Please do not sign Fielder thread

[Nottso]

an eeling doesn't sound funny at all...sounds terrifying http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

Ehh, I was eeled once. It's really not that bad.

[logan82]

Some people pay good money to get eeled.

[sbrylski]

If the market is as tepid for Prince as it seems to be, the Brewers should offer Prince an otherwise team-friendly contract, but give him the option to opt-out after the first year.

[burnzy24]

If the market is as tepid for Prince as it seems to be, the Brewers should offer Prince an otherwise team-friendly contract, but give him the option to opt-out after the first year.

I think if that was the case Fielder would have just accepted arbitration but I guess it remains an option.

[RockCoCougars]

I think if that was the case Fielder would have just accepted arbitration but I guess it remains an option.

 

Not necessarily. The team would be taking a huge risk with this. He has a good year, he will certainly opt out. He tears his Achilles and rotator cuff on some freak play and they would be on the hook for the duration.

 

I'd give him an opt out after the second year if we are talking a four year deal. With a five year deal, I'd give him an opt out after the third. I would think that the opt out would be the way to get this done. Prince saw Pujols cash in a big way with an A.L. team at 31. He should be able to do something similar (granted on a much smaller scale) at age 30 when the Yankees/Sox want to spend money. It's looking like his timing was bad here.

[TooLiveBrew]

Can we change the title of the thread to "Cards, please do not sign Fielder"

Or just change it to something a little more neutral/positive? The negativity of the title just bugs me. How about "Prince Fielder free agency discussion thread" or something?

In fairness to the OP, the premise of the discussion Hammer intended to start here was: "Preface: I have despised Fielder for several years. Those that know me on here probably remember my venom toward him after he attacked Manny Parra in the dugout. That said, teams like Milwaukee cannot blow 20% of their budget on one player."

So while he acknowledges that some would've seen it as a grudge against Fielder, the point is about long-term payroll planning.

[AdvantageSchneider]

Does anyone know if the brewer's offer to Prince still stands? He's running out of options.

[Invader3K]

Does anyone know if the brewer's offer to Prince still stands? He's running out of options.

 

 

They haven't made any offer to him this offseason.

[brettac1]

I'm pretty sure he's not running out of options, either.

[brwrsfan]

He may not be running out persay, but some teams he was likely counting on are starting to fill 1b with other players. The Brewers would have to make moves to afford him at this point but you wonder if this drags on a few more weeks if they at least explore the option of resuming talks with him - certainly not on an 8-10 year deal but maybe he would be more open to 5 or 6 at that point. I know it's all about money for him at this point but if he winds up in say Baltimore or Toronto for like 20 mil a year, you gotta wonder if he will regret not staying in Milwaukee for the same amount.

[chadomac]

He's still probably going to get 6 years (or more) from somebody... and the Brewers aren't going to offer that.

[brettac1]

Whatever deal he signs is going to prove that the Brewers had no chance of retaining him. Hiring Scott Boras proved they had no chance of retaining him.

[AdvantageSchneider]

I'm not so sure. According to this the Mariners are not in on signing Prince.

 

http://hardballtalk.nbcsp...-is-extremely-overblown/

 

Two agents say the Mariners are claiming they only have $3-4 million left to spend on the roster this winter … According to one of those agents, Prince Fielder-to-Seattle speculation is “extremely overblown.”

 

What does that leave him with? Lukewarm interest from the Nationals and Texas?

 

I agree that when I first heard Prince signed with Boras our chances of signing him were 0.0%, but now just by process of elimination don't we have to be at 5%?

[Ennder]

Give it a couple months and he'll get his deal. It might only be 5 or 6 years but there is no way in heck he is coming back to the Brewers on a 1 year arbitration deal.

[jeffy]

I'm starting to think there is at least a small possibility that Boras overplayed his hand and Prince may end up regretting that he did not just take the 5 year $100 million offer from the Brewers.

[RockCoCougars]

Give it a couple months and he'll get his deal. It might only be 5 or 6 years but there is no way in heck he is coming back to the Brewers on a 1 year arbitration deal.

