LMAO

Grew up in central Missouri, rooted for them all my life.

You've now officially passed Hootie stupid and are threatening to pass even Wickedson stupid.

Anything else?

DJ is right. The sense of betrayal doesn't come from him leaving, it comes from him leaving after the ten years of shit he's shoveled about his values and the city.

Just another mercenary, but one without the gumption to admit what he really is. If you're gonna be a greedy bastard, just say it, don't be a ****ing coward and hide behind values for 10 years.

Of course take this with a grain of salt, but I read he was offered 10/275 by the Marlins, but the NTC was a deal breaker..STL offered less than Then the Angels, something like 9/198 vs 10/25-260.

Dude, it's not like he went to the Cubs or the Reds.

I mean, if he had to go anywhere, better he goes to a team nobody gives a shit about in another league.

LMAO Thats probably close to true.

Sorry, but thats pretty short-sighted of you. While LA may not be a huge football market, we are a baseball market. And based on the TV deal already being projected becasue of Pujols, his contract will be paid for in 3 years. I understand its too much money for anyone, but in this case, it makes a ton of sense for The Angels and their needs beyond the lineup.

There is that, but again, if you're gonna leave, just have the guts to admit that you're the same kind of greedy scumbag like the other 750 guys in the league. Don't separate yourself as being above the fray.

That's why people revel in the falls from grace of assbags like Haggard, Jimmy Swaggert, etc. They couch themselves as holier than thou only to be the same kind of lecherous one who sucks the penis as all the rest.

I grew up 2 hours west of St. Louis dickbag. Calling people in here bandwagon fans makes you look like a reerun.

Plus they've won a championship in recent memory and this might be construed as a push to......

........win another.

I agree.

I'd go to 6 years/$144 million; maybe even an extra year if necessary. That takes you through his age 34 season. The last 2 years of that may be a little ugly, but his batting eye and his power will still be there even when his quick twitch muscles start to fail him.

Then again...he could just be Mo Vaughn all over again.

It's hard to say, but I think the Cardinals owe it to their fans to take that chance. Matt Holliday's a nice player, but he's not a franchise cornerstone. Lance Berkman was, but he's aging rapidly. The Cardinals are the crown jewel of the National League (scoreboard, shithead Dodger fans). They owe their fans a legitimate contender.

It's hard to compete without a cleanup hitter - go get him, DeWitt.

Exactly. Like someone mentioned he didnt go to a losing team. The Angels contend for the playoffs year in and year out and we contended for the division til the last week of the season in '11. Granted the Card won the WS and they are a great team--still.

The difference is the DH factor, and this is just my opinion. In 4-5 years he can DH if he cant play 1st anymore. IN STlL he'd be a pinch hitter and maybe bat once a game. In the AL he can still play everyday and bat 3-4 times a game and this gives him the best shot at the HR title.

Can't argue with that, and I'll definitely chuckle a bit if he ends up being a total bust out there, but he's better off on an American League team with a DH, and at the end of the day I think that's why he made this move. Five years from now he's a light-hitting, injury prone liability on an NL squad, but has a chance to be a still-productive DH on an AL squad. Too bad we couldn't have squeezed two more years out of him, but it is what it is. Unless we end up playing the Angels in the World Series, this won't come back to haunt us.

Like I said earlier, he's dead to me now, and by that I mean I don't give a shit whether he succeeds or fails, lives or dies. Much like Tony Gonzalez, it's over. But I don't have to hate him now, since him being in the AL West means absolutely nothing to me, just like Tony playing for the Falcons means nothing to me.

To pull a Bronco Neil, he'd have to (a) go the Cubs, (b) immediately disrespect the entire Cardinal fanbase, (c) continue to deliberately mock the fans with his actions on the field, (d) be part of a Cubs team that actively cheated to knock us out of the playoffs, (e) win a championship with the Cubs, and then (f) after all that, come crawling back and try to act like he's always been Mr. Cardinal. None of those things will happen here.

Fielder?? I hope you guys get him. He would be perfect for you guys.

I'm sure you do, since there's a decent chance the Rangers could make a run at him.
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All good points.

I can't really think of a corollary for this. The closest I could is a hypothetical. Imagine if the Chiefs had drafted Marino over Blackledge, they won two SBs with him, and then Marino, after professing himself as a blue collar Midwestern/Rust Belt guy the whole time, left in 1993 to go play for the LA Rams.

Give Fielder 6 years and 151 million. That will make him a higher paid player than Pujols.

I'll believe it when I see it. LA is a Laker's market first, anyway. If Howard gets traded to LA, Pujols will be the 3rd dog in that town immediately, maybe even 4th behind Griffin. And if the Dodgers were worth a damn, he would possibly slip to 5th behind Kemp.

