Sammy Sofa

[expletive] no.

Well, arguably the best time to sell them is going to be early on, basically by early April. With a year like this it's hard to tell how competitive they'll be, so coming off of last year now is relatively your best window to sell them for the most value. Of course, you could always chance it and if they are doing well then you'll be able to get more as the games get closer, though you're in a pretty good spot since even if they're stinking by the time they play the Sox that's still going to be a very in demand series.

"Ridiculous hair?" Don't hate because you're going bald already. That is a majestic mane.

Yes, Kyle; of course this is all directed at you.

Yeah, this offseason is potentially shaping up to be pretty insane if Pujols, Fielder, Gonzalez AND Cabrera are going to be available. Definitely a good time to have a ton of money to spend.

Here's the thing, though...I think LaRussa is essentially right. I think there is pressure on Pujols on the players' side of things to get a contract that's "worthy" of him instead of taking the pretty huge discount that's seemingly going to be necessary for St. Louis to re-sign him. Yes, this is the team he came up with...but he's already won a championship for them and has given them a decade of historic baseball for relatively bargain rates, so I could see him feeling more obligated to setting the precedent expected of him than just taking a lowball deal from the Cardinals. There's a way he's still doing the "right thing" in taking a bigger deal instead of just chasing money.

I want to take this game behind the school and get it pregnant.

Right. I'm very excited about all of this, but part of me still thinks their ridiculously low offer was just trying to see if he'd come down to around $25 million.

The Mets are fucked financially while this goes down.

Their payroll is actually going to be lower than it was last year, with the Werth contract....and still be less than half the payroll of the TWINS. Yes they could push it to 100 mil within one or two years, 120 mil within four or so. The Twins payroll is supposed to be 112 mil this year. Their payroll in 2008 was 56 million, exactly half that so doubled in three years. Even in 2009 it was only 65 mil. And the Twins aren't nearly in the same financial position as the Nationals. Of course they had good teams so there's that, but it's possible. Exactly. The Nationals are by no means actually constrained to the payroll levels they've been at, and could easily be almost double that right now if the owners wished. Imagine what they'd be able to spend if they actually had a winning team that was drawing in a ton of sellouts and merchandise. Like I said, that's prime market/area with a lot of money that a great baseball team could make a mint off of.

i don't think Dodgers are in it, unless McCourt sells the team Kansas City really doesn't make any sense and Nationals blew their load on Werth already this is how i see it now, in order of likelihood: Cards - Cubs - Yankees - Rangers - Angels - Red Sox - Marlins The Nationals still have serious money to burn if they want to, and adding Pujols with Harper and Strasburg would ultimately make them an ungodly amount of money in what's potentially a very big market for a really, really good baseball team. even in their best case scenario, when Harper & Strasburg, the Zimmermans start getting raises and approaching FA, retaining them is going to cause their payroll to balloon well out of check if you've already got $50M in two other players just doesn't make sense It does if they're kicking ass. There's a lot of money available to that team.

I'm still expecting him to be like Aramis and agree to a deal at the last minute just before FA begins. But that's not really based in reality. If the reports are true, they're nowhere close on the numbers. Is St. Louis going to come up with an extra 80M in the next 7 months? Sure, why not? I don't know, maybe they were really trying to force the hometown discount issue before spring training. I still think they have the money to add $14 million to their payroll if they actually want to spend it.

Re-sign Aramis with the team option and either sign someone for RF or put Jackson out there and sign a starter. YOU'RE WELCOME.

