Prince Fielder signs with...

[brewtank34]

BillShaikin Bill Shaikin

I'm told #[/s]Brewers invited Fielder to return for 1 year so as to get mega-deal from new #[/s]Dodgers owner next winter. Boras showed no interest.


Well, you can't say Mark A didn't try. This is all on Fielder and Boras. Wish you the best Prince. "you know"

[Schlitz001]

Fielder would be nuts to take a 1 year deal when there are likely multiple lucrative multi-year deals on the table. Nice try Mark A. I still see Fielder ending up with an AL team, despite all these National rumors.

[nate82]

Fielder would be nuts to take a 1 year deal when there are likely multiple lucrative multi-year deals on the table. Nice try Mark A. I still see Fielder ending up with an AL team, despite all these National rumors.

Baltimore was never really a serious fit for Fielder and it looks as though Fielder doesn't want to play in Seattle I can see why with the parks he would be playing in. The Rangers and the Blue Jays are the only other AL teams that would be interested in Fielder and I don't see the Blue Jays doing anything over five years for Prince. That leaves the Rangers who are currently involved with Darvish and Fielder has to wait for that to play out. Which now leaves really only one NL team unless the Dodgers somehow get new ownership in the next few weeks here who would also be interested in Fielder. To me the Nationals really are the only team here that is a fit for Fielder. I believe Fielder and Boras are waiting on the conclusion of the Darvish situation with the Rangers. If the Rangers don't get Darvish Prince will be in Texas but if the Rangers sign Darvish Fielder will be with the Nationals.

[PrinceFielderx1]

I don't want to extend Greinke and Marcum for the money that they will likely demand. Greinke hasn't been as good as advertised and Marcum I feel has bad mechanics and relies on location, because he doesn't have the velocity to get away with mistakes. With that said, a GM knows his prospects better than anybody most of the time. If DM were to go after Fielder and say we believe that we can contend beyond 2012 without Greinke and Marcum, then I will take his word for it. After all this is a GM that will trade quality prospects for quality MLB pitching, because he's proven it.

 

I trust Doug Melvin and his plan for this team, so far. If he can sign Fielder period, then good for him, and good for the organization.

Brewers without Greinke and Marcum but with Fielder = 2009 and 2010 Brewers

And plus I don't think DM has any more prospects to trade for pitching. They'll probably be able to get 1 mid-rotation pitcher, but that isn't much.

 

To fully advocate signing Fielder seems shortsighted. He's not gonna go below 100mil and the Brewers still have to pay for Braun, Gallardo, Weeks, and Hart. Not to mention that once they do sign Fielder they'll be badly handcuffed by the contract even if they trade Wolf and K-Rod. If the Brewers sign Fielder then they're possibly sacrificing the success of the team for 5+ years from now for a couple more opportunities for the World Series. Seems pretty shortsighted to me.

I don't agree with this at all. The Brewers do have prospects to trade (Peralta, Gamel, Green, Schafer etc..) Heck they could even trade Hart. Also, some of those prospects I mentioned aren't in the top 100 of prospect rankings, but that didn't stop DM from getting Greinke. I believe at mid-season the Brewers would be able to trade Jungmann and Bradly, because it would have been a year since they were drafted.

 

The Brewers would likely have an increase in revenue with the new TV contract starting in 2013, and with an increase in ticket prices. They would also save 20-25 million by not having Greinke and Marcum by letting them walk.

 

The Brewers offense would be way better than it has ever been if Fielder was added to this current team for the next 3+ seasons. As for the pitching the Brewers could always trade for more. Doug Melvin has done it before. To say this is shortsighted isn't really thinking it through in my opinion.

[narwhalattack]

So you want the Brewers to destroy the farm system even further to get 3 or so more of possible playoff appearances? Sure, they may contend for a few more years but then they are gonna plummet. They are also not gonna get an ace out of Jungmann, Peralta, etc. Probably a mid- rotation starter. They cant trade for pitching forever. They would eventually have to develop it.

[brettac1]

And they would have to pay it once they got it.

[narwhalattack]

Plus even with the new TV contract and increase in ticket prices, I doubt their payroll will increase to Yankees level. There's no way the Brewers' popularity level will reach the likes of the Yankees, Red Sox, Angels, etc. so they won't be able to hand out 150mil contracts at will. They will be financially crippled nonetheless.

