Kuzul

The 2015 MLB All-Star Game is taking place July 14 in Cincinnati. Fan voting for the starting lineups wraps up this week. There is still some time to get votes submitted for your favorite Los Angeles Angels players. However, only a few have a real shot at playing in the game this year.

Each team is required to receive at least one participant because of an asinine rule. Outside of that, an All-Star berth comes down to popularity and production. Here are the Angels’ top candidates to be named an All-Star in order of likelihood.

1) Mike Trout

No surprise here, as Trout leads all American League players in WAR.

2) Albert Pujols

A number of weeks ago, I wrote a Bold Predictions column in which I said Pujols would make the All-Star team. While most of the other predictions from that piece seem foolish now, this one I nailed.

Pujols has been on an absolute tear since May. He’s hit 20 home runs in the last two months alone. He has a 1.142 OPS during the month of June. He is even now up to second in the AL in WAR among first basemen. After such a shaky beginning to the season, Pujols is inarguably the team’s second-best player and is deserving of that All-Star bid that seemed so bold to predict just six weeks ago.

3) Huston Street

Sadly for Los Angeles fans, after Trout and Pujols, there is a real drop before the team’s third-best candidate. Street is that guy, but his chances of making the team are no sure thing.

Street is third in the AL with 21 saves. His peripherals also stack up nicely with his positional counterparts. The problem is there are a number of non-closers who have been much better than Street this year.

Dellin Betances and Wade Davis (besides picking up saves as injury replacements) have been untouchable middle relievers. The same goes for lesser names like Evan Scribner (41-to-3 strikeout-to-walk rate) or Darren O’Day.

The saves may get Street into the game anyway. Despite the progressive nature of baseball fans, that stat still matters in many circles.

4) Hector Santiago

The last player in Anaheim with any chance of making the All-Star game is Hector Santiago, and he likely doesn’t have much of a chance.

Santiago has been the team’s best starting pitcher this season and has solid figures across the board. Little else makes him a realistic All-Star, however. His record is just 4-4 in 15 starts and he’s given up 13 home runs this season.

Most pressing is the fact that there are simply too many elite arms in baseball right now.

His 8.4 strikeouts per nine innings mark is very good for a starting pitcher, but it puts him 13th in the AL this season among qualified pitchers. His 1.13 walks and hits per innings pitched (WHIP) is also superb, but it doesn’t even put him in the top half-dozen among AL starters.

Santiago has had a good year, but it won’t likely be good enough to make the team. The mediocre play of the Angels will hurt him, as will his manager’s propensity to rejigger the rotation to save arms. It may be the smart play, but it doesn’t come off positively when your manager skips your turn in the rotation.

At 39-37 this season, Los Angeles has had a sloppy year. Getting four players into the All-Star Game is a little too much to ask. The Angels are guaranteed one All-Star and could potentially have more. That’s not too bad.

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The Seattle Mariners began the season with lofty expectations, but they’ve failed to meet them as we approach the midway point of the season.

Seattle took a step in the right direction in the first game of a three-game series in Anaheim, beating the Los Angeles Angels 3-1.

Robinson Cano hit a solo home run, and Taijuan Walker pitched seven innings of one-run ball to get the win.

Aside from the Houston Astros, the rest of the division has been mediocre so far in 2015, with the Angels and Texas Rangers tied for second place, trailing Houston by five games.

Mike Trout hit a solo home run in the first inning for the only run of the game for the Angels.

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Fact: Albert Pujols 15 HR’s since May 28th are more than the Braves (14), Mariners (14), and Indians (13).

Bleacher Report will be bringing sports fans the most interesting and engaging Cold Hard Fact of the day, presented by Coors Light.

Source: SportsCenter

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Earlier in June, Albert Pujols insisted that the Los Angeles Angels were not “the Mike Trout show.” This was despite all evidence to the contrary, as the Angels had been on Trout’s back all season.

But here we are a couple of weeks later, and time has proven Pujols wise. The Angels are no longer The Mike Trout Show. Now they’re what they were supposed to be: The Mike Trout and Albert Pujols Show.

After getting off to a painfully slow start with a .235 average and .702 OPS through May 27, Pujols has made it impossible to ignore what he’s has been doing since then. ESPN’s Baseball Tonight sent out this tweet Friday morning that highlighted Pujols as arguably the game’s hottest hitter:

He has refused to cool down over the weekend. The 35-year-old first baseman went 5-for-11 with a double and a home run—the 538th of his career, putting him 10 shy of Mike Schmidt for 15th all time—in a three-game series against the Oakland A’s. Even after taking an 0-fer Monday night against the Arizona Diamondbacks, he’s still hitting .369 with a 1.284 OPS and 10 homers since May 28.

