I doubt the rest of the team will appreciate the permanent suite on road trips...especially when the rest of the guys get regular cramped rooms and no special treatment by the hotel.

Grand_Moff_Joseph: I doubt the rest of the team will appreciate the permanent suite on road trips...especially when the rest of the guys get regular cramped rooms and no special treatment by the hotel.

Hey, that makes his room the party room.

WTF Indeed: The difference between St. Louis and LA for Pujols:

St.Louis: "Good, we kept Pujols."
LA: "OMG! We got Pujols!"

After not producing a world championship:

St. Louis: "Pujols is beloved and will always be beloved"
LA: "$30 million a year?! Hotel suites everywhere?! WTF are we paying this guy for?!"

The Angels have pretty much guaranteed that they will be in the playoffs for the next 4 straight years with this signing and the CJ Wilson signing. Their only competition in the anemic AL West is Texas and Texas lost their ace to the Angels. And once you get into the playoffs it's all about pitching and the Angels can throw Weaver/Haren/Wilson out there. The Angels should get at least one WS in the next 4-5 years.

The back end of that contract is the part that's awful and will hamstring them. But the next 5 years are gravy.

/not an Angels fan
//not in the least

unyon: Grand_Moff_Joseph: I doubt the rest of the team will appreciate the permanent suite on road trips...especially when the rest of the guys get regular cramped rooms and no special treatment by the hotel.

Hey, that makes his room the party room.

Pujols party room = Tebow party room

bighasbeen: unyon: Grand_Moff_Joseph: I doubt the rest of the team will appreciate the permanent suite on road trips...especially when the rest of the guys get regular cramped rooms and no special treatment by the hotel.

Hey, that makes his room the party room.

Pujols party room = Tebow party room

So, ginger ale and finger sandwiches for everyone? Oh, and after we eat, we'll work on ways to combine Pujols's hand gestures with Tebowing to make an uber-Tebow!

Has anyone ever gotten a contract this good? A mandatory $1M/yr post-retirement deal?

Just name the dude King and get over it. He isn't worth anywhere near that much.

Grand_Moff_Joseph: bighasbeen: unyon: Grand_Moff_Joseph: I doubt the rest of the team will appreciate the permanent suite on road trips...especially when the rest of the guys get regular cramped rooms and no special treatment by the hotel.

Hey, that makes his room the party room.

Pujols party room = Tebow party room

So, ginger ale and finger sandwiches for everyone? Oh, and after we eat, we'll work on ways to combine Pujols's hand gestures with Tebowing to make an uber-Tebow!

If you cross yourself with your off-Tebowing arm and then point to the sky God guarantees you a Homedown. Or a Touchrun.

GAT_00: Has anyone ever gotten a contract this good? A mandatory $1M/yr post-retirement deal?

Just name the dude King and get over it. He isn't worth anywhere near that much.

Magic Johnson got a guaranteed 25 year, $25 million contract with the Lakers in 1981. Highest paying contract in sports at the time.

WTF Indeed: bighasbeen: The Angels have pretty much guaranteed that they will be in the playoffs for the next 4 straight years with this signing and the CJ Wilson signing. Their only competition in the anemic AL West is Texas and Texas lost their ace to the Angels. And once you get into the playoffs it's all about pitching and the Angels can throw Weaver/Haren/Wilson out there. The Angels should get at least one WS in the next 4-5 years.

You assume if everyone is healthy, Pujols is actually 32, and they can get the rest of the team to hit again. The Angels have run into the problem that the Yankees have every year, and that the Red Sox and Phillies just learned. World Series or bust every year is rough, stressful, expensive, and makes the fans jaded. Texas has great arms in it's system and the best lineup in baseball.

Similarly, you are expecting that everyone on the Rangers stays healthy and guys like Beltre, Napoli and Cruz have had injury problems their entire careers. Also you have to remember that despite Cruz's playoff heroics this year he is still a .265 hitter and Michael Young is no spring chicken.

The Angels seem to be on a 5 year plan and were willing to overpay for the latter 5 years of Pujols to get the earlier, better 5. I would say that the addition of Pujols, the emergence of Mike Trumbo and Kendry Morales' coming back makes the Angels lineup incredibly scary. Also, the Angels are going to be one of the best defensive teams in baseball, especially in the outfield. They still have issues at 3rd base and in the bullpen, but they also have young talent they can leverage to fill those positions during the middle of the season.

Furthermore, the Rangers seem to be betting on Yu Darvish to replace Wilson and I don't trust Japanese pitching imports to be worth the money after a year or two. They also seem reticent to offer substantial contract extensions to guys like Napoli, Holland and Kinsler.

Big mistake by the Angels with this signing. Remember Mo Vaughn? He was younger than Pujols when the Angels signed him to his ridiculous contract. How'd that work out?

