Comments on: Uh-oh: Cardinals’ contract talks with Albert Pujols are not going well

By: indyralph

indyralph — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 15:04:36 +0000

I understand the emotions involved and don’t begrudge the feelings at all. (And let me say I’m being a devil’s advocate here – I’ll be heartbroken if Albert leaves too.) But here are the reasonable counterpoints to the ownership’s stance: 1) They are considering committing nearly $50 a year for 6-10 years on the two left-most positions on the defensive spectrum to players on the wrong side of 30. There’s a risk that this cripples the team 4-5 years down the road. 2) Having a player under a team-friendly contract for a period of time does not, in itself, justify a vast overspend on the next contract (see Howard, Ryan). 3) The “we have money, therefore we spend money” is the kind of logic that the Angels used on Vernon Wells and Giants used on Barry Zito and every Mets’ contract of the last 5-10 years. 4) Ownership has spent money recently: $120M on Holliday, $60M on Carpenter, $40M on Lohse. Again, I don’t think that Pujols, by nature of his greatness compares any of those players mentioned above. I think that re-signing Pujols trumps all of these points, but I also don’t want to root for a team with ownership that just abandons all rational thought to appease a fan base.

By: poison66

poison66 — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 21:29:27 +0000

Agreed, he’s not going anywhere.

By: poison66

poison66 — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 21:27:38 +0000

He’d NEVER play in New York. He’ll be a Cardinal for life.

By: spudchukar

spudchukar — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 20:43:45 +0000

Something tells me that Albert has put more dollars in Dewitt’s pocket than he has in Albert’s.

By: paperlions

paperlions — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 18:49:36 +0000

Oh, I won’t stop rooting for them, but my enthusiasm for the MLB product continues to diminish. I see no reason to give billionaires (most of which have no talent and little apparent skill aside from having been born rich or lucked into it) any of my money….every year, I am more in favor of players getting whatever they can, they have a limited earning window and they are the ones everyone pays to see….and all along the way the billionaires bilk tax dollars from local economies in terms of tax breaks and stadium extortion scams.

By: spudchukar

spudchukar — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 17:45:55 +0000

My sentiments exactly, except I still bleed red, (I guess everyone does, but you know what I mean.) No one goes to games to see owners own. I have said this before, but the Cards are not a small market team. Drew recently pointed out that the Red Birds are both 5th in attendance and in merchandise marketing. While they bring in a smaller gross total in TV revenue, they almost double any other metropolitan viewership percentage. Why is it that the fabulously rich always want others to display loyalty and sacrifice, and yet never consider such sentiments themselves?
Paperlions, you have hit the nail on the head and I don’t begrudge your feelings.

By: bigharold

bigharold — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 17:29:01 +0000

Well if Trump is saying it must be true. I mean he only declared bankruptcy twice.

By: uyf1950

uyf1950 — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 15:54:14 +0000

I’ve said it before this is all just posturing by both parties. The deal will get done. Take it to the bank.

By: PanchoHerreraFanClub

PanchoHerreraFanClub — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 13:39:33 +0000

Is the stuff you been smoking legal? If so, where can I get some.

By: frankvzappa

frankvzappa — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 06:21:15 +0000

the Red Sox could always use a good right handed bat in the middle of the order…and after the dollar totally collapses in a couple months, guys will be playing for pennies and they can sign Pujols for 100 million a year (based on the calculation that the dollar will retain about 30% of its value)…of course, after that happens people might not care too much for sports when they cant feed their families on the $25 loaves of bread that Donald Trump has been talking about…

By: bigharold

bigharold — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 00:39:58 +0000

What happens on the field and in the clubhuse is baseball. The rest is business. I realize that sounds lije a cliche but if one truely loves baseball you need to remind yourself of that often or risk becoming completely cynical about baseball or sports in general.

On the other hand, I wonder how Pujols will look in Yankee pinstripes? Don’t let the fact that they already have a top tier very expenseive 1B let you think that the would’t sign him. It would be baseballs all time hands down most expensive DH/1B platoon and it would take about 100 years to be eclipised. I can hear it now…. “Now batting number 6, Albert Pujols, .. Number 6″.

Just kidding, .. sort of.

By: paperlions

paperlions — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 22:58:37 +0000

So….the Cardinals are frustrated because a guy that has outplayed his contract by 100s of millions of dollars over the first 10 years of his career wants a market value deal now? Really? DeWitt makes more off of the Cardinals every year than Pujols makes….and DeWitt has no baseball skills. Funny that guys like DeWitt expect other people to do things they would never dream of doing (like selling their services for 50 cents on the dollar for 10 years). It would be one thing if DeWitt would spend any “savings” on the Pujols contract on the team…but he hasn’t done that for the last several years, so why would anyone expect him to do so now?
.
I love baseball, but every year I become more a fan of the sport and less a fan of my childhood team (StL), and ownership is responsible for that.