Pujols Makes Up His Mind And Like We Thought Goes To Anaheim - Wait What?

ESPN -- Albert Pujols has agreed to a 10-year, $250 million deal with the Los Angeles Angels, sources told ESPN The Magazine's Buster Olney on Thursday. The deal includes a full no-trade clause, which Pujols had been seeking and may have been a sticking point in his negotiations with the Miami Marlins. Pujols had turned down an offer from the Cardinals, the only team he has ever played for, about a year ago, but St. Louis was still in the bidding as of Wednesday. Sources told ESPN.com's Jayson Stark that the Angels jumped into the bidding late Wednesday. The Marlins moved on to pursue free agent pitchers Mark Buehrle (who agreed to terms Wednesday, pending a physical) and C.J. Wilson. But despite the Marlins' exit from the bidding Wednesday night, sources said negotiations with the Cardinals hadn't progressed to the point where Pujols was close to agreeing to a deal. The Cardinals had planned to talk with Pujols' agent one more time Thursday before heading home. But sources told Olney that the Cardinals' latest offer was for nine years and a little less than $200 million. That would have made him the fourth-highest paid first baseman.

Ummmm sorry St. Louis but I'm not sorry. You want to keep Babe Ruth on your team, you don't make him the fourth-highest paid first baseman, no sir. I'd LeBron your ass too if you offered me that, like a slap in the face. But this news definitely sucks, Angels are already the Yankees nemesis especially in the post-season - now we gotta deal with this fucking guy? Honestly thought we were safe here, but just an absolute power move by the Angels. They swoop in the last minute and just drop a Flex on 'em and boom deal is done. Albert asked for specifics, you give him specifics. That's how you catch the big catch, give the man what he wants. When you're negotiating over $200 million and you get held up on trade clauses in the contract you're an idiot. At that point you just hand it all over and make sure the deal is signed. Angels now have the best hitter in the game. Sucks that half way through his contract he'll be a DH and an absolute drain on your cap, but whatever.

PS - Love the moves the Marlins are making, "Hey Pujols you got until Wednesday to make up your mind. Still don't know? We're out." Love that. Won't even be bullied by the best player in the game.

The Other Side Of The Story Last Night

Blood leads off newscasts for a reason, people love seeing that shit. People love seeing failure, makes the feel better about themselves - That's why so much focus is being shifted to the Braves but mostly the Red Sox because they were such heavy favorites to win... Time to give credit where credit is due and that's to the St. Louis Cardinals and the Tampa Bay Rays.

St. Louis Cardinals

Before their game on September 6th, the Cardinals were 8.5 games out of the Wild Card and also out of first in their division. They reeled off 12 wins in their next 14 games and going 16-5 overall during that stretch. Combine that with the Braves collapse and you've got one of the best comebacks of all-time.

Tampa Bay Rays

The Rays found themselves down 9 games to the Red Sox for the Wild Card on Labor Day Weekend. They didn't give up which is a testament to manager Joe Maddon who always has this team hungry. They looked like they were on a mission the entire month of September, while the Red Sox looked like they couldn't be less interested if they tried. Even though the Rays have about 438 fans, they played inspired throughout the month and it earned them a trip to the postseason after coming back from a 7-0 deficit in the 8th inning to the Yankees last night. It didn't matter if they won as it turned out, but the walk-off HR will be remembered by a long time by all those 438 fans, or at least the half of them that stayed for the rest of the game.

Does Chris Carpenter Have Tourettes?

Geez.... It's only a game man, shake it off.... Plus no one really cares all that much so don't even worry about it.