Are you kidding me? Reports are saying that the Philadelphia Phillies have discussed the possibility of trading Ryan Howard for Albert Pujols. This might be the most ridiculous rumour I’ve heard in years.
Firstly, how are the Phillies just discussing this? They could land the best player in baseball by trading away a home run hitter who has set records for the amount of times he strikes out? If I was running this team, I wouldn’t even blink and say yes.
Pujols is a far superior hitter to Howard in every way except one; Howard is a lefty. The Cardinals cornerstone is a better hitter for average, has better plate discipline, is faster and superior on defence. The one category where you could split the check mark and call it a draw is power, but Pujols hit two more home runs than Howard last season. So which first baseman would you rather have?
The only real knock against Pujols is the salary he’s going to be demanding after his current deal expires. It’s expected that he’ll ask for as much as A-Rod got when he re-signed his ridiculous deal with the Yankees in the area of $275 million over 10 years. But it’s not like Howard isn’t going to demand at least $20 million per season when his contract expires after the 2011 season.
It has become very apparent since this rumour “broke†that is nothing more than heresay, but that’s what happens with our 24-hour news cycle these days: Things need to be reported to the public, even if their merely an inkling of a rumour.
Hell, this could have come from two guys in the Phils’ front office discussing a fantasy trade – and a lopsided one at that – but at the very least, it got us all excited about the prospect of a mega-trade, if anything else.