I would have been real angry at the FO if they crippled the franchise with the contract that AP wanted. Just like AP is looking at things from a business perspective, so were the Cardinals. They just simply couldn't complete both objectives. Given the salary constraints the club was imposing, the club simply couldn't afford to give Albert the contract he really wanted. They came pretty damn close though in the grand scheme of things. They couldn't come to an agreement, and that's fine. Then AP can quit his babbling that he wanted to be a Cardinal for life because in the end the money was more important. Oh, and he can speak for himself instead of letting his wife do it for him.

So it sounds like we pretty much agree. He didn't take the money because he needed more money to buy "Yachts" or whatever else is sprewed. He just wanted to be rewareded to be recognized as the best player in the game and probably rewarded for playing out his contract in a respectable way. He felt slighted by the Cards offer and lack of desperation to get him signed and when someone came along that "rewarded him" he jumped on it. It wasn't really about "dollars" it was about the dollars providing him status and justification for his accomplishments.

http://www.insidestlaudio.com/ITD_Au...1-4Berkman.mp3 tune in at like 4:30 minutes he said it today about Albert. Sit and ****ing spin.

Yeah, about the 5:00 mark he said it wasn't about the dollars he said it was because in Albert's mind it meant the Angels love and respect me because they will pay more. Which is exactly what I've been saying.

Diedre is saying the 10 years wasn't guaranteed but the Cardinals are saying it was guaranteed. WTF is going on and is it possible Albert got duped by his own agent?

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.

It's what the money represented. I feel that he viewed that contract as an MVP award of such. He wanted a statement that he was without doubt the most "valuable" player in the game. That contract is the trophy for his mantel. I can't understand the butt hurt because I don't think I've ever had something like this happen to a team I root for, but he just wanted a statement of approval the Cards wouldn't give. I guess nobody is really at fault in the long run. From an outside looking in perspective I understand why he did what he did and it wasn't love of money.

When runaway narcissism allows one to believe that money is how you determine respect, then how you label it is immaterial.

If it wasn't love of money, it was love of self.

Both of them are shitty reasons to piss on the fans that worshiped you for a decade.

Now I think you are much closer to finding a legitamate reason to dislike the guy if you are a Cards fan then just saying it was love of $$$$$$$$$$$.

I still understand it though. Most of these guys have egos and they like them to be stroked. He had titles and MVP's and just needed something else until he starts assaulting the record books.

[QUOTE=DJ's left nut;8200631]
If it wasn't love of money, it was love of self.
/QUOTE]

BINGO. He valued himself more than the Cardinals did.

I just fundamentally disagree here, if he chooses to equate money with respect or love doesn't matter. If the only way he's accepting for you to fill the cup up is with $100 bills then what the hell else is it about but those $100 bills? How he personally values them doesn't fundamentally change them from being $100 bills into respect units or units of love no matter how much he tells himself that. They're still the same $100 bills they were before they were his.

But again - it's a bottom-line business, is it not?

If A=B and B=C then ultimately A=C

If Albert 'loves' respect and respect is all about money, then Albert loves money.

To say Albert left for love of money is completely fair - you just have to accept that money means something different to Albert than it does to you or I.

And what it means to Albert is actually significantly less savory to me than what it would mean for anyone else.

I understand, but I guess we can say he didn't leave because of greed. He wasn't day dreaming about how he was going to spend that extra 30 million of whatever. The contract was a symbol of respect and achievement. He isn't a guy that's probably charging kids $20 a pop for his autograph to suck up every last dollar. In fact it sounds like he quite a charitable guy.

I'd be more inclined to accept his argument if he didn't coin a contract that made him the 2nd highest paid player in baseball through his mid and into his late 30's an 'insult'.

At that point, I think it's a combination of arrogance and greed.

Perhaps the decision to ultimately flee for the Angels wasn't one of raw 'greed'. However, his initial decision to be 'insulted' by the $26 million/season contract was. At that point, I do believe he simply determined that $130 million simply wasn't enough cash; ego or no ego. So call it narcissism driven by greed if you'd like.

