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The Spectacle Blog
Well, April is in the books for MLB. The most striking story to come out of MLB in the first month of the season took place in Los Angeles. Specifically, I refer to the contrast in performance between the sluggers from the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Los Angeles Angels and consequently the teams.
Dodgers centerfielder Matt Kemp had a banner month. Kemp, who signed an eight year contract extension with the Dodgers worth $160 million in the off season, hit .417 with 12 home runs and 25 RBI. His OBP is .490. That means he effectively reaches base in half of his plate appearances. Even so, I am surprised he’s only walked 13 times and hasn’t been issued an intentional walk yet this season. Kemp will surely be named NL Player of the Month.
However, if one were to drive south on I-5 to Anaheim, the same cannot be said for Albert Pujols. April is a month Pujols and the Angels would just as soon forget. Like Kemp, Pujols had exactly 98 plate apperances in April. Unfortunately, Pujols hit exactly 200 points below Kemp. That’s right. For the month of April, Pujols hit .217 with no home runs and only 4 RBI. The Angels, of course, signed Pujols to a 10-year deal worth $254 million.
It’s probably no surprise that the Dodgers and Angels are going in opposite directions. What is a surprise is the respective directions in which they are going. The Dodgers, fresh off years of ownership turmoil, own the best record the NL, going 16-7 in April. They currently have a 3½ game lead over the San Francisco Giants in the NL West. Conversely, the Angels despite signing Pujols and former Texas Rangers starter C.J. Wilson are in last place in the AL West with an 8-15 record in April. They are currently 9 games back of the two time AL champion Rangers.
But baseball is a funny game and there is much more to come. Fortunes can change fast over six months. So it would not come as a surprise to me in the least if Pujols finished the 2012 season with more home runs than Kemp and if the Angels did better than the Dodgers at season’s end.
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More Blog Posts by Aaron Goldstein
http://spectator.org/blog/2012/05/01/kemp-vs-pujols-a-tale-of-two-l
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JmsA| 5.1.12 @ 1:23PM
It's much too early for concern. Pujols will come around.
Aaron Goldstein| 5.1.12 @ 1:29PM
Please see my final paragraph.
JP| 5.1.12 @ 1:53PM
Perhaps Pujols is missing his old teammates (Berkman, Molina, Halladay) more than people realize. Sometimes it matters as much on who bats before and after a power hitter than the power hitter himself.
Personally I think the Angels were foolish on signing such a large contract to a hitter whose best years are probably behind him.
Aaron Goldstein| 5.1.12 @ 2:28PM
I think you're onto something. BTW, I think you mean Matt Holliday rather than Roy Halladay.
But I also think he misses Tony La Russa. Mike Scioscia is a great manager and I'm sure there's respect but chemistry takes time to brew.
And let us not forget Jose Oquendo. He has been in the Cardinal organization for nearly thirty years and survived many a managerial change. Pujols looked upon Oquendo as a father figure and that kind of relationship is as difficult to replicate with someone else as it is to come by in the first place.
Bob K.| 5.1.12 @ 11:41PM
He had an off season (for him) playing with them last year.
He became a full time player at age 21 which is around the age that most great HOF hitters became full time players. He has maintained those HOF numbers since then. He was 32 in January. Barring a serious injury he should have 5 more years with similar statistics. (150 more HRs and 500 more RBI's and should stay around his lifetime BA of .327)
Matt Kemp who is 4 years younger did not become a full time player until he was 23 and did not have a year comparable to one of Pujol's average years until last year. He may have 2 or 3 more in the future but he is not remotely the hitter that Pujols is.
Pujols only needs more at bats, not new father figures.
Aaron Goldstein| 5.2.12 @ 2:47PM
Pujols hit .299, 37 HR and 99 RBI and earned a World Series ring last season with the Cardinals. Some off season.
Yes, it did mark the first time Pujols hit under .300 and drove in less than 100 runs in a season. But remember he did miss two weeks with a broken wrist. If not for that he would have got that extra RBI single.
I wouldn't so casually dismiss the importance of father figures. Last night, Al Leiter and Harold Reynolds were saying that Pujols has people he talks to outside of the Angels organization. They didn't mention names but you can be sure Pujols has been on the phone with La Russa and Oquendo.
But it's true that Pujols needs to adjust to AL pitching and you are correct to say he can only do that with more plate appearances.
JmsA| 5.1.12 @ 5:02PM
I didn't need your final paragraph to reach such a conclusion. What's Kemp, or for that matter, the Dodgers done lately?
Aaron Goldstein| 5.2.12 @ 2:49PM
You obviously lived under a rock during the month of April.
Pete| 5.1.12 @ 8:25PM
It may be too early, but think of Andruw Jones. His game collapsed in 2007 and he has never come back, and he is only 34.
Aaron Goldstein| 5.2.12 @ 2:52PM
Sometimes a player declines very rapidly. In the case of Andruw Jones his days as a superstar are over. However, he has made the best of his situation and has found a home with the Yankees. Jones has been invaluable to the Yankees against left-handed pitching.
Steve A| 5.1.12 @ 2:14PM
It just goes to demonstrate what a mental game baseball is at that level. Clearly, nothing is physically wrong with AP. He is pressing, swinging at bad balls & trying too hard to make it happen. He feels pressure to justify 250Mil.
You have to let the game come to you. Kemp is clearly doing so. It will click for Pujols when he stops trying so hard & let's it come. Easier said than done.
Paul McGrath| 5.1.12 @ 2:29PM
Baseball is a funny game, Aaron. And there is much more to come. In fact, it's almost certain that your pick to win the AL Central--Kansas City--will win a home game before the season is over.
Occam's Tool| 5.1.12 @ 11:09PM
Kansas City has had a worse record than the Cubbies in reaching the post season since 1985. "That's playing with pain, Bob."
Bill| 5.1.12 @ 2:52PM
AL West is no game changer, it always have been Yankees, Ginats, Cards, Redsox, or maybe Nats this year.
Richard M| 5.1.12 @ 6:28PM
The Red Sox aren't going anywhere. They have no pitching. It's too severe to be fixable this season.
Richard M| 5.1.12 @ 6:26PM
This isn't the first year that Pujols has gotten off to a slow start. He had a notoriously slow start last year - but it wasn't *this* bad. And he did recover from it by June with a torrid summer.
Is this a sign of decline? As many have noted, most of his hitting metrics have declined over the last three years. His 2011 numbers were still superb, to be sure, for pretty much any hitter - but only pedestrian by Pujols' standards. More to the point, teams are putting a heavy shift on him, and he seems unable to do much about it. He struggles to hit top of the line pitching in a way that just wasn't true four years ago. So the age factor can't be discounted.
He's sure to improve over his April this season, of course. You can't write him off. But he may still struggle to reach 100 RBI's, 300 BA and 30 HR's. And if that's the case, 2012 will be another data point in a slow but steady decline. And if so, it may be the Cardinals (currently in first place) that are most happy that they weren't stuck with that contract.
alyans | 5.2.12 @ 3:09AM
alyans