Fielder: This is probably the last year in Milwaukee

[Schlitz001]

At one point earlier in the year around the time inter-league play started, Prince said something like, "It's like every city that we visit during a roadtrip is an audition for where I might play next year".

 

I agree that this is old news, and he didn't say that he hated his time in Milwaukee. I hope people don't get on his case for this. He has given us 6 great yaers.

[dlk9s]

I am sorry but 20 Million dollars a year with a team you grew with and Friends and a city that loves you and you turned it down.

Maybe i ticked at the Greddy players maybe just ticked that it came out now instead of the end of the Season.

If you get so upset about athletes accepting tens of millions more dollars to play for another team, perhaps pro sports just isn't your thing.

 

Don't get me wrong, I will actually be a bit sad if Prince leaves, but I can't fault a guy for moving on if a team is going to back up the truck for him.

[Eddiehitsthefoulpole]

I don't think Prince said anything that inflammatory in his interview(from what I know of the interview). We all know that we can't afford to re-sign Prince. Prince's teammates also know that we can't re-sign Prince. Prince is going to turn down $20 million from us for $25 million somewhere else. Given what happened to his Dad I can understand why he would want the most money he can get. I think that most people on the board would change employers for that kind of a raise.

[SoCalBrewfan]

Goodness, heaven forbid an athlete be honest and allude to what the rest of the world (at least the part that cares) already talks about quite openly, and that must be on his mind quite a bit. Seriously, why is it that everyone with even a peripheral knowledge of baseball can talk about the probability that he's elsewhere next year, except the one guy whose life will actually be most affected?

 

I'll be sad if and when he goes, but I'm also determined to enjoy him for the rest of this run. Now go clinch this, guys...please?

[burnzy24]

I would like the thread more if the title was this; Yuni: This is definitely my last year in Milwaukee.

[Raw Biz]

I don't think Prince said anything that inflammatory in his interview(from what I know of the interview). We all know that we can't afford to re-sign Prince. Prince's teammates also know that we can't re-sign Prince. Prince is going to turn down $20 million from us for $25 million somewhere else. Given what happened to his Dad I can understand why he would want the most money he can get. I think that most people on the board would change employers for that kind of a raise.

I think this is what gets overlooked by most people. Yeah almost everyone in the world would take the most money but when you add in the fact that Prince saw Cecil blow millions and millions of dollars, it is even more understandable.

[jazzytrav]

So if you think it was a bad thing for Prince to say this, do you regularly get excited when players and coaches give the same canned response to everything? I'm glad he said it...there's no sense sitting around acting like he's gonna be a Brewer for life. If anything, maybe this will get the clubhouse to realize that a window is closing and they better not let it shut without some hardware.

 

A "media relations" class teaches guys to say things that make me sleepy. Keep telling it like it is Prince.

[The Truth]

I not tremendously impressed with a guy who turns down $100 million over 5 years. I mean c'mon now. And I hope Fielder doesn't completely tank in the playoffs like he did in 2008

 

If it is true that the Brewers might go after Berkman in the off-season, I'm not entirely convinced that we'd be worse off. Berkman is certainly a defensive upgrade over Prince at 1B and a very very good hitter

[Thundercat32]

it's disgusting to read people bag on prince fielder now that it's apparent he's leaving. flat out it's sour grapes and it reeks of my hot ex girlfriend is moving on without me, but somehow life is gonna be better off for me.

 

i also think the we all knew this was coming sentiment is a bit hindsight. yes, if you asked me to pick will prince be back next year or not i would have said no. but i still had hope and i do find it surprising that prince is saying this is probably his last year, at this point of the negotiating. which that means he's not really open to coming back to milwaukee no matter what melvin and attanasio do. not only do i find that surprising, actually shocking, because i thought prince was at least indifferent to milwaukee it's also just bad business. there's not a huge market out there for prince this offseason. i'm not even ruling out the red sox or yankees who both would jump at the chance to let him dh for them, but i don't know if they're going to outbid each other to the tune of 8 yr 200 mil. it's about a 3-5 horse race tops and fielder just took one of those horses out of the race. no gm is going to believe he's really going to sign with milwaukee at the end of the day, so he can't use them for leverage. which in the end is good news for us, because we know where we stand and we can go out and use that money elsewhere without being held hostage by fielder's decision.

 

still, i'll be sad to see him go and i've only been a brewers fan for a season and a half. prince was probably the single most attractive part of becoming a brewers fan for me. i think it's pretty difficult not to like the guy. the only thing that isn't likeable about him is his agent.

[jjfanec]

I am going to enjoy the last month or so of Prince. I have very little bad to say about the guy because he plays hard and gets the most out of every at bat. He is a phenomenal hitter. Sure his defense is terrible but I believe he has tried to get better.

