A reader emailed two weeks ago saying she had been offered Albert Pujols and Ichiro Suzuki in a proposed trade.

She was being asked to give back Carl Crawford and Jhoulys Chacin. At the time, she was in last place in her rotisserie-style league.

At the time, both Pujols and Crawford were on the disabled list, only Pujols was four days into what was expected to be at least a six-week absence because of a broken left wrist.

Since she was in last place, I told her she probably couldn't afford to wait on Sir Albert.

We entered Wednesday with Pujols back in the Cardinals' lineup -- and Crawford still on the DL.

Pujols missed all of 17 days with the injury. Crawford, who has a hamstring injury, hasn't even gone on a rehab assignment yet.

To her, I say: Oops. My bad.

None of us could have foreseen this, not even the ESPN producers behind this commercial.

Before his injury, Pujols was batting .317 with eight home runs, 14 RBI, 19 runs and a 1.197 OPS in 63 at-bats in June.

Wednesday night, he was 1-for-6 with an RBI in his return.

He really is a machine.

I should have realized that two weeks ago.