St Louis Cardinals

It seems pretty logical that despite potentially missing Albert Pujols' self-imposed deadline for contract negotiations, the St. Louis Cardinals will find away to retain Pujols.

Either way, there's a chance that we could be seeing Pujols in another uniform at some point during the season, or more likely, during the offseason. The Cardinals don't seem at all interested in moving on from arguably the best player in MLB, and more importantly, the most consistent producer and big reason why the Cardinals made the World Series in 2004; winning it in 2006.

Let's be serious for just a little while.

Albert Pujols is (whether you believe it or not) the face of the Cardinals' respective franchise, and that's just how things are.  And if a new contract is not offered to St. Louis' sporting savior, Pujols will not be involved in contract negotiations through Spring Training, nor the regular season.

This is a problem.

As much as you'd love to disagree with the fact that Pujols is the most important asset the Cardinals currently attain, the fact of the matter is that it is true.

It seems like a ridiculous statement to make, but at $100 million ($116 million since St. Louis exercised their 2011 option) over the term of his last contract, Albert Pujols was an absolute steal for the Cardinals. It is safe to assume that his next contract will not be quite the bargain for the team that winds up signing him this coming off season.

It’s true: The Cardinals without Albert Pujols is like Corn Flakes without the milk. It’s like the Colts without Peyton Manning. It’s like Oney Guillen without his Twitter account. 

But it could happen. Pujols has set a February 19 deadline to strike an extension deal with the Cardinals, and reports say the two sides will need a lot of steam to iron out these differences.

Albert Pujols is the face of the St. Louis Cardinals and the superstar of his era. In fact, he’s likely up there with Ozzie Smith and others who are considered Cardinals legends.  As a result, when he asked for a Spring Training deadline to negotiate a contract extension, I figured they would be able to get it done.

Jim Edmonds has decided to play in 2011 in what will be his 18th big league season and ninth with the Cardinals. 

Edmonds agreed to a minor league deal yesterday with the Cards and received an invitation to spring training.

Despite earlier rumors that Edmonds was seriously considering retirement, the 40-year-old is returning to the place where he made a name for himself from 2000 to 2007.

Our 2011 fantasy baseball projections will be released one-by-one until the top 100 players have been revealed. These rankings consider past achievements, current performance and expected future results based on standard 5×5 H2H settings.

Over the last two years, Adam Wainwright has established himself as one of the best starting pitchers in fantasy baseball.

This is going to be an interesting season for the St. Louis Cardinals and their first baseman Albert Pujols. The team has a lot of money invested in a lot of players, and they have stretched their budget pretty thin as it is. Pujols is poised to hit free agency after this season, and he is going to get paid A LOT of money by someone.

Albert Pujols has given the St. Louis Cardinals a deadline of the end of Spring Training to extend his contract. 

Pujols has said he will definitely veto any trade during the season, so there goes that.

It seems he wants to keep his mind on baseball, not contracts, during the season, hoping to avoid missing the playoffs for the second consecutive season.

The baseball nation is already speculating on what could happen if he leaves during free agency, as countless teams will certainly want the Dominican slugger hitting in their lineup.

If anybody has got it made in the game of baseball today, it's Albert Pujols.  He is currently the hot topic of debate in the newspapers, on websites, on television, and even in conversation.  He's currently entering the final year of his current contra - as if you all didn't already know that - and he's contemplating on taking his unmatched skill elsewhere.