{"id":12585,"date":"2012-01-24T21:50:50","date_gmt":"2012-01-24T21:50:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=12585"},"modified":"2012-01-29T10:32:02","modified_gmt":"2012-01-29T10:32:02","slug":"fielder-and-detroit-agree-on-a-nine-year-contract-worth-214m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=12585","title":{"rendered":"Fielder and Detroit agree on a nine-year contract worth $214m"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I closed down my Twitter app for half an hour to get on with some writing on Tuesday evening. During that period news broke that free agent Prince Fielder\u00c2\u00a0has reached agreement\u00c2\u00a0with the Detroit Tigers on a nine-year contract worth $214m<\/p>\n

Like most baseball fans, my reaction was along the lines of \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcBLOODY HELL!!!\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.<\/p>\n

The full repercussions of this news, still to be officially confirmed at time of writing, will be considered over the days and weeks ahead as we look forward to Spring Training.\u00c2\u00a0 However, here are some of my initial thoughts.<\/p>\n

The money involved<\/strong><\/p>\n

We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll probably need to wait several days to get the full ins and outs of the actual contractual terms, but if we start from the position of a nine-year commitment worth $214m, that makes for a total sum of just a shade over \u00c2\u00a3137m. It would put Fielder in line to be earning \u00c2\u00a3292,870 per week, every week for the next nine years. Yes, the drinks \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and the pub in which they are served – are on Prince.<\/p>\n

Boras does it again<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fielder\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s agent, Scott Boras, has shown once again that people really shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t doubt his ability to get his clients a huge payday.\u00c2\u00a0 Despite all of the big market teams who were never likely to be in the running for Fielder\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s services, Boras still managed to secure the fourth largest deal in MLB history.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n

I was wrong, but ..!<\/strong><\/p>\n

It wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t long ago that I reviewed<\/a> what interest each of the thirty MLB teams may have had in Prince Fielder.\u00c2\u00a0 My comment on Detroit:<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Nope. Miguel Cabrera is happily entrenched as their first baseman and the Tigers won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be adding another big contract exclusively for a Designated Hitter\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fair to say I was ever-so-slightly off the mark with that assumption, although I did write that before the news of Victor Martinez\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s knee injury; a blow that clearly impacted the Tigers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 thinking.<\/p>\n

We don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t yet know for certain how the Tigers intend to play both Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder together, so it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s possible that Fielder will take over at first base (Cabrera DH-ing or maybe \u00e2\u20ac\u201c while it will not be a pretty sight \u00e2\u20ac\u201c going back to third base) which would just about allow me to claim my comment wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t completely wrong.<\/p>\n

Regardless of that, and the fielding aspect of this deal, the prospect of Cabrera and Fielder hitting back-to-back will give plenty of American League pitchers nightmares.<\/p>\n

All aboard the American League express<\/strong><\/p>\n

The American League had already taken the National League\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s top first baseman in Albert Pujols. With Prince Fielder joining the former Cardinal in making the move from the Senior circuit, the National League has really taken a hit when it comes to star power this offseason.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

All-Star selections<\/strong><\/p>\n

Picking a first baseman for the American League All-Star team has just got ridiculously difficult and it adds more weight to my argument that there shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be a separate Designated Hitter spot on the ballot.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

First basemen and Designated Hitters should be combined into one pool from which you have to make two selections.\u00c2\u00a0 If Cabrera does become the Tigers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 DH then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a slightly reduced issue, but as it stands you could well end up with David Ortiz effectively getting a free ride onto the team as one of the few full-time DH\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, while several of the best hitters in the Majors get caught in the AL first base log jam.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Injuries create opportunities<\/strong><\/p>\n

Back in 2004, Aaron Boone suffered a knee injury while playing a game of basketball, breaching his contract and opening a spot at third base that the Yankees subsequently filled by trading for Alex Rodriguez.\u00c2\u00a0 We now have another major star signing with a team following a roster gap caused by a knee injury. It seems unlikely that the Tigers would have signed Prince Fielder had Victor Martinez not recently been ruled him out for the entire 2012 season.<\/p>\n

Managers are always keen to stress that injuries to key players create opportunities for others. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s undoubtedly been the case for Rodriguez and Fielder.<\/p>\n

Six into four (or five) won’t go<\/strong><\/p>\n

The competition in the American League has just become even more intense.<\/p>\n

With the Yankees, Red Sox and the Rays fighting in the East, the Angels and Rangers battling it out in the West and the Tigers making another big leap forward, someone’s going to be very disappointed even if MLB Commissioner Bud Selig gets his way and the extra Wild Card is introduced for the 2012 season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Initial thoughts on the stunning news reported on Tuesday evening UK time that Prince Fielder is heading to Detroit<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[111,553],"class_list":["post-12585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mlb-2","tag-detroit-tigers","tag-mlb-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12585"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12598,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12585\/revisions\/12598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}