In the meantime, Trout has also stayed hot. Though he hasn’t quite kept up with his slugging partner in crime, he’s hitting a rock-solid .297 with a 1.038 OPS and seven home runs since May 28. 

Thus have Trout and Pujols re-emerged as one of the American League‘s top offensive duos. Trout is having the better season with a .958 OPS, 18 home runs and eight stolen bases, but Pujols’ .863 OPS and 18 dingers hardly make him look like a slouch.

And now that it’s sipping on Mike and Albert’s Secret Stuff—like Michael’s Secret Stuff, except more potent—the Angels offense is looking more like what it was supposed to be. 

Per Baseball Savant, here are the splits:

When it was Trout doing all the heavy lifting earlier in the season, the Angels offense was one of the most punchless units in MLB. Since Pujols came alive, it’s looked a lot more like the league-best offense that led the Angels to a league-best 98 wins in 2014.

It makes you wonder: How, exactly, has Pujols’ bat caught fire in such a hurry?

According to the man himself, it’s a case of talent finally combining with luck.

As Pujols told Michael Kolligian of MLB.com: “I’ve been swinging the bat well all year long and, if you stay with that approach, sooner or later they’re going to fall.”

And as he told David Adler and Alden Gonzalez of MLB.com: “It’s the same thing I’ve been doing since Day 1, since Opening Day. I told you guys that. Just better luck, I guess. Instead of hitting balls right at people, I’m finding some holes. It’s a good feeling.”

It’s a reasonable explanation. Pujols is one of the greatest hitters to ever play the game, after all. And though his best days are undeniably behind him, the guy did just OPS .790 with 28 home runs in 2014, for cryin’ out loud!

But while Pujols’ current mega-hot stretch could indeed be a case of his collecting on overdue good luck, I’d like to propose an alternate theory: This is what Pujols looks like when he’s angry.

Let’s hop in the TARDIS and go back in time to May 25. 

On that day, the Angels found themselves locked in a 3-3 tie with the San Diego Padres heading into the bottom of the ninth inning. In the blink of an eye, there were runners on first and third, and Trout was striding to the plate.

With a base open, the Padres could either pitch to Trout or give him four wide ones and take their chances with Pujols. Trout entered the game with a .944 OPS, whereas Pujols had a .709 OPS. So, now-former Padres skipper Bud Black played the numbers and passed on Trout to bring up Pujols.

Here’s what happened:

That there’s a walk-off single. And if you watch to the end of the highlight, you’ll see Pujols glaring at the Padres dugout immediately after the ball left his bat and all the way down the first base line. He was effectively saying, “Take that!” And not at all in a jokey, light-hearted manner.

That wasn’t the first time an opponent intentionally walked Trout to bring Pujols to the plate. After it happened again in a couple of subsequent games, Jill Painter Lopez of Fox Sports West caught up with Pujols to get his thoughts.

His response: “I don’t think about that, dude. It’s part of the game. They can do that 100 more times. That doesn’t bother me. I’ve been on the other side, too.”

A diplomatic response, to be sure. In fact, Pujols made it sound like he checked his annoyance with the first intentional walk at the door as soon as the situation was over.

Looked at from another perspective, however? Maybe not. Since the Padres challenged him to live up to his career track record back on May 25, Pujols has been a different hitter.

One way we can tell is by looking at his approach in the batter’s box. According to Baseball Savant, Pujols was swinging at 46.1 percent of the pitches he saw through May 25, which FanGraphs tells us was in line with his career norms. Since May 26, however, he’s swinging 51.3 percent of the time. 

Thus, he’s gotten more aggressive. We’re witnessing Pujols in attack mode.

Normally, what you worry about when you see a hitter swinging more aggressively is more wild swings that result in too many easy outs for the pitcher. Or, as they’re colloquially known, “strikeouts.”

But those haven’t been a problem. Pujols was only striking out 12.5 percent of the time to begin with through May 25. Since then, he’s struck out in only 5.1 percent of his plate appearances. The exact numbers: four (four!) strikeouts in 79 plate appearances. 

So, Pujols hasn’t just been a more aggressive hitter since that fateful IBB. He’s been a more aggressive hitter who’s making lots of contact. 

