Let’s put Albert Pujols month long slump into perspective. Pujols is batting an incredibly feeble .208 batting average, .255 OBP, and .292 slugging percentage. That’s pretty bad for an average major league player, but for a future Hall of Famer and one of the greatest hitters of all time, the numbers are borderline catastrophic, right? Well, not really. Pujols historically starts off relatively slow in April, batting .311 compared to career average of .327, if you can call that “slow.” He started off poorly last April batting .245 and finished strong enough to bat .299 last season. There’s no reason to think he won’t do the same thing this season. I mean, this is Albert Pujols we’re talking about. The only real reason for concern is his lack of power this season. Slugging .292 is very anemic, and having that number in the middle of the Angels lineup is only making the team’s struggles worse. This is a very good team and with Pujols driving the ball as the season progresses, they will surely be in playoff contention. They do have Jered Weaver pitching lights out right now. It’s also helpful to compare other sluggers who went on prolonged slumps at some point in their careers. David Schoenfeld of ESPN points out that Stan Musial hit .202/.298/.345, 5 HR, 23 BB, 13 SO from April 15-June 12, 1947. Willie Mays was .209/.303/.384, 3 HR, 11 BB, 8 SO from April 17-May 13, 1956 and he still finished with 36 home runs. And from April 8-May 19, 1991, Barry Bonds hit .182/.272/.255, 2 HR, 14 BB, 21 SO. Stan Musial, Willie Mays, and Barry Bonds all made it though their slumps with no problem. Albert Pujols will too. A number of excuses can be made in that he is pressing to live up the HUGE contract he just signed, or he is adjusting to life in SoCal, or whatever. Either way, he will get over his slump sooner or later, and we are definitely hoping for tonight to be the night he hits his first home run as an Angel. We’ll be there in left field to catch it!