Pujols's contract demands: 400 Bazillion Dollars for 99 years

Actually Pujols' agent Dan Lozano wants the Cardinals to include a 100th year but the Cardinals want the 100th year to be a club option.

I guess agents have a tendency to make a very high bid and then expect it to come down.

I am thinking maybe the Cardinals will counter offer with "Ownership of the Cardinals".

Either way, the Cardinals shouldn't mess around.
As I wrote before, Pujols owes neither the Cardinals nor the fans of St. Louis anything!

In the free agency era, even New Yorkers, Chicagoans and Bostonians should be satisfied with 10 seasons with a superstar. And yes, Derek Jeter's feeling might be hurt by that notion, but after 10 years, multiple MVPS, a playoff MVP and a World Series title, Pujols has earned the right to see what his worth on the open market is.

And guess what, St. Louis? That would be your worst nightmare.
Do you know why?

Because the Chicago Cubs have a TREMENDOUS amount of money coming off of the books after the 2011 season is over.

The New York Mets have a HUGE amount of money coming off of the books after the 2011 season is over.

And chances are the Los Angeles Dodgers will have new ownership who will want to make a splash and spend some dough.

You might have three big spenders who all, by fate and circumstance, have an opening at first base.

You want to try and outbid New York, Los Angeles and Chicago?
Give him the 100th year.

If all things were equal, Cliff Lee should be a Cardinal

Wherever Cliff Lee will sign, it will be for the biggest contract. And why not? Would YOU turn down the most dough?

And after being a Cy Young winner in 2008, he has played for four different teams. So why shouldn't he go for stability in his life now?

And of course the Yankees are front runners.
The Rangers want him back and supposedly there are some other clubs in the running.

If it weren't a money and budget factor, wouldn't he fit perfectly with the St. Louis Cardinals?

He doesn't want to go to New York!
He is a low key guy who just wants to pitch.

His wife doesn't want to go to New York. She thinks they are all spitting scum bags.

And pitching in the Texas heat for 6 or 7 years will wear him down.

In St. Louis, the nice Arkansas boy will have a passionate Midwestern fan base cheering for him.
He'd be under the tutelage of Dave Duncan, the best pitching coach in the game.

And oh yeah, the Cardinals rotation would go "Lee - Wainwright - Carpenter - Jaime Garcia - Jake Westbrook."

Um... hello pennants!

It would be like when Greg Maddux joined an already stacked Atlanta pitching staff in 1993.

Plug Lee into the Cardinals staff and they would be a terror in any short series.

Plus he would get all of those games against the Astros, Pirates and Cubs which is always good for the win/loss totals.

All things are NOT equal and the Cardinals aren't even in the sweepstakes for Lee.

But they should be. It would best for ALL parties.

Cardinals vs. Reds could be the rivalry of the 2010s

Hey baseball… want to do something SMART regarding the marketing of your sport?
OK, I didn’t think so.

But in case you do, let me point out something that is going on. The two most popular teams remain the Yankees and the Red Sox and yes, most of the TV and marketing attention is being pushed towards them.

However, the rivalry is getting a little stale… and this is coming from a die hard Red Sox fan and a classic Yankee hater. It reached its fever pitch in 2003-2004 and 2005, although the baseball world was denied a third straight Red Sox/Yankees ALCS in 2005 when neither team made it out of the Division Series.

Both teams have won a World Series since… both teams have missed the playoffs at least once since… the Yankees went through a big transformation and the Red Sox are rebuilding.

The rivalry isn’t what it was 5 years ago and I think the rest of the baseball world is bored of it.

But looming out there is a potential rivalry… one with two franchises with deep traditions, great players and now some legitimate bad feelings.

I’m talking about the Reds and the Cardinals.
And if you were smart, you’d build up these two teams and their mutual dislike to make their games burn redder than their uniforms.

People think there is too much Northeast focus? Then here’s two Midwest teams whose appeal can stretch far beyond their city limits the way the Red Sox appeal travels throughout New England and the Yankees have fans… well… everywhere!


Ohio (save for the sadists in Cleveland), Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee.. that could all be Reds territory.

And the Cardinals already dominate the Midwest with one of the best fan bases in the game.

Both teams have terrific players and are young enough that they might both be good for a while. Perhaps the Albert Pujols vs. Joey Votto debate can be the great argument for the next few years.

They both have rich history, but they never seem to be good at the same time.
The Cardinals won multiple World Series in the 1960s.
The Reds won multiple World Series in the 1970s.
The Cardinals won a World Series in the 1980s.
The Reds won a World Series in the 1990s.
The Cardinals won a World Series in the 2000s.
And now it looks like the Reds will be in the post season this year.

They both have respected managers who don’t seem to like each other and their teams… well their mutual dislike is as subtle as an Albert Pujols homer.