Albert might put in a good year or two, but then he will be Mr. Hamstring Problem and miss scores of games every year.

WTF Indeed: LA: "$30 million a year?! Hotel suites everywhere?! WTF are we paying this guy for?!"

I can't believe the hotel suite thing is even on the radar. He'll have 81 road games a year. I'm pretty sure most Los Angeles Angels player don't sleep on the ground, but let's generously say his room costs $1000/night more than the room they get for a random backup catcher.

So the perk is worth $81K per year. Woo. Other luminaries such as John Lackey get the same perk.

These are the big revelations:

Salary
2012: $12 million
2013: $16 million
2014: $23 million
2015: $24 million
2016: $25 million
2017: $26 million
2018: $27 million
2019: $28 million
2020: $29 million
2021: $30 million

That schedule means that the Angels will still have lots of extra 2012/2013 money to get in Win Now mode. They could add a short-term free agent rental to an offense that was 10th in the AL in scoring last year, or trade one of their many 1B/DH options for an upgrade elsewhere. Find a team that doesn't understand what low contact rates and poor selectivity portend for a young hitter, and send them Trumbo.

Personal Services Agreement

The sides agree that after the expiration of the contract or Pujols' retirement as a player, they will enter into a 10-year personal services relationship and Pujols will be paid $1 million annually.

Milestone Accomplishments

The sides agree they will enter into a separate marketing agreement in which Pujols will be paid for the promotion and marketing of specified milestone accomplishments. Among them are a $3 million payment for 3,000 hits and a $7 million payment for 763 home runs.

Both of those milestones are in reach if he stays healthy, and $20M extra is nothing to sneeze at, even on a contract of this size. He presently has 2,073 hits, and has averaged 189 per season, so he may reach 3,000 in the 5th year of that deal. The homers will take a little Hank Aaron durability to reach, as he needs to average 32 per year to do it. He's averaged 40/year to date, but age is obviously going to catch up with him sooner rather than later.

AdolfOliverPanties: Big mistake by the Angels with this signing. Remember Mo Vaughn? He was younger than Pujols when the Angels signed him to his ridiculous contract. How'd that work out?

They're not really comparable as players. Vaughn had inflated numbers as a lefty playing in Boston and was always strikeout prone. He also only played more than 150 games in a season twice. Pujols has never played less than 143 games in a season and only under 150 three times. Sure, he's declining a bit in average and slightly in power. But the guys who have put up comparable numbers through age 31 are guys like Jimmie Foxx, Ken Griffey Jr, Frank Robinson, Hank Aaron and Lou Gehrig. And now he gets to go play in a league where he can DH every 4th or 5th game.

bighasbeen: I would say that the addition of Pujols, the emergence of Mike Trumbo and Kendry Morales' coming back makes the Angels lineup incredibly scary.

Erm. How will you play these three people? Trumbo and Morales have very little experience in the OF, and you're going to take a big defensive hit. Trading/benching Abreu is still possible, but you'd still have to displace one of Wells/Bourjos/Hunter:

A) Bourjos is an elite defender at CF and a future star. He's not going anywhere.
B) Wells might have the worst contract in baseball. You're stuck paying him $21M/yr through 2014. They'll keep playing him. He can't play CF anymore, but he's still likely to be an above-average LF with the glove.
C) Hunter is owed $18M in 2012, and is still an excellent defender in RF.

No one wants B) or C) unless the Angels eat a ton of contract cash... enough contract cash that they'd have to give up pursuing a free agent starting pitcher, shortstop, or something else they need much more than another 1B/OF.

I'd sell Trumbo while his stock is still (too) high. He looks like the next Dave Kingman with a better glove.

bighasbeen: AdolfOliverPanties: Big mistake by the Angels with this signing. Remember Mo Vaughn? He was younger than Pujols when the Angels signed him to his ridiculous contract. How'd that work out?

They're not really comparable as players. Vaughn had inflated numbers as a lefty playing in Boston and was always strikeout prone. He also only played more than 150 games in a season twice. Pujols has never played less than 143 games in a season and only under 150 three times. Sure, he's declining a bit in average and slightly in power. But the guys who have put up comparable numbers through age 31 are guys like Jimmie Foxx, Ken Griffey Jr, Frank Robinson, Hank Aaron and Lou Gehrig. And now he gets to go play in a league where he can DH every 4th or 5th game.

I'm pulling this from a prior thread, but:

Here is a list of his 10 best comps (Foxx, Griffey Jr., Frank Robinson, Aaron, Gehrig, Mantle (*), Ott, Juan Gonzalez, Mays, Manny) through age 31, showing only the stats they put up from age 32 onwards.
Two of those guys were derailed quickly by injury-- Griffey was around for 10 years, but was never the same, and JuanGon was out of baseball after only 186 more games. That's the low end. (The good news for the Angels is that both of these guys had already shown an injury history by 31, whereas Pujols has been relatively healthy overall.)