I'm not sure you're doing him any favors one way or the other, though.

I love the argument that 30 mil isn't shit because the Cards fans want him for a lesser contract....haha. How many people could he let live comfortably for the rest of their life just on the extra, even after taxes? I also believe the guy will be an absolute terror next year for the AL to deal with.

Not sure how to embed. This is a hilarious parody. Hilter reacts to Pujols leaving:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-zgY...ature=youtu.be

:clap:

That was one of the better ones.

Bottom line is he's gone-next man up, we have a championship to defend, no time to waste on the prophet from the O.C. From a baseball perspective, Cards are still the best team in NL Central, and are probably not done making moves; even with the moves the Angels made, they're still a vastly inferior team to the Rangers, and will have to fight with 6-8 teams for the wildcard.

Well, I wouldnt say vastly inferior. We have a much better pitching staff, one of the best in the AL if not the best. If Kendrys Morales comes back, and it looks good apparently, then we will be pretty friggin close. Dont forget, The Angels were in it til the last week in 2011, without a MOTO bat. We arent vastly inferior. It will be a dogfight in the AL West.

And yes, The Cards are still the best in NL West and I think you'll be just fine defending the division and forward.

Oh, the Cards would be best in NL West, if in fact they were in the NL West. ;)

That said, Angels have an edge in the rotation, 1b and lf; Texas is WAY better at every position, if you'd like to break it down, and have a FAR superior bullpen.

LMAO Yeah, I guess you could give the Diamondbacks a run in that division.

We have an edge for sure in rotation, we are defensively a better team overall, and thats what kept us (aside from pitching) in the running last year. Again, we were only 3 games out a week-week and a half from the end of 2011. We fell apart at that point, but we were in it even though offensively we were vastly inferior to Texas. Bullpen wise, texas is way better than we were, and possibly still are. Not sure Nathan is an upgrade at closer but we will see.

The addition of Pujols address the biggest need, Wilson just make us better, and we wil see how our bullpen comes together this year. We are not vastly inferior tho.

And since our Chiefs suck a big fat one, I cant wait for baseball to get here.o:-)

Ain't that the truth, at least our respective baseball teams are still worth talking about. :D

Now you just gotta hope that Pujols to the Angels isn't Griffey to the Reds.

This is true. Im going to stay positive and not think about those kinds of things.
;)

Boy, that would just break my ****ing heart. :D

I know, right? It'd hurt almost as much as when I heard we non-tendered The Riot. :D

Not mine.


I'd jump for damn joy. Especially if he started sleeping in the clubhouse when his elbow breaks down in 3 years.

Joe Posnanski: Really !@#$ing good writer -

http://joeposnanski.si.com/2011/12/1...albert-pujols/

Most people who achieve true "greatness" in a field do so because of a personality imbalance, there is absolutely no doubt about it. It's one of the things that scares me about getting a doctorate.

I like the security and salary bump that a Ph.D. can bring, but I've also observed those who have them for many years. The sad reality is that the most brilliant professors I've had are also terribly imbalanced people. They live lonely, isolated existences because their work consumes them.

How to you balance that drive with other things? It's something that worries me. I want to stay within shouting distance of a single digit handicap, and I like playing video games and bitching about football, and that's not to mention the fact that I'd rather not be an absentee parent. Although I love what I do, I can't imagine an existence where it could be all that I am.

Your sarcasm detector must be broken. :)

Nope I got that. Just stating that he left the Cardinals. I have no loyalty towards him anymore. He had that right to leave.


With that said he can take his 252 million and stick it up his ass. He's now a minor footnoot on the Cardinals epic ass.

I will say that I think that JoPo's piece is a little blah towards the end. He spends the second half of the column building up Pujols as someone driven to be the best at the consequence of nearly everything else, talks about what drove him to do so, and then never connects that drive to his decision to leave St. Louis.

It would seem, given the information he provided, that the conclusion to draw is that Pujols is an insecure person owing to his childhood and early baseball circumstances, and the larger monetary investment demonstrates the validation that helps to soothe that insecurity.