Brandon Phillips talking trash. Former Cardinals Jim Edmonds and Scott Rolen brawling against their old teammates. Former Red Jason LaRue being clocked by Cincy’s Johnny Cueto and possibly having his career end?

These games could be hyped up and made to be a clash of traditional division rivals that is not so friendly.

I am not talking about trying to make the Rockies and the Diamondbacks blood enemies. These are teams whose fan base goes back into the 19th Century… and there are plenty of transplanted Ohians and Missourians through out the country

The Northeast (and us transplants) will always get up for Yankees and Red Sox. And if the Mets ever get good again, they’ll care about Mets and Phillies.

Now imagine ANOTHER region of the country that pumped up for regular season baseball.

It’s being served to you on a red plate.

Yankees/Red Sox? That was so 2000s!
Reds/Cardinals? That’s THIS decade. (Or it could be.)

Hey Adam Wainwright. Now would be a good time to WANT that Cy Young

At one point Adam Wainwright looked like the Cy Young Front Runner...

He was 17-6 with an ERA of 1.99 on August 11 and it looked like a 20 win season and a sub 2.00 ERA were in his future.

Then it looked like he decided to make a conscious effort to hand it over to Roy Halladay.
He had been 1-5 since and his ERA has jumped up .51 points.

Now of course he is still in the mix for the Cy Young and some of his losses were tough luck losses.

But a big win here would go a long way. A nice domination of the Padres would land him win #19 and make his ERA closer to 2.00 than 3.00. And the fans would love him for it...

Not the Cardinals fans... GIANTS fans.

Giant fans have images of a Division Title dancing in their heads and the Padres going on another skid would go a long way to making that true.

So come on! It is fun to be loved. Cardinals fans will love you forever if for no other reason than clinching the 2006 World Series.

You can have San Francisco fans love you too and you don't even need to change uniforms.

So come on, Adam. A Cy Young would look good on your mantle. Go for it tomorrow.

How I want the National League races to end

With the season winding down, the playoff picture in the American League seems pretty clear. Unless the Twins and Rangers simply collapse and give the White Sox and A’s some life, then we can be pretty sure that the Yankees, Rays, Rangers and Twins will be playing in October.

But there is a chance that the National League could be right down to the wire.

I want there to be total anarchy by the end… nobody sure who is in and who is out.

Now with the Red Sox out of it, I am rooting for the Giants to win it all. But the rest of the National League could be in chaos if the following scenarios take place.


The GIANTS go on a mad 15-5 dash to capture the NL West title and finish the season 95-67.



The PADRES right their ship and go 15-7 to and finish the season 94-68.



The ROCKIES continue their late surge with a 17-4 streak and also finish the season 94-68.



The PHILLIES go 11-9 the rest of the way and finish the season 93-69.



The BRAVES pick up the pace and go 12-8 over the last few weeks and end with a 93-69 mark.


The REDS stumble to an 7-14 record the rest of the way and finish 87-75.



The CARDINALS, led by Pujols, Wainwright and Carpenter, go 14-9 and also finish 87-75.

So what would be the end result?

The Giants would be the Western Division Champs and have Home Field Advantage in every round of the playoffs, including the World Series.

My dad will be thrilled to see that the Championship will have to come through McCovey Cove.

And the rest of the National League playoffs would be up for grabs forcing three… count em… THREE win or go home one game playoffs on the same day!

The Padres and Rockies would play a one game playoff for the Wild Card (2007 rematch anyone?)

The Braves and the Phillies would play for the NL East title. (The two time NL Champs vs. Bobby Cox’s last stand.)

And the Reds and Cardinals, two of the classic franchises in baseball, will square off for the NL Central crown. (And no doubt some bad blood between LaRussa and Baker.)

And if these games would be as exciting as the one game playoffs played each of the last three seasons, they will be three heart stopping down to the last pitch thrillers.

We’ve never had more than one to end a season. (If the Mets won one more game we would have had two in 2007!)

Tell me that wouldn’t be the most exciting baseball day you could imagine.

So… just have those 7 scenarios take place.
I’ve always wanted a season to end with anarchy… maybe I’ll get my wish this year.

Did I miss when Colby Rasmus became a big star?

There's a big story going around about Colby Rasmus not happy with his playing time.
Colby Rasmus wants out of St. Louis.
The press wants to know Colby Rasmus' thoughts.
"Hey Albert Pujols, what's YOUR take on Colby Rasmus?"

I even had a reader write me and say, I am quoting you dear reader... "You MUST have an opinion of Colby Rasmus!"

Um yeah. He's an OK outfielder with 2 years experience. He had a nice first month and a half this year but his stats are nothing special.

