This week’s choices were difficult. It would have been easy to select Josh Hamilton again as the stud of the week. He has 20 home runs, he hit a walk-off home run last night, and he’s batting .333 over the last seven days. I could have picked him, but there were other star performances. Mark Teixeira is hitting .400 over his last seven days, but the Yankees are just 4-3. Either would have been a good choice, but this week’s stud goes to a former dud; Albert Pujols.
If the dud of the week could be a team, the Chicago Cubs would be the hands down winners (losers?). Instead, I must pick a single player. I can, however, pick that player from the Cubs roster. The team has lost 11 straight and is full of under-performers and duds during that time period, but the dud of the week goes to Rafael Dolis.
Stud of the Week
Albert Pujols has made his share of appearances in this weekly article, but surprisingly not as the stud of the week. Pujols has been off to the worst start to a season he’s ever had in his career. His batting average, OBP, and slugging percentage are all at career lows. His new team, the Angels, have been struggling while their rivals the Rangers have been dominating. Up to this week, Pujols has been a non-factor in the game, something that could never have been said at any prior point in his career.
Yet, over the last seven days, Pujols has shown signs of life. He’s starting to hit. He’s showing more patience at the plate. And the Angels are winning.
The Angles are 5-2 in their last seven games, and Pujols is a big reason why. He is hitting .321 over the last seven days, has four home runs, and has driven in eight runs. Pujols has also taken four walks and clubbed two doubles. Beyond all this, he also passed a milestone this week. Pujols went past the 450 home run mark for his career. He now ranks 34th all-time, seven home runs behind Chipper Jones.
During this span of success, the Angels have moved to 23-25 and are within striking distance of the Rangers. At 6.5 games back, all it will take is a week of stumbling by Texas combined with a week of continues success by Los Angeles, and Albert Pujols and his Angels could quickly find themselves in first place. It’s more likely that Pujols will continue to hit like he has over the last seven days and raise his current .232 batting average to something respectable. In the process, Pujols will help the Angels compete.
Dud of the Week
Rafael Dolis may be an obscure choice for the dud of the week. He plays for the Cubs, a last place team with no chance at a postseason berth. How much damage could he do? Beyond that, he’s a middle-reliever. Not a closer, not a starter.
With the Cubs losing 11 games straight, it’s hard not to look for someone on that team that’s contributed to the failure. Dolis has made three appearances in the past seven days. In each of those appearances, he has failed to escape unscathed.
Dolis appeared in games on 5/20, 5/23, and 5/26. In those games, he has given up a total of five hits, five walks, and five runs. His ERA over the past seven days is 19.29. And to add insult to injury, Dolis took the loss in yesterday’s game by hitting a batter with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth. The hit batsmen drove in the game winning run.
The Cubs are a team looking for an identity and a direction. Theo Epstein is no doubt working tirelessly on that, but right now they don’t have a bullpen, they don’t have much offense, and they don’t have much hope. Carlos Marmol, the Cubs ninth inning meltdown man has lost his job, and Dolis has been given the opportunity from time to time. Yesterday, he blew that opportunity, and over the course of the last week, he has shown that he may just be another cog moving along on the way to a last place finish.