Jeff, you make a lot of assumptions and then gin up a great deal of hate, based on those assumptions. First, I have not seen a single report where he was being offered less than $25 mil per year. Not sure where the $19-$20 mil reports come from but I think they'd have to be considered nonsense. The reality is that Pujols, his agent and the Cards have kept a tight lid on these negotiations and nobody really knows what was offered and what transpired.
Second, what are you supposed to do if you crunched the numbers and did all of the internal evaluations and came up with your uppermost limits and he told you that you weren't even in the ballpark? What if they offered 7 or 8 years at $25-$28 mil per year and they said not to bother with another offer unless it starts with a 3? The reality is that every team out there, other than the Yankees and possibly the Red Sox has a limit, regarding what they could spend. Be honest and ask yourself if you would enjoy 2016 - 2021, knowing you get to watch Albert but the team play .500 ball every year, because they can't afford pitching or any other key players. $30 mil a year to one player, on a team with a $100 mil payroll is simply insane...
I get the face of the franchise and all of that. I understand his value beyond the field. But the reality is that his ego and pride have taken over. He wants to break the bank and he knows he has a better than average chance of doing it after this season. All of the talk about wanting to stay here and all of the good guy routine is starting to ring a little hollow. He wants as much money as he can get and that's that.
You insult DeWitt and act as if the Cardinals put Royals or Pirate-like teams on the field. If I recall, we've been to the WS twice in the last 10 years and won one of them. We've made the playoffs more than we haven't, since DeWitt has owned the team. Quite frankly, there are about 20 or more markets that would kill to have an owner like DeWitt and his gang. Why does it matter if he knew about this for months or even years? Pujols and his agent aren't dummies. They knew they didn't have to sign last year or this year. They knew they could shoot for the moon and not have to worry, if they didn't get it. They knew the payday was coming one way or another.
I'm still thinking he may get signed during the season. IF not, I'd put the odds at less than 50/50 the Cards can keep him. We've seen the idiocy of the Yankees. We've seen what a rogue owner can do, like when A-Rod signs with the Rangers. We've seen how that can cripple a team.
The Cardinals survived when Musial retired, when Carlton was traded, when Gibson and Brock retired. We lived through the trade of Joe Torre and Keith Hernandez and the list goes on... Yes, it will suck to lose Pujols to free agency but Cardinal Nation will carry on. And if, by some chance, Pujols signs with the Cubs, you know he was never really a Cardinal at all....
Whew...
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"Hunts are best measured by the endurance of the memories they produce..."
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