At some point this season, Albert Pujols is going to turn it on. He has to. Through 23 games this season, Pujols has yet to hit his first home run as a member of the Angels and has only four RBIs. He is hitting .217 with an on-base percentage of .265. Albert is one of the reasons Los Angeles is off to an 8-15 start, and he will probably be one of the reasons they go on a tear at some point later in the season.
Pujols knows he isn’t coming close to living up to the $240 million contract he signed this past offseason, and he acknowledged that during a recent meeting with his teammates. According to Eye on Baseball, hitting coach Mickey Hatcher says Pujols stood up during a pregame meeting on Monday and assured the team that his slump will not continue. While it sound admirable, Albert is unhappy with Hatcher for telling all of us that he did that.
“Mickey should have never told you guys that,” Pujols said. “That stuff needs to be private. He should have never told the media. What we talked about at the meeting, not disrespecting Mickey, but that stuff should stay behind closed doors.”
Pujols is right in the sense that private meetings should be kept private, but Hatcher certainly wasn’t trying to make him look bad. In fact, he was doing the exact opposite. The media has been all over Pujols for his slow start — as they should be with the amount of money he’s being paid. Hatcher was trying to show the public how determined he is. Pujols’ reaction to Hatcher telling the media about it probably speaks more to his frustration level at the moment than anything.
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