I have been thinking about how good this team would be with Goldschmidt, Contreras, and Gray on it. Scrap that dumb thought.
I am now all in for a group that is so naive that they didn't comprehend that they on nights liike last night, they should give up, point fingers, and maybe get in some kind of "Contreras style"rubarb and crreate unscheduled vacations. I am beginning to believe in these guys and I can watch this bunch every night. They are definately entertaining!
Re: "Apparently he doesn’t hold a grudge from the organization outbidding him for Albert Pujols." I've heard from more than one person connected to Mo that the Cardinals never intended to pay the market rate for Pujols in 2011; IOW, they were more than willing to let him walk - which, in retrospect, was almost certainly the right move.
I definitely think it worked out both for Pujols and the team. That is interesting to hear because at the time, at least, it seemed like they'd offered $200 million or so, which was better than anyone else. The Marlins were a leader for a bit but they pulled back. I think the club though they had him until LAA swooped in, but you are right, they weren't going to go over their comfort zone to make sure he stayed.
It's possible my sources are not correct (but they always have been in the past), and they've told me the Cardinals were quietly relieved when Pujols departed. (This would especially make sense if Pujols were 2-3 years older than his stated age. If so, that would have made him 33-34 when he left, and I assume the Cardinals would've been aware of that.)
I wouldn't doubt your sources at all! I wouldn't be surprised if there were a lot of people that worried about the aging curve, especially since the NL didn't have the DH at that point. Plus that was when Luhnow was fully involved and you know he was wanting to build from scratch.
I've never really bought the whole age thing on Pujols. For one, he went to high school in the States and you'd think two years older he'd have dominated enough to be higher than a 13th round pick. Plus that would have made him 44 when he returned in 2022, right?
Oh man, I feel like I could talk about this for hours. I actually do buy the age thing. I think there's some decent circumstantial evidence for it, plus I think it makes the shape of Pujols' career more explicable. The one GIANT exception - and the most persuasive argument against 'the age thing' imo - is, yes, his final year. If he hit like he did at age 42, he's still a giant outlier, but there were other Hall of Famers (e.g., Bonds, Fisk) who did roughly the same thing. But if he was 44? Or even 45? That's unheard of. Julio Franco was the only non-Negro Leaguer who was productive at those ages, and none of those guys had remotely the power Pujols had at the very end of his career. I feel like either way he did something eye-popping - either as a fully-formed 21 year old rookie, or a once-in-a-lifetime 44-year-old slugger.
Dateline July 3, 2026,
I have been thinking about how good this team would be with Goldschmidt, Contreras, and Gray on it. Scrap that dumb thought.
I am now all in for a group that is so naive that they didn't comprehend that they on nights liike last night, they should give up, point fingers, and maybe get in some kind of "Contreras style"rubarb and crreate unscheduled vacations. I am beginning to believe in these guys and I can watch this bunch every night. They are definately entertaining!
Re: "Apparently he doesn’t hold a grudge from the organization outbidding him for Albert Pujols." I've heard from more than one person connected to Mo that the Cardinals never intended to pay the market rate for Pujols in 2011; IOW, they were more than willing to let him walk - which, in retrospect, was almost certainly the right move.
I definitely think it worked out both for Pujols and the team. That is interesting to hear because at the time, at least, it seemed like they'd offered $200 million or so, which was better than anyone else. The Marlins were a leader for a bit but they pulled back. I think the club though they had him until LAA swooped in, but you are right, they weren't going to go over their comfort zone to make sure he stayed.
It's possible my sources are not correct (but they always have been in the past), and they've told me the Cardinals were quietly relieved when Pujols departed. (This would especially make sense if Pujols were 2-3 years older than his stated age. If so, that would have made him 33-34 when he left, and I assume the Cardinals would've been aware of that.)
I wouldn't doubt your sources at all! I wouldn't be surprised if there were a lot of people that worried about the aging curve, especially since the NL didn't have the DH at that point. Plus that was when Luhnow was fully involved and you know he was wanting to build from scratch.
I've never really bought the whole age thing on Pujols. For one, he went to high school in the States and you'd think two years older he'd have dominated enough to be higher than a 13th round pick. Plus that would have made him 44 when he returned in 2022, right?
Oh man, I feel like I could talk about this for hours. I actually do buy the age thing. I think there's some decent circumstantial evidence for it, plus I think it makes the shape of Pujols' career more explicable. The one GIANT exception - and the most persuasive argument against 'the age thing' imo - is, yes, his final year. If he hit like he did at age 42, he's still a giant outlier, but there were other Hall of Famers (e.g., Bonds, Fisk) who did roughly the same thing. But if he was 44? Or even 45? That's unheard of. Julio Franco was the only non-Negro Leaguer who was productive at those ages, and none of those guys had remotely the power Pujols had at the very end of his career. I feel like either way he did something eye-popping - either as a fully-formed 21 year old rookie, or a once-in-a-lifetime 44-year-old slugger.