Everyone else on the list had 5 or more seasons left in them, and only Foxx (129) failed to put up an OPS+ of 149 or higher after age 31. If you take the median on that list, you get someone like Ott/Manny, with 7 years and a roughly .300/.400/.500 batting line. The high end is Mays/Aaron, who each had 11 years of .290/.370/.530 and ~300 HR left in the tank.

That all suggests that the first half of the 10-year contract will probably be fine, and maybe even year 6/7, especially considering Pujols has been a better player (up to 31) than most of the guys on the list. But there's a pretty high risk that years 8-10, you're going to be paying him $25M a year to warm the bench, although unlike most of the 10 names above, Pujols will have the option to prolong his career by DHing.

(*): As an aside, if you ever forget how good Mantle was before his lifestyle and bad knees eroded his career, look at that list. Through age 31, he was a switch-hitting Albert Pujols who played Gold-Glove center field. He'd probably be worth $30M/yr these days.

chimp_ninja: bighasbeen: I would say that the addition of Pujols, the emergence of Mike Trumbo and Kendry Morales' coming back makes the Angels lineup incredibly scary.

Erm. How will you play these three people? Trumbo and Morales have very little experience in the OF, and you're going to take a big defensive hit. Trading/benching Abreu is still possible, but you'd still have to displace one of Wells/Bourjos/Hunter:

A) Bourjos is an elite defender at CF and a future star. He's not going anywhere.
B) Wells might have the worst contract in baseball. You're stuck paying him $21M/yr through 2014. They'll keep playing him. He can't play CF anymore, but he's still likely to be an above-average LF with the glove.
C) Hunter is owed $18M in 2012, and is still an excellent defender in RF.

No one wants B) or C) unless the Angels eat a ton of contract cash... enough contract cash that they'd have to give up pursuing a free agent starting pitcher, shortstop, or something else they need much more than another 1B/OF.

I'd sell Trumbo while his stock is still (too) high. He looks like the next Dave Kingman with a better glove.

The Angels are going to be active on the trade market this season. A potential playoff team will be more than willing to risk picking up Abreu for a low cost to add a left handed bat to their bench. Or, the Angels keep him for their own bench. Either way, Abreu won't or shouldn't be starting for them this year. And I'm sure that the Angels would be able to command a haul for Morales or Trumbo from a team who missed out on Fielder and feels they're just one big bat away.

The Angels are already set on starting pitching and Aybar is a solid SS with the bat and an excellent fielder. 3rd base and bullpen is where they need help and bullpen help is probably the easiest thing to pick up at the trade deadline.

Vernon Wells is the albatross of this team if he keeps playing the way he did last year. But if he even bounces back to his career averages rather than his All Star years the Angels will have a .270/25/90 guy who plays solid defense hitting 7th. His power hasn't gone anywhere (he hit 25 HR last year) his plate discipline just went to shiat and he couldn't hit at home, but he still had an above average OPS with RISP.

Don't make the mistake of thinking this makes me happy. If that asshole McCourt had been forced to sell the team earlier the Dodgers might have had an owner willing to throw some money around at a guy like CJ Wilson or gotten involved in the Fielder bidding.

chimp_ninja: That all suggests that the first half of the 10-year contract will probably be fine, and maybe even year 6/7, especially considering Pujols has been a better player (up to 31) than most of the guys on the list. But there's a pretty high risk that years 8-10, you're going to be paying him $25M a year to warm the bench, although unlike most of the 10 names above, Pujols will have the option to prolong his career by DHing.

I agree with you and said pretty much the same thing upthread. The Angels are on a 5 year, win now plan. They signed Weaver and Wilson to 5 year deals, they have control of Haren and Santana through 2013 and the majority of their roster is between 24 and 28. Arte Moreno has plenty of money and the name Pujols will still bring people to the park in years 8-10, especially if he is chasing any records.

bighasbeen: The Angels are already set on starting pitching and Aybar is a solid SS with the bat and an excellent fielder. 3rd base and bullpen is where they need help and bullpen help is probably the easiest thing to pick up at the trade deadline.

They have four solid pitchers, but given how many guys get injured every year, I wouldn't pass on a 5th if one became available. They'll get more out of the 150IP from a solid #5 than they will from a fourth outfielder, platoon DH, etc.

I waffled between SS and 3B for the lineup.

Fangraphs, at least, has Aybar as an average defensive shortstop. I wasn't sure why he got the Gold Glove last year. I don't think there's anything wrong with him, but he's also never struck me as amazing. He's a tick above average for a shortstop bat, and he runs well.

