We here at http://www.albertpujolsclub.com would love to be the exclusive one stop stop for all things Albert Pujols. We like to think our product is worth your time, and definitely a unique site dedicated to the one and only Albert Pujols. But we know, as popular as Albert Pujols is – others are going to have websites dedicated to Albert Pujols and the St. Louis Cardinals. We are big fans of many of these sites, and sometimes get valuable news from these sites. We decided to list a top ten of Websites related to the St. Louis Cardinals and Albert Pujols. We know there are many, many more, but we wanted to talk about these ten. If you know of others that we may or may not have seen, email us at webmaster@albertpujolsclub.com, and we would love to take a look at it. Enjoy:

1. http://www.vivaelbirdos.com

This site is an excellent website that seems to be full of fresh, and valuable information pertaining to our Cardinals. This is a great blog, that seems to have material that any Cardinal, and even Baseball fan would find interesting. The Webmaster of this site should be given some kind of award for his contribution to the game of baseball!

2. http://www.cardinalsgm.com

This website talks about all the things this individual, or group of individuals would do as General Manager of the Cardinals. Now, we understand some readers and writers out there haven’t a clue what goes on inside the life of a General Manager, but this site seems to be pretty accurate on all things pertaining to the Cardinals.

3. http://www.pujolsfans.com

You cannot get enough Albert Pujols. This is a great site for more information regarding Albert!

4. http://www.birdsonthebat.com

Now beware, some of the folks here at BOTB are kind of brutal. Sometimes, you wouldn’t think you were dealing with Cardinals fans when you are here. But, rest assured, they are all Cardinal fans, just some of different views on the team and the players. If you can survive the heat some of the posters put on, you will love this site!

5. http://cardinal70.com/

Another excellent St. Louis Cardinal blog. Not all Pujols, but could the Cardinals win games with only Albert? Check out this sites latest on the Cardinals Winter Warm up. Good Recap of the WW.

6-10 (in no order):

www.stlouissportsforum.com

www.pitchershiteighth.com

www.redbirdblog.com

www.perfectknight.blogspot.com

http://509bleachers.wordpress.com

It’s little secret that the Cardinals have considered a wide variety of options for their ninth-inning job in 2009. However, it seems that most of those options have been viewed more in a no-stone-unturned sense, rather than as serious possibilities.

General manager John Mozeliak reiterated Thursday that there’s a good chance St. Louis will turn in-house for its closer in ‘09.

“I think I’ve made it very clear that I’m comfortable with what we have [in the ninth inning],” Mozeliak said. “We did say that if we could find somebody like [Brian] Fuentes, that we thought there was value and talent in return, we would try to do it. But that didn’t happen. We’re very comfortable going with what we have in-house.”

That means that barring an acquisition, candidates for the ninth-inning job will include youngsters Chris Perez and Jason Motte, and conceivably veteran Ryan Franklin as well. Manager Tony La Russa has repeatedly expressed a reluctance to hand closing duties to Perez or Motte.

However, it’s not all that likely that he’ll have many other options. The Cardinals do have interest in some relievers on the free-agent market, including Brandon Lyon and Juan Cruz, and a deal could still be had on one of them.

Another free agent drawing interest from a variety of clubs is former Nationals closer Chad Cordero. According to a Major League source, Cordero threw off flat ground for teams Wednesday and will do so again Friday.

The Cardinals were one of the teams watching Cordero, but their interest could be better classified as curiosity rather than rapt intrigue. Cordero, returning from a shoulder injury, hopes to begin throwing off a mound in February.

Still, most outside possibilities seem like long shots. Mozeliak acknowledged that, as La Russa discussed Monday, the club had discussed signing a free-agent starter and converting that pitcher to closing. The GM downplayed the likelihood of such a move, though.

“We were discussing throwing everything on the table, and if anybody had any ideas or thoughts on how we could possibly address one or the other need,” Mozeliak said, referring to the Cards’ desire to bolster their starting pitching and find a ninth-inning pitcher. “That was one idea that came up — are there any pitchers out there that we could identify that have been traditionally used as starters who we could use to close?”

