RealGM

Albert Pujols is encouraging the St. Louis Cardinals to sign Manny Ramirez.

The Cardinals slugger, who won his second NL MVP award in November, acknowledged the team might not have enough money to land the free-agent outfielder.

"I speak with Manny every three days and he tells me, 'Man, no one wants to sign me,' Pujols said Thursday during a news conference. "I'm not an agent or general manager, but I can't understand how Manny has not signed."

Pujols passed along Ramirez's telephone number to St. Louis manager Tony La Russa.

"Maybe St. Louis doesn't have the money to sign him, but he could give them a discount because St. Louis is a great city that supports its players,'' Pujols said.

http://www.realgmbaseball.com/src_wiret ... o_sign_me/

What are your thoughts? If we could afford Manny, would you want him? Pujols, Manny, Ludwick and company could be amazing. We may have Rasmus in Center, and if that's the case we still have Ankiel and Skip. Questions have been asked if Skip can still play 2B, which would be helpful. He could also be the 4th OF. We would possibly trade Ankiel, maybe get some pitching. I'm not fan of Manny, but if he was on the Cardinals, we would have to of the best bats (possibly the best 2) in the league. Pujols could keep Manny from being Manny too much, I'd hope. Oh, and if we can't trade Ankiel for a pitcher, we can move him to pitcher!

The chances of Manny becoming a Cardinal are roughly 0%. I mean I would like him, but theres no chance I would give him more than 3/43 or 2/30, which isn't going to get him.

The Cards need pitching, like badly. If they should be signing anyone it's Sheets, which isn't going to happen either.

I'm pretty sure the team we have now is pretty much the team we are going to battle with, which is good enough for 2nd place in the division, but not sure if it's enough to beat out a NL East team for the WC.

And yeah I wish Ankiel could still pitch.

Yeah, I pretty much agree with all you said. The only chance is that nobody really does want him and he takes what he can get (I assume LAD or LAA would have signed him by now, but they haven't, so there is a little doubt). Plus, the Yankees can't sign him, so that helps and we know the Red Sox won't sign him. The Mets I guess could offer a pretty good deal if they really want him. Really though, I think if we get him, we would score a loooot of runs, that our pitching (if healthy) would do fine. Really if Carpenter and Wainwright are healthy they are great, it's just #5 won't be great. Hopefully a year under the young guys belts really help and they can actually close games.

Really I hate Manny, but I can definitely stand him in a Cards uni if he helps us win games. Pujols, work your magic and get him to sign for a lot less than he wants! And also don't forget your words about "playing for less money for the great fans in St. Louis" when you are due to re-sign in a coule years!