It's time to really dream big!

Why are Cubs fans being so narrow minded?

Oh…we all dream about the possibility of Albert Pujols wearing a Cubs uniform next year. And even if that doesn’t work out, we’ve got Prince Fielder looking for a job in 2012 too.

So, I’ve got to ask, aren’t we being a bit naïve here?

Pujols or Fielder?

The Cubs are going to have not one, but two major voids to fill this offseason. It is highly doubtful that the Cubs are going to ask Aramis Ramirez back after this season (the Cubs hold and option for 2012). On top of that, there doesn’t appear to be any minor league prospects that will be ready to take over at third.



So the Cubs need to wisely fill both of the corner infield positions this coming offseason.

"I love you too, and you smell like donuts!"

Pujols or Fielder?

No Pujols AND Fielder!

They’re both first baseman you say? Not quite. Pujols came up to the Major Leagues in 2001 and during that season he started at 3rd base 52 times. In fact, just last week he started a game over at third base, and did a pretty damn good job over there. I see no reason that the Cubs can’t just move Pujols over there on a full time basis. That would leave first base open to Prince Fielder.

"Where's my hug?"

And we all know Fielder would love to play in Chicago, especially with all the great restaurants in this great city. Heck, Wrigleyville/Lakeview has a number of places with good vegetarian menus (if he foolishly decides to remain a vegetarian).

This off-season, the Cubs will have the contracts of Aramis Ramirez, Carlos Pena, Kosuke Fukudome, Jeff Samardzija, and John Grabow all coming off the books. That results in a total of about $45 million available. Give Pujols a back weighted 8 year/$200 million and Fielder 6 year/$132 million, with next year each player earning $25 million and $20 million respectively. Bingo!

So, Cubs fans, when talking about possible off-season acquisitions this winter, don’t limit your dreams to just one player. If the Cubs want to really make a big splash, they should dream big. Worried about big, back loaded contracts? Why? They’ve worked out so well for us in the past! Renovate Wrigley? No. We just need with these two guys playing every day to solve all our problems.

Pujols and Fielder!

How to raise money to pay for Albert Pujols!

Thanks to @NotTomRicketts on Twitter for this excellent idea...

So the Cubs need to find a way to raise $300 million to pay for Albert Pujols.

Here is a list of ways to raise at least some money for it:

- Introducing personal seat licenses of, oh say, $5000 a seat would raise about $125 million dollars. That would be enough to pay for about the first 4 years of Pujols's contract.

- Sell tickets to Wrigley Field during the off-season...put the vendors out there to sell beer. Maybe get Koyie Hill to go out and play catch with himself to entertain the fans. That would probably raise at least $15 million a year.

- More statues. I haven't quite figured out how they'd make money by putting more statues outside of the ballpark, but the Rickettses think it is a good idea, so it must be a good cash incentive for them.

- Peanut surcharge. Put a 1¢ tax on every peanut sold at Wrigley Field. I, alone, would probably end up contributing about $25 million if they did that.

- Stop all maintenance at Wrigley Field. The Rickettses spend about $10 million a year on keeping Wrigley from falling apart. What's the point? No one seems to care. Save that $10 million for the ten seasons of Pujols's contract and you have 1/3 of the cost taken care of.

- Defer 90% of the Pujols contract (free of interest) until 2065. By then the initial $300 million would be worth about $1.43 as the US will have to print huge amounts of currency to pay off the loans we've taken out to balance the Federal budget.

- Hell...just ask for a loan from the Chinese. It'll be no different than giving a loan to the US Government except instead of no chance of the loan ever being paid off, there would be a very slight chance the Rickettses would pay it off.

- Alfonso Soriano meets with an unfortunate accident. Four years, $18 million per year remaining on the contract...poof!

- Sell the team to Oprah. She eats marinated $100 bills for breakfast every morning. She can afford him.

- Ask the state for the money. This is a much more worth while cause than fixing up some stupid stadium. Besides, Pujols will have to pay income and sales tax is he plays in Illinois. That's a win-win right there!

- If you're a celebrity and you want to promote your new movie by singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame"? Fine...it'll cost $500k. Thanks...now sing away!

- Ask Joe Ricketts. "Um...daddy, can we have, like, oh...$300 million more? We really really really need it. It will be well worth the investment."

- Ask the Cardinals. The Cardinals should be overjoyed if the Cubs sign Pujols for $30 million a year as the Cubs will have no money to spend on anyone else. I bet the Cardinals would pitch in $5 million a year just so the Cubs sign him for the entire 10 years.

- Start drilling for oil underneath Wrigley Field.

- Raise ticket prices 50%.

I'm sure there are some other clever ideas out there...but these are a few that could be used if the Ricketts family decides to make a stab at signing the best player in the game.