And this extra contact has been of the loud variety. Here’s how Pujols’ average exit velocities split up:

• Through May 25: 90.9 mph
• Since May 26: 94.3 mph

Because we now know that batted balls really become dangerous once they get into the mid-90s and beyond in velocity, the leap Pujols has made is a significant one.

And if you go looking for hitters who have been crushing the ball like he has since May 26, you get a list that includes the likes of Paul Goldschmidt, Giancarlo Stanton and, naturally, Trout.

So, Pujols hasn’t just turned into a more aggressive hitter who’s making more contact. He’s turned into a more aggressive hitter who’s making contact and punishing the ball when he does.

If it wasn’t already taken, The Force Awakens would be a darn good title for a movie about the transformation that Pujols has undergone since the Padres dared to test him. And for the Angels, the result has been the rejuvenation of the Trout/Pujols duo and, with it, their offense as a whole.

Now, it should go without saying that Pujols can’t possibly keep this up for the rest of the season. What he’s doing right now would result in a 90-homer campaign over a 162-game sample, which says enough about the sustainability of his performance. And as Rob Neyer of Fox Sports noted, Pujols isn’t drawing walks or using the opposite field like he usually does.

However, the hitter Pujols is right now is more reflective of the hitter he’s supposed to be than the hitter he was before. The big projection systems see him managing an .800-ish OPS with around 17 homers the rest of the way. That’s probably asking a bit much. But he should be able to come reasonably close to being that good as long as his anger mode is kept on “BERSERK.”

And if that’s the case, the Angels lineup will continue to be a challenge. It could be beaten when it was all about Trout. It’s a lot harder to top now that it’s all about Trout and Pujols.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.

If you want to talk baseball, hit me up on Twitter.

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Los Angeles Angels first baseman Albert Pujols achieved yet another milestone (or two) in Thursday’s 6-2 win over the Tampa Bay Rays, taking sole possession of 16th place on the all-time home runs list and tying Manny Ramirez for 14th place (1,122) on the all-time extra-base hits list, per Sportsnet Stats.

Pujols entered the game even with New York Yankees legend Mickey Mantle at 536 career home runs, and it appeared he’d have to wait at least another day to break the tie.

But, after managing just a lone single through his first four at-bats of the night, Pujols hit a two-run blast to left field—the 537th home run of his career—off Rays pitcher Preston Guilmet with two outs in the top of the ninth inning.

The homer extended the Angels’ lead to 6-2, but it did rob closer Huston Street of the opportunity to pick up his 18th save of the season.

In any case, Pujols is arguably the hottest hitter in all of baseball, with nine home runs, 15 RBI and 13 runs in his last 13 games.

Despite starting the season slow, he’s now on pace for 46 home runs, 86 RBI and 89 runs, to go along with a .267/.318/.534 batting line.

While the runs and RBI aren’t overly impressive, it’s not Pujols’ fault that he and outfielder Mike Trout are the only Angels batters enjoying above-average seasons. No other regular has an OPS above .724 (third baseman David Freese) or an on-base percentage above .337 (second baseman Johnny Giavotella).

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Los Angeles Angels first baseman Albert Pujols hit the 536th home run of his career during Tuesday’s 8-2 win over the Tampa Bay Rays, tying Mickey Mantle for 16th place on the all-time list, per MLB Milestones.

Pujols’ milestone blast came with the bases empty in the top of the fifth inning, when he hit a line drive a few rows into the right field stands off of Rays pitcher Nate Karns, giving the Angels a 5-0 lead.

It was Pujols’ eighth home run in his last 11 games, after he managed just eight through his first 44 games of the season.

He also has 12 runs and 13 RBI over the 11-game stretch, which has seen him improve his season-long slash line from .238/.294/.436 all the way to .268/.317/.531.

The 35-year-old first baseman has already moved up from 21st to 16th place on the all-time home runs list since the beginning of the season, but he’ll have to wait a while to move up any further.

Fifteenth-place Mike Schmidt hit 548 career home runs, leaving Pujols with 12 more to go to catch the Hall of Fame third baseman.

After that, 14th-place Manny Ramirez hit 555 home runs, and 13th-place Reggie Jackson had 563

Pujols is on pace for 45 home runs this season, and in the unlikely event he actually reaches that total, he’ll have 565 for his career, good for sole possession of 13th place on the all-time list.

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1. A Manager Is Just Another Chew Toy for Pit Bull Loria

Everyone knows managers are hired to be fired. But in Miami, they’re not just fired; they’re sliced, diced, pureed, pulsed, chopped, whipped, crushed, frappe’d and blended too.

