Money Makes The World Go 'Round.

I was reading a blog for the St. Louis Cardinals, and they were taking a poll: is Albert Pujols worth $20-25 million per year?

Now, the only answers you could put were "yes" or "no"; however, there should have been a third option, "That depends, how badly do you want a shot at a championship?"

Questions like this are becoming more and more apropos of this offseason. It's all about the money. And it's not just my boys in New York that are looking to spend more money than the movie Avatar grossed on some choice free agents; Texas is prepared to spend their entire budget to keep Cliff Lee, Boston hopes to sign Jayson Werth and Carl Crawford for extravagant prices, and Kansas City is looking to unload Zack Greinke for any team willing to "make it rain". This year, it seems like team loyalties and the like mean much less than the number on the paycheck. Call it greediness, chalk it up to a bad economy, or wish ill on the agents for playing into all this so heavily that it's better than following a soap opera. The fact of the matter is that large amounts of money could change the game heavily in the upcoming months (surprisingly enough).

As I like to tell anyone that argues with me on how the Yanks spend more money than they can make on players, money buys just that: the physical human being to play for them. It does not buy, guarantee or even determine talent. Here's some examples: Randy Johnson was one of the greatest pitchers of all time, that's non-negotiable. But the time he spent on the Yankees was quite possibly the worst time of his career. Barry Zito made more money this year than everyone reading this will make in their entire lives combined, and he had a 9-14 record with a 4.15 ERA and was left off the Giants' postseason roster completely (maybe that's why they won?). And how much money do you think the Rays spent on Carlos Pena this season, when he hit for .196 and was injured for 2 weeks down the stretch? The answer is over $10 million. MONEY DOESN'T BUY CHAMPIONSHIPS. It buys players. And the players do what they will from there, it's all in their hands once the contract is signed.

However, as disgusting as the lucrative side of baseball is, any fan knows teams have to spend money to get said good players. Would Ichiro have stayed long enough in Seattle, a town he's given so much to and they haven't even given him a playoff berth in return, if it weren't for the millions of dollars they throw his way to make sure that as he's reaching hitting milestones and earning his 10th consecutive Gold Glove in a Mariners uniform? Would Chipper Jones have spent his entire career in Atlanta instead of going elsewhere to a city with a team that doesn't immediately gag when they play in October, if it weren't for the millions of fans willing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to watch him fumble around like a true veteran? Hell, I'm able to admit that, without the ungodly contracts they're signed to, half of the Yankees' lineup and rotation would still be playing in Cleveland, Texas, and Detroit. So let's remove the stigma from spending a lot of money to buy players. Every team does it in some capacity, no one's exempt.

Boy howdy, I wish more stuff had happened already regarding offseason signings and free-agency...there's nothing to talk about right now.