1. This is a story about 240 things to take from Albert Pujols' terrible, horrible, no good, very bad April.

2. It was originally going to be 240 million things, but that proved too daunting. Sort of like Pujols hitting a home run.

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3. That, of course, is the impetus behind this accounting, which through interviews with those who have seen him and plumbing of statistical minutiae will endeavor to figure out how the greatest hitter of his generation, probably one of the 10 best in history and the purest from the right side since Joe DiMaggio remains homerless into his second month as a Los Angeles Angel.

4-69. Before this season, Albert Pujols played 66 months (counting partial Marches with April and partial Octobers with September) in the major leagues. Never before did he finish one homerless. The closest he came was in June 2006, when he spent half the month on the disabled list and homered once. It was balanced out by that April, when Pujols hit 14 in 25 games.

70. April, actually, is quite the prolific month for Pujols. Only in August has he hit more home runs than the 78 in April throughout his 12-year career. His walk rate is best in April, too. And that brings us to our first clue, delivered by a general manager.

71. "We started seeing this last year," he said. "The plate discipline started to change. When you look at how often he walked, it really became a true indicator."

72. Following another weak 0-for-4 evening Tuesday, Pujols' slash line dipped to .208/.255/.292.

73. But at least he drove in a run, his first since April 15.

74. On a brutal swing, of course, another of dozens this season. Minnesota starter Francisco Liriano missed badly on the first three pitches. Angels manager Mike Scioscia gave Pujols the green light. He swung at ball four, a slider low and outside, and hit a near-Baltimore chop to shortstop to score a run. It was, like his other at-bats, filled with the antithesis of the Pujols we've come to know and appreciate.

75-77. Coming into this season, only three players since 1966 finished their careers with more than 1,000 walks and fewer than 700 strikeouts: Willie Randolph, Ozzie Smith and Mark Grace.

78. In his first 11 years, Albert Pujols walked 975 times and struck out 704. And his 445 home runs were 190 more than Randolph, Smith and Grace combined hit in 25,479 at-bats.

79-92. So to see the ugliness of 14 strikeouts over his first 96 at-bats …

93-96. And to see the impossibility of Pujols drawing only four unintentional walks over 23 games …

97. Well, to the executive, it's a sign of what started last year, when Pujols' walk rate dipped below 10 percent for the first time in his career. For the first time since his second season, Pujols' strikeout total nearly caught his walk total (58 to 61).

"Once that becomes inverted," the executive said, "you begin to become normal."

[Tim Brown: As slump continues, Albert Pujols sticks to his process]

98. Let's pause for a moment to appreciate how abjectly abnormal Albert Pujols has been. It's not just the fact that in the last 50 years, he's one of only eight players to walk at least 115 times and strike out 64 or fewer in one season.

99-100. It's the two World Series championships.

101-103. The three MVP awards.

104.-114. The 11 years of superhuman production, of numbers that cement him as the most surefire Hall of Famer of his generation, of greatness that places him alongside DiMaggio and Frank Robinson and Miguel Cabrera and Jimmie Foxx when looking at his most similar players by age.

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