On the other hand, most of the defensive systems think Callaspo is an excellent defender at 3B, and he's a better hitter than Aybar. (Admittedly, the bar is higher at 3B, and between that and Aybar's legs, they're probably equivalent in offensive value.) Both of them can play 2B if Kendrick gets injured again, which adds value.

Really, they'll be constrained by who is on the free agent and trade markets, and further constrained by what teams want that they have in excess (1B/corner OF/DH), so the difference between Aybar and Callaspo isn't big enough to worry about. There really aren't any big SS/3B free agents right now that I can think of... Wilson Betemit might be the best of the bunch and he's basically Alberto Callaspo without the glove.

chimp_ninja: Really, they'll be constrained by who is on the free agent and trade markets, and further constrained by what teams want that they have in excess (1B/corner OF/DH), so the difference between Aybar and Callaspo isn't big enough to worry about. There really aren't any big SS/3B free agents right now that I can think of... Wilson Betemit might be the best of the bunch and he's basically Alberto Callaspo without the glove.

Ew, Wilson Betemit. I honestly don't think they really need to upgrade at 3rd. You don't need an All Star 3B if you have hitting at other positions, you just need a guy who isn't a total liability at the plate and plays good defense but it was the position where they are maybe the weakest.

I still think having an extra 1B to shop is a good thing to have this year especially since a lot of teams who were/are looking at Pujols and Fielder may have been able to fill their other needs.

Lt. Cheese Weasel: psssstt...little clue: CJ Wilson isn't an ace, and has Octoberitis, as you will now find out for your 77 million dollars.

Yeah, but he was Texas' ace and now he's Anaheim's #3.

And it's not my money. I hate the farking Angels.

Lt. Cheese Weasel: psssstt...little clue: CJ Wilson isn't an ace, and has Octoberitis, as you will now find out for your 77 million dollars.

He's on a staff with Weaver 2.0, Danny Haren, and Ervin Santana. He's expected to be a #3, and he can pitch like a #4 and the Angels still have an excellent rotation. He'll be pitching his age 31-35 seasons in Anaheim, he's been healthy, and his arm doesn't have much wear and tear since he's only been a starter for 2 seasons.

It's not a great signing at $77M, but it's not a bad contract. Last year, the Angels were 86-76, and they just replaced Mark Trumbo, Jeff Mathis (*), and Joel Piniero with Albert Pujols, Chris Iannetta and CJ Wilson. I think they'll do just fine.

(*): They actually traded Mathis. For a professional baseball player. That's the GM move of the winter, right there. They asked a MLB GM to give them something, anything for Jeff Mathis, and they got it.

carnifex2005: Nevertheless, starting on July 1, 2011, Bobby Bonilla will remain on the franchise's payroll for 25 years, collecting an annual salary of $1,193,248.20. Those are the terms the Mets agreed to Jan. 3, 2000, when they bought out the final year of Mr. Bonilla's contract.

Who would have predicted that Bobby Bonilla would become a financial wizard with an eye for tax consequences? Here's how they came up with the number:

"The Mets agreed to pay out the remainder of Bonilla's contract by deferring the $5.9 million that he was due. The Mets will pay him 25 equal payments of $1,193,248.20 every July 1 from 2011 until 2035, assuming an annual interest rate of 8% during the period 2011-2035."

I make nowhere near $5.9M, but I'd happily defer a year of my salary and split it over 25 years at 8%, locked in.

Dafatone: chimp_ninja: They actually traded Mathis. For a professional baseball player. That's the GM move of the winter, right there. They asked a MLB GM to give them something, anything for Jeff Mathis, and they got it.

Wow.

It was because Toronto still feels bad for pawning Vernon Wells off on them.

Orgasmatron138: SNGX1275: Pujols could have been equal to or greater than Stan the Man Musial in St. Louis, but he threw it away for money.

Stan played in a different era, and probably would have taken this deal. St. Louis fans will love Albert after he's done.

You sure about that? From Wikipedia:

"Musial (who was under contract to the Cardinals for $13,500 in 1946) was offered a five-year, $125,000 contract, plus a $50,000 bonus, to join the Mexican League.[66] He declined the offer, and after manager Dyer spoke to club owner Sam Breadon, Musial was given a $5,000 raise later in 1946."

mojofinger: Orgasmatron138: SNGX1275: Pujols could have been equal to or greater than Stan the Man Musial in St. Louis, but he threw it away for money.

Stan played in a different era, and probably would have taken this deal. St. Louis fans will love Albert after he's done.

You sure about that? From Wikipedia:

"Musial (who was under contract to the Cardinals for $13,500 in 1946) was offered a five-year, $125,000 contract, plus a $50,000 bonus, to join the Mexican League.[66] He declined the offer, and after manager Dyer spoke to club owner Sam Breadon, Musial was given a $5,000 raise later in 1946."

There's a big difference between Southern California and Mexi-

Hold on, let me get back to you.