So here comes new Marlins manager Dan Jennings, one of the game’s most respected talent evaluators, in Miami’s craziest move yet.

This actually is a demotion for Jennings, who comes downstairs from the executive office, where he was vice president and general manager. Not since Jack McKeon—sound familiar, Marlins fans?—with the San Diego Padres from 1988 to 1990 has someone served as both manager and general manager in the majors. (Yes, that is a bit of sarcasm. Demotion, yes, but Jennings will retain his VP title, and the Marlins say he will have the same input in the construction of the team.)

Jennings is a lifetime talent evaluator who is credited with signing and developing, among others, Josh Hamilton, James Shields, Carl Crawford and Rocco Baldelli during his seven-plus seasons as Tampa Bay’s director of scouting before leaving for the Marlins.

And as he himself said during Monday morning’s press conference, “It is out of the box. I will not deny that.”

You think?   

Here is just one of the 3,000 reasons this organization is laughable and you can’t believe anything it says: Club president David Samson and president of baseball operations Michael Hill spoke at length Monday about how the Marlins needed “a new voice.”

So the “new voice” is a guy from the front office who has had a hand in building/maintaining this team all along?

This is not a new voice.

This is an old tale.

Owner Jeffrey Loria is George Steinbrenner on training wheels, blowing through managers like Kleenex.

Since 2010, the Marlins have employed seven: Fredi Gonzalez, Edwin Rodriguez, Brandon Hyde (0-1 as interim in 2011), Jack McKeon, Ozzie Guillen, Mike Redmond and now Jennings.

Loria is paying three managers this summer alone: Guillen, who is in the final year of the four-year, $10 million deal he signed to manage the Marlins before the 2012 season, Redmond and Jennings.

Try as he might with moon shot after moon shot, slugger Giancarlo Stanton, who hit a ball completely out of Dodger Stadium and pounded the three longest homers in the majors last week, cannot outdistance this circus. Since this managerial Wheel of Misfortune started in earnest in 2010, Stanton has played for an average of 1.17 managers per season.

Jennings is immensely popular throughout the industry, an old-time baseball man, a good guy, good sense of humor, beloved by many.

But you already know how this story is going to end: with stains on Jennings and, if he’s not careful, knives from Loria and Samson in his back. And the fact that nobody from the Marlins even bothered to thank Redmond at Monday’s press conference for his effort and for some of the good things he’s done…it’s just reprehensible.

“I will tell you even my mom, whom I love, asked me, ‘Are you crazy? Have you lost your mind?'” Jennings joked.

Sadly, Ma Jennings, maybe you don’t want to know the answer.

2. All-Underachieving Team

It’s mid-May. These guys have to turn it around soon…don’t they?

First base: Albert Pujols, Angels. Not only does he have a relatively pedestrian six homers and 14 RBIs, but he also entered the week hitting .231 with a .283 on-base percentage and a .403 slugging percentage, which ranked 20th among qualifying MLB first basemen. For the bargain price of $24 million this year.

Second base: Chase Utley, Phillies. Though Philadelphia is starting to play a little better, Utley is slogging along at .138/.214/.241. Glory days—they’ll pass you by in the wink of a young girl’s eye.

Shortstop: Jimmy Rollins, Dodgers. Utley’s former double-play partner did go 4-for-5 against the Rockies on Friday and by this week had boosted his slash line all the way up to .196/.277/.348. Though the Dodgers own the second-best record in the National League, fans nevertheless are beginning to wonder when phenom Corey Seager, 21, will be ready (he’s hitting .281/.324/.344 at Triple-A Oklahoma City). Oh, and one other thing about Rollins: “It’s mesmerizing how many plays he takes off at shortstop,” one scout says.

Third base: Josh Harrison, Pirates. Harrison was an All-Star last summer who finished ninth in NL MVP voting. He was awarded with a four-year, $27.3 million deal last month that could be worth $50 million if all of the options are exercised. The emergence of Harrison caused the Pirates to bump Pedro Alvarez over to first base, but Harrison’s encore so far is not helping raise too many Jolly Rogers.

Catcher: Chris Iannetta, Angels. One of the majors’ finest offenses from a year ago is a late starter this summer. Iannetta is hitting .123/.217/.137.

Left field: Melky Cabrera, White Sox. The Sox had a very good week and look like they are making their move. It will become much easier for them once Cabrera, slugging a career-worst .296, heats up.

