I Hope She's Warming Up the Grill Tonight

[chuckcrim]

"My wife said that if I lose some power, she's cooking me a big steak."

 

I think it's safe to say Prince has lost his power. Chanel better be cooking him a massive steak tonight. There was a sense of excitement every time he came up last year that he could hit the ball 500 feet. This year it seems like every time he's up we're hoping he just makes contact. What is going on?

[InsomniacInkRoss]

I think it's a different problem than power

 

It's not like he is hitting the ball just to the warning track, instead of over the wall

 

I will take that steak though

[Oldcity]

Not like I have any inside info, but I'd be willing to be a substantial amount of money that Prince's struggles are due something with his approach/mechanics at the plate as opposed to his diet.

[chuckcrim]

I'm not disagreeing with you Stevo. What I'm saying is that it's safe to say he's lost his power. His wife said if he loses his power, she's cooking him a steak. She better fire up that grill tonight!

[TooLiveBrew]

What do you mean that it's safe to say he's lost his power? Is this a permanent outage?

[sheethead]

I think it's a different problem than power

It's not like he is hitting the ball just to the warning track, instead of over the wall

Nah, he has hit plenty of balls to the warning track or just short of. The only thing that is for sure with regard to Prince, his arby number is plummeting faster than a discarded shuttle booster.

[chuckcrim]

What do you mean that it's safe to say he's lost his power? Is this a permanent outage?

What about his performance through 1/3 of the season leads you to believe he's regained his form from last year?

He had 1 HR all of spring training. Several scouting reports said he'd eat his way out of the league. Not many thought it'd be without meat.

 

 

[yfinn6]

Stevo is saying that it's his mechanics, you say it's his power from not eating meat. But you agree with Stevo, so what is it?

 

I'm leaning more towards mechanics of his swing or over swinging as his problem. I highly doubt a steak is what Prince needs to hit the ball over the fence, but hey I could be wrong - it wouldn't be the first time.

[endaround]

Or you know, home runs have been down for all of baseball

[chuckcrim]

He's lost his power. We can agree on that, at least so far this year. Is it a coincidence that he's lost his power after giving up meat? Maybe, maybe not. His wife said she'd cook him a steak if he lost his power. After a guy becomes the youngest player in the history of the game to hit 50 bombs and the next season he has 6 through 54 games, I think we should be concerned.

[TooLiveBrew]

He's lost his power. We can agree on that, at least so far this year.

 

Well I can't. What about 1/3 of a season tells you anything about player skill? Are you saying he lost his power, or are you saying it's something that's temporary (& that he hasn't lost)?

 

Think of it this way -- if he'd hit 10-15 HR through May, then had a slow month of June & into July in terms of HR, would you be making the same statement? I personally don't think Prince has lost any power. I think NL pitchers & staffs are incredibly careful in how they scout & pitch him, and Fielder is still trying to make his own adjustment(s). The good news (imo) is that in the meantime, Prince has been very selective & worked a very nice BB rate.

 

He could still hit 35 HR relatively easily this season, given his power & strength. Braun is a good comparative example -- if he goes the month of June with 2 HR, would anyone think he's lost power, or just that he'd had a cool stretch in terms of HR?

 

 

Is it a coincidence that he's [posted a HR total that upsets some fans] after giving up meat?

 

100%, absolutely, yes.

[sgtcluels]

Only way to fix it, is for Prince to kill a cow with nothing more then a pocket knife and a bottle of A1. He must drink the blood prior to eating the meat. This will make him have mad crazy voodoo

[chuckcrim]

I think he's lost power and you do not. Let's see how the rest of the season plays out. I really don't see him hitting 35 HR's this year.

[Crew2323]

I've said this elsewhere before: if you're expecting him to duplicate or expound on his 50 home run season of a year ago, you'll be sorely disappointed, and believe that he lost his power. As was mentioned earlier in this thread, Fielder is being pitched to much differently this year than last. No one is or will be grooving him any pitches over the plate, and if they come inside, it is way inside. If you haven't noticed, catchers are setting up outside. Until Fielder consistently hits to the opposite field, he won't be getting a whole lot to hit. Ultimately, he's going to have to start capitalizing on pitchers mistakes, something all superstar hitters do well. At the moment he is still trying to adjust. Once he does, he'll start hitting more home runs. I just refuse to believe that removing meat from his diet has caused him to lose power.

[TooLiveBrew]

I think he can get to 35 because I personally think it's very unlikely that he will turn in another month with just 2 HR like he's had in May. I'd expect him to be right around an average of 6 or 7 as a safe guesstimate. Even if you play the lower end of that, he'd have 30 by season's end. I also would be surprised if he didn't have at least one month up near 10 HR or so.

