OT: Prince Fielder Out For Season
Prince Fielder is officially done for the season with season ending neck surgery (herniated disk). I always liked Fielder and wished the best for him, despite his lackluster playoff showing in 2013.
But with the full benefit of hindsight, the Kinsler for Fielder trade looks pretty good right about now. In addition to losing what is clearly now dead weight (hah!) in Fielder, Kinsler has performed well so far both at the plate and in the field. The ripple effect of moving Miggy back to first, having a capable second baseman in a fielder's (double hah!) park, and unloading Fielder's bulky (triple hah!) contract is making Dombrowski look pretty smart right about now.
I hope Fielder recovers well and returns to form for the Rangers, unless we see them in the post-season.
Best wishes, for sure. That's a serious injury and I wouldn't wish that surgery on anyone. The thought of having my neck operated on makes me pee a little. Don't worry about Prince, though.
As he said after the Tigers lost to Boston last year:
“You have to be a man about it,” he added. “I have kids. If I’m sitting around pouting about it, how am I going to tell them to keep their chins or keep their heads up when something doesn’t go their way? It’s over.
“It isn’t really tough, man, for me [to move on]. It’s over. I have kids I have to take care of, so, for me it’s over, bro.”
Told fans may be upset to hear him shake off a disappointing loss so quickly, Fielder said: “They don’t play.”
I think he can use his own advice here.
The Fielder quote you have there seemed to aggravate the vast majority of Tigers fans, who took it to mean he did not really care. I thought (and think) it showed an amazing amount of perspective - he does not need to go home and kick the dog to prove he cares.
I hope the surgery goes well and he's able to be a productive player again. And if he's unable to play, that the injury does not otherwise negatively impact his quality of life.
Why is it perplexing? I think most fans assume that the players of their favorite teams care whether they win or not.
I whole-heartedly believe Fielder cared that the team lost, but showing apathy about the way the season ended probably took things a little too far in the other direction.
I think he could have handled it better, but it was a tough year for him personally and professionally. I can cut him some slack for that.
As I said in my previous post, I definitely wish him luck. I am assuming that he will be back healthy next year. MLB is better with players of his talent level producing the way he's capable of producing. It makes for a more exciting game, for sure.
It's perplexing to me because I don't read that quote to show apathy; I read it to show perspective. I get the sense I'm in the minority in that view. I think some folks can care whether they win or lose during a game, but have the perspective to put the game behind them. Jon Horford seemed to exemplify this approach, and I've got no problem with it.
That stated, I understand why Fielder's quote put many people off. Many of us (including me) have trouble putting a loss behind us. Until I had kids, if my team (or I) lost in a competition I would let it ruin several hours if not the rest of my day. I think the Jon Horford approach (assuming that the apparent transcendence we saw from him reflected true transcendence) is healthier, and I've tried to work toward it.
I'm with you 100% on wanting Fielder to come back healthy. He seems like a good guy, and a healthy Fielder - as you note - makes for a better American League.
I guess we'll have to disagree. Although I understand where you're coming from, I think it's actually a lack of perspective. He failed miserably at his job last year (especially late in the year). That job is what provides for his family and he totally disregards that in those quotes. There's not one expression of anguish or disappointment in there (and I believe that's the whole quote).
Like I wrote earlier, he just takes "perspective" a little too far for my taste.
You're saying he's fat right?
Well, maybe not fat but he is a tad overweight. I am always a bit amazed at the athletecism of someone carrying around as much extra weight as Fielder, and especially amazed at his general durability. The weight issue had me concerned when the Tigers signed him on to such a long contract, as the amount of torsion, etc., that much weight puts on an athlete's joints is worrisome.
Put another way, I've got no idea whether his weight contributed to the neck issue, but I think that Dombrowski did well to rid the Tigers of Fielder's bloated voluminous plump pudgy replete beefy husky flabby buxom Rubenesque excessive contract.
I never really understood how he carried so much weight on his frame even though he was a vegan. My experience is that vegans are generally on the slim side.
He really looked like a guy who loved his meat and potatoes.