[PrinceFielderx1]

So you want the Brewers to destroy the farm system even further to get 3 or so more of possible playoff appearances? Sure, they may contend for a few more years but then they are gonna plummet. They are also not gonna get an ace out of Jungmann, Peralta, etc. Probably a mid- rotation starter. They cant trade for pitching forever. They would eventually have to develop it.

The system isn't destroyed. The Brewers have 3 players in the top 100 prospect rankings, and a bunch of players who had big years last season. Also with the additional wild card team it will be easier than ever to make the playoffs. I believe that any team once in the playoffs can win the WS. So yes I would gladly trade prospects and sign Fielder to have a great chance to make the playoffs and possibly win the WS for the next 3-4 seasons.

 

With the additions of Ramirez and Fielder, Green and Gamel would be blocked. Schafer is already blocked in CF with Morgan and Gomez there. Greinke and Marcum would net us some good draft picks if we let them walk to re-stock the system. Look, I don't think Greinke and Marcum are worth the money they will likely get, and I wouldn't give it to them. The Brewers finally have a good amount of quality pitching prospects in their system that will eventually go along with their offense, or that could be traded for a proven MLB top pitcher by next off-season. Many people were saying that the Brewers didn't have the prospects to trade for Greinke, but they did it anyways. We still have Greinke and Marcum for all of 2012.

 

Also if the Brewers decide that they want to re-sign Greinke/ or Marcum and fail in extending them, then in 2013 they will be without Greinke, Marcum, and Fielder and will be forced to re-build in 1 year from now anyways. I'd go after Fielder, and let Greinke and Marcum walk.

[brewtank34]

So you want the Brewers to destroy the farm system even further to get 3 or so more of possible playoff appearances? Sure, they may contend for a few more years but then they are gonna plummet. They are also not gonna get an ace out of Jungmann, Peralta, etc. Probably a mid- rotation starter. They cant trade for pitching forever. They would eventually have to develop it.

The system isn't destroyed. The Brewers have 3 players in the top 100 prospect rankings, and a bunch of players who had big years last season. Also with the additional wild card team it will be easier than ever to make the playoffs. I believe that any team once in the playoffs can win the WS. So yes I would gladly trade prospects and sign Fielder to have a great chance to make the playoffs and possibly win the WS for the next 3-4 seasons.

 

With the additions of Ramirez and Fielder, Green and Gamel would be blocked. Schafer is already blocked in CF with Morgan and Gomez there. Greinke and Marcum would net us some good draft picks if we let them walk to re-stock the system. Look, I don't think Greinke and Marcum are worth the money they will likely get, and I wouldn't give it to them. The Brewers finally have a good amount of quality pitching prospects in their system that will eventually go along with their offense, or that could be traded for a proven MLB top pitcher by next off-season. Many people were saying that the Brewers didn't have the prospects to trade for Greinke, but they did it anyways. We still have Greinke and Marcum for all of 2012.

 

Also if the Brewers decide that they want to re-sign Greinke/ or Marcum and fail in extending them, then in 2013 they will be without Greinke, Marcum, and Fielder and will be forced to re-build in 1 year from now anyways. I'd go after Fielder, and let Greinke and Marcum walk.

So, I'm in the majority that believe there is a 0.000000000% chance Fielder is in a Brewer uniform this year, but I'll play along with this scenario. If Fielder were to sign w/the Crew, we wouldn't be able to afford extensions to either Greinke or Marcum. We wouldn't just let them walk and not get anything for them, so we'd have to trade them at the trade deadline (I'd rather trade them and get more prospects than just a couple of draft picks for them both walking). But here's the thing, we wouldn't trade them at the trade deadline because we would need them for the Playoffs because with a line-up of Weeks, Braun, Fielder, Ramirez...etc etc combined with out pitching rotation, there would be no way we miss the playoffs. So...we'd up up having Greinke and Marcum walk. This would be an Epic Fail in my mind. Let's see how Gamel does.

 

[jjfanec]

The demise of the Brewers farm system seems a little over the top. We lack bats but I really like our young arms. Peralta, Thornburg, Bradley, Jungmann, Lopez, Bucci, Scarpetta, Friers, Heckathorn and others have a chance to be a solid group of arms.

[Raw Biz]

So you want the Brewers to destroy the farm system even further to get 3 or so more of possible playoff appearances? Sure, they may contend for a few more years but then they are gonna plummet. They are also not gonna get an ace out of Jungmann, Peralta, etc. Probably a mid- rotation starter. They cant trade for pitching forever. They would eventually have to develop it.

