Considering the Dodgers are a dumpster fire right now, the Angels are trying to get as much a share on that market as possible. Sign a big free agent and get the headlines right? Albert is probably the greatest hitter of this generation so naturally, he's the one you want to hand the paycheck.
Two hundred and fifty million dollars. Probably larger than NASA's budget. For 10 years.
I have no doubt Pujols will come up big, produce well and continue to do this for years to come. He's an all-time great. He's somebody that you'll be telling your kids about years from now.
But we've seen a team do this before (Rangers with ARod) and they didn't have glowing results. In fact, Texas went backwards after fielding a decent team in the late 1990s. I don't think A-Rod was to blame, he still put up big numbers, but they didn't solve other problems on the team.
Now the Angels might be different because they got CJ Wilson, and a have a good, deep pitching staff. But they didn't make the playoffs last season, and will Pujols and Wilson put them over the hump?
You can't answer that. What if one of them slumps? One if one gets injured? What if other players get injured?
There's so much that goes on during a baseball season, Pujols signing doesn't mean anything other than the Angels will be trotting out one of the most fearsome hitters in the game.It's certainly exciting, it's certainly good for the fans but LA can't think they've solved all their problems.
It seems like the Yankees have signed every big slugger the past decade. And what's that resulted in? One World Series.
So basically what LA has paid for is 250 million dollars worth of headlines and an awesome strength for one spot in the lineup. They've got to continue to work the players around him and the pitchers they'll put out on the mound.
And at some point, couldn't they use a little bit of that $250 million for those spots too?
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