Still not going to happen.

What if Albert Pujols ends up having a bad season?

Dammit Albert! Just sign a stupid contract with the Cardinals and get all this crap out of the minds of Cubs fans!

Supposedly the Cardinals finally made a formal offer to Albert Pujols and he promptly rejected it. Rumor is that Pujols is on the verge of closing negotiations until the end of the season.

So I was on my way to work today and a thought entered my head…

What if Albert Pujols doesn’t sign a contract extension with the Cardinals, and goes off and has the worst season of his career?

Pujols has been the model of consistency over his 10 year career.

It isn’t at all inconceivable that it could happen. Pujols turned 31 last month…and while he is likely to be very productive for at last another 4 years, this tends to be near the peak of a player’s career.

He has also been exceptionally healthy through his career to this point having played at least 143 games every year of his career to this point and averaging 156 games a season. He could be due for some nagging issue to cause him to miss some significant time.

Having said that, one could point out that Pujols has a lot of miles on the tires since he started his career at the age of 21. Last year he had his lowest WAR of any season since 2002. It’s very possible that he is already on a downward trend.

At the same time, this being a contract year, it could give him more motivation than ever to try to prove to the Cardinals and the rest of baseball that he is indeed worth $30 million (or more) a season.

But if he does have a bad season, Pujols could really get screwed out of some huge dollars, and some serious contractual security once the season is over.

Supposedly the Cardinals don’t want to pay Pujols for 10 years. I don’t blame them. In order for Pujols to get that sort of length on a deal, he needs to perform well this year, otherwise the Cardinals, the Cubs, whoever, will never go for a contract that will go until 2021 when Pujols is age 41.

I originally said that I completely believed the Cardinals and Pujols would work something out before spring training. I no longer believe that. It is quite apparent that the Cardinals reasons for not wanting to give Pujols a 10 year contract are quite the same as the reasons I don’t want the Cubs to sign him…it will cripple the payroll for 10 years…and that’s too long.

If signing Pujols to a 10 year/$300 million contract guarantees a World Series championship by 2021…ok…I guess we can do that. But with the Cubs having so many other holes right now (without much in their farm system to fill those holes), it still isn’t the right move. The same might be said about the Cardinals who have holes being filled right now by Ryan Theriot and the ancient Lance Berkman.

But back to the point, I thought it would be to the Cardinals advantage to try to get this deal done now. That might no longer be the case. In the end, Pujols might be the one who needs to try to get this deal worked out before the season starts.

Come October, we’ll see which is true.

Albert Pujols...oh how you tease us!

Albert Pujols isn't coming to the Cubs.

Though the drama in St. Louis has escalated, I fully believe that the only thing going on right now is posturing. We saw this just a little earlier this season with the idea that Derek Jeter might actually go somewhere else and leave the Yankees.

One thing the tends to be fairly constant in baseball is that a really good player on a relatively successful team will get resigned by that team...especially if that player is still in his prime.

The Cardinals and Pujols basically have 3 weeks to work out a deal. Considering the supposed number of casual discussions the two sides have had before they entered serious negotiations a couple weeks ago, it seems almost impossible for the Cardinals not to get Pujols to sign an extension.

The numbers are staggering. 10 years for $300 million.

This likely would cripple the Cardinals, but, unfortunately for them, this is Pujols' worth. In fact, only once in the last 6 years has Pujols' free agent value been below $30 million. The Cardinals have benefited from having easily the best player in baseball at a far below market value for 10 years. These benefits include numerous division titles, two National League pennants and and World Series championship. On top of that, they were able to afford to build a new stadium. The Cardinal owe him.

And in the end, they will pay him and Pujols, even if he gets 10 years/$30M per, will be giving the Cardinals a discount based on everything he has done for the franchise over the last 10 years.

Now I've given Pujols a lot of praise in this post, but I truly do believe that he has taken some form of performance enhancers, at the very least, during the beginning of his career. That is beside the point here.

A number of people in both the Chicago and St. Louis media are stating that they fully believe the Cubs have set themselves up to make a serious run at getting Pujols in 2012. Knowing the Cubs, they very well may be considering it.

It's a bad decision. Pujols, if he gets 9 or 10 years on a contract, will be 41 or 42 by the time that contract expires. Remember how much grief we gave the Cubs when they signed Alfonso Soriano through the age of 38? Yes, Soriano is no Pujols, but the reality of the post steroids world is that we are not going to see players at 36+ years old post an OPS of over 1.000 anymore (with a very rare exception). What this means is that Albert Pujols probably only has 3 or 4 years during the contract where he will actually be worth that $30 million.

