Tarver

http://www.web2freedom.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/no-darth_vader.jpg Maybe you and Albert can start a southern baptist flock in Evergreen Park, he'll call you "the deacon" as long as Chris Duncan aint in town.

Oh no? What's wrong with Fielder? Can't spit in Chi without hitting a decent restaurant, that's gotta be worth a discount, and who better than your boy to show him around?

Ok smartasses, 50 bucks says Pujols lives in Wheaton if he comes here

I don't think he's a terrible person, but he is a fundie who's spent most of his time in conservative environments and he's not gonna change.

I admit that my feelings towards Pujols are biased against him because of my opinion of him as person, which is why I've avoided this thread for 30 pages. This is the guy who bought a non-profit radio station that catered towards classical music and did a ton of fund raising for other cultural groups here in Stl and turned it into a christian broadcast format and bought them a bigger transmitter than 550 KTRS (the Card's old network). He let Glenn Beck use him in a disgusting and totally obvious fashion and bragged about the experience afterwards. I just wonder how his act will play in Chicago.

Hahahahahaahahaah! Really? OK, let's hope the Cubs don't sign Albert [expletive] Pujols because Albert Belle existed. And Belle was really freakin good for the White Sox. That was a quick reaction to Mojo's goofy post and you know it

So how do you think he got away with hiding his age over the last decade? Anything I say is anecdotal, but I used to work for the company that sold his JC's team in KC all their gear. Consensus among those people was he's much older. If you look at the old team pics he's markedly thicker, especially upper-body and through the hips. Make of that what you will. And what would they be basing that on? And why wouldn't that information have not been leaked or exposed? That would be a huge story. Plus you had the huge crackdown in the wake of 9/11 with all the extra scrutiny being paid to player's visas and documentation. Yes, you had guys who sort of snuck through like Soriano because of his relatively weird path coming from Japan and the type of vias he had due to that...so how would Pujols have escaped the investigations that exposed the real ages of several other players? I don't know. That's why I qualified it by saying anecdotal; from my impressions there was a huge degree of jealousy/animosity present with the people he knew in KC.

Ok, laugh at me when you're the one being flippant Because you're being hilarious. And yes, I'm going to be "flippant" when we here for the bajillionth time someone not wanting the Cubs to sign maybe the best hitter ever because of this phobia that the Cubs are now going to a team perpetually hamstrung by a limited payroll instead of the big market team that makes a ton of money and would make a [expletive] of money if they were good again and how a ginormous superstar. Signing Pujols for a ridiculous deal wouldn't preclude them from making other big FA signings, even in the same offseason, and it certainly wouldn't going forward. People are basically arguing to not sign him out of the fear of more bad smaller contracts for other players. Don't lump my ass in with whoever else you've argued with. I want Pujols, I just recognize that because most of the other big market squads aren't in a position to compete with us that we don't have spend like drunken sailors.

So how do you think he got away with hiding his age over the last decade? Anything I say is anecdotal, but I used to work for the company that sold his JC's team in KC all their gear. Consensus among those people was he's much older. If you look at the old team pics he's markedly thicker, especially upper-body and through the hips. Make of that what you will.

IT'S PUJOLS. THE CUBS HAVE LOTS AND LOTS OF MONEY. IT'S PUJOLS. MY WHITE SOX FAN GRANDPA SAID THE SAME THING ABOUT ALBERT BELLE. Hahahahahaahahaah! Really? OK, let's hope the Cubs don't sign Albert [expletive] Pujols because Albert Belle existed. Ok, laugh at me when you're the one being flippant

Yeah, but no way the Reds can afford Votto. And I don't thinks Al is 31.

IT'S PUJOLS. THE CUBS HAVE LOTS AND LOTS OF MONEY. IT'S PUJOLS. MY WHITE SOX FAN GRANDPA SAID THE SAME THING ABOUT ALBERT BELLE.

I was speaking of the league-wide attendance decline. Granted, the unusual situations in LA and NY are pushing the numbers, but 10 years seems waaay too excessive to me considering we don't how the labor situation is gonna work out, the recession, the new TV deals, etc. If he wants ten years, start at 23 and go from there. If he wants 30, we should be talking about a six years tops. Unless you just want to drive up the price to hamstring the Cards, seems like ourselves and Anaheim are the only teams with the right set of circumstances to make sense for him(unless he just wants the $ and will play for someone like Baltimore or Seattle, of course).