Center field: Andrew McCutchen, Pirates. How rough has it been for Cutch? Not that his painfully slow offensive start is driving him batty, but he’s admitted to talking to his bat while trying to get going. Easiest prediction of the year: When the season’s over, Cutch will be hitting far above his current .233/.331/.383.

Right field: Carlos Beltran, Yankees. It’s clear the Yankees signed him a year too late, but that .271 on-base percentage really stands out. Beltran’s career OBP: .355.

Designated hitter: Victor Martinez, Tigers. I’m grading on a curve here, as Martinez missed most of spring training following knee surgery. So he started behind, and he’s going to catch up. But through his first 33 games, one homer and .224/.317/.280 is a rough start.

Starting Pitcher: Taijuan Walker, Mariners. So many people were on Seattle’s bandwagon this spring (yes, my hand is raised as well), and part of that is because the pitching was in place behind King Felix Hernandez. But Walker (1-4, 7.22 ERA) has been a colossal dud so far. “I saw him this spring and thought he would win the Cy Young Award,” one scout says. Ugh.

Closer: Steve Cishek, Marlins. There are many reasons this team is off to a disappointing start and Redmond is an ex-manager. Cishek’s blowing four of his first seven save opportunities is a very large one.

3. Where It Turned Around for the Nationals

The Nationals have become the club we all thought they would be, ripping off 15 wins in their past 19 games heading into this week. And if Matt Williams’ team is playing deep into October this autumn, circle April 28 and 29 on your calendar as the dates it all turned around.

Yes, part of their slow start was because Jayson Werth, Denard Span and Anthony Rendon all opened the season on the disabled list (Rendon is still out). But that slow start ended for good not only when Washington stormed back from a 9-1 deficit against the Atlanta Braves to win 13-12 on April 28 but also when the Nats closed that series by winning 13-4 the next day.

“That game in Atlanta, I never said after any regular-season game, ‘This game means a lot,'” ace Max Scherzer told B/R over the weekend. “But when we had that great comeback and then won again the next day, that’s what got it going. Those two games. You can’t take one.

“That was one of the best regular-season wins I’ve ever been a part of. It was a cloud-nine moment, and I didn’t even play.”

4. The Long and Short of It

Talk to nearly anyone in the game, and the answer is just about unanimous: Nationals’ right-hander Tanner Roark is the best “sixth man” going (meaning the next starter up after a five-man rotation). He would be a part of any rotation in the game, except where he is—in Washington.

The Nationals know how good they have it too. Pitching coach Steve McCatty was still teasing Roark the other day about his numbers from Arizona last Wednesday: The tall right-hander worked 1.2 innings in relief, threw 49 pitches, surrendered three hits, walked two…and didn’t allow a run.

“I’ve never seen that before,” McCatty says.

Just the latest example of Roark the Magician.

5. You Want Out of the Box? This Is Out of the Box

So Cubs manager Joe Maddon canceled batting practice before Friday’s day game following Thursday night’s 6-5 win over the Mets.

Result? The Cubs outslugged the Pirates 11-10 in 12 innings.

Of course.

“I think it’s the most overrated thing we do,” Maddon said of batting practice before the game at Wrigley Field. “On a daily basis, we swing the bat way too often. I don’t know what the genesis of that was. If I had to nail it down, the ’80s—the early ’80s—when hitting coaches became more prominent and all this teaching became more prominent, batting practice became a longer exercise.

“And extra batting practice and hitting off tees and hitting in cages and swinging and swinging and swinging, and I think it can be counterproductive. I think guys can hit themselves right through feel. You can be feeling really well, and my point is if you do it too often, you get to the point where you lose that feel.”

6. Error: Colorado general manager Jeff Bridich

Regarding the ongoing (and endless) debate over whether the Colorado Rockies are going to trade Troy Tulowitzki or should trade Tulowitzki (the answer is yes, by the way), Bridich is taking the old blame-the-messenger route.

“Most of the media likes to create news,” he told reporters, via the Los Angeles Times.

He also told MLB Network Radio’s Jim Bowden it was media speculation.

Timeout here, because that’s a load of bunk.

This all started last week when Tulowitzki’s agent, Paul Cohen, told the New York Post on the record that he planned to meet with Tulo to discuss whether to ask for a trade.

“To say that is not a possibility would be silly,” Cohen said.

That is not media speculation.

That is an agent and a superstar steaming down the tracks together like a locomotive. And even though Tulowitzki backed off later in the week, this story isn’t going away.

