Albert Pujols hit the 400th home run of his brilliant career Thursday against the Washington Nationals. Pujols drilled an 0-1 pitch from Jordan Zimmermann into the right-center sits in the fourth inning to reach the milestone.
He became the 47th player in major league history and the second Cardinals slugger to reach No. 400. Stan Musial who hit 475 home runs in his Hall of Fame career is the other. Pujols is the fifth-fastest to 400 homers in history and has a good shot at the all-time record.
The home run, his league-leading 34th this year, continues his hot August which has [...]

Over the last four seasons, Albert Pujols has never hit less than .307 during the month of August. This includes an incredible batting average of .398 in 2008. Not to mention, he has accumulated a total of 28 home runs and 75 RBI’s during that span.
This August is proving to be no different for Albert, who is hitting .481 with four homers, ten RBI’s, and eight runs scored in just six games. He has homered in five of his last seven games and since July 29th, his batting average has gone from .295 to .311, quite a turnaround in such [...]

Albert Pujols has been a class act his entire career. His latest act of kindness came as part of ESPN’s ‘My Wish’ series. The game’s best slugger spent the day with Jacob Trammell of Willard, Mo., a teenager who battled cancer. Jacob loves baseball and plays for his school. The highlight came when he got a hitting lesson from Pujols and enjoyed a round of batting practice. It’s a great story as are all of ESPN’s ‘My Wish’ pieces.
Jacob’s mother reacts to Jacob’s day with the Cardinals and how he has been since the show.

As it stands now, Albert Pujols ranks 15th among position players in Wins Above Replacement (WAR). That’s great for most guys, but Pujols has finished at the top of that list in three of the last five years, so something seems wrong. Pujols’ Weighted On Base Average (wOBA) is .412, which is 23 points lower than his career average. And after examining some Pitch F/X data, we can see why Pujols is “struggling.”
ESPN ran this story on the MLB page last week in hopes of breaking down why the great Albert Pujols was having a down year. The ESPN Insider [...]

The St. Louis Cardinals have been frustrating in an up-and-down first half of the 2010 season and at times embarrassing according to one St. Louis baseball expert.
The All-Star Game selections were a surprising highlight for this struggling Cardinals team. St. Louis tied the Atlanta Braves with five selections for the most in the National League. Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina were voted in by the fans as starters. Pujols led the league in voting for the second straight year despite a ho-hum first half. It will be his ninth consecutive All-Star appearance. Molina, hitting .231, benefited from fan voting and his [...]

Saturday’s game was a forgettable one for Chris Carpenter and the St. Louis Cardinals. The team is surely looking forward to a new day and another game.
Carpenter hit a batter with the bases loaded, a rare occurrence in baseball let alone coming from one of the game’s top pitchers. But it was that kind of day for him and his teammates.
Carpenter served up nine hits that translated into eight runs in only three innings to Milwaukee. The Brewers never looked back in route to a 12-5 win. It was his worst start in five years and one of his shortest [...]

It’s been a while since I last did a photo gallery to retrace the steps of the game and I would like to get back into that routine of daily coverage on the Cards actual games. Tonight, Albert Pujols was the man driving an easy for St. Louis. Pujols hit a pair of two-run home runs and drove in another run on a gapper to left for a total of five RBI. The king at the plate came up big for the Cards king on the hill who threw 6 1/3 innings of shutout ball. Adam Wainwright struck out seven [...]

Albert Pujols may have millions of dollars and a mantel full of shiny trophies today, but the superstar slugger has remained grounded through it all. His loyalty to his country and family come before the game and that attitude has made Pujols the hero and role model that he is. Some stars forget their roots with success. They let their egos grow every day and soon, they’re too good for their hometown. But Pujols remains connected to his roots. He sees the small details that make up the big picture. His homeland and his family is more responsible for his [...]

The Call to the Pen “Hey Now, You’re an All-Star” series looks at the most worthy players from each team to go to Los Angeles in July. The Cards pitching staff has been outstanding and Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright certainly have the numbers to get an invite. But my pick for to represent the Cards pitching staff is a young rookie that has turned plenty of heads so far with his sub-2.00 ERA. Offensively, Colby Rasmus and Ryan Ludwick have done fine jobs for the Redbirds, but all in the support of the man that makes it all go.
My [...]

Matthew Leach, the Cardinals beat writer for MLB.com, was kind enough to answer some of my questions on the major storylines so far in the season. Below, find his thoughts on Albert Pujols’ future in St. Louis, the rise of David Freese and Colby Rasmus, what to expect come October, and more.