ESPN Radio discusses Pujols to O's in Free Agency

[JTrea81]

Their payroll has gone up from last year and is the third-highest in the AL and fifth in all of baseball.

Well as somebody mentioned, Wells is a big part of that.

Perhaps Moreno has decided to spend again once he saw the fan backlash.

But I still doubt he goes after Pujols. He was only willing to go so far with Teixeira.

[castleman]

MacPhail has pretty much said that we flat-out will NOT be adding a 30M per year player.

I have no reason to suspect he is bluffing.

Since the Orioles will have about 10 million dollars that will be freed up nwhen the contracts of Lee and Guerorro are up, the money cound be available for a period of seven or eight years. Should Pijols become a Free Agent, he is a f ar superior to Prince Fielder for a team that will be in the market for a First Baseman next year. He would cost an additional 17-20 million dollars to our payroll getting to about 110 million and could make the team a contener for a long time.

[bluedog]

You make a compelling argument, but I question how much of a long term solution he is. He will be 32 before next season and had back problems all of last year. That is never a good thing for an athlete.

This is going to be an interesting situation, given that we are talking about, at worst, the best player of our generation. I just can't see anyone giving him a 10-year deal. Like Gordo suggested, as the Orioles, I would probably go 7/210, but that is probably it.

If I had to guess right now, I would say that it would be between the Cards, Angels and Cubs. But even though they have All-Stars at first right now, I am not going to put it past the Red Sox or Yankees to get involved somehow. Even though there is no room right now, when the best player of the generation is available and you have the resources to acquire him, you have to at least consider making room.

I agree that you try to pay him 7 or 8 years max. I think from a financial standpoint, adding a player of his caliber to the O's will be worth at least 30 million a season in increased revenue assuming the team returns to contention and to 3 million+ attendance. There will be people who scoff at that notion, but I can't think of any two players making 15 million a year who would have the same impact at the box office and in ad sales for MASN as Pujols by himself would have. He has the potential to transform the entire image of your franchise and drive both local and national media attention like no other player I can think of in MLB right now.

The best comparison I can think of is Peyton Manning or Lebron James (pre-Miami). Both played for small markets (Indy & Cleveland) and turned their teams into perennial contenders while driving interest levels and franchise revenues through the roof. Essentially, those players have been able to make mid-market teams perform like large market teams.

Clearly the salary cap in football / basketball has something to do with it, but the Colts are still going to make Manning the highest paid player in the NFL, even at the ripe age of 36. There are some players who simply transcend normal logic in terms of their value to your franchise and Pujols is one of those rare guys.

Give him 8 / 280 if we have to. The man is worth it.

[Frobby]

Moreno seems to have been scared by something like Angelos was with Belle, and decided to not go "all in" any longer.

Well, he took on the Wells contract. His team signed Torii Hunter for 5/$90 mm. Their team has a $131 mm payroll this season. I wouldn't say they are being cheap, would you?

[JTrea81]

Well, he took on the Wells contract. His team signed Torii Hunter for 5/$90 mm. Their team has a $131 mm payroll this season. I wouldn't say they are being cheap, would you?

The non-aggressive pursuits of Beltre, Crawford and Soriano is strange however.

The Angels were always aggressive in their pursuits of talent like that until this offseason.

Wells also seem to be a panic move similar to how the Orioles traded for Sosa after failing to land Delgado because of a non-aggressive pursuit of him as well.