If not for an ill-fated home plate celebration, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Orange County, California would have little reason to bid on Albert Pujols.
You may recall Angels first baseman Kendrys Morales used to be one of baseball’s top young sluggers. He hit .306 with 34 homers and 108 RBIs in 2009.
But he blew up his ankle while celebrating with teammates after hitting a walk-off grand slam. He underwent surgical repairs in 2010, then again in 2011.
Morales still isn’t running and won’t be cleared for full baseball activities until January. Durability concerns will hang over Kendrys even if he starts down the comeback trail in spring training.
“The second surgery he had really raised the confidence level from the doctors,” Angeles manager Mike Scioscia recently told the Los Angeles Times. “Right now, how that ankle is going to be, where it's going to be, there's a lot of questions. How durable is it going to be? That remains to be seen.
“The doctors really have no way of knowing, and we have no way of knowing until you get out there and start to do the things you need to do to play first base at the major-league level and swing the bat and run the bases.”
In his absence, first baseman Mark Trumbo broke out last season by hitting .291 with 29 homers and 87 RBIs. But with Trumbo’s ability to play in the outfield -– and the designated hitter slot available to Morales -– the Angels could still make room for Pujols.
But Anaheim also has outfielder Vernon Wells pulling down $24 million per year through 2014 and outfielder Torii Hunter raking in $18.5 million next season. A bigger need for the club is front-line pitching, as evidenced by its bid for C.J. Wilson.
And owner Arte Moreno has been a vocal opponent of long-term free agent deals. He had this to say after the Red Sox won the bidding for Carl Crawford: “It's crazy. I paid $183 million for the team in 2003, and now we're talking $142 million for one player? Seven years is a huge risk financially.”
Los Angeles Times columnist Bill Dwyre wondered how the Pujols bidding got to $200 million in the first place.
“A simple question remains in the Pujols derby. Is everybody nuts?” he asked. “One argument says this is all merely what the market drives. Another argument would counter that the market needs to return to reality, that owners who buy into this market-driven claptrap deserve what they get: dreadful long-term return on investment.”
MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE
Questions to ponder while St. Louis University makes its climb back toward the national rankings:
With another day of the Pujols Watch underway, do you want to play Sports Media Rumor Origin Bingo?
Isn’t it about time Hollywood made a movie about Tim Tebow?
What if NFL team stocks were publicly traded?
Is Alec Baldwin happy to know that Oscar De La Hoya has his back?
QUIPS ‘R US
Here is what some of America’s leading sports pundits have been writing:
Greg Cote, Miami Herald: “The Marlins’ Jeffrey Loria inside of two years has gone from being a notoriously penurious owner publicly scolded by Major League Baseball for egregiously under-spending on player payrolls to being an owner figuratively standing on a couch in a nightclub tossing fistfuls of money into the air. Making it rain. Millions. The pursuit of superstar Albert Pujols that ended Wednesday without getting him? No problem. Miami is the biggest player in baseball free agency even without him. And the Marlins are showing no signs of ending their shopping spree. Fans beleaguered by years of shoestring payrolls surely must feel the swoon of lottery winners. So must new manager Ozzie Guillen. Turns out that multicolored ‘M’ in the new logo mustn’t stand for Miami, after all. Must stand for Money.”
Michael Silver, Yahoo! Sports: “How could Pat Shurmur and Sam Bradford have been so good together for much of the 2010 season – and each so lousy apart from one another in 2011?”
Rick Reilly, ESPN.com: “With all these deserving teams, you still think Alabama should get another chance? You want Kris Humphries and Kim Kardashian to remarry, too? This SEC bias has to stop. The world of college football doesn't end at the Louisiana border. The Rematch should make you want to Regurgitate. Two-thirds of the rankings are based on humans. Voters, be fair. We played this one already, and Alabama lost. What, your TiVo broke?”
Chris Dufresne, Los Angeles Times: “The BCS is designed to give schools flexibility in bowl selection, but every 10 or 15 years common sense should prevail. Leaving Boise State out of the BCS is the reason the Broncos can't get to the Big East Conference fast enough. Quarterback Kellen Moore is 49-3 in his career, with the losses by a total of five points. Boise State is one play and two kicks from possibly playing in consecutive national title games, yet is headed to its second straight Las Vegas Bowl. The BCS and Sugar Bowl owe Moore a hand-written apology on a Hallmark card.”
Mike Freeman, CBSSports.com: “The only person who believes that Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck can coexist on the same team is extremely confident Indianapolis general manager Bill Polian. Since Polian believes he invented football, that's not surprising. But around the NFL, as it continues to look like the Colts will draft Luck and have him serve an apprenticeship under Manning, almost no one outside of the Colts organization thinks such a partnership can truly work. When I asked personnel people and some coaches, they laughed at the prospect. They think it would be an utter disaster. They're right. People inside football aren't the only ones who think a Manning-Luck combo would go about as smoothly as a Kim Kardashian marriage. No, someone close to Manning doesn't think it would work, either.”
MEGAPHONE
“Obviously, I plan on being back here and want to be here, and I'm just going to assume it's all going to work out. That's unfortunate. That's the only thing I can tell you. Just like college jobs and those things. ... We're focused on this job and what I'm doing. I'm very happy here. This is a terrific place and terrific opportunity for me and I'm enjoying it. I really am. These things ... we'll just kind of disregard, if you will. It's just unfortunate. I'm really bothered by it.”
Bears offensive coordinator Mike Martz, on rumors that Chicago will let him go after the season.