If Angels fans are really sprinting to the ballpark to see a declining .299 hitter, I'll be shocked. He hasn't built up the goodwill in the LA area that he has in STL. If he doesn't come out and live up to that contract, they simply aren't going to care. They're going to spend their money on Kobe and Griffin. If the Dodgers come back strong, they'll spend it there. And the California economy is going to crater; it really doesn't have a choice with the deficits you fellas run out there.

If he comes out there and plays like he played during his prime, you're absolutely right - the fans will come; I've conceded as such. However, if he plays like he played in 2011 - i.e about as well as Kendry Morales did in 2009 - the shine will come off that contract in a hurry.

You can cite 'Fernandomania' all you want - as long as you admit that it lasted all of one season. By 1983 he was just another pitcher and Dodger fans went right back to showing up in the 3rd inning. In 2003, the year after they won the WS, the Angels drew about 85% of their capacity, (the Cardinals, OTOH, put over 2K per game over their stated capacity of 46,000 in 2007).

The LA area fans have no attention span to speak of. Every season, Moreno has to get the Angels fans a shiny new bauble to convince them to come out to the park. In 2004, it was Guerrerro, in 2005 it was Colon, in 2006 it was Jeff Weaver, in 2007 it was Gary Mathews, in 2008 it was Torii Hunter, in 2009 it was Bobby Abreu, in 2010 it was Vernon Wells.

Really? Baseball town? Every season your owner has to go out there and throw a bunch of money at a declining player to keep you folks involved. The year after the Angels won the World Series, they had the audacity to only win 77 games and suddenly you people couldn't get 38,000 people to come to the ballpark.

Spare me - if he's great and the Angels win, fans will come out. If he sucks, Angels fans will do what Angels fans have always done - they'll find something else to do.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not happy about this. Having Albert go from my favorite player to ****ing zero stinks. It's going to suck seeing him play for another team, and suck even more listening to ESPrickN endlessly ballwash him because he's playing in a major market now. It also takes a bit of luster off what should have been a very enjoyable celebrating-the-World-Series off season.

But his last game for us was a Game 7 World Series win. We rode him to two World Championships, three pennants, and more division wins that I can remember at the moment. We got his best years. Would have liked more, but I'll take what he's done over what he will do, because I think it's a safe bet he won't match those accomplishments again.

Yep, keep him in the NL please. But also, it is a good fit for you guys.

You're absolutely right. When looking at it from a purely logical, value-driven standpoint the Cardinals got every possible ounce of surplus value out of him, and reaped the rewards in financial and competitive success. The only refrain I have is a tired one, and that's I wish his legacy meant more to him than the difference between 22 million dollars a year and 25 million dollars a year.

A man who is going to make well over 360 million dollars playing baseball completely tarnished his legacy in a town where he would have been the God of gods.

$30 million bucks is a shitload of money to 99.999 percent of the population, but for someone like Pujols, it's a drop in the bucket compared to what he would have been in St. Louis.

I will say this: I'm now ecstatic that Mike Adams made an ass of him in his last AB in a Cardinal uniform.

Wow you sure are angry and spewing shit about a city you know nothing of really. Its a town that can have 2 baseball teams within an hour of each other in MARKET #2. Angel stadium has 43k every home game, 3 mil every year the last 10 years or so. The bad players, Vernon in paticular have more to do with idiot GM and he has been wiped out. I get that you are unhappy with losing Albert, but being a ****ing asshole about it is unbelievable, especailly since I was being respectful and civil...but now--GO **** YOURSELF!

DJ's a little high strung. However, I like it. And besides, it's not often I get to be the voice of reason. :D

I wonder if he'll have the ****ing guts and class to do what he should do: take out a full page ad thanking the fans in St. Louis.

At least until the next post from L.A. ShitDick, that is.

Good point. LMAO

Was anything I said inaccurate?

You put 37,000/gm in your stadium the year after you won the World Series. The Angels have never put 43k/game in their stadium and last year put in just a hair over 40K/gm.

Did I lie about a single one of those signings? As to your assertion that all those bad signings were the result of 1 bad GM - try again, sport. Most of those signings were made by Bill Stoneman, the same 'idiot' GM that showed up in 1999 and built that Angels roster into a Champion. Stoneman is a very respected baseball man operating at the behest of Arte Moreno. Tony Reagins, the 'Idiot GM' of whom you speak, is only responsible for a couple of them. And Jerry DiPoto probably just got some blood on his hands through CJ Wilson, if nothing else.

Is LA not a Lakers town first? Do Dodgers fans not show up in the 3rd inning? Was Valenzuela not fairly irrelevant starting in 1983?

Go ahead and refute any of these points. I've done my homework on it - have you?

I was extremely civil in my response. I presented you with fact after fact after fact. Your response is both fictional (43K/game, 1 GM screwed us up, blah blah blah) and hysterical.

