Cracking "The Safe"
Cracking "The Safe": The Seattle Mariners
~ Everything to do with the Seattle Mariners ~
Thursday, February 19, 2004

Extreme Kudos to the St. Louis Cardinals for locking up Albert Pujols for the next 7 season for $100 million.

This is a great signing because:

A. Pujols is obviously one of the games rising stars. If not for Barry, he is the reigning MVP. With this deal, St. Louis has locked him up from age 24-31, all of his prime years.

B. This sets the price infostructure for any big deals that get signed next offseason. A-Rod and Manny's deals will be the last of their kind for a long time. Next offseason, players like Carlos Delgado and Eric Chavez will not command more than the deals signed by Vlad, Tejada, and now Pujols. That puts the maximum dollar figure per year in the $12-14 million range. The downward trend in salaries should at least hypothetically make the M's players in next seasons Free Agents bidding.

Great signing...

posted at 2/19/2004 12:24:00 AM