I'm still expecting him to be like Aramis and agree to a deal at the last minute just before FA begins.

i don't think Dodgers are in it, unless McCourt sells the team Kansas City really doesn't make any sense and Nationals blew their load on Werth already this is how i see it now, in order of likelihood: Cards - Cubs - Yankees - Rangers - Angels - Red Sox - Marlins The Nationals still have serious money to burn if they want to, and adding Pujols with Harper and Strasburg would ultimately make them an ungodly amount of money in what's potentially a very big market for a really, really good baseball team.

for real? If I was as wealthy as Pujols already is, to get me to go play for a isht team and market like KC, they'd have to offer like 5m/y more than the next highest bidder. Hey, they have a lot of money to spend and he's a guy who's already won a championship. Maybe he'd like the challenge. It's not like it's a shitty market like the Rays have; KC still has a devoted core fanbase and at least some history of glory in their past. It's kind of a lesser version of what I think could motivate him to sign here, the idea of taking a forlorn team all the way.

Oh, I definitely think the Cubs have the best shot if they're willing to pay him whatever it takes.

Whoops, forgot about them.

I hope not. I want him the hell out of the NLC (with the obvious exception of the Cubs). With them out, if he goes anywhere, it's almost certainly to the Cubs, IMO. Would the Dodgers not be major players? I would think the Cubs, Red Sox, Yankees, Dodgers and Angels would be the main bidders, though I wouldn't be surprised to see Kansas City make a serious run or even the National squeak in there.

The Red Sox and Yankees are not out of the mix.

Wouldn't the government shut down message have shown up? This just had a lapsed domain spam screen the whole time.

Well played.

I dont know...4th smallest market in baseball and even if the Cardinals payroll was at 120 million, he'd make up 25% of their payroll. I realize that they operate and produce revenues that a mid-market club would, but thats only 15 million less than what the Cubs are spending this year. I personally think they would have a hard time fielding a competitive team with a $30 million player on the payroll. There's a big gap between $30 million and $21 million. Just that they'd be that far apart from what the greatest hitter of all time is asking for, a guy who came up in their own system, is laughable. I mean, he's already getting $16 million this year, so it's not like they have to look at $27-30 million like it's coming out of nowhere. It would push their projected 2011 payroll of about $95 million to $109 million. OK, so he makes up a huge chunk of their payroll...HE'S ALBERT [expletive] PUJOLS. He's going to, and should, make up a giant chunk of any team's payroll. I can't tell if it's cheapness or stupidity (like the Loshe contract), but it's sure amazing to watch. Aren't they usually in the top 10 of baseball revenues each year and making around $200 million? The Cardinals, while #4 in attendance last season, had the 13th highest payroll (lower even than Detroit, Minnesota, and Seattle). Had Albert Pujols made $30 million in 2010 (instead of $15 million) their payroll would've been the 7th highest in baseball, just slightly ahead of the White Sox but still $14 million behind Detroit at #6. I don't think adding an additional $15 million to the payroll (which is what his contract would have done) would "handcuff" a team that draws tons of fans and sells tons of merchandise. Exactly. It just makes their reported offer that much more ridiculous.

I dont know...4th smallest market in baseball and even if the Cardinals payroll was at 120 million, he'd make up 25% of their payroll. I realize that they operate and produce revenues that a mid-market club would, but thats only 15 million less than what the Cubs are spending this year. I personally think they would have a hard time fielding a competitive team with a $30 million player on the payroll. There's a big gap between $30 million and $21 million. Just that they'd be that far apart from what the greatest hitter of all time is asking for, a guy who came up in their own system, is laughable. I mean, he's already getting $16 million this year, so it's not like they have to look at $27-30 million like it's coming out of nowhere. It would push their projected 2011 payroll of about $95 million to $109 million. OK, so he makes up a huge chunk of their payroll...HE'S ALBERT [expletive] PUJOLS. He's going to, and should, make up a giant chunk of any team's payroll. I can't tell if it's cheapness or stupidity (like the Loshe contract), but it's sure amazing to watch. Aren't they usually in the top 10 of baseball revenues each year and making around $200 million?

It still blows my mind that they're this [expletive] cheap. Yeah, fine, the stadium and village costs, but come on...there are teams that would kill to have the Cardinals' revenue stream and they're acting like they're barely able to spend more than the Royals. Yeah, I know the payroll jumped up between 2009 and 2010, but come on, this is embarrassing.