Fired Up Friday

Albert Pujols

The Albert Pujols situation makes absolutely no sense to me.  I honestly don't understand how the Cardinals did not sign Pujols.  I have heard from multiple Cardinals fans that signing Pujols to a 10 year, 300 million dollar contract would cripple the organization and that since no one else can offer him a contract at this point there is no reason to offer him such a large contract.  There is some logic to that reasoning, but I just don't see how you can convince yourself as a fan that your team will be better when you don't resign the best player in the league (and quite possibly the best player of our generation).

The St. Louis Cardinals are not a small market team and I'm getting tired of hearing people say that they are.  Their payroll has been steadily increasing for years and is hovering somewhere between 95 and 100 million dollars at this point.  Though they are certainly not a big market team like the Yankees or Red Sox, they do have enough money to fit a large contract into their payroll.  Even if they would sign Pujols to the reported 300 million dollar contract, they would still have 75 million dollars to put together the rest of their team.  This is not that difficult considering ten teams fielded a team with less than 75 million last season including two playoff teams (Reds and Rangers).  There is no reason to think that the Cardinals would not be able to have a competitive team with Pujols' large contract.

I just don't understand why the Cardinals are unwilling to pay the best player in the game.  I know there are concerns about his age especially with the length of the contract, but I can't imagine age will become a factor with Pujols.  Throughout his career, Pujols has been one of the most consistent players in the league.  There have never been large differences in his statistics.  His statistics have plateaued and that plateau just happens to be the highest peak in the whole league.

During this offseason, reports have consistently stated that Pujols wants to sign the largest contract in baseball history and I cannot blame him.  He is definitely the best player in the league and has been playing at a bargain the whole time he has played for the Cardinals.  It's about time that he gets the money he deserves.  I had assumed that the Cardinals would have been discussing offering him a huge contract, but then a report came out this week saying that the Cardinals were offering him a contract that would be somewhere between the 5th and 10th largest of all-time.  A contract that size would put his contract somewhere between 19 to 21 million dollars a year.  Matt Holliday was signed to a 7 year, 120 million dollar deal as a Cardinal and is currently making 17 million dollars a year.  The Cardinals are only willing to offer Pujols four million more dollars a year than Matt Holliday. 

Are you kidding me? 

If that is as high as the Cardinals were willing to go, they probably would have been better off not even offering a contract.  Honestly, they would have had a much better chance signing Pujols to a contract when he becomes a free agent by not offering him a contract.  This could not be a bigger slap in the face.  I know there are some Cardinals fans upset because they believe Pujols should have given the Cardinals "hometown discount", but did they really think Pujols, who has been asking for around 300 million would willingly take less than 200 million.  There have been examples of hometown discounts before (most recently Joe Mauer in Minnesota), but expecting Pujols to take two-thirds of what he wanted is asking Pujols to take a hometown giveaway, not a hometown discount.

"I'm happy the Cardinals are not forking out that kind of money for Pujols."

"We can't afford to pay Pujols.  He shouldn't get paid 300 million.  That's ridiculous."

"We can get two other great players for the price we would have paid Pujols.  Two other great players with Holliday.  We'll be unstoppable."

These are all things that I have heard in the last week.  At this point, Cardinals fans are beginning to find ways to cope with the fact that they are going to see Pujols in a different jersey next season and the jersey will probably say Chicago on the front.  As a Brewers fan, I'm sick to my stomach thinking about Pujols in a Cubs jersey and the fact that I will have to watch him destroy my team for his whole 20 year career.  And once Pujols is in that other jersey, Cardinals fans will vilify him.  He will be made out as the bad guy in the situation.  He will be the greedy athlete that wanted too much money.  He will be the athlete that doesn't care about the team he started with, the team that brought him up through the minor leagues and made him into a star.  Though they will do this, deep down they will know that their feelings are unjustified.  They know that the feelings they are faking are simply covering up their one true feeling: regret.  Regret for what could have been.