Lance Berkman recently suggested that he’ll be prepared to walk away from the game after the season if he doesn’t see contract offers he likes as a free agent. But he said today that he intends to play in 2012 and that the Cardinals would be his “first choice,” according to Matthew Leach of MLB.com.
"I'm sure I'll play next year somewhere," he said. "Hopefully it will be here [in St. Louis], but part of that is not up to me.”
Berkman explained that St. Louis appeals to him because the Cardinals have a “great group of guys” and aren’t rebuilding. The 35-year-old signed a one-year, $8MM deal with the Cards last offseason. He has a .291/.404/.576 line with 29 home runs this year and projects as a Type A free agent, according to our latest rankings.
Last week Berkman told Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he'd prefer to land in one of "three or four" destinations. The Astros, who traded Berkman to the Yankees last summer, wouldn't be a fit for him anymore.
Berkman has played so well this year that he deserves a 2-3 year 16-24 mil deal hopefully with the cubs as their new 1st baseman next year.
With the no-trade of Pena, I doubt it.
pena’s contract expires in 6 weeks
Yeah…I know….I’m saying since they DID NOT trade him, even though his contract is expiring in 6 weeks, it looks like they want to resign him.
“It looks like they want to resign him”
Who is they? The Cubs don’t even have a GM. Your theory has absolutely no basis.
I don’t see why the Cubs would want to re-sign Pena. You’d think that they want an upgrade. Oh, sure, perhaps they don’t want to get into the Pujols or Fielders high stakes game. But if Berkman hits FA, why wouldn’t they give him a shot? One would think that he’d give them better production than Pena at this point.
No way he gets that little. He’s very similar, career wise, to where Paul Konerko was last year (not saying Konerko has had as good a career as Berkman, Berkman’s had the far superior career). Should get a similar deal.
He said he wants to be in STL because they are not rebuilding, meaning “closer to a world series” than the cubs. He is getting old and wants to play for a contender, not the cubs.
The cubs are rebuilding and he doesn’t want that
pena’s contract expires in 6 weeks……………..echo
It is amazing that this killer bee wants to play in St. Louis again. He prove that he still can play in right field and he prove that he can still hit the ball. Lets sign him up for 2 year, 16 million contract.
Assuming Pujols stays and gets $30M a year, can the Cards afford Berkman? Even if they backload Pujols’s contract?
I believe you are the only one assuming Pujols gets 30MM a year. While he still ended up having a good year, he proved that he is human. I’ll be surprised if he tops 7 years at 25 a year.
Yeah, just an assumption and probably a bad one more because of the state of the FA first baseman market. Still even at $25M a year can the Cards afford to also add Berkman?
Depends how they fill out the rest of the roster. To me, if Albert is going to stay, it’s better off just to offer Berkman arbitration and take the picks if he is looking for a multi-year deal. If he accepts, it wouldn’t be the worst thing to have him on a one year deal playing right again.
If Albert leaves, then I wouldn’t mind having Berkman on a 2/22 deal playing first base. I don’t think it would be a smart choice to sign Berkman to a multi-year deal and expect him to play the outfield. Too risky IMO.
I honestly don’t think his year this year has hurt his value very much. A bit, perhaps, but not a lot.
What is going to hurt his value and why I think he’ll ultimately stay with the Cardinals is the lack of teams that seem to be willing and able to pursue him for the kind of dollars he will command. The Cubs are pretty much the only team that can make it interesting at this point and it’s not clear they have any intentions to.
Albert should have took the 10 year 22.5 million per offer at the beginning of the year..
That is chicken feed compared to what he will get this winter, so keep dreaming. The cards will be giving him a 8 yr 240 mil contract atleast this winter if they want to keep him. Why give STL another huge hometown discount when he is now a big philanthropist in his home land (and I will tell you what philanthropist means because you are a cards fan it is a person that donates tons of cash to help people improve their way of life).
If Albert doesn’t get his legendary 30/100/300 he won’t get 30. He won’t get 30 in StL anyway. But my guess is they work it out and he’s a life long Cardinal. Carpenter gets an extension. Berkman gets his deal also. All other bets are off.
you guys are all idiots berkman is a washed up bum anyone who gives him more than a 1 year deal for about 6 millilon is nuts
That’s exactly what I said when the Cardinals signed him this past off season. Berkman was the best 8 mil the Cardinals spent this year.
that was the best off season pick up of the decade.. he played like a 20 million dollar player this year
Pujols is not getting 30 Million a year by the Cardinals…. nowhere close.
I wonder if him constantly talking about potentially retiring to the media will hurt him this off-season
Sheesh, you dont walk away from the game because you dont like the offers you receive in free agency, you walk away because you cant play anymore and lost the fire and passion for the game. I cant stand Berkman..
Apparently he needs to feed his fire and passion with dollar bills. ;)
Huh, just checking on Berkman’s numbers for this year, but how often is a guy’s average (.291) higher than his BABIP (.288)?
not that uncommon for a player who has hit a lot of HR’s
Can you explain that please?
BABIP doesn’t count home runs because they’re not in play, so they would drag it down just like a strikeout would.
I won’t claim to be an expert on these newer baseball stats, but why should HR’s not count positively for BABIP? I mean, yea, it’s not “in play”, but it’s still a hit. There’s something that feels wrong about this.
because BABip measures luck.. It measures how many times a player has put a ball in play and at what rate he gets out.. A homerun is an outlier, because no opposing defensive player can make a play on it, therefore it is not counted..
Jose Bautista, AVG .315 BABip .315
Had the Cardinals trade for Bell this year we would be in this.. the only problem the Cards have, other than TRL managing the team and having complete control, is the bullpin and the 20 walk off wins from opposing teams.