Enjoy your new shiny baubles.

The best part of the story: The word "angles" is now a trending US topic on Twitter because there are too many morons in this country who can't spell.

If I'm DeWitt, this is what I do:

Wait until Pujols retires, then call him back the next year for an unveiling of his statue in front of Busch. Right after unveiling it, to a lusty press corps and scattered applause, you pull the mother****er over like the statue of Saddam and let Cards fans take their turns with a plasma cutter and sledgehammers.

Pujols made DeWitt a LOT of money. Then he ended up making DeWitt look like the good guy when he bolted.

DeWitt has no reason at all to hold a grudge against Albert Pujols. Remember, DeWitt and crew bought the franchise for less than they sold the parking garages that came with it for. They got the Cardinals essentially for free.

They've turned an operating profit all but something like 3 years during his tenure and the merchandise sales alone of the playoff, pennant and WS runs are astounding.

And Pujols did all this at a well below market rate.

Pujols is probably still one of Dollar Bill's favorite people in the world. At the very least, he should be.

I'm not saying DeWitt should be doing it for himself, I think he should do it for the fans who were patronized and lied to for 11 years.

Pujols owes the organization essentially nothing. He owes the fans a damned good explanation for why he ended up being such a duplicitous one who sucks the penis.

One of the stltoday columnists raised a good point - considering the much higher tax rate and cost of living are in Los Angeles, Pujols probably won't be bringing home much more cash than he would have had he stayed in St. Louis.

Another thing, for a rich and famous multi-millionaire parent - he may regret moving his kids to a place where they'll be BFFs with the next generation of Lohans and Cyruses.

I'm not mad.

I would have loved for him to spend the rest of his career in St. Louis, but it isn't going to happen.

This also frees up $20 million in payroll over the next 10 years, which can help the Cards in the long run.

Short term, they should be okay.

The Angels haven't put 43k in the stadium for quite a while.

Mozeliak is on now.

Hate to see the guy go, and quite frankly feel a little betrayed.

The same way Packers fans felt when Favre gave way to Rodgers, I'm sure.

Just goes to show you never know.

The Cardinals may be able to make up his bat in multiple ways. They may be more agressive on the basepaths. They hopefully will have Freese available for the whole year. Wainwright coming back helps but he may not be full strength. They should use some of the money they are saving with Albert to improve starting pitching.

Eh, I wouldn't say that.

Favre held the Packers hostage for a few seasons. Saying he would or wouldn't retire, then came out of retirement.

The troll is strong.

totally disagree

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?...s_mlb&c_id=mlb

With Pujols getting a billion dollars over in California, I think it is a good time to talk about what Pujols does that sticks out to me. I first saw Pujols back as a rookie, where he hit one into the Royal Bullpen. Deep into the bullpen. I am talking Tim Salmon Territory. That was of course only the beginning. Pujols balance is what sticks out first and foremost. He has the ability to generate insane bat speed while not seeming to over swing. He has a great eye, he hits the ball to all fields, and he hits the ball to all fields with IRON MAIDEN type of awesomeness. His homerun off of Brad Lidge has made for many of internet MEME's. He worked hard on his fielding skills and has played LF, 3rd, and of course 1B. He has put up eye popping numbers year after year and he is a tought guy to hate. I remember Buddy Bell talking about how the most important thing in the upcoming series is to "keep Pujols in the ballpark" Albert hit three homeruns, one on a slider low and away where he seemed to poke it over the right field fence. Where Belly Butler seems to throw all his grits and tits into a swing only to have the ball come up 20 feet short. Pujols nice easy swing seems to always have the ball go 100 feet over the wall.

Demonpenz@atchisontimes.com

Fairness, the Angels are 5th in attendance the last two years.

http://www.ballparksofbaseball.com/2...Attendance.htm

They will prolly be first next year...

The state income tax rates are different by 4-5%, as Cali has a 10% rate for rich folks. That eats away 10-12 million of the salary bump. As far as cost of living, that really doesn't matter when you are making reeruned amounts of money. Once he buys his house (which will be much more expensive in Cali), the living expenses, unless he lives like Mike Tyson or MC Hammer, will be such a small percentage of his overall income that it doesn't really matter if he is in the midwest or Cali.

Big picture, with either contract he was making enough money to set up generations upon generations of the Pujols clan. Christ, he already has that amount of money after being "underpaid" for the last ten years.

What do you think, Cards fans? Do you issue #5 to someone on the team, or to someone you bring in, right away?

I do the same thing they did with Rolen's number after they unceremoniously dumped him:

Issue it to a castaway LH reliever.

I'll never really forgive the front office for giving #27 to Ron !@#$ing Villone.

i don't see why they shouldn't/wouldn't give it to someone else.
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I would, but they probably won't.

