Pujols & Ohtani news

[Stradling]

16 minutes ago, Jeff Fletcher said:

Yeah I know they sucked. But it was because I was trying to zoom and you can’t really do that with a phone. 

Our photographer is coming and you’ll get some real ones. 

Does he look like he’s only lost 12-15 lbs or is it much more noticeable?

[Ohtaniland]

3 hours ago, AngelsLakersFan said:

He presses for sure, and guesses a lot more, but he is also no longer a feared hitter. I'm guessing his power and hitting talents masked what has always been average plate discipline.

The shift destroyed Albert. He was never able to adjust to it. 

[AngelsLakersFan]

14 minutes ago, OHTANILAND said:

The shift destroyed Albert. He was never able to adjust to it. 

I don't think it was the shift specifically but rather his inability to drive the ball out to RF causing him to pull more. His lack of foot speed has also seemingly lead to his opting to trade hits for the occasional homerun.

[VariousCrap]

5 hours ago, totdprods said:

Here's a grab from an Instagram

 

 

He does look like he has one less chin.  So there's that.

[Jeff Fletcher]

2 hours ago, Stradling said:

Does he look like he’s only lost 12-15 lbs or is it much more noticeable?

It looks like he’s lost a lot more than that. It’s possible he’s gained some muscle to make up for the fat. 

[ten ocho recon scout]

2 minutes ago, Jeff Fletcher said:

It looks like he’s lost a lot more than that. It’s possible he’s gained some muscle to make up for the fat. 

Id assume so. People want to hear he lost 30, but that would be if he just stopped eating and ran (or got sick).

Assuming he was still lifting (which he should), if he burned off 10 pounds of fat, lowered his bodyfat by a few percent, but kept muscle, hes in a lot better shape.

[Angel Oracle]

I hope the RF fence lowering nudges Pujols to hit the ball where it's pitched, more than he has since 2012. 

[zenmaster]

I'm calling it right now. Pujols finishes top 10 in MVP voting.

 

And I'm the guy who successfully predicted he'd hit 2 homers in a game day thread last year. So I'm right damnit. 

[tdawg87]

It would be funny if Pujols' chubbiness is ultimately what caused him to suck and he comes out and hits .315 with 40 bombs and a .997 OPS.

[Inside Pitch]

14 hours ago, ten ocho recon scout said:

Id assume so. People want to hear he lost 30, but that would be if he just stopped eating and ran (or got sick).

Assuming he was still lifting (which he should), if he burned off 10 pounds of fat, lowered his bodyfat by a few percent, but kept muscle, hes in a lot better shape.

Not gonna lie, I just assumed that people bitching about him only losing 15 pounds never heard of the whole muscle mass being more dense than that of fat thing.

[Warfarin]

11 minutes ago, zenmaster said:

I'm calling it right now. Pujols finishes top 10 in MVP voting.

 

And I'm the guy who successfully predicted he'd hit 2 homers in a game day thread last year. So I'm right damnit. 

Quick, give me five magic numbers, please. 

[Stradling]

28 minutes ago, Vladdylonglegs said:

Pujols' lower body troubles do nothing to explain his atrocious pitch selection and extremely slowed bat speed. Expecting anything more than what we've had the past 6 years is unrealistic.

Yes it does.  Whether we can expect more or not I don’t know.  But a solid lower half can totally affect bat speed and pitch recognition.  Thanks!

[Inside Pitch]

1 hour ago, Vladdylonglegs said:

Pujols' lower body troubles do nothing to explain his atrocious pitch selection and extremely slowed bat speed. Expecting anything more than what we've had the past 6 years is unrealistic.

Dude.. No.  Just no.  If you can't plant your back leg, good luck creating torque and bat-speed using nothing but your upper body..    Not being able to plant throws everything out of whack and creates bad habits..

AP was never a huge walk machine, his walk totals were impacted by a large number of intentional walks -- there is no denying he's been way more hackerish but as others have said, that's partially due to his having to cheat/guess what's coming and not having the legs underneath him to stay back on a ball.

Personally this AP's last show to show he can stil contribute.   This is as healthy as his legs will be..  If he still can't put together a passable season...   It's over.

 

[Chris]

Now we have Fat Trout and Skinny Pujols.

[Make Angels Great Again]

Remember that Pujols has never posted an OPS in the spring below .900 since joining the Angels.

 

However, he did go below .900 three times with the Cards, one of the times being his best regular season. So let's hope Pujols has a shitty Spring!

[lbjames]

18 hours ago, Jeff Fletcher said:

Our photographer is coming and you’ll get some real ones. 

Maybe you could ask him to take a new profile picture of you. 

[Tank]

30 minutes ago, lbjames said:

Maybe you could ask him to take a new profile picture of you. 

booyah!

[tdawg87]

Face!

[Bruce Nye]

The biggest concern for the season is the health of the starting pitchers.  

[Docwaukee]

1 hour ago, Inside Pitch said:

Dude.. No.  Just no.  If you can't plant your back leg, good luck creating torque and bat-speed using nothing but your upper body..    Not being able to plant throws everything out of whack and creates bad habits..

AP was never a huge walk machine, his walk totals were impacted by a large number of intentional walks -- there is no denying he's been way more hackerish but as others have said, that's partially due to his having to cheat/guess what's coming and not having the legs underneath him to stay back on a ball.

Personally this AP's last show to show he can stil contribute.   This is as healthy as his legs will be..  If he still can't put together a passable season...   It's over.

 

yep.  hitting starts with the lower half.  

that said, his shitty discipline is a result of trying to start early enough to pull a hr.  Maybe he was smart to do that, maybe not.  Bouncing singles off the RF wall or putting himself in a position to get thrown out from RF probably wasn't a good plan either.  But it's spiraled beyond that and he was clearly caught in between last year.  Couldn't catch up to the fastball.  Couldn't adjust to the breaking ball.  Being fat and having bad lower half support is definitely a good excuse for that to happen.  

Not expecting 2012 Albert or anything previous to that, but if those few milliseconds of improved bat speed because of better balance and strength.  

[Stradling]

3 minutes ago, Vladdylonglegs said:

Did his feet need glasses?

No.  

[ten ocho recon scout]

2 hours ago, Inside Pitch said:

Dude.. No.  Just no.  If you can't plant your back leg, good luck creating torque and bat-speed using nothing but your upper body..    Not being able to plant throws everything out of whack and creates bad habits..

AP was never a huge walk machine, his walk totals were impacted by a large number of intentional walks -- there is no denying he's been way more hackerish but as others have said, that's partially due to his having to cheat/guess what's coming and not having the legs underneath him to stay back on a ball.

Personally this AP's last show to show he can stil contribute.   This is as healthy as his legs will be..  If he still can't put together a passable season...   It's over.

 

I always figured thats why GA fell off a cliff, power wise. Once that arthritus kicked in, which I believe off the top of my head mostly effected his legs, he turned into a singles hitter overnight.

Too bad. Peak GA was a lot of fun to watch hit.

[Billy_Ball]

1 hour ago, lbjames said:

Maybe you could ask him to take a new profile picture of you. 

Bronsexual.

[ten ocho recon scout]

2 hours ago, Billy_Ball said:

Bronsexual.

 

[IEAngelsfan]

2 hours ago, ten ocho recon scout said:

I always figured thats why GA fell off a cliff, power wise. Once that arthritus kicked in, which I believe off the top of my head mostly effected his legs, he turned into a singles hitter overnight.

Too bad. Peak GA was a lot of fun to watch hit.

Is this condition similar to diabeetus?