But those discussions don’t mean that any such move is imminent, or even likely.

Another long-shot option that has been bandied about is the use of Chris Carpenter in the ninth inning. However, echoing La Russa’s sentiments from Monday, Mozeliak emphasized that if Carpenter is healthy enough to start, he will start. The right-hander will only pitch out of the bullpen if there is a compelling medical reason to use him there rather than in the rotation.

Likewise, he shot down a question as to whether the club has entertained any thought of moving Adam Wainwright back to relief.

“That has not come up,” he said.

ST. LOUIS — The Cardinals on Friday announced two big draws for the club’s annual Winter Warm-Up. The club confirmed that two-time National League MVP Albert Pujols will attend and also released the extensive list of auction items that will be available to fans in attendance.

Passes for the 13th annual Winter Warm-Up are still available and may be purchased at stlcardinals.com. Each pass, which is good for all three days of the event, costs $40 for those 16 and older and $10 for ages 5-15.

Kids under 5 are admitted free. Additionally, members of the military, police and fire departments with an active ID will receive one free adult pass, which must be obtained by coming to the Cardinals offices.

The club did not divulge any autograph times for the 2009 Warm-Up, which takes place Saturday through Monday, Jan. 17-19. Proceeds from the Winter Warm-Up benefit Cardinals Care, the team’s charitable arm.

In addition to announcing Pujols’ attendance, the Cardinals also released the list of auction items, and it is lengthy. Among the items available in live auctions on stage over the course of the weekend are autographed, game-used jerseys from Pujols, Yadier Molina, Rick Ankiel and Ryan Ludwick, as well as “broadcaster for a day” and “reporter for a day” packages.

Moreover, autographed baseballs, photos and game-used items from an extremely wide range of Cardinals players will be available at silent auctions over the course of the weekend.

The Cardinals, coming into tonight’s game with the Phillies are 61-50, tied with the Brewers for the National League Wildcard. The Mets are 1.5 back, while the Marlins are 2.0 back. In those 111 games here is how our boy Albert Pujols has fared. MVP type season? Maybe!

• 97 games
• 342 at bats
• 121 hits
• .354 average
• 65 runs
• 26 doubles
• 0 triples
• 21 homeruns
• 67 rbi’s
• 70 walks
• 35 strikeouts
• 5 stolen bases

After winning 4-3 yesterday the Cardinals look to continue their 8 game home stand with winning ways. Tonight, Greg Maddux, the future hall of famer will throw for the Padres, and be opposed by Cardinals righthander Braden Looper.

Maddux has struggled in 2008, going 3-8, with a 3.90 era. But he gets zero run support, which is part of his 3-8 record. Maddux, earlier in the year pitched against the Cardinals and got a no decision pitching 5 innings, allowing 5 hits and 2 runs. He is 26-20 with a 2.74 era in his career against the Cardinals. Maddux is 0-4 with 6 no decisions in his last start, and has not won a game in his last 12.

Our boy Albert Pujols is 12-38 for a .316 average lifetime against Maddux. In those 12 hits, he has 3 homeruns, and 6 rbi’s.

Looper, for the Cardinals is looking for his 10th win of the season. He is 9-7 on the year with a 4.25 era. Braden has lost his last two starts, and has not won since June 24th at Detroit. Earlier in the year Looper beat the Padres pitching five solid innings. He is 4-3 with a 2.91 era lifetime against San Diego.

Let’s go Albert and the Cardinals tonight! Keep winning!

With the help of four solo homeruns, the St. Louis Cardinals beat the San Diego Padres 4-3 Thursday night. Troy Glaus went deep twice, and Rick Ankiel and Joe Mather hit solo blasts, Mather’s proving to be the game winner for the Cardinals. Kyle Lohse went seven strong innings to pick up his 12th win of the season(12-2). Lohse allowed 7 hits and 2 runs in those 7 innings. Ryan Franklin came in and gave up a run, but picked up his 13th save of the season.

Our boy Albert Pujols went 1-4 to lower his season average to .348.

The same two teams will square off again this evening.