 

That said I still think saying this made no sense. For all the people saying it is refreshing he was honest I dont get it. If someone asked Braun if he liked RR and he said no I wouldnt applaud him for honesty. I would ask why one earth he would say that right now. I feel the same way about both KRod and Prince. Sure what you said was obvious but the easy answer of "I like to close but I love being a team that wins" and "There is still a lot of season left and I will worry about FA when that time comes" are what should have been said. Absolutely zero reason to say what they did and I will not applaud honesty in a situation that didnt need it. Prince has been asked the question a million times. He should have stuck with his normal answer.

 

In the end it doesnt matter though. I am not going to turn on Prince because of it. I am going to be happy he was here. And I am going to root for a team in the back half of the first round to sign him so we have 3 first round/sandwich picks next June

[dlk9s]

I not tremendously impressed with a guy who turns down $100 million over 5 years. I mean c'mon now.

Ok...so how big of a difference in money between 5/100 and whatever he gets in free agency would it take for you to be ok with Prince's decision? $1 million per year? $3 million? $5 million?

[KCBrewerfan34]

I don't think Prince will get $25 million per. Whatever team signs Prince for 8 years and 200 million will be kicking themselves halfway through that contract, of course if they DH him it will lighten the impact somewhat.

 

With that being said I feel they should do everything they can to sign Greinke. This years rotation and San Francisco's season last year shows pitching kills. BUILD the staff.

 

Hart moves to 1st. Gamel plays right and Green plays 3B. Maybe they can find a SS.

 

Oh yeah they get the picks for Prince.

 

GO BREW

[jeffy]

...he's not really open to coming back to milwaukee no matter what melvin and attanasio do.

 

 

How in the world are you reading that into his comments? If the Brewers made him the best offer, I'm sure he'd sign. If the Brewers offered him something like 8 years and $180,000 million he might sign without going to free agency. The point is the Brewers can not and should not make an offer like that. Just as CC likely would have signed had the Brewers offered him close to the years and pay that the Yankees did, but it just did not make sense for them to do so.

 

Prince was merely stating the same thing that TH did in his column today:

Six players already signed for next season...And right-hander Shaun Marcum is sure to get a big bump from his $3.95 million salary.

 

Toss in a $22 million salary for Fielder and you'd be over $80 million for eight players, making it impossible to field a club for anything near the $95 million payroll the Brewers have this season. And they're probably going to lose money at that level despite drawing 3 million fans.

 

So, it just doesn't work to keep Fielder. He knows it. Boras knows it. The Brewers know it.

http://www.jsonline.com/s...s/brewers/130043863.html

 

The reason the Brewers can not keep Fielder is because MLB and the players union have decided they prefer having huge differences in what different teams can afford to pay players to doing what would need to be done to create an equal financial playing field. This system will likely persist unless and until fans walk away from the game in sufficient numbers that it starts cutting the income of both players and owners.

[PrinceEatMeat]

I don't think Prince will get $25 million per. Whatever team signs Prince for 8 years and 200 million will be kicking themselves halfway through that contract, of course if they DH him it will lighten the impact somewhat.

 

With that being said I feel they should do everything they can to sign Greinke. This years rotation and San Francisco's season last year shows pitching kills. BUILD the staff.

 

Hart moves to 1st. Gamel plays right and Green plays 3B. Maybe they can find a SS.

 

Oh yeah they get the picks for Prince.

 

GO BREW

There's no way Hart is moving to first. If he was, why would they waste time having Gamel play 1B? It's just not logical. I do think it'd be a decent move, but I'd rather just stick with Hart in RF. Gamel has been playing 1B and Hart hasn't.

[Funketown]

Hart plays a decent RF, so I also don't like the idea of moving him to first (yet).

 

Prince probably should have just kept his mouth shut, but I think he deserves credit for being straightforward. I hope Brewers fans can realize that Prince really isn't a good long term fit for the Brewers, and it should be best for both sides to part ways.

 

I'll miss the big guy, and I desperately hope he gets a huge ovation when he returns to Milwaukee next season.

[monty57]

If the Brewers offered him something like 8 years and $180,000 million he might sign without going to free agency.

 

If the Brewers were to offer him a $180 billion contract, I agree that he should forego free agency and sign with the Brewers :-)

 

Seriously, I believe that the interview was supposed to air during TBS' playoff coverage, so Fielder answered the question which he had previously "ducked." Brian Anderson or someone else with TBS decided to "leak" this prior to the airing of the interview.

 

That said, this is about as much news as Fielder saying that he put a cup of water in the freezer and took a cup of ice out. After he declined the Brewers' 5/$100 offer, they extended Braun, Yo, Hart and Weeks, so they obviously went in a different direction. Melvin is going to have to be very careful over the next few years as to what contracts he doles out, expecially after trading away so many prospects. This is part of why I'm so gung-ho on guys like Green and Gamel playing a big part in our future... financially we need them.