Greed is good

First things first. Welcome back MLB! I love you like a fat man loves cake and I am damn glad you are back for the next nine months!!!

Albert Pujols is the best player in major league baseball today and that's something that almost every baseball fan can agree with. His contract ends after the 2011 season and that has been a topic of great debate over the past few days. I should mention that Pujols and his agent picked a terrible time to become a free agent. He is a year late for the cash machine that is The New York Yankees and a few short months late for MLB's second coming of the cash machine, The Boston Red Sox. The Yankees locked up Mark Teixeira long term after the 2008 season and it's almost a sure bet that Boston will lock up Adrian Gonzalez to a long term deal this season, which means that neither of the big spenders have a need for him right now. Fans across the country are split when it comes to placing blame on the shoulders of Mr. Pujols,who is asking for $300 million over ten years. Many fans in St. Louis think the team is holding out on the fans and are not willing to fork over the money. Many other fans are placing blame on Pujols, calling him selfish and are willing to let him walk instead of seeing their team pay him the richest contract in MLB history.

I fall somewhere in the middle. I think Pujols is a rare talent and despite so many people pointing out that his stats are on the decline, I think he's the one player in the game that deserves this kind of checkbook respect. His stats have declined form Superman on steroids stauts, to mearly Superman status and he is still the most dangerous offensive player in the game today. Until MLB implements a salary cap, I refuse to criticize players for taking every last dollar they can from greedy ass owners. Is it selfish of Pujols to demand this kind of jack? No question about it, it's greedy. But even though we are not talking about Telldar Paper or Blue Star Airlines, I heard Gekko's voice in my head the past few days. "Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works." Greed, in this example, may just bring us one step closer to a salary cap in MLB and that's a place we need to be. If MLB had a salary cap, we wouldn't be forced to rip a team guy like Pujols for being greedy.

I asked myself this question and I think it's a valid question to ask. If you were a professional athlete and you knew you had one final payday in your career, wouldn't you try to get as much money as you possibly could? I wouldn't hesitate to ask for $300 million and I would have a giant shit eating grin on my face while asking for it too.

Another aspect of this, which might be the deciding factor for St. Louis, is The Chicago Cubs. At the end of this season Chicago will be looking to make a big splash. They have new owners who want to win and they want to win now. The franchise has not had a world series trophy in their possession for over 110 years AND they would absolutely love to take Pujols away form their most hated rival and hand him the pinstripes to wear for the next ten years. If I'm St. Louis GM, I go to Pujols tonight and tell him simply "I want you to wear the Cardinal jersey for the rest of your life, I want you to retire a Cardinal and I am willing to do what it takes to make that happen." I have this itchy feeling that we will hear about this issue for the next twelve months and it will likely get worse before it gets better, but St. Louis can do themselves a favor and follow my advice to avoid the drama.

Have a great weekend!