Posted on February 4, 2010 at 9:54 AM
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St. Louis Cardinals
It's been pretty quiet on the Cardinal front lately. Then again, if anyone is going to stir things up, it'll be the Tsunami himself, Joe Strauss. According to Strauss, the Pujols contract extension talks
are currently being held, though the team won't confirm that.
I find this believable, because it's not ever been Pujols's style to really do a lot of negotiating through the media. Though I would have expected leaks or some general non-committal comments from the front office, having a press conference come out of the blue with a full fledged deal done would not have surprised me in the least.
Nick and Josh had some discussion on this yesterday during the UCB Radio Hour. The general thought is that Pujols doesn't think he has to be the highest paid player in baseball. He'd like to be the highest on his team and he'd like to make it close, but he realizes what the limitations of St. Louis are. It doesn't do him any good to destroy the capability for the team to be competitive into the future.
I think we'll see him in the $25 million per season range, maybe more of a per-year deal but with a lot deferred. I'd expect to see a personal services contract added to it, so that they can pay him after he's done playing as well.
As I noted in the UCB chat room last night, though, I don't believe it's possible to overpay Pujols. The value that he's given this team in the last nine years has been light-years ahead of his salary. Even if he doesn't completely "earn" his next contract, it's going to all even out or likely still be to the Cardinals' advantage, when you factor in all his work in the community, the press that he's gotten for the team, etc.
Thankfully, spring training is just a couple of weeks away. I received from Cardinal director of minor leagues John Vuch (via my friend who goes by BleacherBum593 around the 'Net) the list of all those players, major and minor, that will be in camp this spring. If you'd like to take a look at it,
you can find it over here.
And if you are looking for something interesting and exciting, well, what are you doing here? You might try looking at the interview at The Hall of Very Good with
Batting Stance Guy, see if that works for you!
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3 Comments
The thought of contract negotiations with Albert makes me a little ill/nervous. I'm glad we aren't hearing about every offer and counter and so on. It's just too stressful.
I don't think the FO would let him get away (barring acts of God and so forth), but I can't even fathom a Cardinals team without Pujols, much less seeing him in another uniform (heaven forbid) playing against us. It just wouldn't be right.
I agree, I just can't see him going elsewhere. It might happen, of course, but it's basically inconceivable. And yes, that word does mean what I think it means.
I love that movie :)