The only reason I can think of why he'd be shopping around is that it might be in his mind that being a DH would extend his career. The Cards were willing to do 9 years and somewhere in the neighborhood of 190 million, but that wasn't good enough. It can't be the rings, he has 2 of them, so why would you go to another NL team, unless they paid you sick, sick money.
That is just sick money, and I can't imagine Big Al being worth that much for the next 9 years. My buddy who is a Cardinal fan says he wants to be paid for all those years he was the best player in baseball but wasn't paid like it.
Let me tell you something. Nine years is a long time and what you pay for now may not exactly be what you get down the line. The Yankees signed A-Rod for ten years at $250 million. He put up big numbers in the regular season the first 4-5 years but only showed up one time in the playoffs. The last two years he has been injury riddled and very unproductive. They would trade him in a NY minute but nobody would take him and the Yankees would have to eat most of his salary. The Cards need to think this one through. Pujols won't want to reduce his salary in five years when he is hitting .275 with 20 HRs and 80 RBIs.
Exactly...we gave Bagwell a big contract that even at it's begining you knew that the end would not be good. But it was pitched as a reward for all the years he played so well for less money. Problem was not only did his production decline significantly due to injuries but the last two years of the contract were significant money and he insisted on continuing to play when he couldn't play inorder to collect the money. It was a joke but he wouldn't retire untill he got every last dime.
Guess I was right. Oh well, now they can spend some money on some pitching. There's no more Loyalty, they're all whores. I'm sure he'll look good at the HOF ceremony with an Angels hat on.