Albert Pujols

He's going nowhere Peter Schmuck Baltimore Sun Stand by for months of Albert angst in St. Louis and rampant free agent speculation in each of Major League Baseball's large-market cities ... and it will all be much ado about nothing. If he isn't a Cardinal in 2012, my three well-regarded Tribune Co. colleagues, I will come over and wax your cars. The Cardinals will keep him if they have to tie him to a chair and bring in a cult deprogrammer to turn him against his agent, but that probably won't be necessary.

White Sox and Angels Bill Shaikin Los Angeles Times The White Sox might be the biggest surprise, since management appears to vacillate between keeping an old team together and rebuilding. The Sox won the World Series in 2005, but they have won one playoff game since then and attendance has fallen from 3 million to 2 million. But pitching wins, and the White Sox are the only AL team in the top three in earned-run average for starters and relievers. The Angels would be the biggest disappointment.

There is plenty of optimism in Baltimore right now with the Orioles set to start spring training next week. And why not? The rebuilt Birds brought in Mark Reynolds, Derrek Lee, Kevin Gregg and Vladimir Guerrero. Fans can already taste the oh-so sweet flavor of .500 baseball. Meanwhile, it's doom and gloom in St. Louis. It appears the Cardinals and three-time National League MVP Albert Pujols won't agree on a extension by the Feb. 16 deadline set by Pujols. He wants to stay in St. Louis, but all bets are off when teams start dropping Brink's trucks from helicopters onto your front lawn.

ANAHEIM, Calif. - The last time slugger Albert Pujols faced the Orioles in a regular-season matchup, Friday's starter Brian Matusz was in high school, Buck Showalter was in his first year managing the Texas Rangers and outfielder Nick Markakis had been drafted earlier that week by the Orioles in the first round. It was June 6-8, 2003, and Pujols, then 23, went 7-for-13 with three doubles and six RBIs as his St. Louis Cardinals beat the Orioles in two out of three games at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

They were Harry Stuhldreher, Jim Crowley, Don Miller and Elmer Layden, but you probably know them as Notre Dame's Four Horsemen of the 1920s. "Outlined against a blue-gray October sky, the Four Horsemen rode again," Grantland Rice wrote after a 13-7 upset of Army. "In dramatic lore they are known as famine, pestilence, destruction and death. Those are only aliases." We bring you a baseball version of these literary horsemen of the Apocalypse. They are Albert Pujols, Joe Mauer, Prince Fielder and Adrian Gonzalez.

Good morning --Albert Pujols -- Can you pitch, too?

Good morning -- Albert Pujols -- You'd better pick up that batting average. You're falling behind Barbaro in the Triple Crown race.

Albert Pujols Cardinals first baseman His 16 HRs in 30 games tie Cy Williams of the '23 Phillies. Oliver Perez Pirates pitcher He has lost three straight and walked 27 in 32 2/3 innings.

Who's hot Ken Harvey of the Royals is 21-for-42 during a 10-game hitting streak. Who's not Paul Abbott of the Devil Rays has allowed 29 of 58 batters to reach base and has a 13.97 ERA in his past three starts. Line of the day Albert Pujols, Cardinals 1B AB R H RBI HR 5 3 5 3 1

Pujols in short term Dave van Dyck Chicago Tribune Are we talking long- or short-term? For the next three years, Pujols will mean more to the Angels than Fielder will to the Tigers. After that, the roles reverse, only because of Pujols' age (no matter which age you believe). What makes Pujols so valuable are the things he does past the obvious. Yes, he hits home runs at key moments, hits for average and plays a decent first base (better than Fielder)

The report this morning that superstar Albert Pujols has agreed to terms with the Los Angeles Angels probably registered on every Richter scale in Southern California. No official confirmation yet, but the deal apparently is for 10 years and $250 million, very similar to the terms that shook the baseball world when Alex Rodriguez broke the bank on the last day of the 2000 Winter Meetings right here in Dallas. Of course, that deal turned out to be a disaster for the Rangers, who would eventually be forced into bankruptcy, but the Angels are a big-market team with a very rich owner who obviously was frustrated that they missed the postseason two years in a row. The Angels also reportedly have agreed to a deal with top free agent pitcher C.J. Wilson, which would push their Winter Meetings spending spree to $327.5 million.

The Cardinals held it together without Albert Pujols , going 7-7 and scoring 4.3 runs per game. Tony La Russa was hoping Pujols would be added to the NL All-Star roster so he could avoid a four-day break. … Jim Leyritz , the Yankees' 1996 World Series hero who was acquitted of vehicular homicide after a drunk driving accident, is trying to get his career back on track as a coach for the independent Newark Bears. He says Joe Girardi and David Cone were the only former teammates who stood by him through his ordeal.

On Tuesday night, Albert Pujols missed his first road game this season, much to the chagrin of Baltimore baseball fans who had hoped to see one of the sport's best players at Camden Yards. Following a collision at first base nine days ago, Pujols -- an impending free agent who is reportedly seeking a contract in the neighborhood of $300 million -- is out four to six weeks with a small fracture in his left forearm. The news must have been disheartening for an Orioles front office that surely expected a boost in ticket sales with the prodigious slugger at Camden Yards.

Tick-tock. Tick-tock. Tick-tock. With every day that passes, the Albert Pujols era comes closer to ending in St. Louis. This has been some run — arguably only Derek Jeter has had a better one with his original team over the last two decades — and it's as hard to imagine the Cardinals without Pujols as it is the Yankees without Jeter. But the clock is ticking loudly and thus far Cardinals owner Bill DeWitt Jr. and general manager John Mozeliak have done nothing to stifle the noise.

Predicted finish, records Reds Cardinals Cubs Brewers Astros Pirates 91-71 85-77 84-78 83-79 79-83 68-94 Pennants, wild cards since 1995: 3,1. Average payroll: $91.9 million (fourth of six divisions). Manager with World Series rings: Tony La Russa ('09, '06). Players with MVP awards: Joey Votto ('10), Albert Pujols ('05, '08, '09). Pitchers with Cy Young awards: Zack Greinke ('09)

Baltimore athletic supporters are dreaming about the possbility of Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols signing with the Orioles next offseason. But franchise icon Cal Ripken Jr. doesn't think Pujols will go anywhere if he becomes a free agent at season's end. "I can’t see Albert playing outside the Cardinal uniform," Ripken told KMOX radio in St. Louis over the weekend. Ripken said we shouldn't read anything into Pujols' decision to break off contract talks with the Cardinals before spring training.

He's going nowhere Peter Schmuck Baltimore Sun Stand by for months of Albert angst in St. Louis and rampant free agent speculation in each of Major League Baseball's large-market cities ... and it will all be much ado about nothing. If he isn't a Cardinal in 2012, my three well-regarded Tribune Co. colleagues, I will come over and wax your cars. The Cardinals will keep him if they have to tie him to a chair and bring in a cult deprogrammer to turn him against his agent, but that probably won't be necessary.