No fat head for Albert

ST. LOUIS -- The notion is ridiculous. Yet it works for Albert Pujols.

The NL MVP, coming off a typical 41-homer, .330-average, 117-RBI season, will not rest on his laurels heading into spring training next month. No, he'll show up early with the pitchers and catchers hoping to -- heh, heh -- secure a spot on the roster.

"It sounds stupid," Pujols said. "But it's not for sure. There's somebody in the minor leagues that wants to take that job from me just like I did in 2001, and that's the attitude that keeps me humble."

Pujols got his first break due to Bobby Bonilla's hamstring injury late in 2001 spring training. He's never looked back, racking up numerous firsts in a meteoric start to his career.

After only five seasons, he was picked recently as the first baseman on the all-Busch Stadium team. He's the highest-paid player on the team, in the midst of a seven-year, $100 million contract signed in 2003.

He already has a fine Hall of Fame resume: the second-fastest player to 200 home runs, the first to hit 30 homers in his first five seasons, one of only four players with 100 RBIs the first five seasons, one of only six to lead the league in runs three straight years.

Then again, it wasn't that long ago that he was a minor league wannabe.

"Those are the things I make sure I keep in my mind," Pujols said. "I never want to change the attitude I had when I was in the minor leagues because that's what got me here."

Defense a priority

So no, there's no satisfaction. At the top of this year's improvement list is defense.

This year will be his third as the regular first baseman after beginning his career playing wherever manager Tony La Russa needed him, and he wants to be known as a fine fielder as well as one of the game's most potent offensive forces.

Pujols said third base coach Jose Oquendo has helped immeasurably. In addition to the tips, he told Pujols he needed to be Gold Glove caliber to match the likes of third baseman Scott Rolen.

"He told me the only way this guy's going to win a Gold Glove is you becoming a Gold Glove, too," Pujols said. "If they make a diving catch and they have to throw it to first base, I don't want them to think 'Oh man, I have to make a perfect throw."'

There's something else that keeps him hungry. The Cardinals fell short -- again -- in the postseason.

Two years ago the Cardinals got swept in the World Series by the Red Sox, and last year they lost in a six-game NLCS. Pujols had been all but certain that his dramatic Game 5 home run off Brad Lidge would propel his team farther, but the Cardinals were eliminated the next game.

"I thought for sure after that home run, that win we got, coming back home we would feel pretty good about ourselves," Pujols said. "I thought we were going to take the gear and turn this thing around. It never happened."

The Cardinals were dominated in Game 6 by the Astros' Roy Oswalt, continuing a pattern the final five games of that series. St. Louis batted only .235 in the NLCS.

"Terrible," Pujols said. "You can't win hitting .235 in the postseason. I was just sitting in the dugout and saying 'I can't believe how we're playing the game."'

The fact the Astros got swept in the World Series by the White Sox does not increase his frustration. There's already plenty of that.

"I'm pretty sure it's the same thing Houston was saying about us when Boston swept us," Pujols said. "We always say if we were there we could have done better, but we didn't do any better in the NLCS so how are we going to do better in the World Series?

"We had our chance."

Pujols has kept busy in the offseason working out and working with his foundation to raise money for charity. He also took a trip to Panama to see his ill grandmother.

He's tuned in to the team's major changes, though. Manager Tony La Russa called him to tell him the Cardinals had signed outfielder Juan Encarnacion to a three-year, $15 million contract, and pitcher Sidney Ponson to a one-year, $1 million deal.

Pujols has known Encarnacion for several years, and remembers the outfielder telling him he'd like to play in St. Louis for a while.

"I said, 'Well, man, I don't know how much money you're going to ask, but if you come over here you're going to have to take a cut,'" Pujols said he told Encarnacion. "That's the way it is.

"He's a great player and he's going to help us out a lot."

Pujols endorses the pickup of the troubled Ponson, released by the Orioles last September after the team voided his contract due to alcohol-related problems. Ponson won 17 games in 2003.

"If he gets himself ready and in good shape and ready to go, he can win 20 games for us," Pujols said. "He's got good stuff, that's for sure."

Of course, Pujols will be ready.

"Albert is an amazing player," teammate Chris Carpenter said. "And he's going to continue to be."