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Hopefully this won't financially hinder a Pujols extension. If the Cards do sign Pujols again, they're going to have to be creative about putting the rest of the team together.
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Originally Posted by milwaukeeproud
Hopefully this won't financially hinder a Pujols extension. If the Cards do sign Pujols again, they're going to have to be creative about putting the rest of the team together.
I wondered the same thing, too. Holliday will certainly help the lineup, and it's a huge signing, but all that money for 7 years?? You've got to make sure Pujols and some of the pitching staff get taken care of. There's way too much risk with that big of a deal.
Trust me, folks - the Cardinals will do what's necessary to retain Pujols. If they thought for one second that a finished deal with Holliday meant they wouldn't be able to resign Albert, it wouldn't happen. I don't even want to think about what would happen if they let him go (Cards fans would probably revolt), so I can only imagine how the Cardinals' front office feels. They can and will do whatever it takes.
Holliday's contract is a lot of money, but the Cards are in a great position to strongly contend for the NL pennant for the foreseeable future. I also don't anticipate Matt's production totally falling off a cliff as the contract goes on. There are plenty of players 35+ years old that are still very productive, so overall I'm happy.
Trust me, folks - the Cardinals will do what's necessary to retain Pujols. If they thought for one second that a finished deal with Holliday meant they wouldn't be able to resign Albert, it wouldn't happen. I don't even want to think about what would happen if they let him go (Cards fans would probably revolt), so I can only imagine how the Cardinals' front office feels. They can and will do whatever it takes.
Holliday's contract is a lot of money, but the Cards are in a great position to strongly contend for the NL pennant for the foreseeable future. I also don't anticipate Matt's production totally falling off a cliff as the contract goes on. There are plenty of players 35+ years old that are still very productive, so overall I'm happy.
Pujols will be a free agent in 2012. Let's say Pujols gets $20 million a year minimum, which is a fair low number. That'll be $37 million a year between Pujols and Holliday. That pretty much guarantees that Carpenter's option won't be exercised and he'll leave. If is it exercised, you're now at $52 million over the three guys (and Wainwright's option won't be exercised, it'll be Carp or Wainwright, but not both, in 2012). Lohse gets $12 million, now you're at $64 million. Arbitration raises will also come to Schumaker, McClellan, Kinney and Ryan in 2012, if all of those guys stick around, you're looking at another $15 million between those four, low end. Now you're at $79,000,000 and still have to fill 17 roster spots. Let's place the payroll at $105,000,000 for 2012 (higher then it's ever been). $26,000,000 won't do much to fill up those 17 spots. You're going to have to get creative and hope that guys like Rasmus (who I think is going to be great) and Tyler Greene are for real. And they're going to have to find a way to restock the farm system. Baseball America had the Cards ranked 30th in their most recent (December 2009) system rankings.
Holliday's a great player, but I do think that this puts the Cards in a position where they're going to have, if they do sign Pujols, two great players and then they're going to have to cobble together the rest of the team behind them. To top it off, Holliday's contract will be next to impossible to move if production does drop off at age 32 or so. Long term contracts are extremely high risk/high reward scenarios, ask any Cubs fan how that Soriano deal turned out.
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