The Man Speaks

The Baseball Writers Dinner was last night and the guest of honor got some nice parting gifts.  I'm sure Albert Pujols will be able to find a place for that MVP award somewhere in his house.

Before the dinner, though, he answered some questions and then got some potentially bad news (for him, not necessarily the Cardinals).  Seems that off-season surgery he had may be complicating his desire to play in the World Baseball Classic.

As much fun as it'd be to see him in the WBC, I know that some Cardinal fans are breathing a little sigh of relief at that.  The last thing the Cardinals need is for him to wind up damaging himself and losing a chunk of the year.

That said, last time the WBC rolled around, it helped Pujols get out of the gate very quickly.  He hit .346 with 14 HR in April back in 2006.  He slumped in June, but still had a strong year overall and, of course, the Cards won the Series. Whether there is any correlation, I don't know, but it might be interesting to see how he does this year.

On the positive side of things, Pujols says he's beyond rehab and ready to go, which makes a lot of people breathe a whole lot easier.

Of course, the contract status came up in discussions as well.  It's interesting to note that he's open to talking to John Mozeliak and ownership any time.  Will they try to get something done early?  He still is under contract until 2011.  Will the Carpenter extension and resulting physcial problems make them a little less likely to do anything?  You'd think that, if the market is going to be slower now, this would be the time to try to do a long-term thing rather than waiting to see what conditions are in '11, because they may be much stronger.  Then again, they may not.

In other news, Todd Wellemeyer and Chris Duncan avoided arbitration by signing one-year deals with the Redbirds.  Both seem to be reasonable deals.  As Pip Twitters, Wellemeyer projects to be worth over a million more than what he signed for and Duncan even more, depending on defense.  That cheaper contract should also help if and when the Cardinals start looking to trade him.

According to MLB Trade Rumors, Ben Sheets is looking for a two-year deal worth $18 million (with a third-year option).  $9 million a year?  That's less than the Cards spent on Kyle Lohse.  Signing Sheets to a deal like that would make him the third-highest pitcher on the team behind Carpenter and Lohse (if you look at average per year--Lohse's contract is backloaded so he'd be less than $9 million this year).  Yes, I know he has injury issues.  Yes, we'd lose a first round pick.  But the potential that he brings to the table seems to be definitely worth this financial gamble.

Maybe Mo will answer that question tomorrow during his chat at the Post-Dispatch site.  Tomorrow's a busy day in that vein, as UCB Radio returns to the internet airwaves at 9:00 pm CST tomorrow evening.  This week, our guest is Derrick Goold, writer for the PD and blogger at Bird Land.  Pretty much the same setup with him as we had with Matthew Leach last time around, so if you've got a question for Mr. Goold, put it in the comments and we'll see if we can get it asked! 


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