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Hot Stove Stoked On Pujols Rumors

Posted on December 6, 2011 at 7:24 AM
Filed Under: Florida Marlins | St. Louis Cardinals
When I went to bed last night, I was feeling fairly good about the Cardinals and their talks with Albert Pujols.  I mean, they had an hour-long meeting with Dan Lozano and things looked to be moving in the right direction.  This morning, not so much.

Reports are that the Marlins have upped their offer.  It seems to be a ten-year deal, which is obviously longer than the Cards had been wanting.  It may be time to panic, according to Joe Strauss.  You can find the best roundup of the links relating to this offer over here.

The Cardinals are meeting again today with the Pujols camp and they are expected to offer a modified proposal, which is news in and of itself as the Cards have been steadfastly refusing to change what they offered back in the spring.  With this push by the Marlins, they've probably been forced to at least ante up a little bit to stay in the hand.

Oh, and it seems not all is well within the Pujols camp, since it seems Deidre Pujols wants new representation for her husband after all the recent allegations.  As I've stated before, I agree with her.  It's not the best testimony to his character if these things are true, and apparently Mrs. Pujols believes that they are.  

There are also reports that the relationship between Pujols and the team has been strained over the last couple of years--something that would be interesting to know more about.  What caused that?  Which side is at fault?  Why wouldn't you be on the best of terms with your star player?

All of this is likely to provoke a flurry of blog posts, Twitter comments and other reactions from the fan base.  (You know, like this one.)  And yet, hard as it is to say, we need to hear that classic piece of advice.


Let's take a look at this situation rationally.  We know there are two things that Albert wants, right?  (At least, we think we do.)  He wants to be very well paid, and he wants to win.

The Marlins, at least for right now, can give him the first.  They can top out their payroll, splurge on all the big ticket items, run up their credit card.  Perhaps all of that, and the new stadium, can buy him a few years in Miami.  I mean, who is the face of that franchise, Jeff Conine?  Even he didn't play his whole career there.

However, there's a reason they won't give out no trade clauses in that part of Florida.  The Marlins' history has more binging and purging than fashion week in New York.  The Marlins are offering a 10-year contract, but I'm pretty sure the odds of him being in Miami even six years from now might be 3,720 to one.

Also, Pujols has played down in Miami.  While the new stadium and this offseason spending spree might get a temporary buzz going in the area, the chances are that in two or three years, no matter how good the team is, there are still going to be a lot of nights when there are more empty seats than fans in the place. How much fun could it be to play in front of a fairly apathetic fan base like that?  Again, I know they've brought in a good number of fans in winning years and they might be attempting a culture shift with all these changes, but is that the way you want to bet with the rest of your career?

Even without all that, though, the question remains: how is this team going to win?  They should have Josh Johnson back, but he's going to remain an injury risk for a while.  Anibal Sanchez and Ricky Romero are solid starters, but that's not necessarily a rotation that is going to stack up with Philadelphia or maybe Atlanta.  There's obviously a new closer, Heath Bell, but his numbers aren't going in the right direction and you have to get a lead to him anyway.  The Marlins would be able to slug with the top of their lineup, but I'm not sure that is going to be enough to really compete in the NL East.

Plus, Albert, have you seen those uniforms?  Really, you want to be seen in an all-orange jersey top?  I mean, you've played in one of the classic uniforms of baseball for 11 years and you want to switch to that?

This is about the time that, if this was a movie, the dramatic music swells as Pujols sits down to sign the Marlins offer, then realizes that his heart is still in St. Louis no matter what the smarmy agent (likely played by Rob Lowe) is telling him.  He tears up the contract, fires the agent, and kisses his wife as they walk out of the room and over to John Mozeliak's suite.  While real life usually doesn't work out like that, I still think that, at the end of the day, the Cards are going to up their offer and they are going to sign Pujols.

If they do, both the team and, to my mind, the portion of the fan base that wants him back are committed.  The team is committed to signing him again at the end of this deal, if he still wants to play, so that he can finish his career in St. Louis.  The fan base is committed to not wanting to throw him overboard at the first (or last) signs of decline.  Yes, he's going to take up payroll resources.  Yes, he's going to be overpaid.  That's part of the equation.  That's part of what it takes to have today's Stan Musial, to have him be available for a huge ovation on opening day in 2041 or whatever.  There is a premium that must be paid for that.

I'm sure the news and rumors will be flying fast and furious today, so it should be a good day to stay tuned to Twitter if you are so inclined.

