Brewers owner Mark Attanasio told Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that talks with Prince Fielder about a contract extension are "ongoing." Attanasio did not say whether the club had made Fielder an offer and neither did Brewers GM Doug Melvin. But the club owner said deals of this magnitude can take a while.
"When you talk about $100 million type contracts, it's nine figures," Attanasio said. "Those are complex transactions. They don't get done with a quick conversation and a handshake. Everything has to line up to make it work. There's a mutual intent on both sides to try to make it work."
The Brewers discussed an extension with agent Scott Boras last month, but no details emerged about the contract talks. Fielder is under contract for this year, when he'll earn $10.5MM and the Brewers have Fielder under team control in 2011, when the first baseman will earn a raise in his final arbitration year.
“When you talk about $100 million type contracts, it’s nine figures,” Attanasio said.
Wow Attanasion must be a true intellectual being able to reveal that $100,000,000 has nine figures. Seriousley though 5/105 with a pair of vesting options seems very fair to me.
The brewers would be dumb to not get something for the year (2011) thatthey own Prince’s rights for. I assume with a prototypical year for him would net him about 14 million next year. Therefore, if they are giving him 5 years and 105 million they are paying him 91 million for the last 4 years of the deal (nearly 23 million per). that seems a little steep to me for a guy who absolutely kills a baseball, but seems to be below average in other areas.
Now, i am not saying:
-he’s not worth a 20 million a year
-he’s a terrible baseball player
-i wouldn’t want him on my team
I am just saying that they are a mid market team and they need to be smart with the assets that they have if they would like to stay competitive. If they (and they do) own a guys rights at a reasonable rate (based on his production) they need to either let him play that year out and/or work out an extension around that year of the players rights.
If Prince’s representatives came to me with a proposal of 5 years 105; i would counter with 6 years 115 and we tear up next years rights.
This would:
-allow you to retain the player for another year
-get something for your asset
-decrease the average annual value of the contract from 21 mill per to just over 19 mill.
He’s as good of a player as Teixeira if you believe in WAR (which does take into account fielding):
Teixeira / Fielder
2006: 3.1 / 1.2 (rookie season)
2007: 3.9 / 5.1
2008: 6.8 / 2.7
2009: 5.2 / 6.8
If Teixeira can get $22m+ I don’t see why Fielder shouldn’t also. I think the big difference will be in the contract length – not annual dollars.
The Brewers are in a great position right now. They can easily tack on another $10m+ annually to keep Fielder and still maintain a payroll that is reasonable.
HE IS THE PROTOTYPE!