He was on the firing line when he had the gall to put up his resume in his first two MLB seasons against what Mike Trout has done in his first two MLB seasons - as an Angels fan, I hope Pujols is motivated to bounce back, because it would be devastating if it was all downhill in his apparent decline phase.
When Pujols signed with the team, I thought he would be the marquee player for the Angels for years to come and that would be that - but the prospects of him replicating his astounding success early in his career was never going to come to fruition.
Pujols is an all-time great who has a lot of pride in what he has accomplished, but you don't diss the great hope realized especially when you've turned out be an injured, broken down machine - while Pujols may have been El Hombre at one point, Trout has become The Man for the Angels as well as Major League Baseball.
I'm going to stay away from commenting on what Pujols said and just focus on that awesome card. 2001 Fleer Tradition is one of my favorite sets. I love the design and as of right now, that's the only rookie card of Pujols that I own as well.
ReplyDeleteI haven't even come close to owning a Pujols rookie card. I didn't start collecting again until about 8 years ago, and they weren't exactly affordable by then.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to know what kind of numbers Pujols will put up in the immediate future. I can't say I'm overly optimistic. But, at least from my outsider's perspective, I think the writer of the article is off on a pretty key point. I don't care how great Trout has been, it's not really "his team" until the Angels have done something that matters with him as a key contributor. That kind of respect has to be earned, and it's not just about stats.