I was recently reading the latest copy of ESPN Magazine. I saw an interesting tidbit about the Rays and Albert Pujols. Apparently, the Rays were the first team to find Pujols, while he was playing in junior college. They gave him a tryout, and whoever the scout was for the Rays, walked away unimpressed. You know the rest of the story, the Cardinals find him and he becomes one of the best players in the history of baseball.
Now, that makes me wonder, if the Rays would have drafted him, would he have been the same player? Would he have helped us win more under Pinella and Mcrae? It would have been interesting to see. The Rays most likely would not have been able to keep him as long as the Cardinals have, especially since he would’ve most likely needed a contract under Namoli or in the first couple years of Sternberg, when we weren’t giving out big contracts. Let’s just say he would still be with the team had the Rays drafted him. Can you picture the lineup the Rays would have? It would look something like this:
- Bartlett
- Crawford
- Pujols
- Longoria
- Zobrist
- Burrell
- Upton
- Rodriguez/Brignac
- Navarro/Shoppach
That is a pretty good lineup I’d say. Where is the time machine so we can go back and draft Albert Pujols?