Or, as DJ put it earlier, to Albert, money=respect

If you don't mind me asking, what are you getting your doctorate in?

I'm getting my doctorate, sorta. I'm getting a Doctor of Dental Surgery degree. I'm also contemplating trying to get accepted into an Oral Surgery residency program or an Oral Pathology residency which is 6 years of additional school after the 8 years I'll ahve done or 3 more years. Problem is 99 percent of the people I have met that have done those things are a different breed.

I was damn near a scratch golfer in high school and played in college. i haven't been able to pick up a club in 6 months. It's not getting any better either and it's killing me.

Anyway, the wife and I are contemplating having children soon and I was wondering how you balance the school stuff with that?

I don't think that was his point, though. Posnanski writes a lot of stuff where he's not trying to draw conclusions, but rather just give you things to think about.

I think his intention was to first provide some historical perspective, then set that off with something of a cautionary tale. I don't think he was seeking to either praise or condemn Pujols and I certainly don't think he was trying to explain Pujols' reason for leaving STL.

I think he's just throwing some ideas out there for conversation. He does that fairly often.

It's May 1st! Pujols finishes his first month as an Angel with:

.217 AVG, 0 HR, 4 RBI, 6 BB, 14 K, .570 OPS

Only 9 years and 139 games to go!

Ouch

I had Kemp and Pujols in my fantasy league and only one keeper. Sure glad I saw the writing on the wall and kept Kemp!

Lucky for Pujols that there really isn't any such thing as an Angels fan.

Most of them are presently Dodgers fans that are watching Kemp destroy the world and wondering if Bynum is the best center alive right now.

Albert's found himself a nice little hamlet where he can be highly paid and wholly irrelevant. Good ol' Angels, the bastard stepchildren of Hollywood.

Congrats, 'Bert. You're still free to **** yourself.

Lets get this straight. Dodger fans and Angel fans are much different. Im sure there are bandwagon fans, but whats funny is that OC wants nothing to do with L.A, but their owner made the team L.A anyways. lol

And yes, Kemp is the man right now. He totally stole Alberts thunder. haha

Moreno has to be pissed that he spent all that money for maybe 2 years of production. As of right now though, it looks like he's done.

Pujols plays like shit when he's pressing. If he gets hurt this year and has to beat that too, he's going to have a horrible year.

.

I'm just glad they saved us from him - if we had two overpriced non-hitting choke artists in the heart of our line-up, we'd really be in trouble.

agreed....I think they need to put Allen Craig in the line up when he returns and sit Holiday down for a few weeks so he can see how it is done.

Yadier was my favorite Cardinal even when Pujols was there. Good riddance.

The Holliday Fan Club will be along shortly to explain how his shitty play is just a figment of your imagination. :whackit:

I'm gonna be the very last person on earth to defend Pujols, however he started really slow last year in StL too then got it going and finished 5th in MVP voting. I expect he'll get it going this year too. If he doesn't we can all laugh heartlily but he'll be too busy cashing checks to notice.

I have Pujols in one of my fantasy baseball leagues, starting to get the crappy trade offers from people thinking I'll dump him for nothing, very annoying. I want to invent some type of nanotech that will let me send them along the cabling to the other persons computer and slap them.

Trade him for Chris Getz and a pack of bazooka bubble gum.

First of all, I'm an Angels fan and have been since I can remember (early 70s). I ****ing hate the Doyyers. I dont give a shit what they are doing or how well they are doing. Im an Angels fan. period. No ****ing bandwagon here. just like Im a chiefs fan and I that wont change based on W/L records. And I know alot of Angel fans just like me,. We arent in the top teams for attendance becasue there arent any fans. So kindly go **** yourself for your disparaging comment.

Secondly, it came out today that Pujols is pregnant and his family is still in STL. Apparently his slow start has alot to do with pressing and people are suspecting emotional, like not having his family around. Whatever it is, he will turn it around, hopefully soon. Besides, the whole ****ing team has sucked ass, not just Albert.