With the additions of Ramirez and Fielder, Green and Gamel would be blocked. Schafer is already blocked in CF with Morgan and Gomez there. Greinke and Marcum would net us some good draft picks if we let them walk to re-stock the system.

The only way they would get draft picks is if they offered both a contract equal to the average of the 125 highest paid players. Greinke might not accept that but I think there's a good chance Marcum would. After everything that happened with Sabathia, Sheets, and KRod, I don't think you can automatically count on getting high draft picks.

[paul253]

Greinke might not accept that but I think there's a good chance Marcum would.

 

One year deals for starting pitchers, especially for ones who are exiting their prime years, is very risky. Depending on how Marcum performs this year, I'd be willing to take that chance.

[PrinceFielderx1]

Greinke might not accept that but I think there's a good chance Marcum would.

 

One year deals for starting pitchers, especially for ones who are exiting their prime years, is very risky. Depending on how Marcum performs this year, I'd be willing to take that chance.

If Marcum can duplicate or come close to his success in 2011, then I would also. Something else I want to point out is that Greinke is making 13.5 million in 2012 and if we let him walk that is a savings of 13.5 million in 2013. Some of his salary can go to cover any raise Marcum would likely receive, and to other players raises. My whole thing is that I wouldn't want to commit to Marcum longer term, but a 1 year deal is more attractive, depending on what he does this season of course.

[PrinceFielderx1]

Brewtank34,

 

When Braun is likely to miss 50 games due to suspension and knowing that Gamel isn't a sure thing, you'd really want to go into a season in what would likely be Greinke and Marcum's last season with the Brewers with this many big uncertainty's? The risk is high. Even higher when you look at the other teams in the division like the Reds and how they have improved.

[brewmann04]

there talk the rangers have or will met with Prince hope this gets down and we can add Tex Draft pick along with the sandwich pick.

[PrinceEatMeat]

I definitely want Prince to go to the Rangers. That would be great in my opinion. The Rangers offense would be a great force.

[brewtank34]

Brewtank34,

 

When Braun is likely to miss 50 games due to suspension and knowing that Gamel isn't a sure thing, you'd really want to go into a season in what would likely be Greinke and Marcum's last season with the Brewers with this many big uncertainty's? The risk is high. Even higher when you look at the other teams in the division like the Reds and how they have improved.

 

The only uncertainty is Gamel. Other than that, we know exactly what we have in every single one of the players on our roster. We know that Weeks, Hart, Ramirez will be our power guys when Braun comes back. We know that Braun will be an absolute stud when he comes back. We know what we have in Gomez/Morgan, Gonzalez and Lucroy. We know that our Starting Rotation is stacked. We know that our BP is stacked. I'm not sure what you mean by "this many uncertainty's"

 

Our pitching rotation will keep us in the hunt until Braun comes back. Our offense is still stacked as well. If Aoki doesn't pan out, I'm sure DM will sign a veteran OF that can hold the ground until Braun comes back.

 

We have good young pitching coming up. We have some decent position players that we can rely on in the future such as Gindl, Green, Schaffer, amongst many others that will be servicable MLB players. Do we have a Prince Fielder in our minors? Not at this time, but with the amount of offensive power that we currently have for the next 3-5 years, I'm not worried about power. We need pitching to stay relivent. DM is finally understanding this and is running this organization as such. I would not be surprised to see us extend Greinke. I would be surprised to see us extend Marcum (but hey, he was awesome until the late season breakdown...maybe another year of working out and getting his arm back to normal will help him become a dominant pitcher again).

 

Seeing that our pitching and our offense is still Playoff built, I doubt that the Crew will be out of the race come July 31st which means that in most likelyhood, either Marcum and/or Greinke will walk at the end of the year and we'll get draft picks for them. If that's what it takes for the Brewers to get into the playoffs again, I'll take it. We have a great squad and it can make some noise come October.

[craigharmann]

I definitely want Prince to go to the Rangers. That would be great in my opinion. The Rangers offense would be a great force.

Me too....then I'd definitely be making a trip or two (or twenty) up I-35 to watch some games!

[JohnBriggs12]

Brewtank34,

 

When Braun is likely to miss 50 games due to suspension and knowing that Gamel isn't a sure thing, you'd really want to go into a season in what would likely be Greinke and Marcum's last season with the Brewers with this many big uncertainty's? The risk is high. Even higher when you look at the other teams in the division like the Reds and how they have improved.

