Albert Pujols, Robinson Cano and Struggling MLB Superstars Ready to Explode at Current News

One of the prevalent storylines of the 2012 MLB season five weeks in has been the poor performance of several of the game's biggest stars. 

Sluggers who are typically among the league leaders in home runs find themselves with a dearth of them after the season's first month. And batters who regularly hit .300 or above are scuffling near the .200 mark. 

But the first weekend of May seems to have warmed up a few of these struggling batters. In the month to come, these hitters may break out so impressively that we'll be laughing about how worried we were about them in April. 

Here are seven of the game's top batters who appear to be shaking off their early-season slumps and are ready to put up the numbers we're accustomed to seeing. 

 

Albert Pujols, Los Angeles Angels

The long, national nightmare is over.

After 28 games, each of which were getting increasingly bleaker, Pujols finally hit his first home run of the season. The benefactor was Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Drew Hutchison. 

Pujols isn't exactly on a hot streak; he's still hitting .196/.237/.252. But with that first homer out of the way, could that unplug whatever's been crippling Pujols' swing?

Up next is a Minnesota Twins pitching staff that's served up 40 home runs this season, tied for the most in the majors. (The other team is the Blue Jays, which just gave up Pujols' first long ball.) 

 

Robinson Cano, New York Yankees

With 25 or more homers in each of the past three seasons, Cano had become perhaps the most dangerous hitter in the Yankees lineup.

However, he's been anything but this year, with a .255/.303/.355 average coming into Sunday's game against the Kansas City Royals. 

Even worse, Cano hadn't hit a home run since April 18, and that was the only time he went deep this season. Royals pitcher Luke Hochevar remedied that by serving up a third-inning grand slam to Cano in the Yankees' 10-4 win Sunday.

Like many power hitters, Cano tends to hit his homers in bunches. Several times last season, he hit home runs in consecutive games.

Will he continue that pattern this week?

 

Jose Bautista, Toronto Blue Jays

Compared to Pujols and Cano, Jose Bautista's five home runs look rather impressive. But his current .183/.312/.356 slash average is one of the more baffling starts in baseball; last season, for instance, Bautista hit .366/.532/.780 in April.

But the Blue Jays slugger has hit safely in his last three games, going 3-for-11 with a homer and three RBI. Heating up around this time would be consistent with Bautista's breakout performance of the last two seasons, when he exploded in May. 

The last two years, Bautista has hit 33 home runs with 48 RBI and an OPS well over 1.200 in the month of May. Watch out.

 

Justin Upton, Arizona Diamondbacks

The D-Backs' young superstar has hit safely in six of his last eight games, going 9-for-34 with two homers and six RBI.

But Upton's numbers still aren't terribly impressive. Going into Monday's game against the St. Louis Cardinals, he's carrying a .242/.330/.385 slash average. 

As with Bautista, May has been a happy month for Upton. Over his career, he's compiled an .888 OPS with 22 home runs and 68 RBI. Interestingly, he also has 10 triples in May, more than double the number he's hit in any other month. 

 

Hanley Ramirez, Miami Marlins

Just as the Marlins are heating up, winning six in a row to get out of the NL East cellar, so has their best hitter. 

Ramirez hit 5-for-14 during a three-game sweep of the San Diego Padres over the weekend, pushing his season average up to .218/.306/.400. He also hit a homer while driving in four runs, which isn't always easy to do at Petco Park. 

Hitting in Houston's Minute Maid Park, where Ramirez has a career .935 OPS, could present an opportunity to launch some more balls out of the park. But the Astros pitching staff has been surprisingly effective, compiling a 3.86 ERA thus far in 2012.

 

Jose Reyes, Miami Marlins

Is Miami's leadoff batter finally finding his stroke?

Reyes had struggled so much that manager Ozzie Guillen briefly moved him out of the top spot in the batting order. Since moving back to his customary role, however, he's batted 9-for-29 (.310) with four stolen bases.

That looks a lot more like the hitter the Marlins thought they were getting when they signed Reyes to a six-year, $106 million free-agent contract.

 

Brian McCann, Atlanta Braves

One of the most surprising aspects of the Braves' early-season success is how productive their offense has been. As of Monday, Atlanta has the most runs in the majors with 162. 

More surprising is that the Braves lineup has been that prolific despite catcher Brian McCann posting a .751 OPS going into Monday's game versus the Chicago Cubs. (Over his career, McCann has struggled against the Cubs and at Wrigley Field.)

Still, McCann has definitely been heating up. In his last four games, he's hit 6-for-19 (.316) with two homers and eight RBI, and has had a lot to do with the explosive Braves offense, which is currently leading all of baseball in runs scored.

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