In the 2009 Home Run Derby, Albert Pujols was supposed to be king. Bashing in front of his St. Louis Cardinals home fans, Pujols was considered the favorite. If Pujols wasn’t going to win, then it had to be hometown hero Ryan Howard, right?
Guess again.
The king on of the Home Run Derby turned out to be a prince — Prince Fielder of the Milwaukee Brewers. In the final round of the competition, Fielder was able to out-slug Nelson Cruz of the Texas Rangers. Both Pujols and Howard were eliminated in earlier rounds.
Fielder hitting the ball hard is nothing new. On …read more

Nelson Cruz of the Texas Rangers and Jayson Werth of the Philadelphia Phillies have been named to the 2009 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. Cruz will be replacing Torii Hunter, while Werth will be replacing Carlos Beltran.
Cruz is currently hitting .264 with 20 homers and 50 RBIs. The 29-year-old out of the Dominican Republic has already set career-highs in home runs and RBIs.
Werth is hitting .268 with 20 homers and 56 RBIs. After helping the Phillies capture the 2008 World Series title, the 30-year-old Werth is on pace to have the best season of his big league career.
Hunter of the …read more

Nelson Cruz usually isn’t the cleanup man for the Texas Rangers. On Saturday against the Houston Astros, he looked like a natural. The native of the Dominican Republic hit a pair of homers to help the Rangers beat their intrastate rivals by a final count of 6-3.
For the game, Cruz was 2-for-4 with two runs and four RBI. On the season, the 28-year-old outfielder is hitting .285 with 11 homers, 30 RBI and 22 runs. Despite his age, Cruz has never played more than 100 games in a season. In 31 games last season, Cruz hit .330 with seven homers …read more