There's Pujols and Then There's Everyone Else

I don't care what he says, Albert Pujols is a machine. His June was ridiculous. He led the Majors in homeruns (14), RBI (35), and OPS (1.283). He had 14 homeruns, 14 strikeouts and 7 singles. His last 7 days, he's had a run-of-the-mill 1.797 OPS with 7 out of 10 hits for extra bases, 4 HRs and 7 RBIs. He's on pace for 61 homers and 157 RBIs.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau (via MLB.com), Pujols is the seventh player to have 30 homeruns before July 1st. He now has 30 homeruns in each of his nine major league seasons (a record to start a career). 

Baseball-Reference wrote two days ago that Pujols last 162 games look like this: 52 HR, 153 RBI, 113 BB, 1.160 OPS. Then he went out yesterday and got two hits and was intentionally walked twice. Unfortunately, I think you'll see a lot more intentional walks to Sir Albert as he chases 60 homeruns and beyond.

Speaking of the chase for 60, the 30 home runs by the end of June mark was hit 6 times between 1998-2001. If we throw those out, we have Babe Ruth twice, Ken Griffey Jr. once and now Pujols. I'm not anointing him as some sort of steroids savior, but without a failed test or any credible steroids rumors to his name, Pujols shot at 60 in an open steroids testing era marks about as close a shot at legitimate as we can get. If he ends up hitting 62, what asterisk can you put next to his name? Would he become the new "clean home run champ"? I don't think so, but it'll be interesting to see how him hitting 60+ would be received in light of the McGwire/Sosa/Bonds post-record-breaking revelations.

The craziest part, according to Big League Stew, is that he doesn't even think he's swinging the bat well:

"Yeah, I've got 30 home runs, or whatever, but I don't think I have that consistency that I had like I was the first two months in '06. It felt in '06 that every swing that I was taking, I was hitting the ball hard. I was seeing the ball so good. This year, yes, it's been great. It was a great month. So far, great season. But I felt that it's kind of like up and down."

For the sake of the rest of the National League, let's just hope he's being modest.

Lastly, if you're a pitcher facing Albert Pujols, and you decide not to talk him, do yourself a favor and don't throw him fastballs. Via Buster Olney on Wednesday:

Albert Pujols has 30 homers and 32 strikeouts, which is ridiculous. Some more on Pujols from Trevor Ebaugh of ESPN Stats & Information: Pujols's homers and strikeouts during the 2009 season, by pitch type:

Fastball: 21 HR, 11 K
Slider: 7 HR, 13 K
Curveball: 0 HR, 7 K
Changeup: 2, 1 K

If this man isn't the best player in baseball right now, I don't know who is. I truly hope that no failed steroids (or other PED/illegal drug) test ever comes out for him because he could be the man to help change baseball's image, even if just a little bit. In the meantime, he'll just continue to mash.