Much has been made of the fact that Albert Pujols only has one home run this season, and we're in the middle of May. In reality, that's not the biggest problem for the Angels star. Everyone goes through power outages: Adrian Gonzalez has only homered twice, Ryan Zimmerman just once. The far more troubling trend is his plate discipline. Specifically: his walks, which he usually accumulates in large amounts. They've been completely missing so far in 2012.
There are tangible reasons for the drop-off in free passes, reasons that are becoming troubling trends. Pujols is taking more swings than ever before, and not just at strikes. He's swinging at pitches outside the strike zone far more frequently. His more aggressive approach at the plate has led to just five unintentional walks all season, in 150 plate appearances. Five walks.
By comparison, Ian Kennedy also has five walks. In 17 plate appearances.
And Ian Kennedy is a pitcher.
If Pujols was maintaining his career walk rate and showing his typical plate discipline, it would be far easier to chalk up his slow start to poor luck or league adjustment. But he's not, which is worrisome for an Angels offense heavily leaning on their new slugger for offensive production. In the AL, only the Twins and A's have scored fewer runs than the Halos.
Pujols needs to snap out of his funk soon, or else a wild card spot will be completely out of reach (with the Rangers playing like they are, the division may already be out of the question). To complicate matters, competition for those spots will be fierce in the hypercompetitive AL with all of the teams in the East, as well as two or three in the Central, targeting playoff berths. After spending over $300 million in the offseason, failing to bring even one postseason game to L.A. would have to be considered a colossal failure for the Angels franchise. Much of the blame will fall on Albert's shoulders if he doesn't turn things around.
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