Despite the current focus on the money St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols will be making on Major League Baseball diamonds in the future, his earnings off the field have quickly become a major piece of his growing total income pie.
Yet despite a Gold Glove and Silver Slugger season in 2010 and a year-to-year increase in estimated endorsement earnings from $2 million to $8 million*, Pujols fell from fourth to ninth place in the annual professional sports Power 100, released on Friday.
In both years of the list, Pujols has been the highest-ranked baseball player. In 2011, NFL quarterback Peyton Manning unseated golfer Tiger Woods for number one based on a methodology for “power” in athletics developed by Businessweek.com, Horrow Sports Ventures, CSE Group and Nielsen/E-Poll N-Score.
How is this calculated? In the words of BusinessWeek:
“…50 percent of the score should reflect “on-field” performance, using existing statistics. The remaining 50 percent is based on “off-field” measurements. The latter comprises a blend of E-Poll’s data and CSE’s estimate of off-field earnings. The new single score—the Nielsen/E-Poll N-Score—is a composite measurement of awareness, trustworthiness, appeal, and influence that’s designed to measure overall popularity and thus best capture a sports personality’s endorsement potential.”
The 50 percent stats score is 80 percent based on the most recent season and 20 percent from the year prior. In the case of baseball players, numbers considered are: Batting Average, Runs, Hits, and Home Runs (for batters) and Wins, Saves, Strikeouts, and ERA (for pitchers).
For the off-field measurement, the 50 percent total is weighted 80 percent on the athlete’s expected endorsement potential and 20 percent on estimated endorsement earnings.
* In their 2010 Power 100, BusinessWeek listed Pujols’ earnings at $18 million. With a $16 million base salary, my assumption is the remaining was his estimated endorsement total, though this was not rendered specific. His key sponsors were Nike, Upper Deck and Pro Performance.
One year later, Pujols’ total earnings are listed as $23.5 million, of which $8 million was directly called out as having been endorsement-based. In other words, in one year, his off-field income has grown from approximately 12 percent of his on-field earnings to 50 percent.
In comparison, Power 100’s top-ranked Manning picked up an estimated $15 million via endorsements last year, more than doubling his salary from the NFL’s small-market Indianapolis Colts.
Manning is currently in negotiations with the Colts on a new contract that is expected to make him the highest-paid player in NFL history and keep him with the franchise for his entire career. Despite an expiring labor agreement between players and owners, both sides seem confident a deal will get done.
Sound familiar?
With Pujols potentially nearing free agency and a new contract that should pay him at least $25 million per year in salary, how much weight will a forecast for an increase in his future endorsements based on his team carry in his decision?
Still, there seems considerable potential for endorsement earnings growth for Pujols no matter where he suits up starting in 2012. After all, Manning has done pretty well for himself despite just one Super Bowl victory in 13 seasons with Indianapolis, hasn’t he?
Follow me on Twitter.
Follow The Cardinal Nation Blog on Facebook.
Albert could probably make as much as he wants from endorsements. I’m waiting for the pantyhose add like Broadway Joe. Some of us are old enough to remember that.
No baseball player has ever made a lot off of endorsments. I don’t think Pujol’s personality will lead him to be the first.
How do you define “a lot”? $8 million last year isn’t chump change, even for Albert, but no, it isn’t on say, Tiger Woods’ scale…
How’d that notoriety work out for Tiger?
Woods’ problems have nothing to do with his endorsements, though his endorsements going forward do have a lot to do with his problems…
That’s good stuff right there, Brian!
Mostly i’d think of it in relative terms. The top golfers, basket players, skateboarders, surfers, make more in endorsements than they do salary. Football players break even at best. Baseball players almost never reach that level.
‘The 50 percent stats score is 80 percent based on the most recent season and 20 percent from the year prior. In the case of baseball players, numbers considered are: Batting Average, Runs, Hits, and Home Runs (for batters) and Wins, Saves, Strikeouts, and ERA (for pitchers).’
What? No FIP, WAR or OPS? CC won’t believe a word!
Of course I believe it. We are talking about popularity here, not winning. Those in the masses prefer the popular over the proven.
Nope… more like the triumph of the tried and true over the trendy and new!