[chuckcrim]

You're probably right, but my question is at what point will his wife cook him a steak? What's the definition of him losing his power?

If he finishes the season with under 25 HR's, will he have lost his power?

[BREWCREW5]

This is just my opinion but Fielder seems like the type of player who is stubborn and will continue to not eat meat. I remember when he hit his first home run this season looking at the camera saying "no meat, no meat". It was kind of funny then, but as we sit here approaching June- looking at his power numbers...it isnt funny anymore. Grab a burger big boy. Fielder is part of the problem this season.

[RyDogg66]

Maybe if we stop talking about whether or not his slump has to do with him eating meat then this thread will be worthwhile.

 

the thread should be about the power outage and what it means for him, the team and can he get the grove back this season. He looks more like Princess Fielder to me this year.

 

We'll never be able to prove or disprove if it has to do with meat or no meat so why waste time talking about it. It is probably a combination of mechanics and being pitched around.

[moofnelson]

He looks more like Princess Fielder to me this year.

 

That's one of the funniest lines this year, Rydogg.

[jjfanec]

He may be getting pitched differently this year but he seems to be missing pitches a lot more this year. Last year it felt like if the pitcher made a mistake he made them pay, this year it seems like he is missing a lot of those pitching, not just swinging and missing but hitting grounders or pop ups on pitches over the plate. Add to that the fact that he is pressing to get hits and swinging at some bad pitches makes me think it is much less about his dietary habits and much more about his technique and approach.

[Jopal78]

C'mon, Fielder is worth millions of dollars to the Brewers organization, do you really think they would let his vegetarian lifestyle affect his performance on the field? I am sure the Brewers already have a dietician/nutritionist on the payroll, and if Prince's diet choice resulted in any loss of muscle mass, etc. I am fairly certain they may hire him his very own nutritionist.

[rluzinski]

Does his vegetarian diet cause him to hit more groundsballs as well:

 

http://www.fangraphs.com/graphs/4613_1B_season_full_9_20080528.png

 

So, he's hit only half the mount of HRs that we would have expected so far and his FB rate is down about 12%. It's fair ro say that he's displayed less pwoer so far. Whether he actually HAS less power is impossible to say.

 

Using straight statistics, if I had to guess how many HRs he'll finish with, I'd probably start by just looking at his preseason projection (Marcel says 33 in 521 AB) and assume he'll hit at that for the rest of the year. That means he should already have 12 HR but really only has 6. He'll have, what, maybe another 375 AB? That's about 23 HRs added to his current 6. That's 29 HRs if we think his power production this year has been a complete fluke and does not justify adjusting his projection. In actuality, we have to adjust our expectations down going forward somewhat? 25?

[craigharmann]

A realization that just hit me is this. Is Prince playing with a leather glove? Didn't some innocent, sacred (in India) cow give up its life for Prince to have a glove? And yet, because of the cruel treatment of cows worldwide for food, Prince has given up eating meat. So, the cow that made his glove said, hey, you know what, I want to be a glove for Prince Fielder, so yeah, kill me. Or did they take a cow that died of old age to make Prince's glove? Seems a bit hypocritical to me. Go ahead, Prince. Have that steak.

[TheMCG]

A realization that just hit me is this. Is Prince playing with a leather glove? Didn't some innocent, sacred (in India) cow give up its life for Prince to have a glove? And yet, because of the cruel treatment of cows worldwide for food, Prince has given up eating meat. So, the cow that made his glove said, hey, you know what, I want to be a glove for Prince Fielder, so yeah, kill me. Or did they take a cow that died of old age to make Prince's glove? Seems a bit hypocritical to me. Go ahead, Prince. Have that steak.

You do realize he decided not to eat it, right? Like many people, he might find the idea of eating meat disgusting.

 

[bklynbrewcrew]

The biggest problem with Prince is that he is grossly overweight. I was watching one of the games against the pirates on FSN Pittsburgh when they showed clips of Fielder HRs against Pittsburgh from last season at PNC. The differences in his appearance from last year to this year are startling.

 

Last year Prince looked like a big athletic guy. This year he looks like a beached whale. He is at least 50 lbs more than he was last year and that is why he isn't the same player. Unless he gets himself in shape he will never again be the player he was last season.

 

I think he is shot for this season in terms of all star type numbers. He will never be able to drop enough weight in season to make a big enough difference. The worst part is that his trade value may very well plummet to the point that we are unable to get the bounty of young pitching in return for him next offseason. I was hoping to trade him to the Dodgers for a package of Billingsley, Broxton, and LaRoche but I am not sure we can get that type of return for Fielder at this point.

 

 

(edit: paragraph divisions --1992)