7. Weekly Power Rankings

1. Bryce Harper: If he stays off the disabled list, you are looking at the NL MVP.

2. Mad Men: I’d like to buy the world a Coke…but only after Harper’s next at-bat is finished!

3. Giancarlo Stanton: Ka-BOOM! 

4. Adrian Beltre and Miguel Cabrera: Messrs. 400. Welcome to the club. Now…is Beltre a Hall of Famer?

5. B.B. King: Farewell to a legend. And it is so awesome that back in the day, Will “The Thrill” Clark greeted callers with an answering machine message featuring King’s “The Thrill Is Gone.” Perfect then; touching now.

8. Shelby Miller Joins the So-Close Club

One out away from a no-hitter Sunday against the Marlins, all Atlanta’s right-hander got was some dugout high-fives, some “attaboys” and a place on this list:

9. Please Don’t Shout ‘Fire!’ in a Crowded Stadium

Did you see that the smokestack in Cincinnati’s Great American Ballpark caught fire during a game last week against the San Francisco Giants? And they played on without a delay.

9a. Rock ‘n’ Roll Lyric of the Week

One reason I will take the Rolling Stones over the Beatles (no offense, love the Beatles too) is because the Stones soaked themselves in the blues early on. And B.B. King always said he got on his knees and thanked them because that is one reason King and others remained popular—because legends like the Stones paid homage. Sleep well, Mr. King.

“Well, there’s one kind of favor I’ll ask of you
There’s just one kind of favor I’ll ask of you
You can see that my grave is kept clean
And there’s two white horses following me
And there’s two white horses following me
I got two white horses following me
Waiting on my burying ground”

— B.B. King, “See That My Grave is Kept Clean”

Scott Miller covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.

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Albert Pujols’ discomfort was mild, but it was enough to cause serious concern. 

When the future-Hall of Fame first baseman grabbed his left hamstring Wednesday night, the Los Angeles Angels’ panic needle moved, even if they would not admit it publicly. And when he had to be removed from that game and missed the following two, it undoubtedly brought on worry.

With Josh Hamilton removed from the Angels’ current situation and with their offense showing only whimpers of life, Pujols’ health is now essential to any success the team might have, and, in turn, their postseason hopes.

Even though he is struggling to find an offensive groove, Pujols’ presence in the fat part of the Angels’ lineup is still critical, since it appears the team’s silent offseason will spill over into the July trade deadline. That means outside help is not on the way for a team that is 11-14 partly because of a roster that sits near the bottom of the majors in several offensive categories.

“We didn’t have a good series offensively …,” manager Mike Scioscia told reporters after the San Francisco Giants swept the Angels over the weekend, a series in which they hit .168. “We’re still trying to get some groupings that work. Seems like couple guys show some signs, then slide back a little bit, but we’re going to find it.”

Trend #Angels offense needs to get rid of is 1-2-3 inn. Halos been retired in order 84 times this year, T-most in MLB w Pitt. 19x this trip.

— Victor Rojas (@VictorRojas29) May 3, 2015

Pujols is clearly not alone on the list of the team’s struggling hitters. The Angels are 28th in the majors in batting average (.224), 27th in OBP (.289), 28th in slugging percentage (.339), 29th in OPS (.628) and 27th in doubles (32). They also have scored three or fewer runs in 14 of their 25 games, including being shut out Sunday. 

This coming from an offense that led the majors in runs last season, and from a team that won a major league-best 98 games last year.

While the pitching has not helped much—the rotation’s 4.26 ERA is 20th in the majors—the offense has been bad over a large enough sample that it has to be a major concern by now.

“It’s just a stretch where we haven’t hit to our capability,” catcher Chris Iannetta said to Jeff Fletcher of The Orange County Register. “I don’t think it’s going to last all year… I think it’s going to turn around. Get in a groove, catch fire. We’ll start swinging it better.”

Pujols has also had enough plate appearances that his numbers show more significance than just a brief slump. He is hitting .212/.287/.388 with a .675 OPS in 94 plate appearances. Since returning from the hamstring discomfort, Pujols is 2-for-8 with a mammoth home run.

Going into Monday, Pujols’ line-drive rate was 13.9 percent, the worst of his storied career. The American League average was 20.7 percent before the start of Monday’s games, according to FanGraphs.

Pujols went into Monday seeing 40.1 percent of pitches thrown to him ending up within the strike zone, according to Baseball Info Solutions (via FanGraphs). That number would by far be a career low. Also, Pujols was swinging at 44.6 percent of all pitches, his lowest mark since 2010.