You just keep trying to mfg more buggy whips and create faster horses. I’m sure they’ll serve you well in the future.
As will your 6-winged aircraft with flapping wings!
HB, here is the FIP and WAR version of a workout. Make sure to stay with it to the end. It isn’t more than 90 seconds total…
We have done this exercise before. Unfortunately we didn’t get any kind of results from it like I had hoped.
Sorry Brian… I’m still on dial-up out here in the sticks and it would take literally hours to download a 1:26-long video clip. What were you trying to show, if you don’t mind explaining?
It is a clip of Matt Carpenter working on his swing attached to an expensive high-tech workout machine. As he finished, an employee of the training center explained the meaning of the various digital readouts that analyzed his efforts. No bats or balls are anywhere in sight.
Forget about paying me. Maybe we should pass the hat to get your computer set up out of the 1990′s!
Really….do you still have your collection of 8 track tapes?…..and are you still listening to them? For the love of GOD HB, lets update our system.
I think we’ve broken the code. His old computer is non-compatible with new terms like OPS!
RC, I actually still have a car with a factory 8-track player. I rarely if ever get out tapes because they are so old they often get tangled up and an hour is wasted… Instead, I put a newer radio under the dash for modern listening…
Wow, now that is nice.
RC — I do music on my computer… got a bitchin’ set of Klipsch minis with a big old daddy subwoofer on the floor that will rattle the windows and rivals the component system I used to own/operate for sound quality. That bulky component system has been consigned to the storage shed.
(In Three Stooges Moe voice)… Wise guy, eh? (and pokes you in the eyes with two fingers.)
Nothing wrong with my computer, which is only a couple of years old. I just choose to live in a very rural area where my internet provider options are limited. I could get faster service via satellite, but it’s more than I want to pay. I could get service over-the-air from my existing provider, but I’m in a hilly area and reception from their tower is poor. So I’ll stick with the modem for now. Doesn’t hurt my feelings to not be able to download movies or video clips. I can live without them. A modem & land line works well enough for most things I do.
At the same time… I’m just 45 minutes from San Antone and Austin, where I can get into any kind of trouble one might want to find…
No, I don’t have any 8-tracks left… but my sister in Ilinois has them in a closet at her house.
As for OPS and the like… I just don’t buy the attitude I get here so often that SABR has made traditional stats obsolete or irrelevant. After all… OPS is just two traditional stats added together, isn’t it?
Twitter is all abuzz with the news that “sources” say Pujols will veto ANY trade proposals.
This is getting ridiculous. I’m sick of it. Either sign him now or let him walk. My autistic sister could have done a better job in these negotiations.
crdswmn, why you are reacting so strongly to a Buster Olney unsubstantiated rumor? Isn’t what he is saying just plain common sense? Why in the world would Pujols agree to a trade at this point? As RC has pointed out frequently, that horse has long left the barn.
I understand why some people are impatient, but isn’t the fact that the sides aren’t providing daily updates through the media a generally positive thing?
I’m not reacting to the trade tweet itself Brian. I never doubted Pujols would not agree to a trade. I am just reacting to the level of media leaks and frenzy over the whole thing. Yes it is a big story, but I go back to the same thing I have said over and over again. It should never have come to this and both sides are just feuling the frenzy with these little “leaks”. Neither side has acted very professionally. Providing daily. or at least occasional updates in my mind would be more professional and calming to the masses than all these furtive leaks. They are just making the whole thing into a circus.
There is no real news to report, so Olney posts something that is so common sense in nature that even if he has no source at all, it is so logical that no one would question it. People are so overanxious for any news that they lap it up.
We have no way to know if anyone actually leaked this.
P.S. Tomorrow’s revelation will probably be: “Cardinals have no intention of asking Pujols for trade”.
Again, this would not be happening if the Cardinals had taken care of business last year. I pay as much attention to Buster Olney and his ilk as I do to my neighbor’s cat.
Meow! Reminds me of a few jokes from the TLR roast…
Actually my neighbor doesn’t have a cat.
