UMFan83

I don't think the Cardinals would do that scenario. I am pretty sure the Cardinals will never offer Pujols $30 mil per season. They can't afford to give 30% of their payroll to 1 player. If the Cardinals did offer Pujols $30 million, I think he would have already signed. If the Cardinals were going to offer $30 million they already would have. I think the Cardinals are banking on the fact that the Yankees and Red Sox are probably not going to be bidding for him, and the Mets and Dodgers have ownership issues. So realistically, the only teams that can afford a $30 million contract, based on past spending and market size are the Angels and Cubs. If neither of them decides to offer $30 million, Pujols probably resigns with St. Louis if their offer is close. But then again, can the Cubs really NOT do everything possible to sign him? It's not just the Cubs getting Pujols, its also removing the best player in baseball from your arch rivals who compete for a division every year. I honestly can't see a way St. Louis avoids coming out of this poorly. Either they lose Pujols, possibly to an arch rival, or they pay half their payroll to 2 players for the next 7-8 years. The Cardinals are in trouble and I love it.

The Lakers are in trouble. I can't believe this is last year's Boston team anymore. The team just isn't playing well. On paper they should be....do they just not want it anymore?

Despite that we score first! I'll take some luck on our side for once this season

Hawks getting manhandled at home against a team they need to beat for playoff position (wild). Luckily Crawford has been excellent because the Wild are getting shot after shot after shot after shot against the Hawks D, who has turned it over in their own zone about 5-6 times already tonight. I think 9 SOG in 8 minutes of game action for the Wild compared to 1 for the Hawks.

Well I won't lie, he had some pretty bad TOs last night and shot poorly and was again perplexed by the trap. That said, he made up for it by setting his teammates up for easy shots, and getting to the line. All and all a meh game, but its not shocking that people would harp on those TOs

Looks like according to this we still should have wished we got Redick instead of Brewer. That said, I am not going to scoff at having the 17th best bench player in terms of WP82. I included JR Smith there because he's another trade target. I wish we got Redick instead of Bogans. Same but considering Brewer is making nearly $5 mil and Bogans $1.6, I'm guessing a Bogans was always an option. What I wish is that we signed Eddie House instead of Bogans. In terms of skill sets and what they provide to the team, shouldn't we be wishing we got Redick instead of Korver? Maybe. But I was being sold on Korver being more than just a 3 point shooter. I was told he could drive occasionally, get around screens well to get himself open, and willingly play "improving" defense. I have never taken a good look at Redick so I have no idea if thats true, but those were the things I read from people trying to sell me and others on him when we signed him to that offer sheet. All that plus I trusted the Bulls FO wasn't going to be redundant signing Redick to an offer sheet with Korver already on board when it was clear that A) we needed a starting SG that can do more than shoot 3's, and B) The Magic would make the Bulls wait the full time before deciding to match Redick's offer sheet, during a critical period when FA SG's were getting signed off the market. This said to me that the Bulls believed that Redick was undervalued and could be a legit solid starting SG that plays well off of Rose, so they were willing to take the risk.

Looks like according to this we still should have wished we got Redick instead of Brewer. That said, I am not going to scoff at having the 17th best bench player in terms of WP82. I included JR Smith there because he's another trade target. I wish we got Redick instead of Bogans. Same but considering Brewer is making nearly $5 mil and Bogans $1.6, I'm guessing a Bogans was always an option. What I wish is that we signed Eddie House instead of Bogans.

TT you misspelled "corpulent"

Looks like according to this we still should have wished we got Redick instead of Brewer. That said, I am not going to scoff at having the 17th best bench player in terms of WP82. I included JR Smith there because he's another trade target.

Of those 4 teams, is Charlotte the only one that's beaten the Bulls twice? Knicks too. Haven't even played the Hawks yet, which is a little weird at this point in the season. We could be down to only the Knicks and Hawks as teams needing to beat by Friday. Or we could officially not be able to accomplish that feat if we lose to the Spurs.

I'm nitpicking, but if the season doesn't pass without a deal, then it's 100% for the Cards or collusion. I'm sure you know what I meant which is that as of right now I see it was 95-5. If the deadline passes, and no deal is signed in season, I would put it as 70-30. Nitpick away though, it was poorly worded.