Also, there are rumors not involving Pujols.  For instance, there were reports that the Cards had a one-year deal in front of Octavio Dotel, but he was looking for a longer contract.  It looks like there are plenty of people willing to give him one.  Milwaukee probably just wants him so he isn't able to face Ryan Braun again.

The bigger rumor, though, is that the Cards were shopping Kyle Lohse to make room for Mark Buerhle.  This one is completely believable in my mind.  Believable that it is happening, that is, not that anything will come from it.  Buehrle has always wanted to play in St. Louis, I think the feeling is mutual, but there's not room for him.  In an ideal world, the Cards would move Jake Westbrook but there's got to be no market for him.  Lohse had a solid season last year and there could be a team wanting pitching that would take him on.  The Cards would have to buy out the no-trade clause and likely eat part of the contract, but not as much as they would have last season.  Again, don't expect it to happen, but as the Mythbusters say, it's at least plausible.

There's nothing like the winter meetings for some great baseball talk.  Let's do it again today!

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Heroes
Matt Holliday (5)
Matt Carpenter (4)
Rafael Furcal (4)
Carlos Beltran (3)
Jaime Garcia (3)
Jon Jay (3)
Kyle Lohse (3)
Lance Lynn (3)
Yadier Molina (3)
David Freese (2)
Adam Wainwright (2)
Lance Berkman (1)
Allen Craig (1)
Shane Robinson (1)
Fernando Salas (1)
Jake Westbrook (1)

2011 Top Hero: Lance Berkman (24)
2010 Top Heroes: Matt Holliday and Albert Pujols (24)
2009 Top Hero: Albert Pujols (28)
2008 Top Hero: Albert Pujols (25)

Goats
Matt Holliday (4)
Carlos Beltran (3)
David Freese (3)
Jaime Garcia (3)
Jason Motte (3)
Marc Rzepczynski (3)
Adam Wainwright (3)
Rafael Furcal (2)
Tyler Greene (2)
J.C. Romero (2)
Fernando Salas (2)
Mitchell Boggs (1)
Matt Carpenter (1)
Tony Cruz (1)
Daniel Descalso (1)
Jon Jay (1)
Erik Komatsu (1)
Kyle Lohse (1)
Victor Marte (1)
Eduardo Sanchez (1)
Jake Westbrook (1)

2011 Top Goat: Ryan Theriot (12)
2010 Top Goat: Brendan Ryan (14)
2009 Top Goats: Rick Ankiel and Todd Wellemeyer (13)
2008 Top Goat: Troy Glaus (13)

2012 Happy Flights
Happy Flights: 7
Happy Flight Opportunities: 12
Happy Flight %: 58%

Through 5/20

    Cardinal Nation Approval Ratings (March 2012)
    Adam Wainwright 91.9% (down 2.8%)
    Chris Carpenter 90.1% (up 3.2%)
    Lance Berkman 88.6%
    Tony La Russa 88.2% (up 17.4%)
    Yadier Molina 87.4% (up 3.7%)
    Matt Holliday 87.3% (down 3.8%)
    David Freese 85.5%
    John Mozeliak 85.4% (up 13.3%)
    Mike Shannon 85.3% (up 0.4%)
    Jose Oquendo 84.7%
    Derrick Goold 82.8% (down 5.0%)
    Mark McGwire 82.6% (up 20.1%)
    John Rooney 81.5% (down 2.8%)
    Mike Matheny 81.1%
    Bill DeWitt 79.8% (up 8.8%)
    United Cardinal Bloggers 78.9%
    Skip Schumaker 73.3% (up 9.2%)
    Jim Hayes 71.9% (down 4.2%)
    Jon Jay 71.1%
    B.J. Rains 69.5% (down 0.9%)
    Kyle Lohse 68.9% (up 13.8%)
    Dan McLaughlin 68.0%
    Joe Strauss 67.7% (up 10.2%)
    Ricky Horton 67.5% (down 1.6%)
    Al Hrabosky 66.4% (up 3.2%)
    Albert Pujols 54.9% (down 45.5%)
    Colby Rasmus 46.5% (down 35.3%)

    2011
    Dave Duncan 87.9% (up 0.9%)
    Matthew Leach 85.5%
    Pop Warner 76.7%
    Ryan Franklin 72.8% (up 3.1%)
    John Vuch 68.9%
    Jeff Luhnow 66.4%
    Dan Lozano 58.7%

    2009
    Rick Ankiel 83.9%
    Chris Duncan 69.1%


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