bellyitcher

Couldn't resist.

Today I'm looking at Albert Pujols' Watchability.

ON FIELD

1. Defense
   i. Hustle (5) He's getting better at first base. 8 points.
   ii. Agility (7) Not super quick, but can dig throws out of the dirt. 11 points.
   iii. Catcher? (5/0) No. 0 points.
   iv. Awareness (4) Yeah, especially since he's staying at first. 7 points.
   v. Defensive Stance (6) Lovely. 10 points.
   vi. Pitching Face (5/0) No. 0 points.
2. Offense
   i. Hustle (5) Again, he's not very fast, but is a great base runner. 9 points.
   ii. Batting Stance/Face (6) He's laughing at you, pitcher. 12 points.
   iii. Power & Average (6) Check. 12 points.
   iv. Line Drive v. Fly Ball (3) Albert really is more of a line drive guy who's really really strong. 6 points.
   v. Chatty (3) He doesn't talk at the plate much, but does on base. 4 points.
   vi. Selflessness (7) I'd say. 14 points.
3. Dugout/Clubhouse
   i. Press Conferences (4) Sometimes his accent is a little hard to understand. But usually quite good. 7 points.
   ii. Quotes (4) "I just want to help my team win." He could stand to spice it up a little. 6 points.
   iii. Chatty (4) He tugs on La Russa's hat, but also goes to look at video after his at-bats. 4 points.
   iv. Fights (3) Albert looks damn scary coming at you out of the dugout. 5 points.

OFF FIELD

1. Personal Hygiene (8) He must spend a lot of time shaving. 13 points.
2. Commercials - local (4) There was that one with his wife. 7 points.
3. Commercials – national (5) The MVP Baseball commercial was cute. 8 points.
4. Commercials - MLB (5) Does This Week In Baseball count? No? 0 points.
5. Dress (5) There was an incident with a very ill-fitting suit jacket, but mostly good. 8 points.
6. Rumors (3) Maybe he's older than we're told? 3 points.
7. Awards (3) 2001 Rookie of the Year. Has been in the top five of MVP votes every year he's played. 5 points.

Well, that's 159 points. To say it's a pleasure to watch Pujols is an understatement.

But his heel is hurting again. It sounds like the treatment worked for a while. And really, if he has to miss a few games every two months (say April, June, August), that's fine. Better that then losing him for a couple months due to surgery.