"Official" 2011 St. Louis Cardinals Thread

[BigRedChief]

This is so unreal. We were dead. No hope. A season over. Somehow, someway we find some team chemistry and squeak into the playoffs on the last day of the season.

Only to find us facing one of the best pitching staffs assembled in years with home field advantage. We somehow, someway find a way to beat the best pitcher in baseball on the road in an elimination game.

We have to go on the road and beat the team with the best home record in baseball. A team who mortgaged their future to make this run .We somehow, someway find a way to beat them on the road and make our 18th World series trip.

We take game 1, we give away game 2 and home field advantage. Albert goes off for probably the best performance in World Series history and we take game 3 easily. Games 4 & 5 our bats fall asleep, Phone gate happens and its not looking too good.

Game 6, one of the best baseball games of all time and it takes place in a season ending go home game. Cardinals are down 2 runs in their final chance on the season, twice. They are down to their final strike of the season, twice. They give up a 2 run homer in extra innings. In the bottom of the inning their final 3 batters are a combined 3-26 in the Playoffs and a pitcher because the bench is empty. Somehow, someway they get some runners on and the comeback player of the year drives in the tying run. Mr. Freese hits the walk off home run. We will see you tommorrow night.

Game 7, With our bulldog on the mound pitching on 3 days rest he is able to give us 6 good innings and get us to within 9 outs of our 11 World series title. Texas meltsdown, probably left over from last nights game and its over.

The underdog, come back team who had no business even being in the playoffs wins a World championship. They make movies about events like this in life. Events that you remember even if your not a fan of the sport or team for the rest of your life.

When it is your team.......Priceless


.

[jd1020]

Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins

Guess what, the market changes.

Ya, and it hasn't gotten cheaper.

2001 - The year the Rangers gave ARod a $252mil contract. The highest team payroll was $109mil.

2011 - Current year. The highest team payroll is $201mil.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Take A-Rod out of the equation and look at the other biggest contracts in baseball history:

What kind of deal did Manny get after his mammoth deal expired?
What do you think Vernon Wells is getting with his next deal? Joe Mauer? Teixeira? Todd Helton? Beltran? Carlos Lee? Soriano?Zambrano? Torii Hunter?

In baseball, you normally get one truly monster deal unless you sign one when you are 24-5 like A-Rod did and have the magical confluence of having your second deal done by the freest and most foolish-spending franchise in American sports.

[jd1020]

Why take ARod out of the equation? He's the highest paid player in the game because at the time of receiving his contract he was the best player in the game. Pujols is now the best player in the game and the Cardinals are offering him what Fielder is most likely going to get.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Originally Posted by jd1020

Ya, and it hasn't gotten cheaper.

2001 - The year the Rangers gave ARod a $252mil contract. The highest team payroll was $109mil.

2011 - Current year. The highest team payroll is $201mil.

And it was higher in 2010.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Originally Posted by jd1020

Why take ARod out of the equation? He's the highest paid player in the game because at the time of receiving his contract he was the best player in the game. Pujols is now the best player in the game.

A-Rod was not the best player in the game at the time of his second contract, and he was 25 at the time of his first, not 31.

[jd1020]

Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins

And it was higher in 2010.

Look at the next teams in line...

2011
N.Y. Yankees $201,689,030 $6,722,968
Philadelphia 172,976,381 5,765,879
Boston 161,407,476 5,978,055
Los Angeles Angels 138,998,524 4,483,823
Chicago White Sox 129,285,539 4,788,353
Chicago Cubs 125,480,664 5,228,361
New York Mets 120,147,310 4,290,975
San Francisco 118,216,333 4,378,383
Minnesota 112,737,000 4,509,480
Detroit 105,705,232 3,915,009
St. Louis 105,433,572 3,904,947
Los Angeles Dodgers 103,788,990 3,459,633
Texas 92,299,265 3,182,733
Colorado 87,998,071 3,384,541
Atlanta 87,003,192 3,346,277
Seattle 86,424,600 2,880,820
Milwaukee 85,497,333 2,849,911
Baltimore 85,304,038 3,280,925
Cincinnati 76,181,365 2,539,379
Houston 70,694,000 2,437,724
Oakland 66,536,500 2,376,304
Washington 63,681,929 2,195,929
Toronto 62,517,800 2,016,703
Florida 56,944,000 2,190,154
Arizona 53,639,833 1,986,660
Cleveland 49,188,867 1,639,629
Pittsburgh 46,047,000 1,534,900
San Diego 45,869,140 1,479,650
Tampa Bay 41,932,171 1,612,776
Kansas City 36,126,400 1,338,015

