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Hungary Jack wrote:The irony is all of this is that in St. Louis dollars, the Angel deal is only worth about $127M. Albert left about $93M in COLA and tax-adjusted money on the table. He is no economist.

This is what I don't get...I guess he gets to say he has one the highest paying contracts, but he won't make as much (if you look at the big picture).

I blame Leroy.

TimeForGuinness wrote:

Hungary Jack wrote:The irony is all of this is that in St. Louis dollars, the Angel deal is only worth about $127M. Albert left about $93M in COLA and tax-adjusted money on the table. He is no economist.

This is what I don't get...I guess he gets to say he has one the highest paying contracts, but he won't make as much (if you look at the big picture).

I blame Leroy.

I don't think those calculators are entirely accurate.

Cost of living only goes so far. Houses are 300% higher than here. But even the biggest houses have an upper limit to their cost. Food/etc has a ceiling for cost regardless of the disproportion in cost.

Basically if you made 150k vs 120k in California the cost of living difference is huge, but since the ceilings for living expenses are considerably lower than hundreds of millions of dollars I don't see a calculator like that being as accurate for Pujols as it would for someone in the middle class.

I can't wait to see in about 5-6 years how loved and respected Jose feels out in La-La land when he's hitting .270 with 20 homers and raking $25 million especially if they've won 1 or fewer titles.

Can't wait to get the popcorn ready for that one.

Again, the big factor in COL is housing, and he gets to sell the house in 2022.

The behavioral economicist types have explained the thoughts flowing around Pujols's brain to my satisfaction.

Albert who?

greenback44 wrote:Again, the big factor in COL is housing, and he gets to sell the house in 2022.

More expensive houses cost you more whether you buy or rent. Surely, you would not argue otherwise. I dunno whether those cost of living calculators apply well to super rich guys like Pujols, but LA's expensive housing will certainly cost him a lot.

Hungary Jack wrote:Wow. Bernie actually wrote a really good column in today's PD. He points out the hypocrisy of Albert's words and actions. Oh well, he's not the first, and won't be the last.

The irony is all of this is that in St. Louis dollars, the Angel deal is only worth about $127M. Albert left about $93M in COLA and tax-adjusted money on the table. He is no economist.

I'm pretty sure that it's not that simple.

Transmogrified Tiger wrote:

Hungary Jack wrote:Wow. Bernie actually wrote a really good column in today's PD. He points out the hypocrisy of Albert's words and actions. Oh well, he's not the first, and won't be the last.

The irony is all of this is that in St. Louis dollars, the Angel deal is only worth about $127M. Albert left about $93M in COLA and tax-adjusted money on the table. He is no economist.

I'm pretty sure that it's not that simple.

It's not, it's roughly 3%, all things considered. Fangraphs detailed today.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.ph ... lications/

It's the money and being a baby. That's it.

Yeah, the COL argument is a bit specious. When you make that much, you probably will not notice the higher cost of food, fuel, etc.

However, CA imposes a 10.3% state income tax. MO's is 6%. This eats up $10M of the $34M difference between the two deals.

I am not sure if the COLA figures include sales taxes, but sales taxes in Orange County are 16% (8.25% state, 7.75% county) if my understanding is correct. St. Louis taxes are 8.5%. Albert obviously won't spend $254M over the rest of his life (I hope not), but there is little doubt that Albert will be paying more to play in Anaheim.

EDIT: Just read Fangraph article--he loses about $5M to additional state taxes.

Taxes are for the poor and working stiffs. I'm sure Albert's accounting team will figure out a way to minimize that exposure.