Poor Pujols owners!

We're twelve games into the season and Albert Pujols is hitting (or lack there of) to the tune of: .170 AVG/3 Hrs/ 7 RBIs/ 7 Runs/ 0 SB. Of course, this wont last, by the end of the season he'll have a stat line worthy of MVP votes (we think).

Why is Albert Pujols hitting so poorly, is it something Pujols owners should be worried about............well.............maybe slightly. First of all, fantasy owners and Cardinal fans alike should be worried about the amount of walks Pujols is drawing. Outside of the obvious intentional walks (4) Pujols has only drawn 1 traditional walk. The Cardinal's hitting coach told St. Louis Today that Pujols appears "jumpy". His timing is off and his hands and body are way out in front of the ball. What's worrisome is that Pujols was told this a week ago but can't seem to shake it. The reason? Albert Pujols may be playing at less than 100%, which is NOT good news.

Sometime during spring training or early workouts Pujols reaggravated his right hamstring. He decided not to take it easy and continued to play on it sore. This is the same sore hamstring that landed him on the DL last season! This might explain the reason why Pujol's is "off". Hal McRae himself (Cardinals hitting coach) admitted that Albert's swing was not quite right. It's very possible that Pujol's has adjusted his swing slightly to keep some pressure off of his hurt leg during his swings. This is NOT good news, as continued stress on an injured area will only make things worse. On top of everything, it's been very cold this young season and this does nothing to help an injured muscle out.

As if all the above wasn't enough an even more sinister problem started to bloom last season. Major League scouts have noted that Albert Pujols has expanded his strike zone a great deal from 2005 and early 2006. With the decline of Scott Rolen and Jim Edmonds, pitchers have been keeping balls off of the plate when facing Albert. He's expanded his zone to get more swings, unfortunately those baseballs are not easy to hit.

Hopefully these things work themselves out, for Pujol's owners they're praying sooner rather then later.