The Angels slugger is in the midst of the worst power outage of his career, stepping up to the place 107 times (and counting) to start this season without hitting a home run.
Perhaps not so coincidentally, his new team in Los Angeles (of Anaheim) has also sputtered out of the gate. The Angels have not looked very good so far this year, as evidenced by their 10-15 record and the team's spot in last place of the AL West. However, things could be looking up.
After Jared Weaver's no-hitter on Wednesday night against the Twins, hope springs anew in southern California and might be the change that Pujols needs to find his swing again. After all, the Angels didn't give him a $240 million contract to not hit home runs, did they?
Last year, Pujols also struggled for a significant stretch when he went 105 at-bats without homering. He still finished that season with 37 dingers, and The Machine has never hit fewer than 32 in a season for his career.
Despite hitting .208 so far in 2012, Pujols is only 25 games in to the season. There's plenty of baseball left to be played, and his track record suggests that his talent isn't going to suddenly drop off a cliff and abandon him forever. You can't hit 445 career home runs by accident, but maybe Pujols' astounding consistency in the power department has in fact come to an end.
