Suprised it is not on here yet.

What say you?

IN seeing the replay a number of times it appeared he was late getting to the bag and if he had had the proper footwork he easily could have avoided this injury.


WHen i was in HS I was pitching and a slow roller to third was thrown up the line. The 1B came off and got tangled up and dislocated his elbow. Pretty nasty!

The dangerous part is stretching down the line......but that gave him the best reach with the footwork he had....had he been where he should've and not close to he could've reached teh ball without contact. I get mad at Votto as he stretches before the ball is thrown and keeps his foot wherever he placed it on the bag in the first place....then stretches awkwardly rarely giving the most reach or best angle....but he's excellent at scooping it.

The Pujols injury could linger...but I say he'll be full steam ahead on Aug 1

I jinxed him by putting 2000 in vcash on him to beat Rolen to 2000 hits.....he's played almost more than anyone since 2001....barring Ichiro, Tejada and Abreu.

Ironman92;807629 wrote:The dangerous part is stretching down the line......but that gave him the best reach with the footwork he had....had he been where he should've and not close to he could've reached teh ball without contact. I get mad at Votto as he stretches before the ball is thrown and keeps his foot wherever he placed it on the bag in the first place....then stretches awkwardly rarely giving the most reach or best angle....but he's excellent at scooping it.

The Pujols injury could linger...but I say he'll be full steam ahead on Aug 1

If he gets there quicker and stretches with his right foot on the bag like a righty usually would do I think he strides more into the field of play and therefor out of the way of the runner. He had his left foot on the bag which is a bit more awkward for a righty and I think lead to him being more in the baseline.

I don't understand having the wrong foot on the bag...it's like Votto stepping with the wrong foot when throwing it around the horn, not sure I could do it if I tried.....but I also can't hit .330 and win MVP's.....so more power to em!

It is a semi minor thing. Using the proper leg can give you a longer stretch. Also, in the case of this injury, it is my belief that because he used his left foot to stretch out that put his glove hand a little bit closer to the basepath. WHen you use your right leg (for a righty) he is more apt to stretch a little further out, and a little further from the baseline and more out of harms way. I always played SS and 3B but for one year our coach moved me to first to make the team a little more solid. I thought it would be easy but there was more to it than i thought. Our coach played ML ball for a few years and taught me some things that first baseman were taught when he was there. In watching and coaching since then I see alot of balls that were in the dirt that could have been avoided and caught easily with the proper stretch. A 1B can make a fielder look very good, or very bad, by his footwork.

If ya look at the play....Pujols is late getting to the base. That is his first mistake. If he is there a little quicker he probably stretches out more for the ball and makes a clean play out of the baseline, but by getting their late he basically did whatever he could to catch the ball which a 1B is supposed to do.