I have felt for the past few weeks that Albert Pujols was bound to go back to St. Louis. It made the most sense for his career and it made sense for the Cardinals to keep him. The stability of Pujols on the team moving on to defend the World Series title and the end the LaRussa era and the beginning of the Mike Matheny years was critical.
And the main suitors were dropping off.
The Dodgers? Nah. They have unstable ownership and already spent big time on Matt Kemp.
The Cubs? Not going to happen. They have too many hole to spend $25 million on a first baseman, no matter how big a star he is.
The Mets? They are a nickle and dime small market team.
The Marlins? I equated their Pujols pursuit with the Herman Cain Presidential bid. It was for publicity. Plus they spent all their money on Mark Buehrle, Jose Reyes and Heath Bell.
Seriously, his return to St. Louis was all but assured.
But now it appears that the Angels want to bring Pujols to Anaheim.Don't get comfortable Cardinal fans.
This makes a lot of sense for everyone.
Arte Moreno is not beneath spending money and making a splash. Last year's big pick up, Vernon Wells, was a turkey.
But the team has excellent pitching with Jared Weaver and Dan Haren leading the way. And they have some good veterans like Torii Hunter and Howie Kendrick.
They have some excellent young players like Mike Trout, Jordan Walden, Peter Bourjos and Mark Trumbo.
Put Pujols in the middle of this team and suddenly the young players have an MVP to look up to, veterans have a superstar to take pressure off them and pitchers know that some more runs.
And if the Rangers take a step back, then the Angels could be the favorite in the AL West.
And Mike Scioscia is a Hall of Fame caliber manager.
And Southern California is a nice place to live. Both Los Angeles AND Anaheim.
So be a little nervous, Cardinals fans.
Pujols has been your team's angel... but he COULD be an Angel.
I still think he will be a Cardinal, but the Angels actually make sense.
The entire time the Angels had Vlad, the headline every year was "Can the Angels get a hitter to protect Vlad in the lineup?" Now they have him... three years too late. I foresee a lot of intentional walks.
ReplyDeleteSully I have to say this because its really starting to get to me. In one post you say the Mets will sign Manny(I know its in jest)because thats the way they have been doing business the past few years, the wrong way to do business. So now that they have a GM who wants to keep them from making the same mistakes and giving out bad contracts and letting young players develop, you call them "a nickle and dime small market team" Seriously dude? Whatever they do, in your eyes it will be wrong? You cant bash them on both sided of the argument. Pick a side and stick with it.
ReplyDeleteI don't bash the Mets.
ReplyDeleteI have no ill will towards them. I felt they spent a lot of money stupidly over the past few years.
That's a fact. Not an opinion.
And they had a massive payroll and put a losing product on the field for the past 3 years. Again, a fact, not an opinion.
I wrote in a previous post:
"
Maybe a youth movement is exactly what the Mets needs.
Have low expectations and play all the young kids and they might build on the franchise's two total World Series titles."
I think letting Reyes go and going young is the right route.
AND to not be spending money.
The Nickel and Dime comment had more to do with how they should be doing business.
I call the Rays a nickel and dime organization and right now, I would pick them to win the AL East against big spending Red Sox and Yankees.
I have never wavered. Since 2008 they have been incompetently run from the top down. Tough to argue with that.
And Pujols was never in the cards for the Mets.
I have no vendetta against the Mets. I'd LOVE to see them be a good team again.
Fair enough. I just took that nickle and dime comment as sarcasm.
ReplyDeleteI think that it kind of makes sense that Pujols wanted to leave and go to another team like Angels, I think he can have more opportunities there
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