Common sense would tell us line drives are more likely to fall for hits. It also says it is more difficult for a hitter to smack a line drive if the pitch is out of the zone. So far, it appears that is one of Pujols’ negative trends through the season’s first month.

Despite those troubling tendencies, the Angels still need him healthy and in the lineup. As the team’s No 3 hitter, he has been sandwiched between No. 2 hitter Mike Trout and a flurry of ineffective cleanup hitters. However, Pujols’ brief injury caused Scioscia to move leadoff hitter Kole Calhoun into the No. 4 spot, and he has remained there for the two games since Pujols returned. 

Calhoun is hitting .309/.385/.469 with an .854 OPS. Aside from Trout, he has been the team’s best hitter. Because of that, Calhoun could stay in that new place as long as Erick Aybar can produce from the leadoff spot, although he’s hit .148/.207/.185 from there in seven games this season.

“If the whole lineup makes more sense with Kole out of the leadoff position, we’ll do it, but I don’t know if we’re at that point right now,” Scioscia told reporters Saturday.

Calhoun’s spot in the order would matter much less if the rest of the lineup remembered how to reach base, and that includes Pujols. When he is producing, he is capable of masking the non-production of others because of his ability to draw walks and club extra-base hits.

Pujols showed last season he is still able to do those things, albeit at a declining level from what he was before signing with the Angles four seasons ago. Regardless of where he is at in his career, Pujols is still a big enough piece to the Angels’ puzzle that he has to be healthy and productive for them to accomplish their goals.

If neither happens, the Angles might find themselves home for the playoffs for the third time in Pujols’ four years with the club.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired firsthand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

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Los Angeles Angels first baseman Albert Pujols hit the 522nd home run of his career during the first inning of Sunday’s 9-2 loss to the Kansas City Royals. According to Baseball-Reference.com, this moved him past Willie McCovey, Frank Thomas and Ted Williams for sole possession of 18th place on the all-time home runs list.

Pujols broke the four-way logjam at 521 with a solo shot to left field off Royals pitcher Yordano Ventura, who would go on to pick up his second win of the season despite making an early mistake against one of the game’s all-time greats.

While the 35-year-old first baseman later added a double off Ventura, the rest of the Los Angeles lineup struggled to get anything going.

After dropping three consecutive home games to Kansas City, the Angels have scored just 16 runs through their first six contests of the season—even with a lineup that includes Pujols and outfielder Mike Trout.

The two stars have actually held up their end of the bargain, as Pujols has largely made up for a .182 batting average by hitting two home runs, while Trout owns a .400 batting average and .458 on-base percentage.

The other guys on the team should eventually provide some support as Pujols looks to climb further up the all-time home runs list.

Next up is Jimmie Foxx, sitting 12 home runs away at 534.

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Watch out, American League. Albert Pujols is coming for you.

That’s what he and the Los Angeles Angels would have everyone believe, anyway. And as far as threats go, this one appears credible.

If you haven’t been paying attention, you’ve missed Pujols catch fire. The 35-year-old slugger came into Friday’s action with six hits in his last 18 at-bats, including four dingers (take that, The Associated Press) and a double. This hot stretched upped his spring average to .326, and his spring OPS to .968.

Now, this isn’t totally out of left field. As Alden Gonzalez of MLB.com was quick to note, it’s not unlike Pujols to punish the ball in spring training. As you’d expect for a guy with a .317 career average and 520 career home runs, it’s long been a hobby of his.

But what Pujols is doing this spring is an encouraging follow-up to what happened in 2014. Though he did post a respectable .790 OPS with 28 home runs, he sputtered to the tune of a .745 OPS over his final 127 games. 

He looks poised to improve greatly on that, and those who are watching up close say it’s no accident. The Angels shared highlights of Pujols’ on-field performance:

As Angels hitting coach Don Baylor told Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times: “He’s driving off his back leg, swinging with conviction and hitting balls out on a line. He could lead the league in runs batted in because he’s swinging the bat a lot better this spring than he did last spring.”

And Angels third baseman David Freese told Gonzalez: “He looks strong right now. His lower half looks strong; as strong as I’ve seen it over the last few years, watching him and obviously seeing it in person. I think he’s taking care of himself.”

And Angels shortstop Erick Aybar told Gonzalez: “You could tell the difference when you’re in good health, and he is right now.”

There might also be a mental-health component at play. Go and read what Tim Brown of Yahoo Sports has to say about Pujols and you’ll come away believing that he’s in a much better frame of mind than he was heading into more recent seasons.

