Albert Pujols' first month of baseball with the Los Angeles Angels has not been what they expected. After signing a huge contract worth 240 million for ten years, he has not lived up to the expectations and many people are worried that his age may have much to do with it. So far, the Cardinal fans are sighing in relief that they didn't sign their aging baseball hero.

        Until Sunday, Albert Pujols had not hit a single home run since joining the Angels.

This most un-Pujols-like streak of his 12-year career came to an end Sunday after 33 games and 139 at-bats, but just what does it mean for Pujols? Is it really over? Most are saying that he will be fine in a few months and that he is under pressure to perform because of his contract. His kids and family are still stuck in St.Louis until school is over, so that could be weighing on him. Former Cardinals’ coach Tony La Russa believes Pujols is just going through a tough time, but will get back on track.
       The problem is Pujols has never, ever gone a month where he looked so hopeless at the plate. Forget the lack of homers. He’s had more than 100 plate appearances and he’s hitting .196. He has not had more strikeouts than walks in a season since he was a rookie. This year he has 16 strikeouts and only six walks, two of those intentional. He’s swinging out of the zone more often and putting those balls in play more often. This tends to be a bad, bad combination. Pitchers are changing speeds fearlessly against him now and, until he starts crushing those pitches, they will keep on feeding him change ups and curveballs and sliders that break and move out of the zone. So far it doesn’t really matter because Pujols isn’t hitting the fastball either.
        When Pujols finally hit his first homerun back on May 6, he still went 1-4 and had two strikeouts. Even with having a good game here and there it is hard to believe that he is going to break his slump. We need to wait and see if he can get back to crushing pitches and drawing walks without striking out. That is when we can say that Albert Pujols is working out of his slump.