After a monstrous 40 HR season last year that landed him a well-deserved spot in the All-Star game at the age of 35, Albert Pujols must have seemed like a safe and exciting pick for explosive offense in 2016. However, despite hitting six home runs so far this season in 116 AB, Pujols has a mere .190 for a BA and an uncharacteristically low .631 for an OPS.  So as we sit here on May 9th after an April full of struggles for the legend, we have to ask ourselves, what is wrong with Albert Pujols?

Well the answer may turn out to be: nothing at all. His HR rate of 4.6% is pretty well in line with his career tendencies and is 1.9% above the rest of the MLB. Despite a poor OBP of .269 Pujols is actually walking more frequently than he has since 2010 with the Cardinals. He is still putting the ball in play 74% of the time and is still producing line drives about 20% of the time. King Albert even has a HR/FB percentage of 13.6%, so what could explain his BA/OBP/SLG all being well below league average and his typically All-Star caliber standards? Well first off, Pujols has been the victim of bad luck and possibly good fielding. He currently has a BABIP of .167. So even though he is putting the ball in play 74% of the time with 1/5 being line drives and 12.5% being infield fly balls, Pujols is getting a hit just 16.7% of the time.

Another large factor at play is the field. With Angel Stadium consistently coming in as a pitcher-friendly ballpark, it should come as no surprise that Pujols is finding more success on the road with a slash of .217/.329/.400 as opposed to his heavily mediocre home slash of .161/.200/.321. In 45 AB this year against fly ball pitchers, Pujols is slugging .489 with four of his six HR; and even though he has a .222 BA and a strikeout percentage of just 10.6% against fly ball pitchers, Pujols has a severely unlucky BABIP of .167. In terms of consistency, we know we still have that for Albert's HR, which would be very worrisome if they were absent. Of his six homers this year, four of them have been fly balls to left field. The other two were a line drive to left field and a line drive to right field.

In conclusion, when discussing Albert Pujols, the encouraging variables are all present when moving forward. He is still hitting home runs, he isn't striking out more, he is punishing pitchers who are offering him fly ball opportunities, and he is hitting a solid percentage of line drives when he puts the ball in play. When you put the ball in play 3/4 of the time and you are getting a hit less than 20% of the time, it is very safe to conclude that some unfortunate circumstances are at play, especially for a time tested future Hall of Famer like Pujols. If you have stayed optimistic up to this point due to the power hitting, the tides are only going to shift more in your favor. Pujols should see all aspects of his slash improve significantly here in the coming weeks. The verdict isn't surprising: if you currently have Albert Pujols on your roster, you are going to be just fine.

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