Pujols to Angels - 10 years / $250-60 million

[RightFieldCoder]

Maybe he sees the DH in the AL as a good thing for his future. The Halos were also able to give him the No Trade Clause that Miami is rumored to have said was off the table.

[craigharmann]

Maybe he wanted to get away from McGwire and his "hitting techniques"....or maybe it's because he's actually 35 and realizes that as he gets older, it's going to be tougher for him to fool people with actually being able to play the field. Or, maybe he is actually a machine and he just did what his creator told him to do?

[PKBadger]

For Pujols, what a dumb move. If the gap was $50-70mm, fine take the dough. Better the Angels than the Marlins where things will probably end badly. He probably felt insulted by the Cards. If the gap was $20-30mm, he'd have made that up over time by being absolutely revered in St. Louis with plenty of endorsements and a giant statue next to Stan Musial, etc. In LA, he's just another rich star...we have plenty of those out here. Maybe he wins a series, but it's not as big of a deal out here. He'll never be Kobe...but he could be Kevin Brown. Sure, he'll sign some balls at a strip mall in Irvine someday or get on a few of Arte's old billboards, but when he starts going down hill he won't get the pass he would have in St. Louis.

 

It's a larger scale of Robin Yount vs. Paul Molitor...Yount is still walks on water in Milwaukee, Molitor is a cool guy that used to play for the Brewers and was really good. Big difference. Hope the dough was worth it, because he just gave up something that was priceless.

Do you really think that a guy who just inked a contract for a quarter of a billion dollars is going to need to sign autographs?

 

An enormous house in Malibu is way cooler than an enormous house in the middle of Missouri.

[berniebrewer4life]

I have to wonder, will St. Louis fans react the same way about Pujols leaving, that Cleveland did when Lebron left?

Short answer? It's Missouri, so yes.

http://youtu.be/8dxFc2xQOxg

[ReverendBrewmeister]

I have to wonder, will St. Louis fans react the same way about Pujols leaving, that Cleveland did when Lebron left?

Short answer? It's Missouri, so yes.

http://youtu.be/8dxFc2xQOxg

License plates on the cars in the video sure looked like Illinois plates.

Could be best of both worlds for ragging on them: Cardinal fans from Illinois acting that way.

 

[berniebrewer4life]

License plates on the cars in the video sure looked like Illinois plates.

Could be best of both worlds for ragging on them: Cardinal fans from Illinois acting that way.

 

Once you get below Peoria, is there really a difference between the two states?

[davemakovec]

I hope they cry big, classy tears in St. Louis. Let's see how classy they really are now that Baseball Jesus left Baseball Heaven for more money.

[cadillacjosh]

So is it too early to talk about how the Angels now have three 1st basemen that can hit 30+ hrs a year and we (probably) have none?

 

*edit* Or how we have 2 closers and they have none?

 

I'm just sayin'.

[AJAY]

I am extremely curious to see how Cardinals fans will be affected by Albert Pujols leaving for the Angels. The St. Louis fans have always had a very romanticized view of baseball because (1) their team wins a lot and (2) they have always had iconic players who they immortalize with statues and regular appearances in parades on opening day. Cardinals fans tend to believe their city is some kind of "Baseball Heaven" and that their stars are more historic and iconic than most other teams. I don't pretend to be an expert in Cardinals history, but I know they have never experienced extended losing and they have never had an iconic player turn their back on them in such a stunning way.

 

My guess is that for at least some of the Cardinals fans, they will never view baseball in the same way again. Once you learn that a sport and an athlete can hurt you, your relationship with the game is unfortunately never the same. I still remember when Paul Molitor left the Brewers and what that did to me as a baseball fan. It was never the same after that. You start to view athletes as temporary, and you start to think more about how they live somewhere else, probably grew up as a fan of a different team, and probably would prefer to play in a different city if they had a choice. Once the illusion of an athlete belonging to a community disappears, the game never seems the same (in my opinon).

 

I feel confident in saying that this experience will come as a huge shock to the psyche of Cardinals fans. This is so new for them, and the concept of what happened with Pujols doesn't fit the romantic storyline that most of them are used to.

 

On a personal note, I have mixed feelings. I still think it is good for the game when stars stay with their original teams. I was also looking forward to the Cardinals being stuck with an awful contract. However, I feel great in the short-term because it helps the Brewers chances (assuming Prince Fielder does not become a Cardinal). I also think it is nice to see the "Best Fans in Baseball" get a taste of what the rest of us go through on a more regular basis. It just brings a little bit more sense of fairness.

[TooLiveBrew]

I swore I read it in this thread, but I can't find where I saw this: Cards fans were right all along -- he is an angel!

[Invader3K]

I was browsing through the comments on Stltoday's forum this morning, and there's definitely a lot of bitterness towards Pujols. In a way, I don't blame them. On the other, if I was a Cardinals fan, I would still be reasonably happy having seen him help the team win two World Series championships.

[RightFieldCoder]

I think it's appropriate that Pujols went to a team called the Angels. Heck, I don't know why the Cards aren't called the Angels.

JaDerHeyski mentioned this at breakfast this morning. First, Pujols was a Cardinal.

Now he's an Angel.

How long before he's a Padre?

