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Pujols Broken

Posted on June 20, 2011 at 1:13 PM
Filed Under: St. Louis Cardinals
The news is out, and it's not good.

Instead of the sprain many of us were hoping for, instead there is a small break inside Albert Pujols's wrist.  That break means that, instead of a couple of days, he is expected to miss 4-6 weeks, putting him back right after the All-Star break at the best.  Of course, you are free to insert all caveats about Cardinal injury estimations here.

This isn't the news fans were wanting, of course.  This will be the longest Pujols has ever been on the disabled list and puts a severe crimp in his chances for yet another .300/30/100 season.  With Albert finally finding that stroke that had made him the legend that he is, it is a terrible time for this to happen and the ramifications past this season are extensive as well.

Let's just take a quick look at this season, though.  You'd expect for a couple of days, at least, that Lance Berkman would move to first and Jon Jay get some starts out in right.  You lose out on some intimidation, of course, and the lineup feels weird with Matt Holliday sliding up to third and Berkman in the cleanup slot, but I don't know that you drop completely off the cliff like that.

By the beginning of next week, you have David Freese at third and Nick Punto on the bench, replacing Andrew Brown and Pete Kozma.  You might have Mark Hamilton up as well if the Cardinals feel like they can go back to 12 pitchers, but right now you have to balance run prevention with run production.

So by the middle of next week, the lineup could be:

Ryan Theriot SS
Jon Jay RF
Matt Holliday LF
Lance Berkman 1B
Colby Rasmus CF
David Freese 3B
Yadier Molina C
Skip Schumaker 2B

That's not a terrible lineup.  It's not equal to having Pujols in the mix, of course, but that lineup could win games, but here's the key: it's got to be backed up with a strong pitching staff.  They'll still put runs up, of course, but I don't know that you want to count on them for 5-6 a night.

(Here was where I was going to make the point that it could strengthen even further when Allen Craig came off the DL in a couple of days, until I realized that while I was gone it was revealed that he had his own fracture and likely won't be back until Pujols is.  So let's move on.)

Is this a blow to the Cardinals' chances this season?  Of course it is.  You can't remove a multiple-time MVP from a lineup and not notice.  Like I said this morning, though, this team might be more able to absorb some of that blow than teams in the past.  There's some depth here and the Berkman signing seems inspired now.

Cards face Philadelphia, Toronto, Baltimore, Tampa Bay, Cincinnati, Arizona, Cincinnati (again), Mets and Pirates between now and July 24, hopefully as far as they'll have to go without Pujols.  (Remember, the man heals ridiculously quickly from muscle strains, so hopefully some of that will work in the bone break area as well.)  Those games against the Reds may be the roughest, as they may play a direct role in the NL Central race.

I think the Cards can hold together and stay in the hunt even with this, perhaps making a late kick when Pujols comes back.  Then again, I'm always one that's accused of being optimistic.

Now, as for what this means for resigning Pujols, that's a totally different discussion.  There will be time for that later on as we spend some time without The Machine.

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Heroes
Matt Holliday (5)
Matt Carpenter (4)
Rafael Furcal (4)
Carlos Beltran (3)
Jaime Garcia (3)
Jon Jay (3)
Kyle Lohse (3)
Lance Lynn (3)
Yadier Molina (3)
David Freese (2)
Adam Wainwright (2)
Lance Berkman (1)
Allen Craig (1)
Shane Robinson (1)
Fernando Salas (1)
Jake Westbrook (1)

2011 Top Hero: Lance Berkman (24)
2010 Top Heroes: Matt Holliday and Albert Pujols (24)
2009 Top Hero: Albert Pujols (28)
2008 Top Hero: Albert Pujols (25)

Goats
Matt Holliday (4)
Carlos Beltran (3)
David Freese (3)
Jaime Garcia (3)
Jason Motte (3)
Marc Rzepczynski (3)
Adam Wainwright (3)
Rafael Furcal (2)
Tyler Greene (2)
J.C. Romero (2)
Fernando Salas (2)
Mitchell Boggs (1)
Matt Carpenter (1)
Tony Cruz (1)
Daniel Descalso (1)
Jon Jay (1)
Erik Komatsu (1)
Kyle Lohse (1)
Victor Marte (1)
Eduardo Sanchez (1)
Jake Westbrook (1)

2011 Top Goat: Ryan Theriot (12)
2010 Top Goat: Brendan Ryan (14)
2009 Top Goats: Rick Ankiel and Todd Wellemeyer (13)
2008 Top Goat: Troy Glaus (13)

2012 Happy Flights
Happy Flights: 7
Happy Flight Opportunities: 12
Happy Flight %: 58%

Through 5/20

    Cardinal Nation Approval Ratings (March 2012)
    Adam Wainwright 91.9% (down 2.8%)
    Chris Carpenter 90.1% (up 3.2%)
    Lance Berkman 88.6%
    Tony La Russa 88.2% (up 17.4%)
    Yadier Molina 87.4% (up 3.7%)
    Matt Holliday 87.3% (down 3.8%)
    David Freese 85.5%
    John Mozeliak 85.4% (up 13.3%)
    Mike Shannon 85.3% (up 0.4%)
    Jose Oquendo 84.7%
    Derrick Goold 82.8% (down 5.0%)
    Mark McGwire 82.6% (up 20.1%)
    John Rooney 81.5% (down 2.8%)
    Mike Matheny 81.1%
    Bill DeWitt 79.8% (up 8.8%)
    United Cardinal Bloggers 78.9%
    Skip Schumaker 73.3% (up 9.2%)
    Jim Hayes 71.9% (down 4.2%)
    Jon Jay 71.1%
    B.J. Rains 69.5% (down 0.9%)
    Kyle Lohse 68.9% (up 13.8%)
    Dan McLaughlin 68.0%
    Joe Strauss 67.7% (up 10.2%)
    Ricky Horton 67.5% (down 1.6%)
    Al Hrabosky 66.4% (up 3.2%)
    Albert Pujols 54.9% (down 45.5%)
    Colby Rasmus 46.5% (down 35.3%)

    2011
    Dave Duncan 87.9% (up 0.9%)
    Matthew Leach 85.5%
    Pop Warner 76.7%
    Ryan Franklin 72.8% (up 3.1%)
    John Vuch 68.9%
    Jeff Luhnow 66.4%
    Dan Lozano 58.7%

    2009
    Rick Ankiel 83.9%
    Chris Duncan 69.1%


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