). Joined by outfielders Jim Edmonds (.263 29 89), Reggie Sanders (.271 21 54) and Larry Walker (.289 15 82), Pujols and company assembled a regular season winning record of 100-62. During the playoffs, the St. Louis Cardinals lost in 6 games to the Astros. Tony's Larussa's team performed well in the postseason, first by sweeping the Padres in 4 straight games and then with Pujols providing some memorable extra inning heroics in game 5 of the LCS against Houston. Albert's mammoth homerun helped keep the series alive forcing a game 6 back in St. Louis. Unfortunately St. Louis couldn't manage another win to force a game seven and Houston was able to make it to their first World Series appearance in team history.
The pitching in 2005 was led by Chris Carpenter (21-5 2.83), Mark Mulder (16-8 3.64) and Matt Morris (14-10 4.11). Closer Jason Isringhausen (1-2 2.14 39 saves) also performed well, closing 39 of 43 save opportunities in 2005.
Off Season Moves:
The Cardinals lost a good portion of their offensive production during the off-season as Reggie Sanders signed with Kansas City and Larry Walker retired. Second baseman Mark Grudzielanek also departed to Kansas City while third baseman Abraham Nunez signed with the Phillies. Starter Matt Morris signed a lucrative 3-year deal with San Francisco for $27 million and the Cardinals also traded lefty reliever Ray King to the Rockies and lost Julian Tavarez who signed a two-year deal with the Red Sox.
The Cardinals did find a decent hitter and a replacement outfielder in Juan Encarnacion (.287 16 76) from Florida and also picked up Larry Bigbie (.239 in 90 games splitting time between Colorado and Baltimore) from the Rockies in the trade for King. The pitching staff sought upgrades for 2006 by adding free agent starter Sidney Ponson (7-11 6.21) and former Mets closer Braden Looper (4-7 3.94) as well as Ricardo Rincon (1-1 4.34).
2006 Analysis:
The Cardinals made several off season free agent signings for the 2006 season but nothing terribly significant. The biggest hope for 2006 is for Scott Rolen to be healthy again so he can contribute. Rolen only appeared in 56 games in 2005 and will be called upon to patch up the hole left by the departure of Sanders and Walker. But any lineup with Pujols and Edmonds should do just fine. Expect to see free agent Junior Spivey (.232 7 24) compete for the 2nd base job as the replacement for Grudzielanek.
Ponson may not have much left in the tank but the 1 million dollars the Cardinals paid to find out is certainly worth the risk. The bullpen picked up two decent arms in Looper and Rincon. Looper blew a bunch of games for the Mets but the Cardinals are hoping he'll produce in a setup role for Isringhausen. Expect Carpenter to have another productive year as the starting rotation will remain mostly unchanged from 2005.
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What do you think about the decline in statistics by Albert Pujols?
Cardinals fans and those that follow Albert Pujols what do you think has caused his drop in offensive numbers? He is down in HR, RBI, Runs, and his AVE is slightly lower. I hope this is just a phase and he will bounce back soon and maybe next season he will again have his usually high numbers. He has played every game and I can only remember one game he didn't get to bat (he came in late for defense). It does look as though he will have more walks this year than any other year but we are talking about 12-15 more than previous totals. Anybody have any ideas as to what is going on with Pujols?
I expected a decline from the very start. He's a great hitter, but it helps to be in good lineup. Long gone are Larry Walker, Reggie Sanders and Edmond's ability to put up numbers.
The offense has been getting weaker and weaker over the last few years and finally it's come to the point were it's gets too difficult for one player to carry the load. Last year Pujols was the only player on the team with over 25 Home Run and the only player with 100+ RBI's.
Here's the Cardinals numbers in the first half over the last few years. You can see easily see the decline.
2004 - 108 HR, 455 Runs, .276 AVG
2005 - 97 HR, 447 Runs, .271 AVG
2006 - 87 HR, 440 Runs, .279 AVG
2007 - 70 HR, 368 Runs, .267 AVG
albert pujols is superman
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