MLB Quick Pitches: Trade Rumors Make Albert Pujols an Angry Bear

What I’m Reading

• Albert Pujols for Ryan Howard. For Phillies fans, the reaction is, “Well, we’ll miss Howard, but...PUJOLS!” On the other hand, ooh baby. Let’s just say that Cardinals fans might rather root for the Cubs to end their World Series drought than see Al shipped out.

• Interesting that the Angels’ rotation can be labeled as the best in baseball. Especially when their ace is now part of the Red Sox’s staff.

• Don’t know what you got ‘til it’s gone: MLB-spring-training-buzz-021510">Seattle is trying to win back the heart arm of Jarrod Washburn.

• Miami Reunion Tour 2010? The Marlins are taking a hard look at former Fish great Mike Lowell .

• Kris Benson signed a minor league deal with Arizona. His longevity in the realm of the baseball world is important for one reason and one reason only: Anna Benson. In other Diamondback news, they signed some other guy named Mark Reynolds.

What I Think About It

All right. So there’s literally no chance that this deal will happen. But a feisty trade rumor is always fun to talk about, especially during spring training.

Pujols has a limited trade clause built into his deal and has made it explicitly clear that he intends on being a Card for life. He’s under contract for 2010, and St. Louis has a team option for 2011, both for $16 million. His option next year will assuredly be picked up because once he hits the market in 2012, I can guarantee he’ll be making a whole heck of a lot more than $16 million.

Ryan Howard, of course, would most likely welcome a trade to his native St. Louis. While he is liked there, I can’t imagine his welcoming to the city being anything less than a sub-freezing degree of cold shoulder. You can’t just take away the Pooh Bear and expect to get away with it.

Just going to throw out a few names here; you tell me which group you’d rather have.

Group A: Jered Weaver, Ervin Santana, Joe Saunders, Scott Kazmir, Joel Pineiro.

Group B: Jon Lester, Josh Beckett, John Lackey, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Clay Buchholz/Tim Wakefield.

Come ON.

Realistically, the Red Sox could have at least four 15-game winners—possibly even three 18- to 20-game winners. And when I say "realistically," I’m not just throwing that word around. The rotation is stacked like the unnecessary number of afternoon pancakes I plan on making after I finish writing this.

Would I put the Angels’ rotation in the top five? Yes, of course I would. But certain elements have to be taken into consideration here.

Those Boston starters play in a much more offensively powered and overall tougher division and still get the job done. There are also fewer teams in the AL West, which means fewer players to study, which means things are just ea-si-er.

Plus one other thing: Joel Pineiro ? Really? I believe the Sox cast him off in 2007 and ended up doing fine that year.

Funny situation with Washburn and Seattle.

The Mariners dumped him off to Detroit at the deadline last season and are now realizing that they don’t have enough quality starters to begin the season. Solution? Give ol’ Jarrod a booty call and see if he’s willing to make the drive across the northern border to Seattle.

And I say that with literally no knowledge of the highway system up there. Is there a road that goes parallel to the border? I feel like if there isn’t, there should be. Who’s with me?

Unfortunately, he’s moved on. Like any great breakup story, the break-ee has spent a few weeks (or sometimes months, like with my prior experiences) in self-pity, trying to understand the circumstances of how things went down and where things went wrong (after all, Washburn had posted a pre-deadline 2.64 ERA in 20 starts for Seattle, and I bought weekly flowers and candy)

Now, he has picked himself back up, worked on himself emotionally, and regained the confidence needed to say, “No thanks, I’m better than you,” when the breaker-upper comes knocking.

This is exactly what happened.

There has to be a better way to explain that, but I’m sticking with my analogy.

Either way, Washburn is unlikely to end up back in Seattle. But...perhaps...Minnesota? Interesting.

During one of the countless, blended together baseball games that I watched last season, a trivia question arose regarding the all-time home run leader in Marlins franchise history.

It made me think of who stood out as a face of the franchise at any point during their brief history. This was extremely tough, because the list of Marlins who stay with the team more than six or seven years is concise to the point of nonexistent.

Seriously, could ANYONE successfully complete this quiz ?

Any list in which Alex Gonzalez (yes, that Alex Gonzalez ) is in the top 10 for total home runs in the history of the franchise is nothing short of depressing.

Anyway, Mike Lowell is the team leader with 143 franchise dingers—and the Marlins are looking at bringing him back to add to that total for two reasons.

A. To move Jorge Cantu over to third base full-time and have Lowell play first.

And...

B. To add to his totals to make their organization seem a little less sorry than they appear right now.

Now, I don’t think that they’ll officially announce part B of the “Master Plan,” but we’ll all secretly know that it’s a contributing factor.

All I really need to say about Kris Benson is that I’m glad he’s still around. For a few reasons actually. Mainly because I still have a Kwame Brown -like hope (strangely, they have the same initials...) that the former 1996 first overall pick can turn it around and resurrect a career that wasn’t.

And then there’s just a tiny little sliver of me (and when I say tiny, I really mean enormous) that is glad he’s staying in the game because his wife is the best thing to happen to the game since Big League Chew.

Now, normally this is the part where I pick a cleverly crafted group of words to link out to a photo of Anna Benson. But today, under potential scrutiny from my bosses, I will just urge you to Google Anna Benson, because I couldn’t find a picture of her that wouldn’t get my writing rights stripped.

Anyway, good to have you back, Kris.

Also, the Diamondbacks signed strikeout king Mark Reynolds to a three-year, $14.5 million deal. He’s expected to approach 60 homers and 240 K's in 300 plate appearances this season. That is all.

P.S. Anna, call me.

PD

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