2-17-11 - What an insult!

Rumor has it that the deal offered to Albert Pujols was for roughly 21-22 million per year. I didn't catch how many years.

I wrote last time that Pujols should be the first 30-million dollar player, if anyone does deserve to be a 30-million dollar player anyway.

Turns out that Alex Rodriguez will make 32 million this year but his Yankee contract was for 10 years 275 million in total.

So now lets compare Pujols to Rodriguez for a moment.

A-Rod, even with his steroid admission, is still a first-ballot hall-of-famer in my eyes. He has clearly been one of the top 10 players in baseball since his arrival. He has 613 career homers, over 1800 rbis, and has 300 stolen bases on top of it. He is also 308 hits short of 3000. HOF numbers and I give him my vote if I had one (Barry Bonds too for that matter.)

So if the steroid enhanced A-Rod is worth 32 million this year, how much value could Pujols command? Now its definitely 35 million a year. Probably more for a shorter term as mentioned.

But the real issue here is just how high can the ceiling reach? If Albert got paid 30 million this year that's about $10 per ticket based on a 3-million fan season. That's just for him alone. Sure the Cardinals earn other revenue, but just to simplify it that's a lot of cake. The Cardinals, or any other team, have to pass on these costs, obviously, but how much are we all willing to pay in the long run?

Now that the contract talks are off there is talk that the Cardinals should trade him to get value for him, particularly if they are bound to lose him to free agency at the end of the year. He will probably be the most sought after free agent in history and don't be surprised to see Boston or the Yankees offer him 50 million per year.
But could the Cardinals trade him? I listened to the Cards GM John Mozeliak yesterday and he naturally said that there was no thought of trading him. But he would have to say that anyway.

Who would trade for him? How could anyone really trade for him? Because not only would they have to basically break their minor league system to get him, they would still have to come up with a hefty contract offer on top of it. The debate then continues on about how much is he worth.


Some trivia for you. The Cardinals have been in existence since 1882. They orginally were called the Brown Stockings, then the Browns, and for one year in 1899 the Perfectos. Lay that one on a friend later.

Anyone who might read this from my Facebook page might have a question about me. The answer is...I do alot of things. Variety is the spice of life. Currently I am indeed primarily an entertainer - a comedy hypnotist to be precise. I also teach hypnosis and do some hypnotherapy as well.
I also run a small company called Delaware Sports. It started as a local television show and since 1995 I have done a local sports radio program, a website still around, and a local sports newspaper. We also created a sports festival called the Diamond State Games which still runs a couple of events in June. Delaware Sports itselt is now a sports video production company.

I also do some marketing for businesses on the side.

I only mention this because for some reason I was asked the question a couple of times yesterday. This was just to help a couple of people make sense of some things.