Poor Prince Fielder. After all of the hooting and hollering over Albert Pujols, Jose Reyes, and C.J. Wilson, we almost forgot about our chubby free agent first baseman. Let's turn our attention to him for a little bit.
The former Milwaukee Brewers slugger and his agent Scott Boras are open for negotiations now that all the other big fish have been reeled in. However, they seem to be searching for a suitor who's willing to spend $200 million over seven or eight years, which is going to be tough to find since most teams out there won't be into the idea of give Fielder more than a five year contract, even though he's apparently only 27.
It's speculated that either the Miami Marlins or St. Louis Cardinals could afford to sign him, considering the ridiculous contracts both teams offered Pujols. However, the Texas Rangers might want his services to help with the imminent battle against their division rival Angels, who are about to dominate the hell out of the American League West. Count on it.
Of course, the Seattle Mariners are in on the rumors as well, since they have very little to protect themselves against the big bad Angels and/or Rangers either. On the other hand (and the other league) Fielder is pretty close with new Chicago Cubs skipper and former Brewers hitting coach Dale Sveum so that might be a draw to the North Side, but general manager Jed Hoyer has called their reported interest in Fielder "overblown." Unfortunately for the Brewers, they simply can't afford to pay market value for their longtime longballer. General manager Doug Melvin exlpains:
“The tough thing is we’re one of the smallest markets in baseball and you’ve got one of the top players in the game. You try to figure that out, how does it work?"
It's a sad, sad business for the little guys, isn't it. We'll keep you posted.
[Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel]
1 comment:
I hope the Cubbies land him and then he hits bombs off Brewers pitching all day.
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