Dear Bill Dewitt, PLEASE SIGN ALBERT PUJOLS NOW!

I'm getting tired of sitting here reading all the articles about the cardinals trying to sign Albert - Hey Bill, if you sign him, the fans will come. give the man 10 years $300,000,000 please. I'll chip in $100.
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Not worth it.

At this point of his career it will only start to go down now.

That is how baseball clubs go broke - sign guys to long-term guaranteed deals only to see them go down in production. Countless guys prove that every year.
I like Pujols, he is a great ambassador for the Cards, but a huge deal, long-term deal?
No.

 

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I tend to agree with this, at least for the Cards (a small-market team).

NYY/NYM/BOS/LAD and maybe a few other teams can throw insane cash at him. STL can't.

their only hope is a significant "hometown discount", since baseball players can't (officially) take equity in a team as part of their contract.

 

that is precisely why we need to get this deal done, and done ASAP.
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I'm afraid to uncover my eyes and see what the Cubs will look like this year.

 

I personally will drive to Chi town once per year if they sign him, and watch the game over at Wrigley

They'd also have to find a way to sign Placido Polanco too... but I'd boo him just because he made an ass of himself after not being re-signed by the Tigers in 2010.

 

Let me kinda remind you also, StL won a SB, then they signed their QB to a HUGE deal, and it only went down from there. For StL that is.

 

St. Louis Need to do whatever Pujols wants. Look at the NBA Cavs: No James... Now it's up to 24 loses in a row!!!!!

 

Baseball isn't a superstar sport; although they do help Look at the Yankees the last 6 years...

 

STL can't get in a bidding war with the Yankees or even Cubs. Even if they win, they lose.

 

Slightly different sports.

That would be like Ferrari dropping Alonso and hiring me.

Baseball isn't a superstar sport?

I see you are from Michigan, so I can see why you say that.
Detroit hasn't had a baseball superstar since Jack Morris, Alan Trammel and Lou Whitaker.

Baseball DOES have superstars - they just generally cannot carry a team like a basketball player can.

 

Don't get me wrong, there are superstars; but like yous aid, they don't carry a team single handed into a championship game.

Detroit does have more than one current superstar... Justin Verlander, and Miguel Cabrera, and a few other very good, high potential players, and one former superstar in Maglio Ordonez who hopefully still has another good year with the team in 2011.

I do miss the days of Morris, Whitaker, Trammel, Darrel Evans, Chet LeMont etc... Cecil Fielder, Travis Fryman, Mickey Tenelton, Mike Hennaman... Sparky Anderson; but its good today too

Yeah, I go to as many games as I can every year

 

No team is really going to pay Pujols $300 million. A deal for that amount may get done, but it will be a token gesture with so many clauses on the back end that the contract will never go the full 10 years.

Now, assuming the Cardinals were in a position to spend $30mm per year, would Pujols be the best use of that money? I am doubtful. I like Albert and he is obviously a great player, but would he be better than three or four very solid guys in the lineup for the same money? How about a couple of pitchers?

St. Louis is a strong baseball town, so ticket sales aren't likely to suffer if Pujols leaves town. Fans want Albert in a Cardinals uniform, but they're not going to stop buying tickets if he leaves.

 

IIRC, Albert's current deal w/ the Cards is heavily back-loaded, so it's safe to assume the new deal will be too.

however, I'd rather see the money spent on a more well-rounded team that can contend for several years than hamstringing the team with one giant contract, no matter how back-loaded it is.

and you are correct, STL will sell 3 million tickets a year whether Albert is in the lineup or not. DeWitt's image with the fan base will take a pasting, though.

 

He's in a lose-lose situation with the fans. If DeWitt spends the money to retain Pujols, fans will be happy today but upset when the Cards can't afford to sign any talent to put around Albert. If DeWitt lets Pujols leave, he'll take a pasting just like you said.

 

yep.

lose/lose/lose, really...the above scenarios, or achieve both by drastically raising ticket and/or concession prices.

maybe they could finally build Ballpark Village and just give Albert all the proceeds?

 

It's not an AB distributorship, but at least it's something.

 

Albert keeps professinbg his love for St. Louis and how the team 'raised' him, so let's see if money is the most important thing to him. My guess is that it is, but I also think he can't go anywhere else and be as productive.
I don't think he has the mentality to be a Yankee or Red Sock..(?), but I could see him in LA, TX or SD.

 

he's Dominican, and there's tons of Dominicans in NY and BOS. I think he'd do very well there.

 

True, however, both the Yanks and Sox are set at 1B with great offensive/defensive players. Dodgers? LOL next! It's the Mets who have to do something other than get sued.....

Pujols wants to play D.

 

He is going to the Astros.

It is all over the web.



If Santa could give me just one gift, for my entire life

 

I don't think poo-holes is all that popular in Houston

besides, Houston doesn't seem to have the commitment to winning or the huge payroll needed to reel him in (which is odd given the size of Houston's market).

 

Haha - note the picture I posted in the original post. I remember watching that homerun live, I think I nearly killed my roommate as we were celebrating, lol.

I agree that a 30 mil/year contract will pit a strain on the cardinals financial numbers, but with the cards averaging 3 mil + a year in attendance, I think Dewitt and the other 10 or so owners in the group will still turn a nice size profit. Don't forget, they made a killing when buying the team, by selling the parking garages and in essence, cutting their cost in half. Last I heard, they were working on a 7 year, 200m+ deal, that would give him his 28-30 million dollar salary, and they'd probably put options in there for an eighth and ninth year.

His current contract is backloaded, if I remember correctly, he'll be getting paid through 2030 on his current contract, so that is definitely an option that's in play.

 

St. Louis is CRAZY not to sign him!!!!!