I forgot all about him, this is now my primary reason for wanting Pujols. Though he might go on a killing spree at his local Walmart prior to making the video. Haha, that would be awesome. Less than 24 hours to the deadline now. There is talk here that not signing him now doesn't foreclose the possibility of signing with the Cardinals after the season. I don't see how it doesn't. If the team goes south this year, he's gone. If the team wins it all, he's accomplished what he needs to (two titles in five years) and he's gone. Anything in between, he's already got his ring, so no "unfinished business" argument to make. This is obviously oversimplifying things, but the team will be in just as much of a financial bind in November as they are now. It's going to be so awesome when he leaves, and I don't care what it costs, he needs to be in Mesa next spring. I strongly disagree. IMO, the Cardinals are still the heavy favorite to retain Pujols if the season passes without a deal. But it would be more like 70-30 instead of 95-5. It's not unprecidented for a star player to become a FA and then resign with the same team. ARod did it a few years ago, Aramis did it with us in 2006 to give 2 examples. All it means is that Pujols put a deadline on a new deal, the Cardinals didn't meet it so now they have to wait until after the season to negotiate. Don't forget they have an excluside window to negotiate with him before other teams can. By then, after 6 months of evaluating what Pujols means to the Cardinals, they might find a way to offer him the money he wants to stay there. Or they might decide its too much, and stand firm with their offer. If that's the case, I can't see Pujols at that point, refuse a contract offer from another team that might make him $50-100 million more over the life of the contract than what STL is offering.

this made me smile Definitely a choice of song that I approve. What did Lou play in his office, Frank Sinatra? He seems like a Sinatra guy.

Get that [expletive] the [expletive] out of here. You just made me a sad panda. With that rotation and an offense featuring the likes of Sammy Sosa, Moises Alou, Nomar Garciaparra, Aramis Ramirez, Derrek Lee, and up and comers Corey Patterson and Micheal Barrett, the future was nice and bright. It was hard to imagine not winning at least 2 World Series with that bunch. It's hard to imagine not evening making the playoffs with that team Unfortunately, it was Dustiny. That preseason, after we signed Maddux, was probably the most excited I've ever been as a Cubs fan, and also the proudest I've been as a Cubs fan. We had finally done something in the offseason, came 5 outs from the World Series and added Maddux, Lee, Hawkins, Dutchvalue (not to metion a full season of ARam and getting Patterson back). The Sox hadn't won in 87 years, the Cardinals in 22 years, the Red Sox in 86 years, so we still had company (which at least to me was comforting. Now we're just alone). And we had a dominating pitching core that would compare favorably with what the Giants have now and could put a #1 or 2 quality starting pitcher out there every night (I guess Maddux was more of a 3 or 4 at that point but whatever). Since then, Zambrano is the only one left in that dominating rotation as Wood is a setup man, Prior is playing A ball, Clement and Maddux are retired. The Cubs didn't make the World Series or the playoffs that year and had a really annoying season, the Red Sox, White sox and Cardinals all won the World Series in the next 3 seasons (not to mention another long sufferer the giants winning it last season). The Cubs have won 2 division titles since then but have yet to win even a postseason game. Good times.

Speaking of DePaul, if it weren't for a semi-flukey buzzer beater against Marquette last year, DePaul would be going for it's 50th consecutive Big East loss in their next game. As it is they are 1-48 in their last 49 (regular season) Big East games. How is that even possible?

I'm sure that DePaul didn't really have a strong shot of getting him, but damn you for stealing him away from DePaul. We need him a lot more than you!

We could use Versteeg much more than you could. I think it's a good move. You can never have enough depth. But yeah there's still the goalie issue. But you made it to the finals with an awful one and the Hawks won it with a mediocre one.

FML Versteeg was traded to the Flyers

ouch. Wonder what Tice thinks about that.

Is this like when the Brian Roberts deal was being help up out of respect for Goose Gossage getting into the HOF?

why does hendry love backloading contracts so much. I realize that in this case its probably supposed to mimic what he'd get in arby, but yeesh.

The early front runner is never the winner. Did the Yankees get Cliff Lee? Did the Knicks get LeBron? Did the Cubs get Peavy? I'd rather be the sneaky underrated team that swoops in and steals him.

Agreed. Why isn't there more outrage against them? I throw rocks at them whenever I get a chance.

Brian Roberts Jake Peavy Kobe Bryant Amare Stoudemire LeBron James I made a decision to never get excited until a player is at a press conference holding up my team's jersey. It's fun to speculate though. Maybe I'm wrong, but I just think Pujols has enough respect for the Cardinals organization to run to their most hated rival. Especially if the money and years are similar to what is being offerend elsewhere. If that's not the case, then all bets are off.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/spring2011/news/story?id=6120783&campaign=rss&source=MLBHeadlines Bob Nightengale said that when the contract was presented to Pujols, his camp immediately rejected it as it was short in years or dollars.