Unlikely…………teams are no doubt making offers that come to the attention of the “curious”…… Toronto’s recent stance…..Washington too………. Why not try. They are undoubtedly approaching Lozano, figuring the Cardinals would go for anything…….wrong again……….BD is on a win/win track………….carefully crafted…………
that would certainly depend………….. that is Lozanos/AP camp stirring…………. they want time to maneuver in front of the offer ……and the deadline…………BD doesn’t want to give it.
A trade offer could contain the numbers AP is seeking, in a guaranteed extension……….but that does not make Lozano a famous spotlight agent………. he knows its just a delaying tactic.
This is the fourth day the ‘Angry Albert’ photo has been on Stltoday.
http://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/stltoday.com/content/tncms/assets/editorial/5/b8/eec/5b8eecd4-b103-11df-9349-00127992bc8b-revisions/4c764d0710836.image.jpg
The cuddly Mo scarf photo too.
Curious what you think might be the significance of that.
What…….the post title page being the same for 4 days…………..????????? time stands still.
This time of year baseball news is slow so the stories tend to stay there for a while. The water carriers know that of course, so the pictures they use will get plenty of face time.
Its not like the angry Albert photo is from the WWU or the roast or anything. Somebody remembered it and decided that’s the one to use, of all the Albert photos they have to pick from. The cuddly Mo photo is a great contrast.
Psycological warfare without violating the gag order. Subliminal PR. They say a picture is worth a thousand words.
The trade refusal is just a ploy by Lozano……….. letting everyone know the Cards might be looking for a way out………….that is untrue of course……they are battling………. Albert’s marketability depends on public perception……..Lozano is tending the fence……. they both know this isn’t going anywhere……..the stalling he knows is just priming Albert for a direct attack surrounding the “offer” release………………. it won’t be 200 m………..
I want AP gone………….. he will be worse in a lame duck year, than he was in the contract year……I don’t want to see it………AP against the world………..he is a choke and our opponents will exploit his frustrations………not so good……….
I know this seems to suggest that BD is unscrupulous……….. anyone that could open up all the channels necessary to get AP to the Glen Beck rally, in the middle of a team collapse, just to show that it was multi racial, couldn’t be………………Oh goodness
Brian, I’m curious to know what you think about the angry Albert photo. Just happened to pick that one, or what? I haven’t been able to find that it has any connection to the story.
I have no idea nor am I particularly concerned about it. I can’t imagine anyone’s opinion of Pujols would be altered over that silly picture.
When the political campaigns are in full swing, they make every effort to use the most unflattering pictures of their opponants. A waste of time and money I guess. Visual input does influence perception.
Thats exactly what they’re doing BB………………….. the angry and one as the slick huckster in the other…………….they aren’t angling for a signing, pulling on those strings……….they know what they’re doing. Can’t imagine not seeing the offer by the first. It becomes to conspicuous to wait longer.
Now you’re talking Westy. But I don’t see it as evidence the Cards aren’t angling for a signing. Rather, I think they are trying to chip away at Albert’s teflon so that when it comes out he has rejected a big pile of money the public will be more apt to perceive him as the bad guy. That should happen during spring training, IMO. And the thinking is Albert won’t want to go into the season as a bad guy, getting catcalls rom the stands when he barely jogs to first, etc.
I’m not so sure of your emphasis……….I’ve always said that I couldn’t see how they would let AP play a “lame duck” season……….. there is every appearance that they do in fact want him to play a lame duck season…………Next fall, if he has a bad year, he will be pissed, and be even more likely to take the vulgar offer that I see coming from the Nationals………….maybe Cubs also……there will be even less incentive to over pay him at that point………….they will happily re-up Tony for him, but they are going to “sour” his drink here……….they will never improve on the offer they’re going to make this coming week……….. he will take it or he’s gone……………….. watch the Mets try to hook up Tony and AP if we finish 3rd…….. As far as ST………they need to sweeten up then to sell tickets…….the offer hanging there all the while………..
Be sure to see the video on Cardinal Village on the Official team sight. http://stlouis.cardinals.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=13090387&topic_id=16010222&c_id=stl
Looks like Troy Glaus might hang up the cleats. Couldn’t stay healthy at age 33 last season.
When he was 31 he had a big season for the Cards. 32 wasn’t so good.