And I guess he wants to play every day. OK, hit more. This isn't Matt Holliday or Yadier Molina making a stink. It's a player who is OK and will probably end up a 4th outfielder.

STOP THE PRESSES! We've got to make sure HE'S happy!

Are we going to devote MLB Tonight time to Felix Pie next?

Hey Adam... why don't you want to win the Cy Young Award?

For the second straight start, Adam Wainwright can't make it to the 6th inning and the chance for win #18 goes down the toilet again. Unless the Cardinals go on a mongo comeback, he'll have lost his 5 straight decision.

So when he was 17-6 with a 1.99 ERA, the Cy Young was his to lose.
Barring a Reds bullpen collapse he will be 17-10 with a 2.34 ERA... great numbers to be sure, but not good enough to call the race.

Does he have an incentive clause to NOT win it?

Have you noticed...

Have you noticed that the Cardinals haven't won since Tony LaRussa and Albert Pujols appeared at Glenn Beck's vague rally?

They've lost two to the Nationals and all three to the Astros... not exactly world beaters.

Just making an observation.
I am sure people in Cincinnati are glad they showed up.

I am very good at picking who WON'T win the NL Central!

Everyone in the planet seemed to be picking the defending NL Central champ to cruise to another October date... everyone except your pal Sully.

Your Pal Sully took a look at the Cincinnati Reds and thought "Hey! THIS team is exciting, packed with young talent and the defending champ is overrated."

So before the season began, I stuck my neck out and said "THE IS THE YEAR FOR THE CINCINNATI REDS! I don't care what the experts say!"

Quite a prediction, isn't it?
One problem.

I made that prediction for the 2009 season.

Everyone and their cow were predicting the Cubs were going to win their third straight division... so many so that when I DIDN'T pick them, I had to write another post to justify my prediction.

Now I DID predict the actual division champion, the Cardinals, would make the playoffs. I picked them as the Wild Card team, not the Division Champs.

Well THIS year, everyone seemed to think the Cardinals were the no brainer pick to repeat as NL Central champs... again, everyone but your pal Sully.

And look at how the Cardinals are doing. Today the Cardinals got swept by the lowly Astros and fallen 7 games back in the loss column of the Reds.

So who did I pick? The Brewers!

Hey, I thought their pitching was going to be better and I liked their line up.

You know what? Pick the Brewers for NEXT year... I tend to be a year EARLY for the party.

Adam Wainwright continues to show his amazing generosity

Once again, Adam Wainwright could have taken all momentum of the Cy Young award, put it under his wing and make it his to lose.

Instead he lost his 3rd straight chance to win his 18th.
His ERA jumped from 2.18 to 2.30 and he only lasted 5 innings against the Nats and the Cardinals have fallen to 4 games back in the loss column.

Aces are supposed to face sub par teams and STOP losing streaks.

Instead Roy Halladay, Ubaldo Jimenez, Chris Carpenter and Tim Hudson are all still hanging around with Cy Young ambitions and you are keeping their hope alive.

Man... he is nice, isn't he?

Tony LaRussa should be trying to Restore the Cardinals to the Pennant race

Call me nuts, but maybe the time Tony LaRussa spent coming up with a speech for Glenn Beck's dopey little promotional stunt could have been used in a more productive manner:

Like how about a game plan against the Nationals.

You know when you are the prohibitive favorite to win the division with the best 1-2 punch in the rotation in all the National League and a guy who seems hell bent to win his third straight MVP and you are LOSING ground to the Reds and Phillies... maybe promoting a Fox News talk show shouldn't be priority one.

Oh yeah, the Nats won 14-5... the Cardinals pitchers are letting up an average of 9 runs a game to the Nationals.

Maybe they should have Glenn Beck write THAT on his chalk board.

Congrats on your 400th homer Albert... Now PLEASE don't get caught

Seriously, the WHOLE EARTH wants this to be a cool and wonderful achievement.
We want to have each homer be a wonderful moment.

But we've been stung recently. And we're slow to trust.

So... I'm not going to ask if there's anything in your diet BESIDES Wheaties Fuel... please hide it well.

I don't want to know. Nobody does. We want to have fun.
Hide it better than those other two sluggers who played under Tony LaRussa.

I am rooting for you Albert Pujols. Let's keep it that way, shall we?

Adam Wainwright. Don't you WANT to win the Cy Young?

Seriously... you had the chance to take the prohibitive lead in the Cy Young. A chance for your 18th win. A chance to bring the ole ERA closer to 2.00.

And the Cardinals gave you the lead against the Pirates... if there is a worse team, then they don't play in the majors.

And yeah you went 7 innings, but you couldn't hold onto the lead and let up 4 runs to the lowly Bucs.

I like the Cy Young race being interesting... but I wouldn't mind seeing someone take charge.