He's this guy who played for 11 seasons with the Cardinals and hit close to .330. At some point in 2011, he decided to start chasing numbers, which meant chasing pitches out of the zone. He had one of his duller statistical seasons, but was still one of the best hitters in all of baseball while poised to hit free agency. Oh, and they won a World Series his last year in St. Louis.

Unbeknownst to the Cardinals, his body was a ticking timebomb, and he was instructed by a higher power (and his wife) to get more money from a desperate douche bag named Artie Moreno in Los Angeles. The Cardinals wound up one game away from the World Series without him, while drafting a guy named Michael Wacha and another guy named Stephen Piscotty as compensation.

In 2013, this Pujols fellow gave in and had surgery on his foot, which has been plagued by a degenerative disorder. His old team advanced to the World Series, partly because of the fellow they drafted as a result of Pujols signing in Los Angeles.

Oh yeah, David Freese and Fernando Salas are there, too. It's...not going well.

In all sincerity, I feel badly for Albert at this point, and I took no pleasure in hearing the smattering of boos he's been greeted with every time he's made an out so far this season.
He misjudged a lot of things, not the least of which is notion the comfort one has as a revered icon in one city does not necessarily transfer to another city, where almost overnight you can be transformed into an overpaid, broken down bum.
But I've been flipping to Angels' games not for Pujols, but for Freese. I really hope he does well.

McGee and Griffey were both traded, in arrangements that were both theoretically beneficial to team and player. I don't want to rehash the entire Albert Debate again, but he left. I've said before I do think he'll be welcomed back at some point, but he'll have some groveling to do.

Im glad he left.  I think he is doing poorly because god wants him to go into the hof as a cardinal.  It is all for jesus u know.

It will be barwly mentioned on espn.  I doubt the fans in la even care.  Honestly it will still be cardinals fans that pay the most attention to his miles stones.

Pujols isnt off to a bad start.  I hope he finishes out his year with some sort of pride.  It will be a matter of him still being able to walk by seasons end.

Whats the scoop?

alz wrote:

While I agreed with nearly everything TK said, I must contest one thing. The notion that Moreno was desperate....

Gaining your club a 1.5 billion dollar television revenue hike for 240 million dollars seems much better than desperate to me... Seems pretty brilliant actually.

That was one of the best moves ever by the angels, even if Pujols never played an inning.

The Angels had their new deal without signing Pujols.  The TV deal enabled them to sign Pujols, not the other way around.

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/dec/08/sports/la-sp-angels-fox-tv-20111209
 

TK doesn't need me to speak for him, but I assume the desperation he was referring to involves Moreno's quest to become more important in Los Angeles than the Dodgers. It's a big reason why he threw gobs of money at Pujols, Hamilton and C.J. Wilson, though the latter wasn't a bad deal. He's never going to get there. L.A. is a Dodgers/Lakers town, and it's not going to change. The Clippers figured it out, and once they stopped trying to compete with the Lakers for the city's affection, they've been able to carve out a profitable niche for themselves. 
This past weekend, Extra Innings fed the Nashnils' broadcast on three of the four games between the Cardinals and the Nashnils. When the Nashnils aired promo spots for their next series with the Angels, you know who they featured in their advertising? Mike Trout. Not Pujols, even though he was closing in on his 500th career home run. Pujols has been a ghost (pun intended) the last two years. He can be Arte Moreno's pet for the next century, but at the end of it, when most people are asked "What team did Albert Pujols play for?" they'll answer "the St. Louis Cardinals."

That's correct, Artie. I think if one of the greatest hitters of the last 40 years plus one of the great hitters of the next 15 years can't move the needle for the Angels, then nothing will. The Clippers are a good example of how it's a Laker Town.

tkihshbt wrote:

That's correct, Artie. I think if one of the greatest hitters of the last 40 years plus one of the great hitters of the next 15 years can't move the needle for the Angels, then nothing will. The Clippers are a good example of how it's a Laker Town.

Which doesn't condone any of the nonsense perpetrated by Donald Stirling for three decades.
What's been mostly forgotten over time is that Stirling holds the original charter to the Boston Celtics franchise, which he acquired in that bogus swap of the Buffalo Braves with John Y. Brown back in the '70s. There are long-time Celtics afficianados here who will tell you Red Auerbach's biggest fear was getting a call from Stirling asking him to mail his championship banners to the West Coast. Postage pre-paid, of course.

 

I still don't see how going after a big name player or having the audacity to try to draw fans from the LA Dodgers market makes Moreno a douchebag.

Maybe I'm missing something in the translation.