Prince Fielder signs with Tigers - 9yrs/$214 million

[DocLuna7]

The Tigers were also two wins away from a WS without Fielder in the lineup.

So were the Rangers.

The Rangers were one stinkin strike away from the WS title.

 

 

Twice I believe.

[CheezWizHed]

Molitor leaving was a shock. At the time, the Brewers had previously kept everyone they wanted to keep. This was totally expected.

 

I was just thinking that also. Molitor leaving hurt far worse.

[Invader3K]

Yes, I agree on Molitor (as I've stated in the past). The difference is that Sal Bando didn't really make what was seen as a serious attempt to re-sign Molitor, while the Brewers apparently did try to extend Prince two or three times.

[danzig6767]

So were the Rangers.

The Rangers were one stinkin strike away from the WS title.

 

 

Twice I believe.

If i was a Rangers fan, i still don't think i'd be over that loss yet. Hell, that loss would probably haunt me until the day i died. It would be akin to the Packers losing a Super Bowl on say a 30 yard TD pass with two seconds left in the game.

[BritInWI]

Molitor leaving was a shock. At the time, the Brewers had previously kept everyone they wanted to keep.

Yes, but they had no interest in keeping him unless he took a pay cut of almost 25%, so I'm not sure how much they really wanted to keep him. They were more interested in trimming payroll at the time than staying competitive. At least The Brewers made a good faith effort to retain Prince.

 

What burned me the most about that situation was Bando's angry proclamation in his own defense that "he's just a DH", and then promptly went out and got the cheap but truly awful Kevin Reimer (who I wish had played nothing but DH - he was a poor OF the few times he was out there - for one season) and we watched Molitor be the runner up for the MVP and World Series MVP the next year and play in total for six more years at a high level, winning two silver slugger awards.

 

I still cringe when I think of what Bando did to this team - even if he was under orders for some of it.

 

Sorry to get off topic but that's still a sore spot with me...

[ilovebeer]

At first i was sad, but i am happy for Prince. I hope he does well for the Tigers.

[ilovebeer]

Its weird to see Prince in a different teams uniforms.

[jjgott]

At first i was sad, but i am happy for Prince. I hope he does well for the Tigers.

[JohnBriggs12]

Prince spent a decade in the Brewers' system and finally gets to go where he wants to. I'm not sure why anyone is unhappy or upset about it.

 

Those that are, are they also unhappy Aramis signed with the Brewers?

Are Cubs fans unhappy with A-Ram going to Milwaukee? That's something I honestly hadn't thought about before. The Cubs are clearly in rebuild mode right now, so I think it's understandable for a player who's a bit older leave for a chance to win before it's too late. Of course, fans aren't always logical about these sorts of things. Prince's situation was a bit different in that the Brewers were just two wins away from the World Series, and should be in contention again this season.

Are you kidding? Cub fans are happy Ramirez is gone. He didn't live up to his contract. Even last year when he put up numbers, he did so only long after the Cubs were out of it. He was awful in April and May. Brewer fans counting on seeing the Ramirez of 06 through 08 are going to be terribly disappointed.

 

 

[homer]

Are you kidding? Cub fans are happy Ramirez is gone. He didn't live up to his contract. Even last year when he put up numbers, he did so only long after the Cubs were out of it. He was awful in April and May. Brewer fans counting on seeing the Ramirez of 06 through 08 are going to be terribly disappointed.

But Cubs fans are delusional. I want the opposite of what they want. It's how I prosper.

[crewcrazy]

Prince spent a decade in the Brewers' system and finally gets to go where he wants to. I'm not sure why anyone is unhappy or upset about it.

 

Those that are, are they also unhappy Aramis signed with the Brewers?

Are Cubs fans unhappy with A-Ram going to Milwaukee? That's something I honestly hadn't thought about before. The Cubs are clearly in rebuild mode right now, so I think it's understandable for a player who's a bit older leave for a chance to win before it's too late. Of course, fans aren't always logical about these sorts of things. Prince's situation was a bit different in that the Brewers were just two wins away from the World Series, and should be in contention again this season.

Are you kidding? Cub fans are happy Ramirez is gone. He didn't live up to his contract. Even last year when he put up numbers, he did so only long after the Cubs were out of it. He was awful in April and May. Brewer fans counting on seeing the Ramirez of 06 through 08 are going to be terribly disappointed.

April/March - .295/.358/.400

May - .283/.333/.391

June - .296/.319/.574

July - .268/.308/.608

August - .377/.429/.575

September/October - .313/.427/.478

 

It took awhile for the power to get going, but he was far from "awful" in April and May. You're probably thinking of 2010, when he was coming off the gruesome shoulder injury in 2009 and had thumb problems.

[Spidey]

At first i was sad, but i am happy for Prince. I hope he does well for the Tigers.

Just.....Purely...Awesome! The entire thread should now be closed, with this being linked on the main page. I don't know where/who came up with this, but I am in awe. Thanks dude. you just made my offseason.

[burnzy24]

Just read an interesting comment from Corey Hart regarding Prince's leadership in the clubhouse. This was from an article on ESPN.

And while the Brewers will miss Fielder's big bat, they don't seem

overly concerned about replacing his leadership. In that respect, Corey Hart said veterans Craig Counsell, LaTroy Hawkins and Mark Kotsay will be missed more.

"It's

more of what he can do on the field for you than what he does in the

clubhouse," Hart said. "I think losing Counsell and 'Hawk' and Kotsay,

those guys are more fixtures in kind of the leadership role. Prince is

more leading by production."