Also a little history, the Angels were the original LA team, they were a triple A team when the BROOKLYN Dodgers were in BROOKLYN, NY. And the name is more about TV revenues than actual city. If teams had to name themselves after cities or counties they were actaully in then we'd have The Arlington Rangers, and The Independence Royals and The New Jersey Giants etc...

Pujols is pregnant? Damn, no wonder his game's in the shitter. :D

as strange as that sounds, i'm sure it could affect his swing if true.

extra mouth to feed will cost more...hope he can make it.
sec

damnit fraz...

That's great.

It's still a Dodgers town.

JoePoe does some snoopin'

http://joeposnanski.blogspot.com/201...s-edition.html

Thats great, except the Dodger fans are looked at like Raiders fans because their fan base has gotten a tad bit ghetto. So while it may be Dodger Town, Thats not necessarily a compliment. Also, and Im dont know how I feel about this but, Arte is in negotiations with AEG regarding building a stadium in downtown LA. He has an exit plan in 2015 (?) or in a few years, and he is either going to move the team to LA or is playing hardball with Anaheim. We will see.

Im frustrated as an Angels fan, cuz they ****ing suck right now, but AP is the last person Im worried about. He'll come around and be fine. Its our BLOWPEN that infuriates me.

That was exactly my reaction.
Seriously though, I do beleive his wife and kids need to get to So Cal quick. Daddy needs to get laid. He's al pent up and shit.:evil:

You realize that this is the MLB you're talking about and they still haven't even worked out the deal for the A's to move to San Jose? I realize that is a thornier territorial rights issue there but they'd still put any move in "committee purgatory" for years after they actually started pursuing it. And that AEG has said before that they're not really interested in baseball because of the overlap with hockey and basketball, right?

You do realize I dont just pull shit out of nowhere, right?
http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-...0,290864.story

The Dodgers could not challenge an Angels move to Los Angeles, at least not in the way the San Francisco Giants are blocking the A's from moving to San Jose.

The Giants have exclusive territorial rights to San Jose. The Dodgers and Angels share an identical territory, including Los Angeles.

What happened? Dont have any condescending shit to say now? I love that...:rolleyes:

I'm not saying you're pulling it out of nowhere I'm saying that AEG has stated that they have no real interest in baseball numerous times. That doesn't mean they stupid and won't take a meeting with a rich guy that wants to talk them into being interested in baseball just that they would have to be talked into it. The more likely scenario is they're both covering their bases and doing their due diligence on the potential. And like I said, it wouldn't be as thorny an issue as San Jose but you can bet your ass it'd be a big ol' mess trying to do it with the MLB dragging the process out that's how they do shit.

I agree that both parties are probably playing hardball with whoever they need to (Arte-Anaheim-AEG-NFL), but you could of posed your post a little condenscending, especially since 'you do realize" thats it is entriely possible for it to happen? This article is from 3 days ago, not last year.

Not sure I want it to tho.

Its a leverage game, he wants a new stadium. The way he as an owner can minimize how much he pays for the shiny top of the line new stadium is by making them bid against _something_.

Agreed. I really hope Arte manages to get a sweet stadium by the beach in the OC or at least fat ass upgrade in Anaheim.

Pujols was my favorite player in decades since the Gibby/Brock era. He will pull out of this. When he presses its a sad thing to watch. His happiness is always tied to success on the baseball field and also being pissed off about some mostly precieved slight.

I'm more saddened about Pujols leaving than pissed off. Not sad about Pujols or my team but for baseball. The Cardinals can afford a top ten payroll and it still didnt make financial sense to give him $225 million. Only 5 teams can afford the top 5 talent. MLB needs to look at the NFL and Green Bay, KC etc and see how it benefits everyone.

I was a fan a long time before Pujols was even born. Me and my 5th generation Cardinals fan son will be a fan long after his basball playing days are done. We have and always will be a fan of the birds on bat, not just the name on the back of the jersey.

Personally, I hope he ends up being the biggest bust in the history of sports. Maybe it'll make the rest of these big market one who sucks the peniss think twice before offering ridiculous contracts like this.