Albert Pujols
Albert Pujols
José Alberto Pujols Alcántara, better known as Albert Pujols, is a Dominican American professional baseball first baseman for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim of Major League Baseball. He previously played for the St. Louis Cardinals, where he received three National LeagueMVP awardsand was a nine-time MLB All-Star. He was also an All-Star with the Angels in 2015...
NationalityDominican
ProfessionBaseball Player
Date of Birth16 January 1980
CitySanto Domingo, Dominican Republic
CountryDominica
This year, my job was to strike out less and walk more,
It's great to have my name with those guys, the superstars, great players, All-Stars. But my job is to help my team to win and that's what I did.
I don't know why people say I'm not supposed to be doing what I'm doing. I'm just trying to do my job. I'm blessed, and I'm glad that I'm blessed.
Preparation is very important. The pitcher is going to do his job and prepare for you so you as a hitter must do the same. I always watch videotape of pitchers before the game and even sometimes during.
You don't want to get caught up thinking along with him, because then, he'll sneak something by you. You have to make sure the ball is up and put your best swing on it. He did a real good job tonight keeping the ball down.
I know the talent that he's got, and it's about time for him to start swinging the bat, because he has some opportunity. I think he has done a great job for us the last couple years we've had him. When we've put him out there to play defense, pinch-run or pinch-hit, anything, he's always done a great job for us.
(Edmonds) made them pay. I know he's going to make them pay a lot.
There's no need for me to put pressure on myself or try to chase a ball out of the strike zone. If I take the walk, I know he's going to drive me in like he has the last couple of weeks. Believe me, he's getting hot, so watch out.
We don't talk about that, ... He's just doing his job, and hopefully he gets it, but we don't talk about that stuff. We let you guys talk about that. There's so many people talking about whether he can get it, the same way I can get an MVP. We don't care about that. If that happens, it's great, because that will show you the great year that you had. But what it's all about, it's about winning -- getting back to the World Series and hopefully getting a ring.
winning and getting back to the World Series and getting a ring.
Who cares about my home run? I knew you were going to come to that. That's not what you play for. Home runs never mean more than a win. It would have been great if I would have hit it and we would have won. It was just another home run for me. It wasn't enough to help my team win.
Those guys had great years, either of them could have won the award. You couldn't go wrong with any of those guys.
I don't try to compare myself with anybody. I don't get caught up in that because then you might take things for granted. I just try to be the best, go give it my best shot, and that's all the manager asks from me every day.
I don't know what it is, I always have a tough time seeing the ball against him. I don't think it was a bad pitch, it was just my approach to try to hit it back through the middle, and I'm glad it went through.