 

[RobDeer 45]

Ya I don't think Prince gave too many big talks to the team or sat and gave advice to young guys on a daily basis. I think he just showed how to be a pro and always played hard. He would laugh and have fun when appropriate and he'd get angry when they needed a tough guy. I'm sure he gave advice when people asked for it. I just don't see him like those vets mentioned, where they were the types that prob pulled guys aside and tried to help them whenever they could.

[AJAY]

A few comments in response to some of the posts in this thread . . .

 

(1) I don't think anyone is faulting Prince Fielder for taking the money. I also don't think anyone is suggesting that the Brewers should have paid that kind of money. But I do think it is perfectly okay to be sad or disappointed when you have to say goodbye to someone you enjoyed seeing here. I also do think it is okay to be disappointed with the economics of baseball, especially when you don't see this kind of thing happen very often in sports like football. Packers fans never even think about losing their most important players who they love and want to keep.

 

(2) I actually do think Prince Fielder was sentimental about leaving the Brewers. He had a great time here and was treated extremely well. There were a lot of special moments in his career that took place in a Brewers uniform. I have no doubt he had some emotions about leaving and will always have feelings for this organization and the community.

 

(3) Sal Bando was specifically asked by a reporter whether the Brewers were trying to sign Paul Molitor as a thirdbaseman or a DH. The statement "He is just a DH" was in response to that specific question. It's amazing how much that has been misunderstood and taken out of context all these years.

[TooLiveBrew]

I assume that song video didn't doctor the audio at all, and if that's true, Prince actually tripped up & said it was an honor to sign with the "Brewers". I thought that was pretty wild.

[DocLuna7]

I assume that song video didn't doctor the audio at all, and if that's true, Prince actually tripped up & said it was an honor to sign with the "Brewers". I thought that was pretty wild.

I actually laughed out loud when he said this during what was an otherwise sad press conference.

[RightFieldCoder]

Yeah, that did happen. And somebody off camera from the direction of the owner cleared his throat. Prince looked over to the owner and then corrected himself.

 

It's not just the difference between the sports. Yankee fans never had to worry about enjoying Jeter because he would probably leave after six years.

[TooLiveBrew]

[quote author=jjgott wrote:

[/b]

Just saw this posted on reddit, and figured out (I think) that the original post credit should go to Brew Crew Ball.

"Terrible on D", a song in tribute to Yuni, sung to the tune of "Rolling in the Deep" (clicking on either link I posted here gets you to the video)

[BritInWI]

AJAY]A few comments in response to some of the posts in this thread . . .

 

(3) Sal Bando was specifically asked by a reporter whether the Brewers were trying to sign Paul Molitor as a thirdbaseman or a DH. The statement "He is just a DH" was in response to that specific question. It's amazing how much that has been misunderstood and taken out of context all these years.

I doubt that rather seriously.

 

1992: 108 games at DH, 48 games at 1B, no games at 3B

1991: 112 games at DH, 46 games at 1B, no games at 3B

1990: 60 games at 2B, 37 games at 1B, 4 games at DH, 2 games at 3B

 

Do you have a source for that claim? I have a hard time believing that any local journalist could have possibly not noticed the fact that Molitor hadn't been a third baseman for three years... http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/smile.gif

[Ennder]

Do you have a source for that claim? I have a hard time believing that any local journalist could have possibly not noticed the fact that Molitor hadn't been a third baseman for three years...

 

You make his point for him since you missed the entire point of his post. It wasn't Sal Bando somehow dissing Molitor for just being a DH and thus not being worth real money because he was 'just a DH and not worth anything', it was him commenting that they viewed him as mostly a DH and that is what they were projecting him as.

[BritInWI]

Do you have a source for that claim? I have a hard time believing that any local journalist could have possibly not noticed the fact that Molitor hadn't been a third baseman for three years...

 

You make his point for him since you missed the entire point of his post. It wasn't Sal Bando somehow dissing Molitor for just being a DH and thus not being worth real money because he was 'just a DH and not worth anything', it was him commenting that they viewed him as mostly a DH and that is what they were projecting him as.

No, I'm not making his point and I didn't miss anything. You missed the entire point of my post. It's not about Bando's intent when he uttered that ill-chosen phrase.

 

My point originally was to address the comparison of the departure of Molitor with that of Fielder (two completely opposite scenarios, IMO) and for my trouble I was told that I had misunderstood and taken it out of context (in a pretty condescending manner, too), and that was backed up by a reference to a line of questioning which was not reported in any broadcast I saw, ever heard of in the past nine years and just made no sense at all to me. I simply pointed out why his claim of the context made no sense to me at all, and asked for some proof that I was the one misunderstanding (seeing as he'd gone to to the extent of calling my view "amazing")...

[Ennder]

I'm willing to bet Fielder doesn't earn 2/3rds of this contract by value btw. If this were the Brewers handing him this contract I'd be happy that we were going to be in contention for a couple years but I would be miserable knowing how bad the deal is.

[AJAY]

Regarding the Sal Bando comment on Paul Molitor, I don't have a link to the story. But several years ago, it was mentioned by one of the columnists in the Milwaukee Journal who was writing an article about Bando and his time as Brewers' GM. It was just something I remember reading.

 

Sorry I don't have the original link or print copy anymore.

[RockCoCougars]

Bando made all kinds of stupid comments during the '92/'93 offseason. This is really when the Brewers started pleading poverty. When he got backlash for the Molitor move, the veiled threats regarding a possible move started.