Pujols Signs With Angels

[skmsw]

I actually heard a fairly credible rumor in the winter meetings that the Cards took their nine year offer off the table, and then made two different offers:

the first was five years for $150mm, the second was seven years for $175mm.

Remember when we gave Holliday his money, and prevailing sentiment was, "they never would have done this if they didn't KNOW they have the money it will take to sign Albert" ?

Seems to me Holliday was probably phase one of REPLACING Albert ... a much lower risk for an organization that does not like risk and knew they could handle the money it would take, but not the risk. If they really wanted to sign him, they probably would have done it two years ago when the options started. The age curve would have been better, there would have been no one to bid against, etc.

With no Luhnow, no LaRussa, and no Albert, guess we'll find out pretty quickly whether Mo brings the goods as a GM or not ...

[Jocephus]

didn't we question whether he brought the goods when lunhow, TLR and albert were there?

[skmsw]

didn't we question whether he brought the goods when lunhow, TLR and albert were there?

Some did.

[Diddy]

I havent read the entire thread and dont have the time to go back and do it so some of this may have been previously said. Im fine with AP leaving and going to the angels, miami or the cubs i couldnt have took. I absolutely hate it that the DH made it "easier" for an AL team to offer more money or at least more years. I guess thats not 100% true if miami did truely make that offer but i feel like STL could have made a beter offer if they had the DH.

How much more will the angels make in uni sales? i know the cards would have made some but there are currently 0 pujols angels jerseys.

I hate that Burhele had already signed before we lost AP and didnt get a chance to go after him. May not have anyway, but ive always wanted him to wear the birds on the bat, now itll either be in a trade or a one year deal in 4 years.

What makes pujols, pujols? taking the extra base? gold glove defense? 300/30/100? Minimal DL time? Hes battled injuries for 11 years now, i just dont see how hell continue to do these things many more years. If wed have resigned him id have been ok watching the decline casue he was one of "ours".

[Leroy]

Just like for last thousand posts or whatever, we have been hanging on every word that somebody says. I don't give a crap about credible sources, a lot of the guys on ESPN or the MLB network are fairly credible. They were all wrong. And don't get me started on the Twitter crap. He was going to the Marlins. Nightingale is an idiot (that's from me). Obviously going to the Cardinals. Wait, a mystery team. Nah, Cardinals. Oh, he's an Angel (but most of my sources already knew that).

None of us were in the room so none of us know what happened and none of the sources do either unless they were there. I could have walked around that hotel, fell in a pool and said, 'He's going to the Cubs!'. Anybody can say what they want. Albert's gone and life goes on.

[Socnorb11]

didn't we question whether he brought the goods when lunhow, TLR and albert were there?

Heck, a lot of people assumed that both Larussa and Mo were garbage. Then they won a World Series without Wainwright, and with Albert easily having the worst year of his career.

The Cardinals could win 5 championships in a row without Pujols, and some people would probably credit it to pixie dust. People are going to believe what they want to believe, and find a way to justify that belief. It's human nature.

[Cronos]

The Cardinals could win 5 championships in a row without Pujols, and some people would probably credit it to pixie dust.

We know Cubs fans will.

[pioneer98]

Dodgers are not as strong a franchise as you think- Arte heavily markets in LA and on Spanish radio and getting Pujols will only increase their appeal. Angels had 200k higher attendance this past year than Dodgers.

The Dodgers are still the bigger deal in LA, but have been thoroughly mismanaged in recent years. The Angels view this window while the Dodgers are in disarray as their shot to grab more of the LA market. The lengths to which the Angels are going to try to accomplish this actually kind of illustrates what they are up against. Good luck.

[Jmodene]

Dodgers are not as strong a franchise as you think- Arte heavily markets in LA and on Spanish radio and getting Pujols will only increase their appeal. Angels had 200k higher attendance this past year than Dodgers.

The Dodgers are still the bigger deal in LA, but have been thoroughly mismanaged in recent years. The Angels view this window while the Dodgers are in disarray as their shot to grab more of the LA market. The lengths to which the Angels are going to try to accomplish this actually kind of illustrates what they are up against. Good luck.

That was my point; you explained it better than I did. Thank you.

[Jocephus]

has this already been posted?

"People from other teams want to play in St. Louis and they're jealous that we're in St. Louis because the fans are unbelievable. So why would you want to leave a place like St. Louis to go somewhere else and make $3 or $4 more million a year? It's not about the money. I already got my money. It's about winning and that's it. It's about accomplishing my goal and my goal is to try to win." --- Albert Pujols, 2009