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DEC 8th 2011, ANAHEIM, CA – Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim sign both Albert Pujols and C J Wilson

Albert received a 10-year, $254 million deal that runs through a player’s age-41 season. Risk, you may ask?

No, Pujols isn’t your typical player, which is why you can’t analyze his contract in typical fashion.

By paying Albert about $70 million more than he paid for the entire team eight years ago, Angels owner Arte Moreno didn’t just add arguably baseball’s best hitter to his lineup, or a Gold Glove first baseman to his infield. He acquired a brand. An icon. A man whose mere presence can elevate an entire franchise, growing it with regard to attendance, merchandise sales, viewership, national appeal and, thus, overall revenue.

That was a big reason why Moreno, the beneficiary of a new 17-year extension with FOX, which reportedly guarantees his club between $2 billion and $2.5 billion, was OK with going over budget on Dec. 8th, the day he spent more than $330 million on Pujols and left-hander C.J. Wilson.

“I’m not as young as I used to be, but I’m a marketing guy and I just thought, what’s it mean to our fans to bring a player of this caliber here?” Moreno said of Pujols. “That’s when, all of a sudden, all your objectivity and budgets and stuff go out the window and you go, can you really get this player?”
The franchise

The Angels were already what many would consider a big-market club, drawing more than 3 million in attendance for nine straight years and sporting nine-figure payrolls each of the past six seasons.

Prior to the 2011 campaign, Forbes valued the Angels at $554 million, ninth highest in the Majors. Now, their value should only grow.

Of those who know him, 78 percent “like” him to some degree. They either “Like a Little,” “Like” or “Like a Lot..”

In terms of endorsements, Pujols is No. 908 — in the same neighborhood as Leonardo DiCaprio, Tim Duncan, Tim Lincecum and Dan Marino.

The national intrigue

With Pujols in California, ESPN is now aiming to get the Angels on Sunday Night Baseball the maximum amount of times it’s allowed five. The Angels hadn’t maxed out on Sunday Night Baseball since 2004, and were on just twice while missing the playoffs each of the past two seasons.
Major networks are now scrambling to cover their games as often as possible.

There’s also ESPN’s Monday and Wednesday night telecasts, which the Angels will no doubt make plenty of appearances on. And there’s FOX, which told The Los Angeles Times it’s aiming to put the Angels on its Saturday broadcast nine times, also the max for any team.

The intrigue would’ve already been there with pitcher C J Wilson coming from the Texas Rangers to the division-rival Angels, in a move that should spice up a rivalry that has been rather uneventful since the Rangers began in 1972.

But it’s Pujols who changes the dynamics. Angels center fielder Peter Bourjos said. “I think it’s huge just to bring a player like that, of his caliber and the type of player he is. He sells tickets. People want to watch.”
The local interest

Most important to owner Arte Moreno and the Angels, though, is to appeal to the club’s actual fan base.
In the end, of course, the Angels will draw based on how much they win. But they now have people’s attention more than ever. So, the fact that the Angels have one of the great stars in the game in Pujols is a huge commodity.

This is a star-driven market, you look at Blake Griffin, and you look at what Pete Carroll did, and you look at what Matt Barkley did, David Beckham with the Galaxy, all the way back to Wayne Gretzky with the Kings, the way L.A. fans relate to their teams is through stars, probably because we’re surrounded with all sorts of movie stars.

The L.A. market

Pujols last year’s numbers may be a bit deceiving, though, considering Pujols batted .318 with 28 homers for the final four months of the regular season, then posted a 1.155 OPS in a playoff run that won him his second World Series title.
“I don’t necessarily see it as a clear decline,” Angels general manager Jerry Dipoto said. “I see Albert Pujols as the most consistent offensive player of his generation… I don’t think we’ve seen the last great days of Albert Pujols.”

Throughout baseball history, though, three comparable, record-breaking deals offer vastly different case studies:

1. The Giants reeled in a 28-year-old Barry Bonds prior to the 1993 season with a six-year, $43.75 million contract. Bonds, the only player to ever win an MVP at age 40, gave that franchise more than it could’ve ever imagined: four playoff appearances through 15 great individual seasons, and an interest spike from home-run-record chases. But towards the end, of course, Bonds’ name and reputation were tarnished by steroid allegations.

2. The Reds traded for a 30-year-old Ken Griffey Jr. in February of 2000, then signed him to a nine-year, $112.5 million contract. But injuries soon decimated Griffey, who only averaged 92 games per season from 2001-06, and the Reds got nowhere near the value they expected in return.

3. Alex Rodriguez signed a game-changing $252 million deal with the Texas Rangers in 2000. Then after Texas struggled financially and in the standings, despite A-Rod’s individual accolades, he landed a 10-year, $275 million contract with the Yankees that’s still the largest ever, and is perhaps the most comparable to that of Pujols. The big red flag for the Angels: A-Rod, who signed the deal just before his age-33 season, has already taken some serious steps back and isn’t even halfway through.

The contract

Pujols’ deal, trumped only by that A-Rod contract, includes a no-trade clause and 10 years of personal service after he retires, which would have him serve mostly as a consultant to Moreno. The three-time National League MVP would get $3 million for reaching 3,000 hits (he currently has 2,073) and $7 million for hitting a record 763rd home run (he has 445 right now), according to Yahoo! Sports.

If that happens, the Angels could reap some extra rewards in the contract’s last and most nerve-wracking years.

It’s Moreno’s believe that by that point, Pujols’ contract will have basically paid for itself.

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