Am I saying I don't want Pujols on the team? Of course I would, but not at the cost of one and a half times the cost of the renovations to Wrigley Field. If the Cubs have $30 million a year to spend on payroll starting next season...they have a couple of other holes that need to be filled besides first base. They'll need a third baseman. They'll probably need a center fielder (I expect Byrd to be traded this year). They'll need a second baseman. They'll need at least one starting pitcher. And depending on if Colvin pans out, they'll need a right fielder.

But this is getting beyond the point here. Pujols isn't going anywhere. What we see going on is just a typical negotiation tactic.

Rest assured, unless I'm very wrong (and I often am), Albert Pujols will be killing baby bear-cubs in a Cardinals uniform for years to come. And Cubs fans should actually hope the Cardinal do sign him. Between the Pujols contract and the Holliday contract, the Red Birds will be setting themselves up to be cash strapped for a number of years to come and make it will be much more difficult for them to add significant role players around those two superstars. That fact can only benefit the Cubs.

Nope

Here is when I start talking out of my ass about Albert Pujols

Ok...here it goes.

People will say that I'm just a stupid Cubs fan who is jealous and looking for any bullshit reason to start ripping on one of the best players in the game.

But, look, a lot of people have wondered about this.

Albert Pujols's body appears to be breaking down a bit.

And I'm not surprised.

And I'm not surprised it has most severely manifested itself in his back.

I have suspected Pujols has been using (or at the very least had used at one time) performance enhancing drugs.

Albert Pujols's rise to power occurred very quickly.  He spent only one year in the minor leagues after being drafted in 1999 in the 13th round.  He made his major league debut in 2001 and won rookie of the year.

The 13th round?  He was anything but a top prospect.  But I know as well as anyone that the baseball draft if more of a roll of the dice than anything.  I can accept that, I suppose.

His one season in the minor leagues was good...very good...moving from low-A ball all they way to AAA Memphis during that year.  He had a .920 OPS in that one season in the minor leagues.  He only played three games at Memphis, and his numbers hat high A Potomac were little more normal...most of his time that year was spent at low A Peoria where he put up most of the impressive numbers we see from that year.

Looking at his numbers at Peoria he hit a fair number of homers and drove in a lot of runs.

If you want to see the actual stats...go here.

Then 2001. I recall Tony LaRussa raving about the kid during spring training. And he made the team that year playing in 161 games.

He won Rookie of the Year, and was fourth in the MVP voting.

But the year was 2001.

I hate to tell you this...but that was right in the middle of the Sosa, McGwire, Bonds (and 634 others) sky rocketing offensive numbers era. If it wasn't for ultra-abuser Barry Bonds, Pujols probably would have had 6 MVPs by now. But if you look at it, Pujols, then, was the 2nd or 3rd best player during the 2001 - 2004 period.

Bonds admitted before a grand jury that he used steroids (knowingly or not...it's still cheating). Alex Rodriguez has admitted that he as well used performance enhancers during that period. So the other player who was hitting as well as these players didn't use them? A player, who out of no where burst onto the scene to putting up numbers in his first big league season that he never put up before at the age of 21?

I'm sorry, I don't buy it. I didn't buy it then. And I won't buy it in the future.

Most of you know, I am not a physician.  Doc is a nickname that I first got when I was in junior high school.

But what I am is a good observer.

And now we get back to what we've found out yesterday...Albert Pujols has a more serious back problem than the Cardinals had first led us to believe.

My observations over the years is that many of these accused steroids users usually have their bodies break down after a while...and break down rather severely. And, the truth is, the break downs appear to start in the back. This is probably because these players, with the chemically enhanced bodies, put more torque on their backs while making swings, then the body was every designed to handle.

Other notable steroids users, Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds, Juan Gonzalez...all had back problems that started hindering their ability to stay on the field.

Pujols is now in his 30s, and approaching the point where, in theory, his production should start to fall. But at the same time, Pujols's development curve as a major leaguer hasn't been very normal anyway. He hasn't gotten better as he's moved into the traditional "peak" age for a ball player. His numbers from age 21 to 29 have been relatively flat. They've been very good, but they've been flat. Could his slide come earlier?

Anyway, don't be surprised if this is the beginning of a slow downward slide for this player.

And, yes, I am jealous that the Cubs don't have him. But I treated Sammy Sosa very harshly when I truly suspected him of not playing by the rules. But I'm also aware of the list of players that have played for Tony LaRussa that have been accused and/or have admitted to using some form of PEDs.

I have suspected Cubs players of the same. (Look at my large rip of Geo Soto back in January.)

So I believe Pujols is a cheater. And I have expected the back problems, that he appears to currently have, would happen at some point.

And now I'm expecting he will not be the best player in baseball anymore.

I could be wrong, and I often am, but I haven't been about Pujols so far.