Pujols' departure: One year later

[redbird89]

On the morning of Dec. 8, as Cardinals fans stirred from their sleep, they were jolted into the day with eyes wide open, alarmed by the hot rumor that came with their first cup of coffee.

Albert Pujols was leaving the Cardinals.

The Los Angeles Angels made their move during the still of the night, offering the iconic first baseman a 10-year contract worth $240 million.

Say it isn’t so. After all it was Pujols that said he wanted to be a “Cardinal forever,” just like Stan Musial. So this couldn’t be true. Baseball is a business, but Pujols was family.

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/colum...Y6QUM.facebook

A year later, do you think it's good that Pujols left? Has your opinion changed in a year?

[Skippy15]

I said when he left we will be fine. He meant here more as a figure head than his declining on field performance. I said a huge positive was we had financial freedom for the next decade without him.

A year later its even more true now. Pujols showed even more decline in Anaheim. He started horribly again. The cardinals signed a great hitter for an extremely reasonable price in Beltran and he doesn't hurt the future by blocking a younger player or taking up to much payroll. Craig showed that he is a good enough first basemen that he could be the first basemen here the next 10 years. All the man does is hit. We were able to sign our most important player, Molina, because we didnt sign Pujols. We will probably be able to sign Wainwright to an extension because we didnt sign Pujols. We will likely be able to keep guys like Miller, Tavares and Wong longer term than we may not have been able to because of Pujols.

I thought when it happened it was fine and we would be okay. This year we were 1 game from back to back World Series without Pujols.

The financial freedom we have the next 10 years, the team set up how it is being able to keep the core of the team, not one piece, the talent we have coming up that we probably would have lost because we could not pay some of them.

In my personal opinion, letting Pujols walk was the best move this franchise has ever made. It literally set up to contend every single year the next decade. Setting up for possibly one of the best 20 plus years stretches in the history of baseball.

[stlfan544]

Definitely couldn't agree any more with you skippy.. best move we've made maybe in the history of the cardinals money wise.

[salto]

Who is this Pujols you speak of?

[Skippy15]

So this was pretty damn funny. Some foul language though

Hitler reacts to Pujols signing with angels

http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=r...&v=R-zgYXjBb9Y

[Jeffy25]

I don't miss him one bit.


Allen Craig performed just as well as Pujols did last year (which was expected, that he and Beltran would make up for it).

and we don't owe him 238 million dollars over the next 9 years as he declines.

We are far better off.

[ciaban]

As an angel fan i never wanted him, even the years prior to us signing him i made it pretty clear in our forum that i didn't want anything to do with the poo, i feel even more strongly about that now after watching Trout out perform him as a player and a man.

He just wont be worth the money hell he wasn't worth the money this year, the cards got his best years for sure. I'm not even sure he will be productive 3 years from now.

[Skippy15]

I won't be surprised if he isn't very good. He will be what is it? 35 then?

He has never had a really big injury but I can't tell you how many times we heard he had a sore back, heel and his elbow always seemed to be an issue

[Pujolsfan91]

I won't be surprised if he isn't very good. He will be what is it? 35 then?

He has never had a really big injury but I can't tell you how many times we heard he had a sore back, heel and his elbow always seemed to be an issue

He'll be about 36, since he's turning 33 in January.

I would not be surprised if he isn't too great by that point,either, but I still really hope he breaks the home run record.

I wonder how many people truly still have sour grapes over him leaving this organization. It only helped us in the long run, and I'm not going put it over my head. He's still my favorite player in baseball.

[Skippy15]

He'll be about 36, since he's turning 33 in January.

I would not be surprised if he isn't too great by that point,either, but I still really hope he breaks the home run record.

I wonder how many people truly still have sour grapes over him leaving this organization. It only helped us in the long run, and I'm not going put it over my head. He's still my favorite player in baseball.

I'm not mad over him leaving but I don't appreciate him continuously saying its not about money and he wants to stay and then jumping ship once bigger money came along.

But I don't root against him or wish injury or anything in him though. I did get to snicker a little though during his long slump just thinking about how bad that contract will screw the angels one day.

I also found it a little funny when angel fans booed him, something he would never expect at his (formerly) home ballpark

[Tkais9009]

I'm not mad over him leaving but I don't appreciate him continuously saying its not about money and he wants to stay and then jumping ship once bigger money came along.

But I don't root against him or wish injury or anything in him though. I did get to snicker a little though during his long slump just thinking about how bad that contract will screw the angels one day.

I also found it a little funny when angel fans booed him, something he would never expect at his (formerly) home ballpark

pretty much all of this is my opinion too.

Although i do kinda root against him haha

[Skippy15]

pretty much all of this is my opinion too.

Although i do kinda root against him haha

Haha I only root against him winning more World Series than we do the next 10 years.

I do kinda get a hahaha feeling when he fails but I don't go out of my way to see him fail. But if I happen to turn on espn and he is batting and he strikes out I might give a little smile lol

[stlfan544]

As an angel fan i never wanted him, even the years prior to us signing him i made it pretty clear in our forum that i didn't want anything to do with the poo, i feel even more strongly about that now after watching Trout out perform him as a player and a man.

He just wont be worth the money hell he wasn't worth the money this year, the cards got his best years for sure. I'm not even sure he will be productive 3 years from now.

How do you mean out perform pujols as a man!???? Albert may not be a cardinal but he does so much for his community and his charities are incredible. How did trout outperform him as a man?

[ciaban]

I'm not mad over him leaving but I don't appreciate him continuously saying its not about money and he wants to stay and then jumping ship once bigger money came along.

But I don't root against him or wish injury or anything in him though. I did get to snicker a little though during his long slump just thinking about how bad that contract will screw the angels one day.

I also found it a little funny when angel fans booed him, something he would never expect at his (formerly) home ballpark

that's because when he slumped (his first month in Anaheim) he hadn't gotten a chance to engender good will yet like he had in his 12 years in St. Louis, if 12 years from now Mike Trout gets off to a slow start he wont get booed.

How do you mean out perform pujols as a man!???? Albert may not be a cardinal but he does so much for his community and his charities are incredible. How did trout outperform him as a man?

I don't know that charity is the definition of manliness that most would use, and it's really easy to be generous when you are making $250 mill, especially compared to a rookie making league minimum

[Skippy15]

that's because when he slumped (his first month in Anaheim) he hadn't gotten a chance to engender good will yet like he had in his 12 years in St. Louis, if 12 years from now Mike Trout gets off to a slow start he wont get booed.

I don't know that charity is the definition of manliness that most would use, and it's really easy to be generous when you are making $250 mill, especially compared to a rookie making league minimum

I wasn't saying anything about the angels fan base lol it's just that like you said he is in a new place and he doesn't have the automatic love like he did here