http://tinyurl.com/38jqjg 02/16/2008 8:00 PM ET Pujols' elbow feeling good Slugger unconcerned after weighing offseason surgery By Matthew Leach / MLB.com JUPITER, Fla. -- Albert Pujols sees very little gray area regarding his injured right elbow. The joint is fine. Up until the day it's not. Pujols, who arrived at Cardinals camp on Friday, addressed reporters at length on Saturday about a variety of topics, but none in as much depth as the troublesome joint. He has dealt with a ligament injury in the elbow since 2003, but acknowledged in January that he felt more discomfort during the 2007 season than he had before. The 2005 National League Most Valuable Player considered an operation over the offseason, but decided against it. Instead, he'll try to manage it, just as he has for the past five seasons. And until he has to have an operation, Pujols will continue to go about his work just like he always has. "I don't want to change my program," Pujols said. "I'm going to keep doing what I do. Keep doing what gets me ready for the season. ... That's what I do to prepare myself to get myself ready for the season. Why am I going to change what I do? I'm not going to be concerned about it until it does bother me." Pujols was already tired of the topic before the interview started, and by the time the session ended, he'd had much more than enough. But when the NL's best hitter even entertains the notion of major surgery, it's a major topic. The options presented to Pujols over the offseason included: a significant surgical procedure that would sideline him for months, not weeks; minor surgery, which likely wouldn't really address the problem; or the continuation of the previous course of rest, rehab and management. "It didn't make sense when we were talking about doing it, me having the surgery and just clean it up, when cleaning it up it wasn't going to make it good," Pujols said. "I had to do something in the ligament. If it wasn't going to make sense, why are we going to do surgery for it? Just leave it like that, and when I do need the surgery and then we do it." Pujols has demonstrated an ability to play through the injury, and he's done so for nearly five full seasons. He said that one trend he's noticed is that the shorter his offseason is, the more trouble he has the following season. So he's optimistic that the Cards' early end to the 2007 season will help him feel good throughout '08. "If it does come to a point where I do treatment, I do treatment," Pujols said. "Right now, the way it feels, if it feel like this I don't even need to talk about any treatment or anything. It feels good. "Do I need to be concerned? No. I don't have any concerns, because it's going to affect me thinking about it -- I can't do this or that. If it blows out, it's going to blow out. You can't control that. When God says it's going to blow out, its going to blow out." Manager Tony La Russa conceded that the injury likely dampened Pujols' production somewhat in 2007, when his power dipped. Pujols posted a career low in home runs (32). He managed his lowest slugging percentage since 2002, and his .568 figure in that category was 52 points below his career average. Still, while the Cards will watch Pujols closely, La Russa may not utilize his slugger any differently when it comes time to make out the lineup. "He's already proven he's very, very smart," La Russa said. "He's definitely capable of using his smarts to keep finding a way to stay in the lineup. He's proven he's very tough about dealing with injuries. You put it all together, and you get the best case. Whatever is there, he can take care of it and compete." After his fireside chat, Pujols took to the field, where he got going with his normal workout. He arrived at Spring Training two days earlier than the reporting date for infielders and outfielders and reiterated his famous annual claim that he's just trying to make the team. Remarkably, Pujols has made the team more years in a row than any other Cardinal. Entering his eighth season with the club, he has the longest continuous tenure in St. Louis. He's looking for his sixth trip to the postseason in that span. "[I'm] just lucky," Pujols said. "[I'm] blessed to be with the Cardinals. Hopefully, I'll stay here forever, but you never know, anything can happen. "It's just awesome to be in a city that loves sports, that comes and supports us. Look at the year we had last year. It wasn't the best, and we still packed the stadium -- 45,000 people almost every night, and we weren't having our best year. So I'm just blessed to be in this organization that wants to win and wants to put a team every year to go out there and get to the playoffs and give the fans something to cheer about." Matthew Leach is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs. --

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