Albert Pujols @ Third: Beautifully Confusing

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The answer was common: get as many right handed bats in the lineup against Clifford Lee as possible. The question, however hadn’t been posed since the early 00’s: why is Albert Pujols starting at third base?

Monday night marked the return of skip LaRussa and his less prominent, but still visible bout with eye shingles and he immediately reminded everyone that the St. Louis Cardinals are his team. After, literally, years of fretting over when/if Pujols’ elbow tendon would completely rupture and leave the team sans their uber- all star for 12 months- TLR said to hell with it and penciled in #5 at the hot corner.

Why, though?

We heard LaRussa. But I guess we didn’t understand LaRussa.

Pujols is a tremendous star, despite his scuffling to start 2011, and he proved it once again by providing stellar defense at a position that is as tough to play as any without preparation. But that still doesn’t mean that putting him there in the first place was a good idea.

So why?

One – The Cardinals are already making plans to part ways with Albert at the end of the 2011 season. They’re going to use him without regard for anything beyond the game ahead of them and if he gets hurt, sobeit.

Two – The Cardinals HOPE he gets hurt. Tough sell, 300 million dollars for a guy that may or may not react well to a major surgery like Tommy John ligament replacement, right?

Three – The elbow problems were overblown to begin with. The Cardinals medical staff is run by Miranda Bailey when she’s not on duty at Seattle Grace. Is it too farfetched to think that no one wanted to be the doc to fully clear Pujols and then have something happen after the fact?

Four – The Cardinals are more concerned about his sluggish start and routing 0-fors and thought that a line-up change would jolt the star back into more offensive production?

Five – Bob Simon needed some b-roll for his next televised fellatio session with the Pujols family?

2011 has been fascinating on many different levels and it just seems to be getting odder by the week. Please don’t mis-remember, I’m a big proponent of shaking shit up when it comes down to it. So more power to the Cardinals for making a random Monday night game in May a touchstone for a post where I can say things with a straight face like maybe the Cardinals want Pujols hurt.

I guess I just wonder why now?

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