The St. Louis Cardinals, 47-36 have now survived Albert Pujols’ injury. Chris Carpenter, Adam Wainwright, Mark Mulder, Cezar Izturis, and many others(15 to be exact) have also been on the DL, are still are on the DL. The Cardinals have had nine players make their major league debutes THIS season.  With all that said, the Cardinals are only 2.5 games out of first place, two weeks from the all star break. This is a big week for the Cardinals. The New York Mets, 40-41, come into St. Louis for four games, before the Cubs come in for three over the weekend. The Cubs lead the Cardinals in the NL Central by 2.5 games, but the Cubs have struggled mightily on the road. The Cubs are continuing their three city road trip, for four games in San Fransisco starting tonight.

Kyle Lohse will pitch tonight for the Cardinals. A few months ago the Mets could have signed Lohse for the same deal the Cardinals got him at in March, but Mets GM Omar M. turned down the deal, sighting he felt that was too much for Lohse. Lohse would love to stick it to him and the Mets, like he has the rest of the NL so far this season. Kyle is 9-2 with a 3.94 era so far this season. Lohse has not lost a game since May 8th, where he pitched 4 innings in Colorado. He took a no decision his last time out against Detroit, but before that won his last 6 starts.

John Maine is on the mound for the Mets. Maine has been solid once again with a 8-5 record, and a 3.73 era. Maine has won his last two starts going 6+ innings in each. In his last ten starts, Maine is 5-3. He has pitched well against the Cardinals in his career, making two starts and going 1-0.

The Man, El Hombre, Albert Pujols is 2-6, with 2 homeruns, and 7 rbis in his career off John Maine.

We look for more mash city tonight in St. Louis. The Cardinals are hot, and are ready to have a huge home stand. Go El Hombre! Go Cardinals!

Kyle Lohse brought his best for the team that failed to re-sign him over the winter.

Lohse pitched a season-high eight innings of four-hit ball and Adam Kennedy hit a two-run home run, helping the St. Louis Cardinals rebound from their worst loss at 3-year-old Busch Stadium with a 3-2 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Saturday.

“Obviously, they felt they didn’t need me bad enough,” Lohse said. “I didn’t mind going out there and beating them today, I’ll tell you that.”

Lohse (8-2) was hurt only by Pat Burrell’s two-run homer in the fourth in an outing that took pressure off a bullpen that pitched 5 2-3 innings in a 20-2 loss on Friday night.

The Cardinals activated closer Jason Isringhausen and recalled right-hander Anthony Reyes earlier in the day due to the arms shortage, but Lohse minimized concerns when he entered the eighth with a 101-pitch count and then worked a 1-2-3 inning against the top of the Phillies’ order.

“They wanted me to give them as much as I could,” Lohse said. “I wanted to give them everything I could.”

Stand-in closer Ryan Franklin needed four pitches to get three outs for his ninth save in 12 chances. Right fielder Ryan Ludwick made a diving catch to rob Geoff Jenkins to end the game and raised his glove in triumph to sell the play, although replays appeared to indicate he had trapped the ball.

“Going back on tape it looks like it might have hit the ground first,” Ludwick said. “It happened so fast, I just pulled it up.”

After watching a replay, Phillies manager Charlie Manuel maintained that the call had been blown.

“That didn’t lose the game for us,” Manuel said. “But at the same time, we’d still be hitting with a man on first base. Who knows, somebody might pop one.”

Franklin was among the relievers who got smacked around Friday night, allowing two runs and four hits in one-third of an inning. This time: “Short and sweet.”

Losing pitcher Adam Eaton (2-4) got two of the four hits off Lohse. Eaton allowed three runs and nine hits in 6 2-3 innings.

“I’m happy I went deep into the game,” Eaton said. “But at the same time, I caused some problems for myself.”

The Cardinals beat the Phillies for only the third time in 11 meetings at 3-year-old Busch Stadium. Philadelphia had been averaging 7.5 runs in its previous 22 games against St. Louis.

