It was neither.

Both parties have reasons to lie.

I think that's fair.

I don't believe Albert was really worried about starving. But Albert sees "money" as "respect".

My problem with that rationale is that he used raw numbers to translate it. If I'm worth $100 and I offer you $90 to be my business partner, I'm sinking 90% of my net worth into you - in other words I'm 'respecting' the hell out of you. Meanwhile, if I'm worth $1,000 and I offer you $100; the raw totals are that the 2nd guy is giving you more money, but only staking 10% of his worth in you. I'd say the first guy 'values' you more.

There's no question that the Cardinals would have extended themselves significantly further than the Angels over the course of their respective offers. The Cardinals are halfway through a television contract (6 years left on it) and aren't in a market that allows for $150 million/season deals, so they don't have the TV revenue stream the Angels do. They've already sold their Pujols jerseys and Pujols season ticket packages; so there's no real massive bump in merchandising revenues (and unlike the Angels, who have shown a willingness to change jerseys every decade, they aren't ****ing with the Birds on the Bat just to sell some more laundry).

They have a debt load of over $200 million from the new stadium. They have maybe 1/2 the revenue capacity of the Angels yet they came to within 80-90% of the value of the Angels contract. Further, they did everything they could reasonably do up front to get him his high AAV contract. Suddenly said attempts form the basis of his discontent over purportedly being 'low-balled'...

His willingness to equate money to respect without even attempting to dig deeper into it annoys the hell out of me. In the end, he was just another guy that jumped at the high bidder.

It's just become a massive, heaping load of childish, petty bullshit from a narcissist who's value now approaches over 1/2 of a billion dollars for playing a kid's game through his 40s. And then to give us this shit about God guiding him to Anaheim and have his wife speak for him....ugh.

Just be gone, Albert. I'm done with you.

Nice take Dj. I had an interesting talk about Albert with the pops. Said the Birds were on the bat before and they will be after Albert.

**** him. Keep developing and making smart decisions and winning Ws titles.

The only problem is they had 1 title in 40 years then Albert hits his prime and they get 2 in 5.

I wish the team would have made some sort of move a couple of years ago to lock him up through his USEFUL playing days as a national league position player. In a perfect world we would have kept him for a couple more seasons and then traded him to an AL team where he could have DH'd in his twilight years.

But at the end of the day, his demands were too much. Nobody needs a 40-year-old washed up pinch hitter making $25 million a year.

This had to happen, and it's time to get over it and move the **** on.

But giving him $25 million/season wouldn't have extended that prime. And it's not exactly fair to mention the 40 year gap without also discussing the Brewery's refusal to spend money on the team for 30 years of that (or the fact that they won 2 additional pennants in that time period and had better regular seasons than both the team they lost to in the WS).

Sometimes it's best to recognize when the window is closing. I believe there's a good chance that Albert's best years are long gone. Additionally, the last 5 years have been arguably the best of Albert career; his true 'prime' years. In that time he was surrounded by CY caliber pitchers and GG caliber defenders. In the end, 4 of those seasons went without a single playoff win, 3 of them without a single playoff game. The last one, the WS year, was in the worst year of his career.

It's not as though the Cardinals were a runaway juggernaut during the prime of Albert's career. In fact, they peaked in 2004 really; when Edmonds and Rolen were at their best. The 2006 championship was a bit of a fluke (and AP wasn't exactly great during the post-season) and the 2011 one came with Lance Berkman as the team MVP.

Albert doesn't guarantee WS titles. Nor were any of those titles built exclusively on his back. You can fail to win one with him just as you can win one without him. If the Cardinals keep being smarter than their opponents, they'll keep contending for titles and winning one here and there. Giving AP 1/4 of a billion dollars would not be being smarter than their adversaries.

And like I said, the only reason I can think of for why he's having Lozano talking about how he had a mystery team offer for $270M (nobody can source this, it wasn't the Marlins) and his wife talking about how disrespected they were by a 5/130 offer is because he's seen the reaction to him going for the brass ring of getting PAID and feels guilty. My only real problem with any of this is that he's insisting that it wasn't about money which we all seem agree it was ultimately about.

Playing in a pitcher's park in LA will hurt his chance of breaking Bonds' HR record. So there's that.

Although it might be ARod's HR record by then if he can stay healthy for a few more years.

You can't use logic with athletes, because 99.5% of them are ****ing morons.

Not my problem mang

No, most everybody has agreed it wasn't about money. It was about respect and being wanted.

Who is this nebulous "most everybody"?

Is it the same as the fifth dentist who suggest that you brush your teeth with cat shit over Crest?

GTFO, you have no idea what you are talking about.

It was about money, just not for the reasons you and I would want it.

It wasn't about starving to death, but it was all about getting paid.

Reason suggests that the two ought to be independent of each other, but in Albert's world they clearly are not.

You guys are right. He just wanted the money for that 10K sq ft mansion as opposed to the 8K sq ft mansion :facepalm: If you think that's all it was about I can't do anything for ya.

Do they not teach the transitive property in Oklahoma?

You can say it was about respect all you want - but the Cardinals showed him a hell of a lot of respect through how far they were willing to extend themselves to re-sign him.

Ultimately, the only way to 'respect' Albert was to offer him the biggest pile of money. If all Albert wanted was 'respect' and to Albert 'respect' = 'money', then all Albert really wanted was the money.

It has nothing to do with yachts or square footage. It absolutely has everything to do with getting paid.

I don't see how this is that difficult.