2010
1. New York Yankees $206,333,389 $8,253,336
2. Boston Red Sox $162,747,333 $5,611,977
3. Chicago Cubs $146,859,000 $5,439,222
4. Philadelphia Phillies $141,927,381 $5,068,835
5. New York Mets $132,701,445 $5,103,902
6. Detroit Tigers $122,864,929 $4,550,553
7. Chicago White Sox $108,273,197 $4,164,354
8. Los Angeles Angels $105,013,667 $3,621,161
9. Seattle Mariners $98,376,667 $3,513,452
10. San Francisco Giants $97,828,833 $3,493,887
11. Minnesota Twins $97,559,167 $3,484,256
12. Los Angeles Dodgers $94,945,517 $3,651,751
13. St. Louis Cardinals $93,540,753 $3,741,630
14. Houston Astros $92,355,500 $3,298,411
15. Atlanta Braves $84,423,667 $3,126,802
16. Colorado Rockies $84,227,000 $2,904,379
17. Baltimore Orioles $81,612,500 $3,138,942
18. Milwaukee Brewers $81,108,279 $2,796,837
19. Cincinnati Reds $72,386,544 $2,784,098
20. Kansas City Royals $72,267,710 $2,491,990
21. Tampa Bay Rays $71,923,471 $2,663,832
22. Toronto Blue Jays $62,689,357 $2,089,645
23. Washington Nationals $61,425,000 $2,047,500
24. Cleveland Indians $61,203,967 $2,110,482
25. Arizona Diamondbacks $60,718,167 $2,335,314
26. Florida Marlins $55,641,500 $2,060,796
27. Texas Rangers $55,250,545 $1,905,191
28. Oakland Athletics $51,654,900 $1,666,287
29. San Diego Padres $37,799,300 $1,453,819
30. Pittsburgh Pirates $34,943,000 $1,294,185

[Chiefaholic]

It's amazing that a player would balk at an offer of a guaranteed $210 million contract from a team who's a playoff contender year after year. If playing for a contender truly is his objective, then accepting the offer from the Cards would be a no brainer. This combined with his previous deal gives him a third of a BILLION dollars which should give the next 3 generations of Pujols a very comfortable lifestyle

[VAChief]

Originally Posted by jd1020

Ya, and it hasn't gotten cheaper.

2001 - The year the Rangers gave ARod a $252mil contract. The highest team payroll was $109mil.

2011 - Current year. The highest team payroll is $201mil.

Texas threw out crazy money without even looking to see what they needed first. It was like going all in when the other players have a pair of tens showing at best.

If someone throws out more than 210 million then we can talk. You don't negotiate against yourself.

[jd1020]

2010. 8 teams >$100mil

2011. 12 teams >$100mil

[jd1020]

Originally Posted by Chiefaholic

It's amazing that a player would balk at an offer of a guaranteed $210 million contract from a team who's a playoff contender year after year. If playing for a contender truly is his objective, then accepting the offer from the Cards would be a no brainer. This combined with his previous deal gives him a third of a BILLION dollars which should give the next 3 generations of Pujols a very comfortable lifestyle

He would have accepted it the first time they offered it, if that were the case.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Originally Posted by jd1020

Look at the next teams in line...

And watch what happens next year. Philly's payroll will stay around the same. Boston isn't bringing in any new FA talent of high cost, and may well shed payroll if Ortiz departs. The Cubs and Mets will probably cut payroll.

There aren't going to be a lot of monster deals out there this year.

I'm fine with giving Pujols whatever he wants, but if you have the best offer out there and it's 9/210, there's no reason to make it 10/250 just for shits and giggles.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Teams are getting smarter with their contracts, Philly aside. The Vernon Wells, Barry Zito, and Mike Hampton contracts are becoming the exception, not the FA norm.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

FTR, payroll can still go up without top end contracts going up. If midlevel guys get paid far beyond what they used to while the cap of the market for the top players decreases by 10-20%, payroll will still go up because there are so many second and third tier FAs.

[Scott Pilgrim]

Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins

Teams are getting smarter with their contracts, Philly aside. The Vernon Wells, Barry Zito, and Mike Hampton contracts are becoming the exception, not the FA norm.

I wish i could agree with this but last year there were two awful contracts (Werth, Crawford)

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Originally Posted by Scott Pilgrim

I wish i could agree with this but last year there were two awful contracts (Werth, Crawford)

Meh. That's a hell of a lot different than when there used to be 6-8 horrible deals a period.