This is where we acknowledge that this may be nothing more than standard spring training fluff. Since nobody is broken down yet, it’s easy to look healthy in spring training. And as good as Pujols has looked, Baseball-Reference.com rates the quality of the competition he’s faced below MLB-caliber.

However, there might be something to the idea of a rejuvenated Pujols. Health has a lot to do with why the only two sub-.800 OPS seasons of his career have come in the last two, as he was coming off right knee surgery in 2013 and had to rehab from plantar fasciitis after the season. After playing in 159 games in 2014, he got to enjoy a normal offseason for the first time in two years.

If that means that Pujols indeed has his legs under him for the first time in a few years, there are darn good reasons for the competition to be worried.

When you look at what’s gone wrong with Pujols in the last two seasons, the thing that immediately stands out is that his power just hasn’t been the same. 

Take, for example, his isolated slugging. As FanGraphs can show, the .179 ISO he posted in his injury-wrecked 2013 season was the worst of his career. And even in his bounce-back 2014, his ISO only rose to .194. 

And even a modest rise like that looks misleading when we focus on the average distance of Pujols’ batted balls. Courtesy of BaseballHeatMaps.com, here’s some data:

As recently as five years ago, Pujols was routinely hitting balls farther than 300 feet. But there was a notable decline in his first year in Anaheim, and he actually hit a new low in 2014, despite his increased power production.

Sure, being old doesn’t help. But not having a strong base to hit off could also feed into a decline like that. If Pujols’ lower half is as healthy as he and others say it is, then it really wouldn’t be that surprising to see him put a charge into the ball more regularly in 2015.

The result could very well be him pushing his isolated power north of .200 again. Practically speaking, that could mean a run at 30-35 home runs instead of 25-30 home runs.

But there’s another potential benefit of Pujols having a strong base underneath him. In addition to improved power, it could lead to improved consistency.

That Pujols posted the lowest on-base percentage of his career (.324) is testament enough to how he struggled with consistency in 2014. A big reason why has to do with how teams had him figured out.

As Gonzalez noted in February, Pujols was shifted to pull 224 times in 2014. That’s over 30 percent of his 695 plate appearances, which is an absurd rate for a right-handed hitter.

But it’s justified in Pujols’ case. According to FanGraphs, a reasonable 54.4 percent of his career batted balls to his pull side were on the ground before 2014. But in 2014, 63.2 percent of his batted balls to his pull side were on the ground.

That can happen when a guy doesn’t have strong legs underneath him. He’s forced to use more upper-body strength, and that can increase the risk of a hitter rolling over on pitches.

Pujols did a lot of that in 2014, as BaseballSavant.com can show he hit a career-high number of pitches away from him on the ground to the left side. And with so many shifts and so many ground balls, it’s no wonder he only had a .250 average on balls in play to his pull side.

As told by Gonzalez, the Angels haven’t seen as much of that this spring. What they’ve seen instead is Pujols regularly hitting the ball to right field and with authority to boot. It’s hard to confirm that without data, but it’s definitely a portrait of a guy with a strong hitting base.

If Pujols keeps that up, it won’t be so easy to shift on him in 2015. That could allow him to complement his increased power with more base hits, thereby rescuing both his slugging and his on-base habit from downward spirals.

It bears repeating that this is all in theory. Glowing reviews of a guy’s appearance in spring training have been known to go “pluh” once the games start to count. And at Pujols’ age, the odds of him suffering that fate aren’t exactly small.

But then again, a guy who’s able to enjoy a normal offseason for the first time in two years would be healthy. And considering the guy in question, the result would be more power and less predictability.

So, the Angels darn well should be optimistic. Doubly so, in fact, as Pujols returning to something like his vintage self in 2015 would be a huge boost to their chances of authoring a worthy follow-up to last year’s 98-win effort.

What made the Angels tick in 2014 was their offense, as they finished seventh in OPS at .728 and first in runs with 773. But with Howie Kendrick gone via trade and Josh Hamilton potentially missing much of 2015 due to injury and a suspension, repeating last year’s dominant offensive effort figured to be no easy feat if Pujols could only duplicate his good-not-great 2014 season.

So, you could put it this way: By being whole again, Pujols may be able to make the Angels’ offense whole again. Good for them and bad for all those playing against them in 2015.

Given that Pujols is 35 and we’re still only in spring training, this is no promise. It is, however, a warning worth heeding.

Note: Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted/linked.

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