If we take a step down in years and money, here are the recent contracts/players we'd be looking at getting (age is when they signed): (note: I limited it to free agents or players who were traded and then re-signed, eliminating the hometown discount issue. I also focused only on $100+ mil contracts since you're not going to see an established elite hitter sign for less) Jayson Werth, 31, 7/129 ($21 mil/yr) - avg WAR: 2.75 Alex Rodriguez, 33, 10/275 ($27 mil/yr) - avg WAR: 7.0 Mark Teixeira, 29, 8/180 ($22.5 mil/yr) - avg WAR: 4.6 Miguel Cabrera, 25, 8/152 ($19 mil/yr) - avg WAR: 4.7 Carlos Beltran, 28, 7/119 ($17 mil/yr) - avg WAR: 4.2 Matt Holliday, 30, 7/120 ($17 mil/yr) - avg WAR: 5.1 Carlos Lee, 31, 6/100 ($16 mil/yr) - avg WAR: 2.5 Vernon Wells, 30, 7/126 ($18 mil/yr) - avg WAR: 2 Adrian Gonzalez, 28, 7/154 ($22 mil/yr) - avg WAR: 3.2 Albert Pujols, 31, 10/300 ($30 mil/yr) - avg WAR: 8.0 (hypothetical contract) I limited it to players somewhat similar to Pujols - power hitters, primarily corner guys - and I left out some pretty dreadful contracts (like Ryan Howard's). None of the players on that list, save for ARod, have been close to as productive as Pujols. Most of them have barely been half as good as Pujols over their careers (all careers have lasted nearly 10 years). So we can sign a guy for less than what we'd have to give for Pujols, but we're going to get production similar to that dropoff. Basically, Pujols could fall off a cliff from his current production and be half as good as he is now for the entire second half of his contract and still be nearly as good as, or better than, most of the guys on that list. What kind of a free agent deal are you looking to give out? Should the downward trend in attendance persist, how much would you amend your offer?

That looks like some [expletive] from Master P's album cover creative team. Just needs some more lens flashes and a Mercedes with 22s.

Slade Heathcott should thank his parents everyday for their prescient choice of names. That's up there with Terrmel Sledge and Rocky Cherry.

Cashner and Wells aren't even back yet. This should be revisited in July.

I'd be happy with one HR a game.

Verbatum. He didn't care for them when we had MB.

Tell me he actually said dirtbag.

The difference of opinion is simple: he feels the Cubs have a shot at competing this year if they get a significant upgrade at one position. You don't. Hence the varying perspectives. If I felt the Cubs were one piece away AND I thought Beltran would stay healthy all year, I'd probably feel the same way. However, until I see some power from ARam, I don't think we're only missing one piece. It seems that the main variance is that I think that our core as a whole is quite good, the one missing piece is a 3 hitter, being Beltran. I think Aramis will start hitting for power again, and even if he doesnt, we have Soriano, Pena, Soto and to a lesser extent, Byrd to do that. I dont see the holes that alot of people do, aside from the 3 hitter and 4-5 starters. The only real problem I see with it it too many moving pieces, meaning that wed have to do something with Byrd or Fukudome. They're only one or two pieces away if those pieces are Pujols and Halladay.

I can't wait to see how Plaschke handles Coletti's replacement. You just know it's gonna be some Steinbrenner/Winfield type [expletive].

Wasn't that the FJM article where they blasted Plaschke for saying how great the scoutiest scouts were for finding Ethier as a diamond in the rough, when he was the A's organizational player of the year? Their sendup of Plaschke's public love letter to Coletti was another classic.

So it was Coletti who bagged Ethier for MB? I stand corrected. And shocked. He probably just closed his eyes and pointed at a list.

Depo works for Sandy Alderson now. The Dodgers success the past few years has more to do with him than Coletti. He brought in Ethier, Furcal, Drew, etc. The first thing Coletti did was sign Luiz Gonzalez and bench Matt Kemp.