Look, I’m a Braves fan. I’m not some biased, hoarding, ego-centric Yankee with an overinflated sense of self. I’m a baseball fan and I understand how this game works. I frankly despise the way the Yankees bossed around the little guy en route to their 27 championships. All that said Prince Fielder’s biggest chance for the most money he can possibly make was to sign a one year deal with the New York Yankees. The Yankees have the money. Don’t mention the luxury tax or revenue sharing. The Yankees have the money. They also have a hole at designated hitter. Right now, the “plan” is to use that hole as a rotating half day of rest to the aging everyday Yankees. Screw That. You’re the Yankees. Go make the move that makes everyone else in baseball upset. Go make the move that makes the little guys, the Rays, Royals, Pirates, and A’s depressed. Go sign Prince Fielder.
The biggest (and frankly only) problem with Prince Fielder to the Yankees was Alex Rodriguez. Yankee fans hate the guy because he’s no longer the 11.0 WAR player he was in 2000 or the 54-homer, 154 RBI guy he was in 2007. He had a bad year last year. But, the guy had that platelet surgery this offseason and that platelet surgery has been working miracles recently. Ask Kobe. Ask Bartolo. I expect A-Rod to join the “I-went-and-had-experimental-surgery-that-may-or-may-not-be-cheating-but-look-what-I’m-doing-now” club by May. I expect he won’t really need those days off the way he did last year. Alex Rodriguez is still going to be 36 years old and need some days off. Chipper Jones was 36 and won a batting title a few years back. Let’s not expect A-Rod to go winning a batting title but let’s not treat him like some gimp incapable of walking and only seeing the field because of his $29 Million salary. He’s still Alex Rodriguez and fully capable of playing third base for 140+ games when asked.
Let’s just say for arguments sake that the Yankees wanted a tid bit of roster flexibility. They’d be imitating their smaller brother (the Rays), but we won’t mention that they’re incapable of thinking up anything original and instead focus on their ability to just outspend their competitors at what their competitors are trying to do. It’s like when they got Johnny Damon just because they knew the Red Sox wanted him so badly. Anyway, roster flexibilty. Am I the only one who thinks that sliding Mark Teixiera over to third base periodically would be fun and help them win some games? Tex last played third in 2003 and had a robust .811 fielding percentage, but that’s beside the point. He could easily slide over to third for a few games, if given the opportunity to work on it in spring training. We all know the Yankees don’t care about defense anyway as they keep putting Derek Jeter at shortstop. Pause for a moment and think about the total potential awfulness on the left side of that infield. Like I said, it’d be fun.
Back to the Prince Fielder thing and his motives. What bigger stage is there than playing in New York? Where else in the Majors would you rather hit if you were a left handed, home run hitting, slugger looking to improve your reputation and prove to people that you are, indeed, worth $200 Million. The ball flies out of the park in New York. The media circus in New York could fall in love with Prince. They could demand that the Yankees keep the guy in the stable and all of a sudden the bidding war of 2012 begins. The Dodgers would be willing to bid big with Max as part of their ownership. Now, the Yankees are forced to bid. The Nationals would still be interested. The Mariners may decide they can’t compete without a big bat. The Rangers could be bitter about losing to the Prince Fielder led Yankees and put in a monster bid. The payday would be enormous on top of the $30 Million he’d be sure to get for accepting a one year deal in the Bronx.
It all just made too much sense and here’s why:
- Gardner LF
- Granderson CF
- Alex Rodriguez 3B
- Prince Fielder DH
- Mark Teixeira 1B
- Robinson Cano 2B
- Nick Swisher RF
- Derek Jeter SS
- Russell Martin C
Add it up. The Yankees haven’t won a World Series in like 3 calender years. They have a hole in their lineup at DH. Prince exploits the media coverage he couldn’t get in Milwaukee. Prince exploits a place where he can hit homeruns and be on a title contender. The Yankees have the money.
It makes too much sense to happen. That’s why Prince signed a 9 year, $214 Million deal with the Tigers yesterday. A deal that I don’t get.
-Sean Morash
