Albert Pujols has shocked the baseball world in snubbing a 9 year deal worth reportedly $190 million to stay with the 2011 World Series Champs, the St. Louis Cardinals (which incidentally would make King Albert the 4th highest paid 1st baseman in the Majors) to sign a deal with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim for 10 years and $254 million (thus making him #1 at 1b); yes, those Angels. What I am having a hard time fathoming is the fact that the Angels owner, Arte Mareno paid $184 million for the ENTIRE FRANCHISE! For us regular white/blue collar folks this is like Monopoly. I cannot help but think of Dr. Evil say he wants "ONE HUNDRED MILLION CRILLION BILLION DOLLARS!" If you average out Pujols' contract to reflect just how much money he makes per game you come up with just under $155,000 dollars a game...let that sink in for a moment.
It's hard to imagine paying someone $25 million per season to play a kids game and hit home runs, especially when we all know that Pujols is likely on the descent down the mountain top of his Hall of Fame career. This certainly leads to futher speculation of just how many years he will still be able to put up the kind of numbers that warrant this kind of contract. This becomes especially true when his mitt starts to wane, at that point he'll certainly become the highest paid DH in history, subsequently elongating his career at least until his early to mid 40s. This is a very sore subject for a baseball purist of my ilk, I LOATHE the DH, I think it cheapens our pastime and waters down all the power numbers in the junior circuit (AL). Alas, that is a topic I must devote an entire article lambasting such an asinine, unnecessary part of such a perfect sport.
Forget about the money for a second. Pujols is the best, most consistent hitter in baseball and maybe the best right-handed hitter in the history of the game. The only other right-handed hitter in Albert's league was Jimmie Foxx of the Golden Era of Baseball (from 1925 to 1945.) There's little debate that Pujols, who has finished in the top five in MVP voting 10 times in 11 seasons—is one of the all-time great players. Paying him more money than anyone else in the game (or anyone not named A-Rod) is what we had to expect when he became a free agent.
Pujols business aside, the Halos signed another "huge" name in CJ Wilson, formally the ace of the AL Champion Texas Rangers. I put HUGE in quotations, because Wilson was the biggest free agent SP available, his numbers can be deceiving; granted he had a good record in '11 (16-7) overall with the Rangers he finished a paltry 8 games over .500 (43-35). Nolan Ryan and Co. decided a run of the mill #2 starter is apparently worth $77 million; if that doesn't prove the MLB treats real life capital the same as they would if the cash were Monopoly money, nothing ever will. Below I have linked the press conference video of Angel's GM Jerry Disoto describing these two blockbuster moves.
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