ESPN Radio discusses Pujols to O's in Free Agency

[Sports Guy]

Yep. Unless MacPhail is gone, there is no way we'll be serious players for Pujols.

PA would have to be gone too.

No team, outside of maybe the Yanks, is paying Pujols 10/300 IMO.

Now, I will say this...In a lot of ways, BMore and St Louis are similar and I do think Pujols makes sense for us, depending on the contract.

But its not happening, so no reason to even discuss it..unless PA sells the team.

[nevadaO]

$30M is hard to stomach for one player, even if it happens to be the best player in the league. However, with guys like Vlad and Lee coming off the books, that's over half of his salary right there, and Pujols is probably going to put up 80% or more of their aggregate stats.

Then you also free up a roster spot. And you have the anchor of your lineup for the duration of that contract, whatever it may be.

Then factor in that there's basically no way he's going to make $300M.

I realize that our young players are going to start costing more and more, but this makes us contenders for a solid 5-7 years, IMO. Personally, I'd rather have our young SPs give us our best years before FA, then let some other organization pay them for what they did for us. As long as we continue to restock through the draft, I'm fine with letting all or most of our young pitchers walk into FA. We will get picks and probably their best years. I'd focus on locking up Jones and Wieters for six years each right now.

For Baltimore to return to greatness, the team needs to find a way to re-institutionalize itself in the BAL/DC area. Getting the top player on the planet goes a long way towards achieving that.

I don't think it's necessarily prudent, or even probable, but I think we could find a way to make it happen.

There would also be enough revenue from his jersey sales alone the first couple years to pay a large chunk of one years salary.

Also the increase in revenue from actually having people show up to the Yard would help offset the salary. I mean, places like St. Louis and the Cubs all ready fill the stadium so they wouldn't be able to count on a significant increase in ticket sales.

Granted, I am skeptical about handing out that much money but there are ways to help pay for it.

[NewMarketSean]

Luis Pujols, maybe.

[srock]

I'm going to throw out some reasons Pujols could make sense as a free agent Orioles acquisition.

If he is really done with the Cardinals, then he just reduced his own value on the FA market. He is worth the most to the Cardinals, they are the only team that should be giving him 10/300.

So if he goes to FA and will not sign in St. Louis for any amount (I find this unlikely no matter what he has said) then he will be attainable for less then 10/300.

The two teams with the most cash to spend already have long term (and younger) 1B: Boston and MFY. I guess its possible MFY still ponies up the money but I just don't see how they trade Tex. It's not a good time to be a FA 1B who won't sign with the Cardinals.

So if the Cardinals, MFY, and Red Sox are not in the FA bidding then the Orioles are on pretty equal footing with the rest of the teams. He might only get 8/250 from the rest of potential suitors: White Sox, Cubs, Angels, Houston, and DC. These teams have the market/rich owner capable of signing him. Maybe a few others, but none are significantly better positioned then the Orioles. Well...actually Lerner seems pretty likely to pony up and pay the players whatever it takes to make them Nationals. I could see that happening.

So if the O's are bidding with the aforementioned teams, how much are they willing to spend? Would Angelos put up extra money out of his pocket that is outside his normal O's budget just to stroke his ego? It could happen and for much less then 10/300.

I still think Pujols ends up staying as a Cardinal one way or another.

[EddieEddie]

I see where this is going.

I'm gonna go ahead and not participate in the summer long "OMG we might land PUJOLS!!1!!1!!" talk that is inevitably going to happen.

[Boston Dave]

Would Albert take Boston Dave's 5\150 "wow" offer? No.

Would he take my backup 10\200? No.

Seriously- the Cardinals would do that in a second. And that is the most I would pay for any player.

We have a better chance of the Sox jumping in and then we pick up..wait for it...AGon.

[Sports Guy]

Would Albert take Boston Dave's 5\150 "wow" offer? No.

Would he take my backup 10\200? No.

Seriously- the Cardinals would do that in a second. And that is the most I would pay for any player.

We have a better chance of the Sox jumping in and then we pick up..wait for it...AGon.

I disagree...Boston just traded a lot for AGon and will be giving him a big time extension soon enough.

Now, Papi will be gone, so would they move AGon to DH? I doubt that.

[tilgaham]

If we do reasonably well this year, I'd throw a 5/160 at Pujols and let the Yankees do their worst.

[TonySoprano]

[Dipper9]

Who needs the best player in the Majors when we have Brandon Snyder blazing a trail from Norfolk to Baltimore?

[Arthur_Bryant]

$30M is hard to stomach for one player, even if it happens to be the best player in the league.

Not just the best player in the league. For the first 10 years of his career, he has been the best hitter in the game and one of the greatest of all time.

[Woody Held]

PA would have to be gone too.

No team, outside of maybe the Yanks, is paying Pujols 10/300 IMO.

Now, I will say this...In a lot of ways, BMore and St Louis are similar and I do think Pujols makes sense for us, depending on the contract.

But its not happening, so no reason to even discuss it..unless PA sells the team.

I would think this is just the type of Signing PA would be all over. He'd be able to say “look what I did for you all” with no concept of any consequence of his action e.g. Belle

[Dipper9]

I would think this is just the type of Signing PA would be all over. He'd be able to say “look what I did for you all” with no concept of any consequence of his action e.g. Belle

Man I HATE the Belle analogy. HATE it. I should make a new rant thread about it. The guy was awesome for us before the injury. AWESOME! You can't predict injury. You can't let one deal influence every signing for 12 years after that. And for God's sake, you cannot rewrite history and make Belle out to be some underperformer. He did everything we could ask for before he got hurt!

[PrivateO]

[lovetoaster]

Man I HATE the Belle analogy. HATE it. I should make a new rant thread about it. The guy was awesome for us before the injury. AWESOME! You can't predict injury. You can't let one deal influence every signing for 12 years after that. And for God's sake, you cannot rewrite history and make Belle out to be some underperformer. He did everything we could ask for before he got hurt!

Great post and I could not agree more. Was Belle all sunshine and rainbows? No. But he worked harder than pretty much anyone else until he was physically unable to.