Albert Pujols

Last October the World Champion Philadelphia Phillies piled on top of their perfect closer in celebration of his forty eighth save in forty eight chances. 

Carlos Ruiz was the first to wrap his arms around perfection and then the rest of the team ensued. The pile on began a celebration that had been almost thirty years in the making. However, it brought out the flaws in a closer who went through a full season and postseason perfect. That closer was Brad Lidge.

With every new baseball season comes a renewed sense of hope for baseball fans everywhere. With everyone's record tied at 0 - 0 every fan of every team can imagine a scenario in which their favorite team finds a way to make it to the playoffs and, with a little luck, the World Series.
Behind these hopes there is often times a prediction of a breakout performance by a young player, a return to form by a veteran, or simply a continued dominance by a team's superstar.
2009 has already seen examples of all of these and teams like the Toronto Blue Jays and Texas Rangers are reaping the rewards.

In this day and age, more and more teams seem to live and die by the home run.

Speedy guys will always bunt and turn singles into doubles—which is exciting don't get me wrong—but the actual art of hitting seems like it has been lost in the ever-changing game of baseball.

Guys like Ty Cobb, Rogers Hornsby, and Babe Ruth all had a gift. They were hitters who were masters of their craft. The question is, are we losing that craft?

We're already almost halfway to the 2009 MLB All star game. I know, time flies huh?

About one quarter of the way into the season, a lot of players, young and old, are putting up some eye-popping numbers. There's little doubt that some of the current league leaders won't stay there, but I'd like to recognize some of the top performers this far into a young season.

For this piece I'm going to stick with position players.

American League

Catcher - Victor Martinez, Cleveland Indians

This list is to cover the best first basemen since 1980, but it's also going to take out the misconception that the first basemen is just a power source and defensively it's OK that some of these players are defensive liabilities.

The following slides are my selections for the St. Louis Cardinals All-Time Fantasy Baseball Team.

With the recent breaking news that shed light on yet another MLB star taking a banned substance, I felt the need to try and stay positive and remind people what they are seeing in Albert Pujols.

Albert Pujols is shattering records left and right, and if he remains healthy will undoubtedly set the home run record currently tainted by Barry Bonds.

The NL Central was supposed to belong to the Chicago Cubs. They were the ones with the loaded lineup and enough pitching to carry them to another division crown.

A month into the season, there is a team with a loaded lineup and pitching to back it up, but instead of Cubbie Blue, this team wears Cardinal Red.

Currently at 17-8, the Cardinals have ridden the torrid start of reigning MVP Albert Pujols. With nine home runs, many believe Pujols is more focused than ever before.

Albert Pujols is quickly becoming one of the grestest hitters that the game has ever seen.

In his first eight full seasons in the MLB, he has put up gawdy numbers, that can't be matched.

Recently, Pujols surpassed the 1,000 RBI plateau, and is slowly creeping up the all-time home run list.

Pujols was drafted in the 13th round of the 1999 MLB Draft by St. louis.

The St Louis Cardinals have had a quick start to the season and are set to dominate the division again.

The Cardinals have always made this division theirs and only had the Astros as any real competition before the Chicago Cubs decided to throw a ton of money to players outside their organization.

The Cardinals have been hit by injuries for the past couple of years, which allowed the Cubs to reign supreme in the National League Central. Well I got bad news for you Cub fans. The Cardinals are back and ready for a huge 100-win season.