The Phillies offered Lohse a three-year contract for around $21 million after he helped them make the playoffs last fall but he held out for a better deal before settling for a one-year, $4.25 million free agent deal with the Cardinals in mid-March. He won his fifth straight start and benefited from outstanding plays from shortstop Cesar Izturis, Kennedy at second and third baseman Troy Glaus.

Lohse said he didn’t have much time to consider the Phillies’ offer, saying it was gone “about a week” later, and had no other offers until signing with the Cardinals. Manuel said Lohse’s familiarity with the Phillies had to help.

“He knew how to pitch us,” Manuel said. “He had a game plan and he stayed with it. We didn’t have many chances, and the chances we had we didn’t do much with.”

Izturis robbed Pedro Feliz on a hard grounder in the hole in the fourth, Kennedy made a nice play on Ryan Howard’s smash up the middle to start the sixth and Glaus made a great play on Burrell’s shot down the line in the next at-bat.

Skip Schumaker and Kennedy, the top two hitters in the order, combined for four hits and scored three runs. Kennedy hit his first homer of the season off Eaton (2-4) after Schumaker’s leadoff single in the first, and Ryan Ludwick’s two-out RBI hit made it 3-0 in the third.

Kennedy bunted foul for the first strike before connecting on a 1-2 pitch.

“When you don’t hit many you don’t really ever know,” Kennedy said. “You just kind of run it out and see what happens, but I knew I hit it OK.”

Burrell hit his 18th homer, and second in two days, in the fourth after Howard’s leadoff single. Lohse retired 12 of the next 13 batters.

It’s a good thing for the St. Louis Cardinals, giving up 20 runs, does not count as anything more than a loss in the W/L Standings. Without All Star first basemen, and with a horrible pitching outing by Todd Wellemeyer the Cardinals fell on Friday night 20-2.

The Phillies scored 3 in the first, 1 in the second, 9 runs in the fourth, 1 in the fifth, 3 in the sixth, and 3 more in the eighth, while the Cardinals picked up a tally in both the third and the sixth inning.

In the first inning after two men were retired Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, and Pat Burrell hit back to back to back homeruns, to put the Phillies up 3-0 early. Utley ended up 2-3 on the day, and Howard finished 3-5 with 2 homeruns, and 5 rbi’s. Pitcher Kyle Kendrick also got in on the action, getting two basehits, both in the fourth inning.

For the Cardinals, Skip Schumaker had three hits, and Troy Glaus had two, and they were the only two to drive in runs for the Cardinals.

Kendrick went 7 innings, gave up 8 hits, 2 runs, 1 earned, walking one and striking out one.

Wellemeyer only went 3.1 innings, giving up 8 hits, 8 runs, all earned, 3 walks, 3 strikeouts, and gave up 3 homeruns to drop to 7-2 on the season.

Utility man Aaron Miles pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for the Cardinals.

With Albert Pujols on the disabled list, possibly until the All Star Break, the St. Louis Cardinals are going to have to get other production from the rest of their roster. The Cardinals begin a three game series with the very tough Philadelphia Phillies, starting at 7:10 tonight. The Cardinals and Phillies both come in with matching 40-28 records, and both would be playing baseball in the postseason if the season were to end today.

The Phillies currently lead the Florida Marlins by three games in the NL East, while the Cardinals trail the Chicago Cubs by 3.5 games, but lead the Marlins by three in the wildcard chase, and the Brewers by four.

Obviously, we won’t be giving you Albert’s career numbers against any of the Phillies pitchers, but here are the matchups set for this weekend:

Friday: Kyle Kendrick 5-2, 4.87 v. Todd Wellemeyer 7-1, 2.92

Saturday: Adam Eaton 2-3, 4.62 v. Kyle Lohse 7-2, 3.92

Sunday: Brett Myers 3-8, 5.34 v. Mitchell Boggs 1-0, 3.86

I like the Cardinals matchups. Wellemeyer skipped his last start, but has been unreal to start this season. Lohse has pitched well all year, as well, and Boggs had a good first outing. Kendrick, Eaton and Myers are not slouches for the Phillies, so this should be a fun series. Rollins, Utley, Howard and Burrell scare me.

GO CARDINALS!

And get well soon Albert!