#Pujols - benched, and booed!

Did you ever, ever, think it would happen, and in a place more mellow than New York or Boston? It has.

Not only has Albert Pujols yet to hit a home run, not only is he now below the Mendoza line of infamy (heck, from April 20-May 5 [and sure to continue a few more days] his slugging percentage is below Mendoza) ... he's been benched ... and booed!

"If I could boo myself," Pujols said postgame, "I'd boo myself, too."

The booing? I know fans in St. Louie, including relatives, are lifting a frosty cold mug of Mike Shannon-style schadenfreude over this $240M turn of events, even if some have a 2x4 of biblical proportion in their own eyes.

The benching is just a day-off type move.

That said, I've gone on blogging record that Angels manager Mike Scioscia needs to do more, like either moving Pujols lower in the lineup for the good of the team, or else moving him UP to No. 2 to get him to stop thinking about the HR drought so much.

That then said, Kendrys Morales is starting to heat things up a bit, as has Mark Trumbo; that can only help.

Meanwhile, as everybody asks what's wrong with Albert, I'll throw out something besides:
1. He's getting older;
2. He's pressing;
3. He's slow to adjust to AL pitching.

Speaking of Scioscia,  I'll venture that Pujols is missing the protective managerial cocoon of Tony La Russa.

That leads to another question:

Is Pujols that psychologically fragile? If so, Arte Moreno's got the second coming of A-Rod, or worse, on his hands, for 10 long years.

And, we can forget about Pujols doing anything close to Babe Ruth and following a homerless April with a 54-HR rest of the season.

For my in-depth "what's wrong with Pujols" post, go here.