47 days until opening day.

I totally agree with you but for some reason I think the Cardinals will cave in to his demands and give him the 10 year deal. No matter what happens they're fucked. If they sign him for 10 years they'll be paying a guy $30 million a year at the age of 38-39-40 but if they let him go their team will be destroyed because how can you really replace one of the top 10 greatest players of all time.

It's one of those situations where you hold onto a player of that caliber for that long. He will screw that team long term if signed to numbers anywhere near that and the fans have to understand, and Pujols has to understand. Anyone with baseball knowledge knows what putting that much money into one position will do to you as a team. Won't allow you to be competitive for years to come, and the ticket sales drop off and the cycle starts.

Pujols cant handcuff the team with his rights of first refusal clause, he has to start thinking of self marketing himself to a larger market team with a bigger wallet with different philosophy on tenured players and bloated salaries

He earned a raise, but with his age factored in, he cannot expect a team to go 8-10 years out.

Ridiculous

I think the Cards will end up keeping him too. But they better invest in a phenomenal scouting department. Living in Denver I see how Helton's contract has effected the Rockies and that is at 10 million less than what Pujols deal will supposedly be. Rockies are just starting to get out from under it and have been super fortunate to have drafted (and traded) well these past years because they have not been able to put much money into the team for a while.

Cards and Pujols couldn't reach a deal by the imposed deadline.

Brewers and Rickie Weeks agree to a 5 year, $50 contract. 5th year only guaranteed if he remains an everyday starter in 2013 and 2014. He's injury prone and coming off a career year so definitely some risk here. They did just trade their 2B prospect to Toronto for Shawn Marcum so this move was probably in the plans for a while now.

Fielder is probably all but gone now.

One factor that doesn't get much attention re: the Pujols fiasco is the improvement of the Reds...my 2 cents, but I'm beginning to suspect the Cards' front office no longer believes they can compete with the Reds even with Pujols in the lineup...granted, the Cards have an excellent starting rotation, but their offense has been so dependent on Pujols and Holliday that people have overlooked how very average the supporting cast is...the Cards are a station-to-station team w/ very little speed, and a rather punchless lineup once you get past Fat Elvis, who could very well be on his way out of the MLB...I wouldn't be surprised if the front office views the resurgence of the Reds as a reason to rebuild w/o Pujols...

The Reds drafted well to help them get where they are. What have the Card's done in that department? Adam Wainwright, Colby Rasmus, and? They better get that scouting dept fixed if they want to go Cincy's route.

Blue Jays supposedly close to a 5 year, $65 million deal with Jose Bautista. That is just crazy risky. I would NOOOOOOT do that.

You hit the nail on the head re: the Reds and Cards drafting decisions...spot on...the irony of it all is that Walt Jocketty was the Cards GM who either drafted poorly or traded away top prospects...now, he's with the Reds...irony aside, the Cards have little to show out of their post-Pujols and -Wainwright farm system...the health of Jaime Garcia's arm seems to be a very pressing concern...Rasmus is a prima donna who is one year away from being branded a bust...and guys like Jon Jay and Schumacher are journeymen in the making...one trade that I fear will really bite them in the ass down the road is getting rid of Brett Wallace, who is poised to start his career in Houston this year...that guy could be a big time power hitter...

That Bautista deal is beyond stupid...but then again, the dye was cast when the Nationals broke the bank for Werth(less)...

That's will be a horrible business decision that the Blue Jays will regret. You can't give that kind of money to a guy who has been mediocre his entire careeer and then all of a sudden has a career year. Wait until he can have somewhat the same results (really can't expect him to hit 50 home runs again, 30 is more resonable) two years in a row.

Miguel Cabrera picked up for DUII last night. He blew a 0.26. That's fucking bombed!

I read the article wrong; he blew a 0.26 last time. This time he refused the test, took a swig of scotch in front of the cops and ended up getting clubbed after being a dick. This is pretty serious. Dude has problems if he doesn't even have the sense to stay away from the wheel.

Cabrera was a monster last year and seemed to be on the mend. I guess he fell off the wagon hard. Wonder if it will effect his production this year?

At least he left his wife alone this time around.

I wonder if this will affect Cabrera's draft status and Fantasy ranking.

him and pujols are the 2 best hitters in baseball

Here was our man last summer

First AB




Next, IBB




The result




And again




It became an ass-kicking




In the field

Nobody is going to compliment me on my great seat? I ain't flying three time zones and sitting in the bleachers!

Really though, Detroit is so down and out, that it is a fucking great MLB experience. That seat cost me under $50 if I remember right. You probably can't even get to the 2nd level in the Yankee's Stadium for that. Plus the beer and concessions are fucking dirt cheap (relative to MLB) in Detroit. That's why the stadium ranks in my top ten in the 20 or so I've visited. Bang for the buck baby.

Revisiting these photos is really getting me stoked for the season/summer! That was August, although it was only in the low 70's that weekend in Detroit.

Awesome photos Mr. Red. Seats behind home plat must have cost you a fortune.

yeah, sweet seats...Baltimore, so far, is my favorite stadium for on the road Red Sox games. Seems the bubble has passed for good prices though. Have to find a new one..I like to visit Clevo and Detroit. How is area surrounding the stadium there? Baltimore got pretty sketchy just outside of a 1/2 mile outside of stadium, Detroit must get pretty bad?

My hotel was about half a mile from the stadium, so walking home around 10 PM, there were a lot of people around on the streets. Otherwise it gets really dead and I wouldn't recommend walking around later than that by yourself. I guess Detroit proper has gotten a lot safer the last few years, it's the ring of cities around it that has gotten really sketchy. That's at least what I heard. Pretty much everyone I spoke to there wants to leave. It's kind of sad.

The downtown area really isn't all that big (or as much as I thought it was going to be). I covered pretty much the whole area in a five hour walk. I went down to the river where you can see Canada and the GM headquarters, Greektown, the highrise business area. I saw Jesse Jackson down in Greektown, who was on a speaking engagement.

I just looked it up and that ticket cost me $80. I went the next day and sat in the 3rd row in RF for $25. It's not bad at all.

More of Comerica:

Downtown Detroit

detroit is the hood

god, I love watching the 'live from fort myers' reports they run every day on NESN, watching it now..Take this shit for granted in some respect, because I'm sure there are teams that dont have their own network with coverage like this (or am I wrong?)..C'mon, with a baseball guy like Gammons onboard everyday, it's baseball bliss

Correct. If Fox Sports broadcasts your teams games (like the Mariners), you are not currently getting day-to-day coverage. I think they do a weekly show on the weekends, but it's the usual player or organization profile stuff that's recycled over and over. The coverage is pretty worthless until just before Spring Training gets out.

Paul Allen tried getting his own regional PNW sports network off the ground a few years ago but he took a bath in this last economic downturn and shut it down with a bunch of his other enterprises. We have a channel that's devoted pretty much to the Trail Blazers, but who cares about the NBA anymore?