Sunday, February 1, 2009

Pujols says Cards should purse Manny

St. Louis Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols says the Cards should pursue Manny Ramirez. Less than 2 weeks before pitchers/catchers report to camp, Manny is still unsigned.

The one thing Pujols and Ramirez share in common is they are devastating hitters and, when motivated, Ramirez certainly would help protect Pujols in the Cardinals' lineup.

Pujols, who hit .357 with 37 HRs and 116 RBI in 2008, has shown amazing consistency in his 8-year career. His career lows: .314 BA (2002), 32 HRs (2007) and 103 RBI (2007).

Ramirez hit .332 with 37 HRs and 121 RBI in 2008, but hit nearly 100 points higher after forcing the Sox to trade him.

But Pujols, who is arguably one of baseball's most stand-up guys and my favorite player, is polar opposites with Manny, who obviously dogged it in Boston last year.
"Maybe St. Louis doesn't have the money to sign him, but he could give them a discount because St. Louis is a great city that supports its players," said Pujols, according to an Associated Press report.
Ramirez wanted out of Boston, which is a also a "great city that supports its players," to make a money grab. In wouldn't be Manny's style and certainly not that of his agent, über-jerk Scott Boras, to give a "discount."

Cardinals GM John Mozeliak says that OF is "clearly one of our strengths" and the team is not going to pursue Ramirez.

Joe Torre shocked at reaction to his book

Joe Torre is shocked by the reaction to his book, "The Yankee Years."

Torre hopes David Wells, who called Torre a "punk" for the tell-all book, will "get a different perspective" if he reads the whole book.
In his book, Torre says: "The difference between Kevin Brown and David Wells is that both make your life miserable, but David Wells meant to."
Not sure what else he needs to read Joe.

Wells believes that A-Rod (called A-Fraud in Torre's book) will be affected by the comments regardless of what A-Rod says. And I couldn't agree more with Wells.
"A-Rod says that he's not worried about it, but deep down, you can't help but think, 'Why did this guy say something? Why is he making these remarks?'"

"Now you're gonna go on the road during the season, you're gonna get bashed by every fan out there. Especially in New York, if you have a bad game, [then it's] 'Joe was right.'
As talented of a player as A-Rod is, no player is more concerned with his image and how he is perceived.

One of the things I admired about Torre was his ability to keep things in house. While I would have preferred that he didn't write the book and took the high road, my opinion of Torre doesn't change much because he wrote the book.

But to act surprised by the reaction? He's either an idiot for being surprised. Or he thinks everyone else is an idiot that would believe he's surprised.