[craigharmann]

This is funny

 

Waaa, waaa

 

So, let me get this straight. They initially offer a 5 year, $130 million dollar deal, then bump it up to 10 years $210 million and you're mad just because of their initial offer? That's called negotiating, folks. This is how businesses are run.

[paul253]

I actually came on here to link the same article. It's pathetic that any could actually feel insulted that their husband was "only" offered $26 million a year for 5 years.

 

I feel so bad for Mrs Pujols. Here, please take some of my $45,000 a year salary to help ease your burden. You need to feed your family after all.

[Warning Track Power]

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mor2i3lZHGw/TsWCRyf4LgI/AAAAAAAAAe8/8AVVW7dE2rM/s1600/LatrellSprewell.jpg

Couldn't help but think of Milwaukee's own when I read Mrs. Pujols comments.

 

[pretendastronaut]

Isn't she also saying however, that the 10/210M offer wasn't actually on the table like it's being reported?

[endaround]

I actually came on here to link the same article. It's pathetic that any could actually feel insulted that their husband was "only" offered $26 million a year for 5 years.

 

I feel so bad for Mrs Pujols. Here, please take some of my $45,000 a year salary to help ease your burden. You need to feed your family after all.

Not sure why people are complaining here. The Cards made an offer that was way below market value. Why wouldn't that be an insult?

[RockCoCougars]

If nothing else, this just belies the lack of class that Mr. and Mrs. Pujols have. Molitor was truly low-balled by the Brewers in '92 but he wasn't harping on the radio throwing around numbers. She was just trying to justify their greed because of an insulting nine-figure offer. At any rate, they are just following God's will, right?

[xisxisxis]

Not sure why people are complaining here. The Cards made an offer that

was way below market value. Why wouldn't that be an insult?

 

What was the market value at the time of the offer? Lots of things we "purchase" have clear market values that we can estimate - stocks, real estate, cars, etc. Real Estate is somewhat dicey, but there is a ton of information that is public that can lead you to an estimate of market value. A personal services contract for someone in Pujols case is really not easy to determine or know. The fact that he got 10/$254M tells you what the value was at the time he finally signed, but doesn't mean anything about the market value when the Cards made the offer. It's easy in hindsight to say the offer was way below market, it takes some work to know for sure if it was at the time.

[pretendastronaut]

At any rate, they are just following God's will, right?

 

The being "mad at God" line because they didn't get the mega offer they wanted out of the gate is pretty disgusting, I will grant that. You could bend that line on them so badly.

What was the market value at the time of the offer?

....

The fact that he got 10/$254M tells you what the value was at the time he finally signed, but doesn't mean anything about the market value when the Cards made the offer. It's easy in hindsight to say the offer was way below market, it takes some work to know for sure if it was at the time.

 

Fair enough point, however, everyone paying attention to the reports for the last year knew what they were looking for. Now, that's not necessarily market value, but I can (on some level) understand the frustration with a team telling you they want you to be with them for life, and then submit an offer for half of what you're looking for.

[paul253]

The Cards made an offer that was way below market value. Why wouldn't that be an insult?

 

$26 million a year is not below market value. That's more than he ended up signing for. Can "years" be counted towards market value? The market value is how much a player is worth on the open market. Do years factor in on worth? Either way, she obviously thought 5 years wasn't long enough which is fine. If she had just clarified that the years offered was insulting I would have been ok with it. But to say the entire offer was insulting was selfish and shows how out of touch with reality she is.

[pretendastronaut]

But from the article, she didn't specifically complain about the money, but she did complain about the 5 years.

 

"When you have somebody say 'We want you to be a Cardinal for life' and only offer you a five-year deal, it kind of confused us," Deidre Pujols said. "Well, we got over that insult and felt like Albert had given so much of himself to baseball and into the community ... we didn't want to go through this again."

 

It sounds to me that the issue was they wanted a contract that would cover the rest of Albert's career, nothing there about the dollar figure being insulting.

[RightFieldCoder]

paul253 wrote:

---

The Cards made an offer that was way below market value. Why wouldn't that be an insult?

 

$26 million a year is not below market value. That's more than he ended up signing for. Can "years" be counted towards market value? The market value is how much a player is worth on the open market. Do years factor in on worth? Either way, she obviously thought 5 years wasn't long enough which is fine. If she had just clarified that the years offered was insulting I would have been ok with it. But to say the entire offer was insulting was selfish and shows how out of touch with reality she is.

Yes, it was below market value. In 5 years he would need to get a new 5 year deal. I doubt he would have made $20M+ on that deal. He would not have made as much money, which was his goal and right.

[RockCoCougars]

I'm not sure why Pujols and wife figured that he deserved a ten year deal. That's a tad preposterous even if you believe that he is 31 going on 32 (I don't). We will see how good this deal looks after year five.

[TooLiveBrew]

I don't think there's much to back up speculation about Pujols's age being fudged. This is a guy who played H.S. ball in the U.S., & was a 13th round pick. It's not like he was some sure-fire MLB star who came over from the D.R. or Cuba & entered right into his MLB career.

 

I guess, if 15-yo (or whatever the assertion is of his 'real' age) Albert Pujols was visionary enough to recognize that fudging his age would someday make him millions of dollars, more power to him - and I sincerely doubt that was the case. Otherwise it just kinda seems like 'birther' stuff to claim he's not the age he's understood to be.