Meet Albert Pujols: Why Handing Lance Berkman the MVP May Be Premature

After an 8-2 drubbing of the San Diego Padres, the Cardinals are looking mighty strong. 

The power display—that even consisted of a rare Cesar Izturis home run—saw a much more dominant feature performance: Albert Pujols' invasion of Petco Park. 

Pujols hit a mammoth shot that almost hit the "Western Steel Supply" sign on the top of an enormous brick building. 

I know the majority of you remember his bomb off of Brad Lidge, but I think this traveled further.  In fact, online service, HitTracker, still doesn't even have Pujols' home run listed—probably because it is yet to make it's arrival back on Earth. 

One of the Padres' color commentators joked, after Pujols hit his second no-doubt home run in the eighth inning, that the airport would be shutting down every time he stepped up to the plate, as to not interfere with their air traffic.

Yes, Albert is the best player in the game. 

No disrespect to the early success of Lance Berkman, but with five less home runs and thirteen less RBI, the difference between Pujols and Berkman can be made up within several weeks. 

If you noticed, both of Pujols' longballs were solo shots, meaning that his teammates still aren't getting on in front of him to provide him with RBI opportunities.

However, Pujols may have found his savior in the lineup: Ryan Ludwick. 

Ludwick is absolutely punishing the ball.  He now leads the team in home runs, yes, with 12 to Pujols' 11.  But more importantly, he offers the protection that Pujols needs to continue his hot streak of hitting. 

Albert has compiled a .364 BA, fourth best in the bigs.  Followed by guess who?  Yup, Ludwick, at .350.

If Ludwick can keep producing the way he has offensively, or even if he were to hit .310 or .320, Albert would surely feel confident knowing that he can take more risks with Luddy behind him. 

Although not many pitchers know about Ludwick compared to the giant Pujols, they are quickly learning.  Ludwick has gone yard four times in his last three games—all Cardinals' victories.

While I must concede the early season MVP to Berkman followed closely by Chipper Jones, I would not be surprised to see Pujols take the title at the end of the year. 

His hardwork and patience at the plate are the reasons he is so valuable to the Cardinals' organization.

For St. Louis' baseball fans, this is the one thing we wanted to see Pujols do: come out swinging aggressively. 

Despite his wonderful average all season, Pujols has, at times, looked shy at the plate—content to sit with the bat on his shoulder, even allowing the count to run 0-2 on several occasions. 

Pujols is finally locked in.  Especially after his strikeout against Rays' Andy Sonnanstine on Friday.  He sat and looked at the ball cross the plate on three consecutive pitches, then proceeded to walk back the dugout.

With the Cardinals still two games behind the Cubs for first place, they cannot afford to have Pujols executing poor at-bats. 

Hopefully last night was a message to Pujols: Your batting average is more than satisfactory, but let's see you have some fun knocking the ball around—and out of the park.

Every MLB player, from the time he was a young child starting to learn the game, wanted to hit home runs just like those before him. 

Pujols has certainly done that with some titanic blasts over the past eight years in St. Louis.  But now we must wait and see if the real Pujols emerges—the power-gushing, intense winner that Pujols has shown to be throughout the years.

Because, if he is—there is no one stopping him from claiming the title of NL MVP.