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Kudos for Pujols
Sports Illustrated's Stephen Cannella checks in with his baseball thoughts every week throughout the season on CNNSI.com. Do you want to play an important role for a team locked in a tight playoff race? Then this a great time to be a rookie in the National League, where several first-year players have become central figures in their teams' postseason hopes. Since being called up from the minors in May, Houston right-hander Roy Oswalt, 24, has been dominant -- he's 13-2 with a 2.68 ERA, and has walked just 22 batters in 127 2/3 innings. With roughly four starts left, he already owns the franchise record for wins by a rookie. In Philadelphia, 22-year-old Jimmy Rollins has started at shortstop all season, and last month was inserted into the leadoff spot. He tops the NL with 42 stolen bases and has made just 13 errors at the most demanding position in the field. Neither the Astros (who led the NL Central by five games through Wednesday) nor the Phillies (three behind Atlanta in the East) would be as close to postseason berths as they are without their rookie contributors. Do you want to win the Rookie of the Year award? Tough luck. Despite their precocious roles on contenders, Oswalt and Rollins have no chance of hauling home any hardware this winter thanks to the MVP-worthy numbers put up by St. Louis' Albert Pujols. Remember Pujols? An injury fill-in on Opening Day who spent almost all of last season at Class A Peoria, he bashed his way into the everyday lineup and onto the All-Star team with 21 home runs and 66 RBIs in the first half. The Cardinals' apparent midseason tumble from the playoff race and Pujols' slow July (he batted just .241, drove in a mere 12 runs and went nearly a month without a home run) cost the 21 year old, some attention, however. Would he be another first-half rookie wonder who wore down under the weight of a full major-league season? Hardly. On July 31, Pujols went 2 for 5 against the Braves to kick off a 17-game hitting streak. His .375 August batting average was his highest monthly mark, and his 32 runs scored and .441 on-base percentage for the month led the Cardinals. (He also hit six homers and knocked in 25 runs, second on the club to Jim Edmonds.) Pujols' re-awakening, along with Edmonds' explosion out of a season-long slump, helped St. Louis sprint to the league's second-best record in August (20-10) and back into the playoff hunt, a game and a half out of the wild-card lead. "If we get to October, he'd have to get serious [MVP] consideration," manager Tony LaRussa said last week. Pujols is the most consistent run producer (he leads the team with a .335 average, 34 home runs,109 RBIs, 40 doubles and 95 runs scored) in a clubhouse stocked with the likes of Edmonds and Mark McGwire . He's also having one of the most productive rookie seasons ever. He's the 22nd rookie in history to hit 30 homers. With 34, he's four behind the NL rookie record of 38 held by Frank Robinson (in 1956) and Wally Berger (1930). (McGwire's major league rookie mark of 49 seems safe.) Pujols is also nearing a rather obscure milestone, one that's more indicative of consistent production. The NL rookie record for total bases, set by Dick Allen in 1964, is 352. With 24 games remaining, Pujols has 318 total bases -- the modest totals of five more home runs and five more doubles would all but assure him of breaking the record. Pujols has done all this while shuttling among four positions -- third base, first base, left and right fields. The Rookie of the Year trophy might as well be engraved with his name now. If the Cardinals sneak into the playoffs, he'll get votes for a higher-profile piece of hardware as well. Sports Illustrated staff writer Stephen Cannella covers the baseball beat for
the magazine. Touching Base appears every week on CNNSI.com.
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