Free Agent Signing – Albert Pujols

Some call him “King”. Some refer to him as “The Machine”. Some even use the handle “El Hombre”. I will simply call Albert Pujols “Richie Rich” for now on.

The Los Angeles Angels signed Pujols to a ten year $254 million dollar contract on Thursday. For the life of that contract Pujols will make (if the math is right): $.79 cents a second, $47 dollars a minute and $2,851 dollar an hour. Wow… just wow. If you are lucky enough to have a fantastic yearly salary of $300 thousand a year and worked for 40 years, you would still have only earned $12 million dollars. Pujols will have earned over 21 times that amount in ten years playing a kids game! It’s not anything about Albert that specifically makes me shake my head in disgust, it’s just more about the amounts of money out there in the sports world that I find inconceivable.

That said and out of my system…

What exactly did the Angels get for their money? They received; a Rookie of Year (2001), 3 time MVP (2005, 2008, 2009), 2 time Gold Glove (2006, 2010), 6 time Silver Slugger (2001, 2003, 2004, 2008, 2009, 2010), 2 time Hank Aaron Award winner (2003, 2009), Roberto Clemente Award winner (2008), NLCS MVP (2004), and finally, a two time World Champion (2006, 2011). Phew! For those that don’t know, since 1999, the Hank Aaron Award is given annually to the players selected to be the top hitter in their respective league. Also, for those that don’t know, the Roberto Clemente Award is given annually, since 1971, to the MLB player who “best exemplifies the game of baseball, sportsmanship, community involvement and the individual’s contribution to his team”.

I personally think that Albert Pujols is the most consistently great player of our generation. The only thing AROD has done that Albert won’t is have a 40/40 season (40 homers and 40 steals). After just 11 seasons, Pujols is already more than 2/3rds of the way to the magical 3,000 hits plateau, and his 445 home runs already places him in the top 40 all time. Right now, it is even money that he becomes the all time home run champion, when he finally retires from baseball. He is the active leader in batting average (.328), on base percentage (.420) and slugging (.617). Last season is widely considered his worst, as it was the first year Albert didn’t hit .300 or drive in 100 runs. But Albert STILL managed to finish 5^th in the National League in the MVP voting!

For fun, let’s put some of his amazing numbers into historical perspective, shall we?

Pujols is only one of six players in MLB history to have career numbers of at least 400 home runs, 1,300 RBI and a .325 average. You probably have heard of the other 5 hall of fame players… Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Stan Musial, Ted Williams and Jimmie Fox.

His .617 lifetime slugging percentage is 4^th all time trailing only the game’s elite; Babe Ruth (.690), Ted Williams (.634) and Lou Gehrig (.632).

Only one player has won the MVP Award more times than Pujols’s three, and he goes by the name of Barry Bonds, winning it a whopping 7 times.

Since Albert has had an historic 11 seasons so far, it only seems right he received an historical contract too! Pujols’ $254 mil contract is officially the second largest in baseball history, and only the third one to surpass $200 million in total. The other two were both for Alex Rodriguez, of course. Albert probably is just happy about it being the highest average salary per season for his position, something he felt he deserved. But not only is the contract historically gigantic, but it is historically long. Surprisingly, it is the sixth contract of that length:

Dave Winfield, 1981-90, $22 million

Derek Jeter, 2001-10, $189 million

Alex Rodriguez, 2001-10, $252 Million

Alex Rodriguez, 2008-17, $275 Million

Troy Tulowitzki, 2011-20, 157.75 million

What the Angels also have gotten is a player who has shown he can play through injuries. And not just play, but also continue to perform at an elite level. In 2003 he played through a painful elbow injury that was so bad he was forbidden by the team to make any throws on the field! 2004 saw Albert battle through severe hamstring issues that hampered him running at full speed. In 2006 Albert was forced onto the DL for the first time with a strained oblique muscle that affected his swing for almost 2 months. In 2007 his hamstrings became so sore and were such an issue that Tony LaRussa told him to not run out groundballs! I could go on, but the strongest proof of Albert’s greatness has been his ability to stay on the field. His has averaged an incredible 155 games played in his 11 seasons!

