The Pujols Power Outage

soundtrack - the end of this weekend's PGA action and the end of Heat vs Knicks

First of all, welcome to my sports blog. I'm going to try and get something out here each Monday, and maybe some quickies here and there on other days.

I imagine that this will be midwest-centric, but I'll talk about some national stories, too. I'll also talk a bit about youth coaching, which is something I've recently begun doing.

The language here will hover between PG-13 and R. If you've read anything of mine from the last couple years, you'll know what to expect.

Additionally, if you have 'requests,' feel free to send them my way, but no promises.

Lastly, if you want to contribute, let me know, and we'll talk.

Oh, and Rickie Fowler needs to fire his image consultant. The guy's not a bad golfer, but looks like an ass-clown with the orange space suit + the crustache.

So, about that Pujols thing ...
Albert Pujols, as of Sunday evening, has hit his first home run of the season. As has been discussed by many other writers, his numbers are way down, and Bernie Miklasz wrote a very smart piece that breaks down the numbers, and what they may or may not indicate.

So, Albert has hit a home run, and as that ball dropped into the Angels' bullpen, I'm hoping the national crisis was reduced a defcon level.

Sure, I'm disappointed that Albert finally hit a home run, as I was hoping that he'd never find joy in life ever again, but I've stayed mostly quiet on the topic. I was content to sit back and see what the average St. Louisan reaction was, and use that to gauge just how insane I am with bitterness toward him.

I was also quiet on the topic because I didn't have a sports blog until now.

I was interested to see that most St. Louisans were amused by the power outage, and little more beyond that. I forget, at times, that this really is a classy baseball town, even if that wasn't enough to make Albert forget about that $3 million dollar difference between the Cardinals offer and the Angels offer (as a point of reference, that was roughly $253m vs $250m. Just sayin'.)

The 2012 Cardinals
I like the Cardinals more without Pujols. I didn't think I would. I was, stupidly, worried about their team identity. Albert had become the Cardinals' national identity. They don't play in New York or Boston, so Fox and ESPN do everything they can to ignore them, and without Albert ... we were going to go back to the dark days of the 90s (dark for the Cardinals; still the best decade in rock n roll.)

I had bought into the bullshit.

While I was at Spring Training this year, something dawned on me. This is a team now. Instead of being the Albert Pujols Band, they were now, again, the St. Louis Cardinals. This is now, again, a team of men..

I like them more. There's no one focal point. They're a team. They're not sexy. They're not marketable. They're my 2012 St. Louis Cardinals, and they don't feel entitled. None of them are telling us how 'spoiled' we are, and grumbling about 'not giving (us) a hometown discount' or some other idiocy.

I like these guys. I really do. They're all human.

10 Years of Albert
So, where does this leave Albert?

Well, he's been trending down the last three years, and he wanted 10 years on his contract. Remember, baseball contracts are guaranteed, so Arte Moreno is on the hook no matter what. Meanwhile, the Cardinals were able to resign Yadi, invest in Beltran, and invest in the young, rising stars on this team.

If I were a betting man, I'd wager that Albert will, this year, hit below .299, with under 37 home runs, and who knows on RBI (since that stat depends on other players, as well.) I would bet that Albert will keep trending down over the next 10 years. So, Arte might pay out $25m this year for .298 + 36 home runs and almost 100 RBI. Not bad. Next year, it'll be the same for .297 + 35 HR and almost 100 RBI. Then, the closer it gets to the end of the contract, the more precipitous the drop will be each year.

The Final Word
I don't see $250m of value in that, but that's what weaselly shit-faced agents are for. I bought blindly into the fact that there was a need to resign Pujols, and I was wrong.

The first month of the season is too small a sample size to say anything with certainty, but the last three years are another story.That is a large sample size, and makes me okay with not having Albert around for $250m over 10 years while he's 32-41 years of age. The Cardinals are a better team without the albatross.

I also hope that was the only home run he hits this year. Fucker.

-Blaine
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