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Some believe that the 10-year, $10 million personal services contract that begins when Albert retires was intended to address this very matter.
Some believe that the 10-year, $10 million personal services contract that begins when Albert retires was intended to address this very matter.
Don’t think of it as $10 million. Think of it as commitment.
Before Albert completes his current contract, he will have grossed over one-third of a BILLION dollars playing baseball. That $10 million is pocket change, but Arte Moreno played this “Card” well.
I would say that if he gets to a World Series in the next two years, he goes as an Angel. If not, he goes as a Cardinal. His Angels career needs a signature statement. To date it has been non-descript other than reaching milestones mostly built during his years in St Louis.
The last five-six years are really low key as he has been in Mike Trout’s shadow. He’s the old man trying to hang on while Trout is a daily highlight reel.
Moreno also paid that Card well. Of course we know that, but was just looking at the numbers. To break it out, the Cards paid about $115 million to Pujols for a production of about 87 WAR — close to $1.3 million per WAR. The Angels will pay about $253 million for about 16 WAR — close to $15.8 million per WAR. Ouch.
Wikipedia says that Albert and family still live in St. Louis. That he spends the off season here. Maybe that will play into his decision.
Who thinks Pujols would want to go into the HOF without a logo?
Secondly, if Pujols wants to go in as an Angel, who thinks the HOF would overrule him based on the “most indelible mark” standard?
Dawson and Carter wanted to go in as a a cub and Met, respectively. HOF put them both in as Expos. It’s also been reported that the HOF doesn’t like the possibility that a player might pick a particular team due to financial incentive. That possibility was speculated with Boggs.
Therefore, the HOF says they take the preferences of the player into consideration, but the HOF reserves veto power. Hence, the statement of which team did the player make his “most indelible mark” was made a while back.
The reason I brought it up was because Pujols had a total of 81.2 WAR in 11 seasons as a Card, or an average of 7.4 WAR per season. I’m using FanGraph’s data this time (I used BR data on my earlier Pujols WAR post). According the FG’s rule of thumb, greater than 6 WAR in a season is “MVP” level.
Pujols has had 6.3 total WAR in 8 seasons as an Angel or 0.8 WAR per season. According to FG’s rule of thumb, a WAR less than 1 is “Scrub” level.
Based on that, the “most indelible mark” standard is quite clear for Pujols. It’s much clearer than in Dawson’s or Carter’s case. It would seam hypocritical for the HOF to enforce it in those cases, but not with Pujols. Then there’s the point Brian made about a possible “purpose” for the Angels-Pujols services contract, which the HOF supposedly frowns upon.
I did not realize the Hall can overrule a player’s wishes and put on a different team’s hat logo for the HOF plaque. But hearing that they do not want players getting a financial incentive to sway them in their logo of choice, that totally makes sense and is honorable.
With the way money dominates sports decisions these days, it is refreshing to see one place where it does not. Now let’s just hope we do not hear of an HOF insider getting paid off for giving a former player a different hat logo than he otherwise would have.
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