If this drags on a couple of months, I'd be shocked if Prince gets a huge deal. I agree that there is no way he will take a one year deal, but he's going to have to consider settling soon for a deal much less than he was looking for. I've got to think that this will be resolved in the next week or two, unless there is some under the table deal somewhere (Dodgers?).

[GoudaBrew]

Give it a couple months and he'll get his deal. It might only be 5 or 6 years but there is no way in heck he is coming back to the Brewers on a 1 year arbitration deal.

A couple of months? Spring training games start March 4th. It's very unusual that it's taken this long. I wonder if Boras has something on the table and is hoping things fall through with Texas and Darvish so he can get one more team in the mix to drive up the price.

[RockCoCougars]

Nats out on Prince?

 

Seriously, what is he going to do, follow his dad's footsteps to Japan?

[TooLiveBrew]

The title of the article you linked says it all -- "Nationals unlikely to sign Prince at current price". Not that they're out, but that they're not going to come close to matching the deal Pujols got. So that could mean that they're very willing to go to like $175M or even $200M, just not up around $240-250M. This 'news' screams 'public negotiation tactic' to me.

 

Obviously no one on the outside looking in ever knows for sure which teams are in or out, but who else could still be in on him? The field of potential suitors seems like some mix of: Washington, Toronto, Baltimore, Texas, & Miami. Not exactly an impressive list, but I don't think it's accurate to view Prince as out in the cold just yet.

[monty57]

Prince is a very good hitter, and the Brewers will miss him.

 

That said, Fangraphs has him ranked (from 2006-2011):

 

-the 7th best 1B (33rd "all positions") in terms of WAR

-the 5th best 1B (12th "all positions") in terms of wOBA

-the 5th best 1B (10th "all positions") in terms of wRC+

-the 5th best 1B (10th "all positions") in terms of OPS

 

...and he wants one of the biggest contracts in professional sports history. It's probably very good for baseball that GMs around the league are not biting on his "demands," or we would see a lot of 10 year / $200M+ deals going forward.

[TooLiveBrew]

Here are some quips from Gammons last Sunday; earlier in the piece he noted the market overall had been very slow & "strange":

Problem is, if indeed Toronto is paring payroll and Texas isn't going to sign Yu Darvish and Fielder, other than the relationships Scott Boras has built delivering potential stars to Washington, where is there a team with local media rights that Fielder could impact? And local media rights is what's driving the cars these days, as Albert Pujols knows.

...

Boras needs the Dodgers to have been sold last week, the Rangers to start spending its future television revenues or Nationals owner Ted Lerner to say "I have seen the future and it is Prince, Strasburg and Harper" and not worry about life in Washington without Ryan Zimmerman after 2013.

...

If Texas gets Darvish done, the Fielder watch will come into focus, especially if Washington backs down and Prince does not want to go to Seattle.

I found it interesting that he'd point out tv revenue & then specifically Texas's. If Texas wanted to add Fielder, I think they could. Short term, it's a perfect fit for both parties. Probably safe enough to sign him into his 30s if he can DH.

 

The note on the Nationals made it seem like Gammons doesn't see Prince to DC, though. He also seemed to infer that the Rangers could be in on him.

[Hate those Rodents]

Texas will sign Darvish and be out on Prince. The max Prince gets is 6/150 and I a team does that, they likely way overbid some modest offer from the runner_up.

[logan82]

Give it a couple months and he'll get his deal. It might only be 5 or 6 years but there is no way in heck he is coming back to the Brewers on a 1 year arbitration deal.

 

Of course he isn't coming back on an arbitration deal. It is past the date to accept arbitration.

[Hate those Rodents]

What do we save if Braun's suspension is upheld and what is the estimate we have to pay off KROD to get out of paying his huge salary this year? I thought the estimate was around 2-3 million in each case. So, cut KROD, supersub Gamel and put him in left the first fifty games, get Prince for 5/100. Easier said than done, but I'd use Braun's suspension money to payoff krod and have a chance at a bargain priced fielder.

[dlk9s]

Prince isn't going to find any takers, so he will ask Doug Melvin if he could perhaps return to the Brewers as an unpaid intern with the possibility of full-time employment if the team is pleased with his performance.