 

The only uncertainty is Gamel. Other than that, we know exactly what we have in every single one of the players on our roster. We know that Weeks, Hart, Ramirez will be our power guys when Braun comes back. We know that Braun will be an absolute stud when he comes back. We know what we have in Gomez/Morgan, Gonzalez and Lucroy. We know that our Starting Rotation is stacked. We know that our BP is stacked. I'm not sure what you mean by "this many uncertainty's"

 

Our pitching rotation will keep us in the hunt until Braun comes back. Our offense is still stacked as well. If Aoki doesn't pan out, I'm sure DM will sign a veteran OF that can hold the ground until Braun comes back.

 

We have good young pitching coming up. We have some decent position players that we can rely on in the future such as Gindl, Green, Schaffer, amongst many others that will be servicable MLB players. Do we have a Prince Fielder in our minors? Not at this time, but with the amount of offensive power that we currently have for the next 3-5 years, I'm not worried about power. We need pitching to stay relivent. DM is finally understanding this and is running this organization as such. I would not be surprised to see us extend Greinke. I would be surprised to see us extend Marcum (but hey, he was awesome until the late season breakdown...maybe another year of working out and getting his arm back to normal will help him become a dominant pitcher again).

 

Seeing that our pitching and our offense is still Playoff built, I doubt that the Crew will be out of the race come July 31st which means that in most likelyhood, either Marcum and/or Greinke will walk at the end of the year and we'll get draft picks for them. If that's what it takes for the Brewers to get into the playoffs again, I'll take it. We have a great squad and it can make some noise come October.

You assume way too much. Especially that the rotation is "stacked". Things never stay the same. Not a pitch has been thrown in spring training. Guys come up with arm troubles every spring throughout baseball. Assuming this won't happen to the Brewers is being pie in the sky. So is assuming that just because a guy pitched well the previous year, he will duplicate or better it this year. Plus this rotation wasn't as "stacked" as you think it was last year. They were 6th in starting pitching ERA in the NL. That's with a pretty solid pen that didn't allow too many inherited runners to score. Without Fielder and if Braun's out 50 games, they need to be better than 6th. I don't see it myself.

 

The clear strength of this team (and everything is on paper right now), is the back end of the bullpen. The pair of K-Rod and Axford on paper is as good as any in baseball. We have no idea how guys will perform with no Prince in the lineup. He took a lot of attention from opposing pitchers, who now can focus on other guys. We don't really know what caused Marcum's implosion last year. Was he hurt, Is he still hurt? Will Greinke continue to get 5.5 runs a game in support?

 

[brewtank34]

JB,

The loss of Fielder will definitely impact our offense. I agree with you that Prince definitely impacted how the opposing pitchers game-planned against the Brewers. However, we now have a pretty solid replacement (Aramis Ramirez) who is still pretty opposing to the opposing team's pitchers. We still have solid offense with Weeks, Hart, Lucroy, Morgan, Ramirez and even Gonzalez.

 

I think you're being a bit over-dramatic with our pitchers. 6th in the NL in ERA? C'mon man. Greinke, Yo, Marcum have been stable top end of rotation pitchers for their whole career. Wolf was agruably our best pitcher the first half of the year and remained consistent throughout. Yes, they all have their bad games, but you can't say anything that will change the fact that our pitchers kept us in almost every game last year.....and that's with Greinke missing the 5 weeks of the season.

[derflotr]

I imagine the Yankees are probably thrust right into the mix amidst Posada's retirement and the trade for Pineda.

[TooLiveBrew]

Prince will probably only sign somewhere he can actually play 1B, not DH just yet... otherwise the Yankees would be my new pick for where he winds up.

[jjfanec]

Prince will probably only sign somewhere he can actually play 1B, not DH just yet... otherwise the Yankees would be my new pick for where he winds up.

I wonder if that is still true. The market isnt huge for him. I would assume Seattle is out so it really looks like Texas and Washington. The NY market could mean huge money in salary and advertising. All athletes have pride to them so maybe 1B is a must but NY has to be intriguing. He would hit a ton of HR in that park

I just want the first round pick and all three of those team give that. So I dont care where he ends up as long as it is one of those or even Toronto

[jerichoholicninja]

Boras...I mean Prince will take the biggest contract regardless of position. He can talk all he wants about wanting to play 1st but when/if the Yankees offer him the $200 million to mostly DH he's going to take it

[princeginterhallhelms04]

Still think he will land with the Nats! My second choice would be seattle followed by Texas selfishly i want to get as man picks for him as possible so go Nats or Rangers!