Talk:Albert Pujols/GA1

GA Review

Article (edit | visual edit | history) · Article talk (edit | history) · Watch
After reading through this article, I am unfortunately finding a lot of problems. There's enough here that I don't think it's worth it to put it on hold, it's gonna take a while to fix all this. I did what I could, here's everything else (I'm not even adding in nitpicks at this stage, just moderate or major problems):

A lead shouldn't need that many references. A tweaking of it would be nice, since it doesn't give a summary of his career, but rather just says how great he is.
"In the U.S., Pujols displayed his love for baseball, batting over .500 in his first season of baseball at Fort Osage High School in Independence, Missouri. He hit .660 with eight home runs his final year of high school. At Fort Osage, Pujols earned all-state honors in baseball twice." Cite needed.
"A Colorado Rockies scout reported favorably about the young hitter, but the club took no action." Cite needed.
Nothing in the minor leagues is cited either.
2002 season needs expanding. If he was second in MVP voting then there should be more information.
Same on the 2003 season.
There's a lot of subjectivity in terms of language. A lot of "one of the best individual offensive seasons in Cardinals history," etc. If true, cite. If opinion, reword.
"Pujols started his major league career playing primarily as a third baseman. During his rookie season, he started at four different positions (1B, 3B, LF, and RF), and has also appeared at 2B (late in the 2001 All-Star game as well as a regular season game in April 2008) and SS (late in one 2002 regular season game). When Scott Rolen joined the team in 2002, Pujols was moved to left field. Following an injury scare in 2003, Pujols was moved to his current position at first base." Not sure why this is in the 2004 season section, it should be split and put in the appropriate seasons.
"In 2005, John Dewan noted in The Fielding Bible that no first baseman was better at digging balls out of the dirt than Pujols." Cite needed.
In general, the seasons are light, though not dangerously so, on citations. If a sentence sounds iffy, cite it.
"Pujols had a slower start in the spring than in previous years due to several injuries in his right elbow." Cite needed. (Note that I'm not touching on every sentence i think needs a cite, just some)
The 2008 season, 2009 season, and personal life are all "on __, he __. on Setember __, he __." Proseline is not acceptable in a GA, these sections will need a complete rewrite.
Dates that have no meaning or significance shouldn't be linked.
I'm a lil iffy about the Misc. stats section being there. Some are fine to have, others seem like adding them for the sake of adding them.
Having fielding, postseason batting, and all-star batting tables is, personally, tablecruft. At most I'd keep the main batting table, any more just weighs down the article. That kb could be replaced with prose and make for a better article.
Make sure all references use the citation templates and aren't just bare links.
Combine duplicate references.
Are those last 4 references in that section General ones or external links? Mark whichever.
Make sure any dead links are replaced (I didn't check for any, but there's always the possibility).

Phew. Needless to say, there's a lot to do yet. The article has potential, but I'm not gonna sprinkle sugar on it, there is a lot of work left to do. I hope I'm not coming across too harshly. Wizardman 20:13, 25 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

That's a good start. The article is currently bloated beyond belief with uncited, unencyclopedic minutiae. I cut out some of the tablecruft, but User:Katydidit reverted "for completeness". I'm inclined to massively cut the article down, since the idea that the article on Albert Pujols isn't even a GA is silly. It deserves to be featured. -Phoenixrod (talk) 22:11, 25 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]