Pujols Embraces Cubs GM, Sign Of Things To Come?

There have been many reports circulating for months about where Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols would go at the end of the season should the Cardinals not extend the offer he is looking for. Before last nights game in Chicago, it was reported Cubs GM Jim Hendry came down to batting practice to merely meet and greet on the field and he walked down into an Albert Pujols hug as soon as he got there. This has prompted even MLB.com to pick it up as a story and make it bigger than it actually is.

To say the Cubs have an interest in Albert is a no brainer, all 29 other teams want this guy if they had the room, period. The Cubs do not have the cap room as we speak to make any type of move for Albert, they are a mismatched group of cap room busts at the time being and they need to do some major retooling come July to even consider pursuing Albert or even contending. With Albert struggling like he had earlier in the season, it would be just their luck he would turn into that type of player after forking over $30 million a year.

Right now they rank second in the NL and sixth overall in payroll, coming in at an annual salary of $126,380,663. The Cardinals at this point are a little under $99 million overall but enjoy much more success. The Cubs have just had a string of bad luck bringing in the FORMER stars that command a lot of money but as soon as they don Cubbie blue, they make you think the Cubbie Curse is still alive and well.

They just signed Carlos Pena in the offseason for nearly $10 million a year to play first. He has never really had the batting average batting .240 over his career, and this year just a measly .213, only after getting hot in the month of May in which he is batting .346 and has hit his only 3 HRs of the season.

The lingering Alfonso Soriano deal is looking more and more hurtful as time goes on. Don’t get me wrong, the guy is leading in HRs right now and has the tendency to go yard, but at $19 million a year they still do not have the hit contributor that makes up with all of his solo HRs, he seems a perennial .250 batter every season now as well.

Kosuke Fukudome rakes in $14.5 million himself. He has the batting average so far this season, but in recent memory he has been rather stagnant and just seemed to be another one of those Japanese busts that came overseas for a big paycheck (Paging Daisuke Matsuzaka).

Carlos Zambrano is their last big name money maker. Last nights starter, he makes almost $19 million himself and does halfway decent, but Cubs fans are looking to give him the boot with the incoming Matt Garza and hopes of a new, cheaper Chicago Cubs ballclub. The fans are getting ancy and need to see some turnaround or they are going to turn into a lynch mob.

Hopefully they shed their existing enormous payroll and solve the problems, every year they seem like the Seattle Mariners of the Central, spending all this money only to finish near last place. Even so, they always seem to beat the Cardinals when they have losing seasons yet we end up in the playoffs from time to time.

I for one would love to see them make a comeback to contend, I hate Cincinnati, they have one good year and everyone is acting like they are unstoppable. I want our old rival back. In saying that, Albert switching venues would add such a hatred to the rivalry it would look like the Yanks-Sox all over. The Cubs are going to have to do some serious work either way, personally, do I think they will sign him? No chance in hell.