But how can the Angels afford him since they already have a very high payroll? (The Angels were 4^th in baseball last year with close to a $139 million payroll) It helps to have a great owner in Arte Moreno. Since 2003, when he purchased the team, the billionaire has proved he is not afraid to spend his money in an attempt to make the Angels a winner. Even trading for over bloated salaries from other teams in the process (hello there Vernon Wells).  Also, The LA Angels just signed a 20 year deal with Fox Sports worth a reported $3 billion dollars. The influx of that additional money has to go somewhere and to someone… why not to the best player of our generation? Moreno understands that the Los Angeles market, if not the California market, is overly crowded (to say the least). And a superstar of Pujols’ stature is needed to fight for the fans attention and for the TV/Cable ratings.

Of course, Albert Pujols will also make the Angels lineup that much stronger and deeper. Who ever bats in front of him will definitely be one happy camper! The Angels offense has been slowly slipping the past couple of years due to injuries and players getting older. If I was managing, here is how I would write out the lineup as of this moment:

Peter Bourjos (R) CF, age 25

Howie Kendrick (R) 2B, age 28

Albert Pujols (R) 1B, age 31

Torii Hunter (R) RF, age 36

Mark Trumbo (R), age 26/Bobby Abreu (L), age 38 DH

Vernon Wells (R) LF, age 33

Alberto Callaspo (S) 3B, age 29

Chris Ianetta (R) C, age 29

Erick Aybar (S) SS, age 28

Key players during the season will also be Maicer Izturis (age 31), Kendry Morales (age 28) and Mike Trout (age 20). One of the Angels strengths has been their manager, Mike Scioscia, being able to mix and match players through injuries and slumps. Izturis will see significant playing time at 3B, SS and 2B at some point during the season. The addition of Pujols allows Kendry Morales to come back from his horrific ankle injury at a pace he is comfortable with (he missed all of last season and most of 2010). I fully expect their young OF phenom Mike Trout to start the season in AAA now that the angels have inked Pujols. Trout already plays elite centerfield/leftfield defense but he struggled in his 123 at bats last year. I say let the young 20 year old fight his way onto the team at some point in the season. I expect Scioscia will eagerly accept him after he sees Abreu and Wells continue with their career slides. Wells, in particular, is just a joke. He still has 3 years left at $21 mil per. Yikes!

In the end, Pujols was probably smart to go to the American League where he will be able to DH regularly in his later years. Scioscia will also be able to give him periodic rests with a game here and there at DH during the long season.

But why did Pujols leave his beloved St Louis Cardinals, the only team he had ever known? Didn’t they offer him a tremendous contract too? If I had to point to a moment that soured Albert with the Cardinal organization, it would be when they gave Matt Holliday a quick extension. An extension that probably was above market value to boot. And to make matters worse, the Cardinal organization did NOT rush to offer Pujols a contract extension around the same time. With Pujols seeing other first basemen cashing in on extraordinary contracts (Mark Teixeira, Adrian Gonzalez and Miguel Cabrera) he probably felt slighted. Throw in the fact that Tony LaRussa was retiring, his choice for replacement was ignored (Jose Oquendo) and that the Cardinal Organization was reluctant to increase its offer beyond 9 years and $198 million, it all adds up to Albert departing for the Los Angeles Angels. How many people do you really know that would leave over $50 million dollars on the table?

Sometimes a player is really getting paid for what he has already accomplished versus what he will produce in the future. And it’s hard to dispute that logic with any contract of such a long duration. But I can easily see Albert Pujols help bring the Angels, and their owner Moreno, a championship or two over the life of that contract. Isn’t winning a championship what it’s all about after all?