Angels couldn't resist tempting fate with Pujols

DALLAS

Say you want to buy a notably ornate mansion. Say your pal already owns a similar behemoth in the neighborhood.

He invites you over. "Been living here for four years," he tells you.

And the place is falling apart.

Wouldn't that give you pause before you opened your checkbook?

Alex Rodriguez has been on display for everyone's benefit. But apparently, the Angels never dropped by for an inspection.

How else do you explain their 10-year, $254-million investment in Albert Pujols?

"I think that every club that has signed a 10-year deal has regretted it," Mets general manager Sandy Alderson said with characteristic bluntness Thursday. "But I think there's only one other team that has."

That would be the Yankees, of course, who face the depressing prospect of six more years with A-Rod, thanks to their 10-year, $275-million commitment to him after the 2007 season. He turned 36 in 2011 and played in only 99 games -- his lowest total since he became an everyday major-leaguer in 1996 -- because of injury problems with his right knee and left thumb.

A-Rod averaged 159 games per year from 2001-07, but under the new contract, he missed 150 games from 2008-11, playing an average of 125 per season.

To be fair, no two bodies are created equally. Maybe Pujols, who turns 32 in January (and yes, doubts persist about his age), somehow can defy Father Time and be productive all the way through 2021, which he'll open as a 41-year-old.

That's not a great bet, however. Especially at an annual average value of $25.4 million.

New Angels GM Jerry DiPoto refused to discuss the terms of the contract. However, asked in general about long-term deals, he said, "In regard to the evolution of a hitter, as hitters begin to age, into their 30s, to whatever point you can project, there's a certain quality or trait in a hitter, the patience that they exhibit. Albert has had an extraordinary career in regard to maintaining control over the strike zone.

" . . . We've had many discussions on how we feel he as a player will continue to evolve. Albert is still as big an impact bat after 11 years as there is in the game."

Actually, Pujols is coming off the worst season of his career. He has declined, as DiPoto put it, "from superhuman to just great."

It's true that most players would happily settle for the .366 on-base percentage and .541 slugging percentage that he recorded in 651 plate appearances in 2011. Yet we can't ignore the realities of aging. Unless Pujols radically defies baseball trends -- as, say, Barry Bonds did from 2000 through 2004, no matter who was using what at that juncture -- his production gradually will regress, with perhaps a positive bounce or two along the way.

With C.J. Wilson joining Pujols on an already talented club -- although an upgrade at closer wouldn't hurt -- maybe the Angels can win a World Series or two during the first half of Pujols' deal. Perhaps that'll ease the pain of the later seasons.

What we've seen with A-Rod, though -- and we also saw it during Bernie Williams' later years with the Yankees and Mike Piazza's with the Mets -- is that living through the bad times is painful no matter what preceded them. No team, or its fans, enjoys watching a once-great player fall apart while earning a salary that reflects his past far more than his present.

The Angels could've glanced east to get a glimpse of that unwanted phenomenon. Instead, they couldn't resist owning their own castle of a ballplayer. Let's stop by and visit in a few years.