Pujols signs w Angels

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Carlota69

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...

That's great.

It's still a Dodgers town.

[Carlota69]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

That's great.

It's still a Dodgers town.

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.

[veist]

Originally Posted by Carlota69

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.

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?

[Frazod]

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[DJ's left nut]

[Frazod]

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.

[King_Chief_Fan]

Originally Posted by frazod

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.

[Frazod]

Originally Posted by King_Chief_Fan

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.

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

[Dr. Johnny Fever]

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.

[DJ's left nut]

[luv]

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

[cookster50]

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.

[lewdog]

Originally Posted by cookster50

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.

[DJ's left nut]

JoePoe does some snoopin'

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

The Machine (Pujols Edition)
What has made Albert Pujols utterly amazing, of course, is that he has been a machine. This is so true that people call him "The Machine." Until his sorta-psuedo-semi struggles last year -- where he only ended up fifth in the MVP voting and hit less than .300 for the first time in his life -- you could not even IMAGINE him struggling.

Yes, of course, if you looked deeper, he had his struggles now and again. No man is a machine. He had his power outages. He had his injuries. He had his months where he stumbled. For instance there was July 2001, when he hit .241 with little power.

*But that little fact might kind of prove the point: If you don't include last year, I had to go back to his ROOKIE SEASON to find a month when he hit less than .250. Even last year, he only had one month when he did it -- he hit .245 in April.



But in large part, Pujols' career is defined by sheer relentlessness. His best season, great as it is, might not be quite as great as Ruth's best, Bonds' best, Mantle's best, Brett's best, Yaz's best, Mays' best, Ted Williams' best, Frank Robinson's best and so on. But with Pujols, it was always difficult to even pick which WAS his best season. Was it the year he hit .327 with 47 homers and led the league in on-base percentage and slugging percentage? Was it the year hit .359 with 51 doubles and 43 homers? Was it the year he hit .331, led the league in slugging, hit 49 homers and won the Gold Glove? Was it the year he hit .357, walked 100 times and led the league in total bases?

Was it … well, you get the point. They were all great. Every single one. It was a career like Aaron's or Musial's or Gehrig's -- an annual barrage of greatness.

And that's why Albert Pujols' April means something, I think. I'm not sure exactly what it means -- I do try to avoid falling for that temptress called Small Sample Size -- but it was the worst month of Albert Pujols' career. He did not hit a single home run. He could not get on base. He is in a new ballpark that is tougher on hitters than his old one. He's playing in a new league with different pitchers, perhaps a a few better ones. He's playing in front of new fans who do not love him as much as the old St. Louis fans did -- and why should they? He's playing under the hailstorm of a 10-year, $240 million contract. And, let's face it, he is 32 years old (while cynics snicker).

It means something, I think. Does it mean that Albert Pujols is done as a great player? Of course not. But baseball can be a cruel game. Cal Ripken never had a great season after age 30. Willie McCovey had his last great season at 32. AL Kaline's last great season was around 32 too. The years are harsher than people ever want to believe. And they turn in one direction.

I suspect that Pujols will soon have a stretch of hitting awesomeness that will blow the mind and once again remind America that he is Albert Pujols. And everyone will say, 'OK, Albert's as great as ever.' But it might not be that easy. I have this theory about age. Remember the McDonald's commercials about the McDLT which kept the "hot side hot and the cool side cool?" Jason Alexander was in one of those commercials. Anyway, I think that one thing that happens with age is that the hot side loses some of it's heat, and the cool side gets a little colder. I've been convinced that streaks and slumps are largely illusions of time and chance, but they still happen. The month Albert Pujols just had -- with a .265 on-base percentage -- was simply not a possibility for a 25-year-old Pujols, not over a 100 plate appearances.

And while he will undoubtedly have big stretches -- look at Derek Jeter's April -- how many of them does he have left? And how long will those stretches be? Does he have another 50-game streak in him where he hits .370/.450/650? How about a 40-game stretch? A 30-gamer?

I looked at Pujols' first 23 games every season of his career. Of course, it doesn't mean all that much. Six-sevenths of the season remains. But even if you just look at the first 23 games, Albert Pujols was a machine. He struggled a bit in the early going last year and also in 2007. But neither was anything like this year's start. And the other years are, well, Pujols-like.

Pujols told Jon Paul Morosi that he is not pressing, and that this is just the rhythm of baseball, and that he doesn't care what anybody says, and that his numbers will be there at the end of the year. These are exactly the things he should be saying. And these are exactly the things he should be believing.

But, he really does look helpless up there at the moment. It could be a passing thing. But I can never remember that happening before.

[BigRedChief]

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.