Pujols Signs With Angels

[fanforever]

Pujols' new ten-year contract with the Angels will keep him with the team for another ten years after it expires. MLB.com's Alden Gonzalez reports that the deal will keep him on board as a consultant to owner Arte Moreno for a decade after his playing days are over.

@Alden_Gonzalez Alden Gonzalez
Pujols' 10 -year deal includes an extra 10 years after he's done playing, which will have him serve as a consultant to Moreno. #Angels

[AdmiralKird]

I don't buy his spin at all.

1. He is the one who said he wouldn't leave over 3-4 mil a year but yet he did

2. He says it was because the Angels wanted him forever and beyond...to be part of the family and didn't get the sense that the Cards wanted that....UM Alberta, have you not paid attention to all the HOF's that are constantly brought back and treated like royalty by the FO? Open your eyes you idiot, you would have been taken care of easily, they wanted you part of the family and would role out the red carpet for you.

3. Offering someone 10/210 who will be in decline and not live up to the contract and handcuff a team for years is showing a commitment...a steep commitment.

The more he talks the more I am in agreement with MO and DeWitt.

1. He wanted a ten year deal. The Cardinals wouldn't give it and kept telling him he wasn't worth that. It just goes sour from there. It's more about people shooting down your expectations of yourself and pride than millions of dollars.

2. Other teams with great superstars have not asked their players to accept many small deals towards the end of their careers. Why would you want to play for someone who would treat you poorer than any other team? Especially after the service you've been rendering.

3. Yeah but it comes after the 5/130, which is a huge deal.

I don't know what was said at that meeting on Wednesday, but to me, that seems like it was the last straw, like they had been beating around the bush for several hours and Dewitt/Mo let some comment slip that they probably shouldn't.

[jagtrader]

The whole thing is sad and stupid. It shows the ridiculousness that comes with living in such a bubble that one measures "commitment" and respect in hundreds of millions of dollars. I have a feeling Pujols will regret this decision once he gets some distance from it. I think he may already regret it. But he's still going to have one hell of a great life, so no need for any sympathy.

From a personal perspective, I'm bummed I'll no longer be able to appreciate his career like I should. I won't watch one at-bat in an Angels uniform unless it's in the World Series or against the Cardinals. It's just a reminder of the absurd nature of sports that I try to block out for the sake of enjoyment.

[BigDCardlvr]

I don't care how he spins it. It is money. And two things I know:

I'm sorry Albert's gone.

I'm glad the cardinals didn't make that deal.

[Radbird]

I'm sorry Albert's gone.

I'm glad the cardinals didn't make that deal.

Sums up my feelings nicely, Big D.

[cardsfansince82]

[/youtube]

[fanforever]

Full article:

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseb ... e-1.989679

$331.5M Angels spent on free agents Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson will come back to haunt club
This year's 'One Dumb Owner' is Angels boss Arte Moreno

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
By Bill Madden

So much for the Albert Pujols-Stan Musial comparisons. So much for all that carping by Arte Moreno about too much spending in baseball. So much for the demise of (Deadspin) Dan Lozano, Pujols' agent.

The fallout from Pujols' 10-year, $254 million deal with Moreno's L.A. Angels is being felt all over baseball - from the other owners, who have been calling Commissioner Bud Selig to express their outrage and condemnation of Moreno as the all-time hypocrite; to the rest of the American League West which will be hard-pressed to counter the record $331.5 million one-day expenditure by Moreno that reaped the free-agent market's premium player, Pujols, and top starting pitcher, C.J. Wilson, making the Angels heavy favorites to win the division and the most formidable on-paper team in the league; to Scott (Avenging Agent) Boras, who now stands to become the biggest benefactor from his arch-rival Lozano's stunning coup.

The news of Lozano's Pujols deal was barely tweeted when Selig began getting besieged with calls from the other owners excoriating Moreno, who, according to sources, was the leading hawk on Selig's negotiating committee in the recent collective bargaining negotiations with the players union, and an outspoken critic of the Yankees, in particular, the Red Sox and Phillies in all the owners' meetings. This after being outbid by the Yankees for CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira and the Red Sox for Carl Crawford in the past. Moreno, who bought the Angels for $189 million in 2003, continually told his fellow owners that no player should be signed for more than five years. Kind of reminds us of White Sox board chairman Jerry Reinsdorf back in 1996 signing Albert Belle to a then-monster five-year, $55 million deal after having been the biggest owners hawk in the calamitous 1994 labor war. This is why Selig, as much as he constantly lectures the owners about how reckless spending affects all the other clubs, is never going to be able to protect his fellow lords from themselves. As Reinsdorf himself so aptly conceded after his own folly with Belle, there is always going to be "one dumb owner" every year wreaking havoc on the salary structure. Last year, it was the Washington Nationals' Ted Lerner with the idiotic seven-year, $126 million deal he gave to Jayson Werth. This year, with a hefty push from Miami's Jeffrey Loria - who apparently still has money to burn after his $191 million winter meetings splurge on Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle and Heath Bell - it's Moreno.

So for the now, the Angels look like the winners of the winter, just as the Red Sox did a year ago after bagging Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez. Moreno can feel content that the increase from $50 million to $80 million in his new TV deal will pay for the Pujols contract. And even though Pujols showed his first signs of slippage from being an elite player last year when a wrist injury partly caused his batting average to drop below .300 and his RBI total below 100 for the first time, he makes the Angels more of a force than they've ever been. Down the road, however, this deal has a very good chance of equaling or eclipsing the Yankees' A-Rod deal as the dumbest contract ever. Angel fans should therefore enjoy the moment.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseb ... z1gFUS18vT

[cardsfansince82]

2. Other teams with great superstars have not asked their players to accept many small deals towards the end of their careers. Why would you want to play for someone who would treat you poorer than any other team? Especially after the service you've been rendering.

Are there any other examples of teams handing out ten year contracts for huge money to someone already over 30? Maybe ARod and that's it.

[Mary1966]

Albert's first press conference as an Angel:

http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/mlb/stor ... -cj-wilson

And some Cardinal fans express their displeasure by burning Albert's jersey (NSFW):

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBLNS07q ... ideo_title][/youtube]

[KyCardinalFan]

The whole thing is sad and stupid. It shows the ridiculousness that comes with living in such a bubble that one measures "commitment" and respect in hundreds of millions of dollars.

This is exactly it. This is why pro athletes say it's not about the money. In their minds it's about respect, not somehow realizing that number represents money!


I also wanted to add that I think it's funny that Dierdre said something about Albert being a possession, since he's pretty much sold himself to them for the next 20 years.