How might one try to quantify what St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols means to his team?
Relevant data is scarce, though the population is growing since the 31-year-old suffered a forearm fracture and was placed on the disabled list effective Monday. It is just his third career DL stint and will be the first to go beyond the minimum 15 days.
Pujols missed 15 games in June 2006 and 13 in June 2008. The team went 14-14 in total with an 8-7 record the first year followed by a 6-7 mark two years later.
Even before Albert was hurt one week ago today, Sunday, the Cardinals had begun a slide. They had been 2-7 in their last nine. Since Pujols’ absence from the lineup, the club is 1-4, including Saturday evening’s loss to Toronto, for a total 3-11 skid.
With another defeat on Sunday, the Cards with Pujols on the DL would be 15-19 (.441) since his 2001 debut. In games Pujols has appeared over his career, the team is 911-720 (.559). In all St. Louis contests during the time in which Pujols was on the active roster, whether he appeared or not, they are 930-733 (also .559).
The difference over an entire 162-game season would work out as follows.
- Without Pujols (.441) = 71-91 record
- With Pujols (.559) = 91-71 record
Even in this overly-simple analysis, that difference of 20 games is something to think about for the future.
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Sunday lineup: Theriot, ss; Schumaker, 2b; Holliday, lf; Berkman, 1b; Brown, rf; Rasmus, cf; Cruz, c; Descalso, 3b; McClellan, p.
Interesting lineup. I don’t recall Schu second much, if at all. Brown fifth. Cruz has been getting some work. He’s looked good and I guess the pitchers, TLR and Dunc like him.
Molina is also batting just .212 over the last two weeks and .250 in June.
I don’t like the lineup. Jay and Molina both got hits last night and they don’t play? I don’t understand TLR’s logic.
Personally I think it is too soon to say much about Pujols’ injury’s affect on the team. They were already on a losing skid before he got injured. The rest of the offense carried the team when Pujols wasn’t being Pujols.
A couple comments about the subject of the article. The 20 game swing sounds about right. The circumstances were Albert vs a bench or minor league guy or some kind of temp. Albert vs a replacement player if Albert were gone for good would surely be less.
Also, Albert was better on both O and D in past years, so the 20 games would be more of a career avg and his impact now would be less.
There is also the issue of what else does the team have to keep the offense going. With Matt and Lance healhy, and , say, Freese back, and Colby coming around, I don’t know if its a 20 game swing.
All that said, I wouldn’t throw in with the Westy theory that the team is better off without Albert. He’s worth enough games to make a difference. The difference the matters at the end of 162 IMO.
KMc looking solid again. Unfortunately the Cardinals looked over matched the first time through lineup.
“Sigh”
Middle of the 9th, stands are pretty much empty. An unusual sight. I wonder what the brass thinks about that.
On a related note, they’ve been heavily promoting the Champions club. Sounds sort of like the Redbird Club areas. They converted a bunch of private suites, knocking down the walls. So I take it they’ve had some trouble selling all those suites. A big talking point in pushing for the new stadium was how they needed more suites. I guess all”s fair when going after public money and tax breaks. Suits.
Hope it does the team some good to get of town for a while.
All I can say is it is better to get the losing out of the way now. Maybe another team meeting would be helpful. It can’t hurt.
The Cards need to get back on track in Baltimore. Getting Freese and Punto back will be helpful.
Valdes has an ERA of zero. Lets hope he keeps it that way.