Another thing that just occurred to me - now the ****ing Angels have him AND Haren. :#

anyone know if ap has made any public statements yet? i haven't seen anything.
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Not yet, but who cares? Bullshit excuses from a greedy liar. I'd personally prefer it if he just left and that was the end of it.

Just where is Mark Mulder these days?


*ducks*

Agree 100%

:cuss:

I'd give #5 to the bat boy in perpetuity.

I'll be honest - unless it's a live simulcast of him choking on a chicken bone, I don't have any interest in hearing from him right now.

Frazod's right; it's going to be nothing but platitudes towards his new employer and utter bullshit towards his former fans.

(Oh, and Mulder can be found on the 18th green somewhere...**** that guy)

Mulder making it to the 18th green would indicate that he's capable of finishing something he's started.

There's a chain of sporting goods stores in St. Louis that gave away every bit of Pujols merchandise today (story on the stltoday site). Obviously they don't lose much, since it wouldn't have sold for jackshit anyway, but I like the gesture.

Those jerseys would look excellent as torn up rags acting as the fuse for a sea of Molotovs careening through the windows of 5 Restaurant.

Did you hear what those dickchuggers did?

Free angel food cake with any meal.

Seriously, **** the manager at 5...

Well of course he is. Just as long as it's his short game.

Dude actually gave a shit about his golf game.

That restaurant will survive for approximately 4.3 more days pulling that horseshit.

I'll take "Reasonable Exemptions for Lynching" for $800.

Why doesn't Pujols come out and drop a leg on Macho Man's throat while he's at it?

It's times like this that I wish I had a WW-II era bomber or something.

Carpet-bombing that entire facility would be pretty sweet.

You could probably scrounge up an old Soviet Tupolev bomber for a reasonable price. That would give you a payload of about 40 tons of bombs. Should be enough to turn the Pujols statue into tailings.

:hmmm: LMAO

Pujols to be back in the Astros' division in 2013. Wooooo!

Mine just found their way into the garbage.

The Cardinals should have made sure to lock him up last spring. Huge mistake in not getting it done then. Hard to believe he took the money and left the Cards, though. I don't think anybody saw this coming...I sure didn't. I'd be interested to know what kind of legacy he'll have with Cards fans now.

Contracts like this, by the way, make me appreciate Roy Halladay even more...that guy has willingly accepted three bargain contracts in a row to stay with the team he wanted to play on (including the most recent 3 year/60M extension in 2009). Plus those decisions have kept him away from the Yankees, which nobody wants to see. It's truly not about maximizing his earning potential with him, it's about winning games. It's rare...but not everybody takes the money.

Haha...you know, I do wonder if anything will come out about Pujols taking PEDs now that he's out of St. Louis.

Honest question... do you guys think you would have turned down the $40 million more, or whatever the difference was?

I'm sure he made the same statements every athlete's agent tells them to, I love the ____, I want to retire a ____, I love ____ city... but I think he did the same thing anyone would. It's not like he's from St. Louis

I'd like to think I would turn it down to preserve my legacy, but I'm not in the position to say. That's a lot of money.

heh, looks good on him. : )

They couldn't have found him a more deformed hat.

WTF? :facepalm:

I know it's been referenced, but I didn't see this quote in here from a couple years ago:

Damn

This is how we KU fans felt when Roy Williams left after saying he wasn't going to numerous times and even cussed at a reporter for bringing it up. Then he was gone. Stings. Luckily we beat his ass in the final four in '08 en route to a title. Now we're pretty much over it heh.

Roy didn't leave for this kind of money though obviously and I'm not sure which way stings more for the fans. Like KU basketball though, the Cardinals will go on just fine without Pujols.

I know you Cards fans feel slighted and I get that... maybe remember the first half of the season when he sucked... and that he was only really good in one of the World Series games... and you guys still won. What I'm saying is Pujols isn't the be-all, end-all. He's one guy who's now overpaid like many before him and heading into the downside of his career. You guys might even end up with a more overall complete team without one guy making so much.

**** Pujols. He's another money grubbing, no loyalty athelete. Not the first and won't be the last. I have a feeling when his career is over he'll look back on his time in StL and those two rings as the high point of his life.

Nice article by Nightengale detailing the negotiations.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseb...D=ane1966aswcs

I'm not pissed at Albert, but I am upset about this(if true):

He was pretty much putting up his career average numbers from May on. He had a terrible April.

It just seemed longer I guess. I remember watching games thinking "this is going to hurt his free agency." Yeah... well... I've been wrong before.

Oh I think it's obvious there was something he was very unhappy with about St. Louis. Whether that was real or imagined in his own head, who knows. But if he really wanted to stay he never would've let it get to this point in the first place. He would've signed last offseason.