Milwaukee has made litle progress in locking down 1B Prince Fielder, despite offering a reported 5 year, $100 million extension to a deal that ends after the 2011 season. Holding court yesterday before this evening’s Midsummer Classic, universally despised uber agent Scott Boras told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel’s Tom Haudricourt, that Fielder “is a rare, rare commodity.” Indeed, you don’t find many vegetarians in that part of the country.
“With any slugger, three things are always certain. One is they are coveted. Two is they are either signed or subject to being traded. The third one is that regardless of where he’s at or will be, the rarity of their performance make them dramatically impactful to the system.
“Those number of players are less than 10 in baseball, from the offensive side, and Prince is one of them.”
“Prince is a home-run hitter. He’s 70 home runs ahead of Teixeira at that point (of his career). Prince has much more power. This is how you (gauge) performance and age and production. You have to ask in the marketplace how many players can do this?”
There is a significant difference in payroll between the Yankees and Brewers, however. The Yankees are operating with a payroll of more than $200 million, while the Brewers are at $88 million or so.
Despite that sizable gap, Boras said it would be bad for business for the Brewers to part ways with Fielder.
“I think the metrics of their situation is that if they draw 2.4 million vs. 3 million, depending on competitiveness, the fact of paying Prince Fielder whatever the going rate of the market is (makes sense),” said Boras. “That’s a decision every club has to make.”
There’s not a long list of clubs that would pay Teixeira money (and one of ’em already has a first baseman named Teixeira). A revitalized David Ortiz reduces Boston’s immediate need for an upgrade at DH, though it’s hard to imagine the Angels being satisfied with Paul McAnulty or Mike Napoli for the stretch run. If Ike Davis’ progress stalls, Fielder would be an obvious Mets target after 2011, especially as Fred Wilpon can easily play the “we’re both victims of scam artists” card.