Marlins officials continued their pursuit of Albert Pujols on Tuesday as they met for the second straight day with the slugger's agent, Dan Lozano, not long after offering the free-agent markets biggest prize a 10-year contract.
The dollar amount is believed to be more than $200 million for the All-Star first-baseman. That is more than the nine-year, reported $195 million the Cardinals offered prior to Spring Training.
The two sides were negotiating a no-trade clause for the first five years, FoxSports.com reported, to cover the time until Pujols would regain 10-and-5 status, by which players can veto trades.
On another front, half way into a possible Hall of Fame career, 27 year old Hanley Ramirez does not want to change positions for newly acquired, 100 Million dollar man, Jose Reyes.
It is hard to blame Ramirez, he has been amongst the best players in the game since 2006, he did have an off year in 2011, but his career numbers have him compared to Derek Jeter a certain hall of famer at same age. Reyes is a level below Ramirez as a hitter and has been an injury risk consistently.
Standard Batting
| Year | Age | Tm | G | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | SO | TB | Awards | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | 21 | BOS | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 | -100 | 0 | |
| 2006 | 22 | FLA | 158 | 633 | 119 | 185 | 46 | 11 | 17 | 59 | 51 | 128 | .292 | .353 | .480 | .833 | 116 | 304 | RoY-1 |
| 2007 | 23 | FLA | 154 | 639 | 125 | 212 | 48 | 6 | 29 | 81 | 51 | 95 | .332 | .386 | .562 | .948 | 145 | 359 | MVP-10 |
| 2008 | 24 | FLA | 153 | 589 | 125 | 177 | 34 | 4 | 33 | 67 | 35 | 122 | .301 | .400 | .540 | .940 | 143 | 318 | AS,MVP-11,SS |
| 2009 | 25 | FLA | 151 | 576 | 101 | 197 | 42 | 1 | 24 | 106 | 27 | 101 | .342 | .410 | .543 | .954 | 148 | 313 | AS,MVP-2,SS |
| 2010 | 26 | FLA | 142 | 543 | 92 | 163 | 28 | 2 | 21 | 76 | 32 | 93 | .300 | .378 | .475 | .853 | 126 | 258 | AS |
| 2011 | 27 | FLA | 92 | 338 | 55 | 82 | 16 | 0 | 10 | 45 | 20 | 66 | .243 | .333 | .379 | .712 | 95 | 128 | |
| 7 Seasons | 852 | 3320 | 617 | 1016 | 214 | 24 | 134 | 434 | 216 | 607 | .306 | .380 | .506 | .886 | 132 | 1680 | |||
| 162 Game Avg. | 162 | 631 | 117 | 193 | 41 | 5 | 25 | 83 | 41 | 115 | .306 | .380 | .506 | .886 | 132 | 319 | |||
| FLA (6 yrs) | 850 | 3318 | 617 | 1016 | 214 | 24 | 134 | 434 | 216 | 605 | .306 | .380 | .506 | .886 | 132 | 1680 | |||
| BOS (1 yr) | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 | -100 | 0 | |||
| NL (6 yrs) | 850 | 3318 | 617 | 1016 | 214 | 24 | 134 | 434 | 216 | 605 | .306 | .380 | .506 | .886 | 132 | 1680 | |||
| AL (1 yr) | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 | -100 | 0 | |||
Unlike A Rod, who played on terrible teams and wanted to win so bad he changed positions, Ramirez has already shown to be on selfish side so this can't be a surprise to Miami. My guess is he was always a trade chip; he didn't recover from 2010 incident, so maybe he needs a new home. Miami replaces him with Reyes, and then moves him for a semi truck load of prospects. 29 other teams just got interested, including one in the upper Northeast craving a right handed bat.
Speaking of new homes, the new stadium of this dream team is under SEC revenue. It is not a big surprise anymore . . . is there a occupy Miami movement coming for the stadium?
Although it worked out in 1997 for the fish, this is a new decade, a new time in baseball and these dream teams overall in sports are coming up short in championship runs. You also have to wonder if they won't be making runs to Jeff Loria's ATM pretty often. They have not drawn well with good teams. A call to MLB for payroll relief can’t be that far into the future.
The Miami Heat did not fare so well; neither did the Eagles with dream teams. The Yankees have a yearly dream team as do the Red Sox, and in their own division they face the Phillies who had the second largest payroll in the game last year. The last few years have shown us all, the playoffs in all sports are so long, anything can happen.
