Pujols has played ten seasons, and has NEVER hit less than 32 HRs and driven in less than 103 runs. In his WORST season, he batted .312. He is the absolute definition of consistent, and he’s got the hardware to prove it. Pujols is a 3-time MVP, 6-time Silver Slugger, and 2-time Gold Glover. He has never finished worse than 9th in the MVP voting during his ten year career. FOUR 2nd place finishes, of which 2 were to Bonds and one to the strikeout king of Ryan Howard. He is averaging 155 games a season. He has finished 1st in runs 5 of the last 6 years

Hell......since his rookie year he has finished in the top 5 in almost EVERY OFFENSIVE category year in and out. At $14 million a year for that kinda output in today's market is a freaking steal. Sign the man....pay him the money.

Active Career stats

.331 Batting Average 1st
.426 On-Base % 1st
.624 Slugging % 1st
1.050 OB%+ SLugging 1st
408 HR 9th
236 Int. Walks 3rd

One more thing to add. The Cardinals were 4th in Attendance last season and 16th in Payroll. They have been 4th or better in attendence every year since 2005 They have averaged well over 3 million fans a year since #5 has been wearing a uniform.....actually closer to 3.4 million each year since 2005.

The existing debt on Busch Stadium only requires about $15.9M a year to service, and the team is managing that just fine. According to the Cardinals section of the same Forbes article, the Cardinals’ 2009 total revenue was $195M with an operating income of $12.8M and gate receipts of $94M. Average ticket price for 2009 at Busch Stadium? $29. The Cardinals had a paid attendance of 3.301 million, so it’s likely that they pushed gate receipts closer to $96M for 2010.