There is nothing that will ever approach the Cabrera steal. He's had other very good trades and a few not so good but there is no way that trade ever gets beaten.
gets $24 mil/yr until 2020....yes, I am happy the Tigers got rid of that contract. Especially for someone that looks to hit 15-20 homers and bat .240-.260 every year
he's never hit few than 25 HRs nor hit lower than .261 in any full season. and 100 rbis 6 out of the last 7 years. that said, it was a good trade to get out of the back end of his contract.
Cecil went downhill pretty fast after he peaked. There some similiarities between the two. Prince still has some youth in him to maybe turn things around, although I don't think he'll ever be the player he was in Milwaukee though.
And Detroit is paying a large chunk of that contract. Also Kinsler is a streakly player. He's started off hot so far, but he won't hit like that all year. This injury of Fielder's isn't something that sounds like it is age related.
But DD has pretty much screwed every other GM. Dumping Fielder's salary and getting a solid player in return was just plain robbery. If DD can now dump Phil Coke (after his one good outing) for a short stop then they should rename the stadium after him.
his ceiling. A lot of people were critical of who they got but Ray looked good other than the last outing. I think he has a higher ceiling than Fister and he is younger. The Tigers still had Smyly for the rotation.
I don't know if he could have done better but I think the Tigers picked up a very good young pitcher. Dombrowski deserves the benefit of the doubt at this point and that's how I've approached this trade from the beginning.
The Renteria for Jurrjens trade was not a shining moment for Dombrowski (although it not looking quite as bad as Jurrjens has fallen off the map). Garcia for Iglesias looks like a wash at the moment, but I though Garcia was going to be special.
His worst deal has to be trading Omar Infante for the corpse of Jacque Jones. But if we're also looking at underrated moves how about trading a machete wielding closer for Placido Polanco...that turned out rather good for us.
Dude, you're on fire today...
Along with any physical problems Fielder may have had, I think there was some off field/personal issues messing with him as well. Probably best to just take the year off. A surgery may have been the perfect opportunity to do so.
in my johnny Ringo voice:
it smells like someone died
.......bye.
But, I'm glad Dombrowski made the trade to send him to the Rangers. Although he's been a very durable player over the last 4 years and not missed any games, the injury risk was getting greater and greater. I really think other than age, his weight was going to become a detriment to his career and start to result in more lost time due to injuries. Maybe he'll prove me wrong. But, his big contract made him too great of a risk for the Tigers. The Rangers should didn't need him yesterday though. I went to the game and it was like batting practice for Texas for the first 5 innings.
I had the procedure done on me that's he about to have. I had a C5-6 spinal fusion to repair a herniated disk back in 2000 thanks to a car accident many years earlier. If it's like mine he will be immediately out of pain but will lose some measure of lateral mobility ( i cant fully rotate my neck 45 degrees to the right because of the fusion) so I'm wondering how he's going to be able to stand at the plate normally.
This is a pretty serious procedure for a baseball player. Not because of the risks of the procedure itself (the dissection field is in the front of the neck so the biggest risk is nicking the vocal cord and a person losing their voice) but because of the implications of the change in his body afterwards.
Hope he turns out ok. He seemed like a pretty good dude and he's had a pretty rough 12 months that's for sure.
did he have it last year? Could that have possibly contributed to his poor performance at the end of the year? On top of all the other stuff he had going on ?
that yes, the injury started affecting him last year. Which makes you wonder who the hell in Texas performed his physical before OKing the trade?
which is truly stunning from the Rangers' standpoint with the salary they were taking on. Maybe they wanted to be rid of Kinsler that bad. Link
Texas has been criticized for not giving Fielder a physical before the trade of Kinsler was made. Detroit reportedly did not give Kinsler a physical either. He said Texas would look into its procedures but "trades aren't the only time you do physicals. In this particular case you're talking about (giving him a) cervical MRI. "That's not part of our standard physical. And you're talking about a guy who had no history of injury, no documentation of injuries, hadn't missed a game in three years. Even if we had given him a physical, a cervical MRI would not have been part of it."
They took on a guy for 7 years at $24 million a year with no physical? That's cray-cray!
The comment that they would look into there procedures and that a normal physical wouldn't have shown it anyway is terrible. For that type of money I would want everything checked out.
Kinsler's reputation in the club house in Texas was not good. The fit he through after they traded just further confirmed that.
The real reason why Fielder was acquired at all was because of VMart's season ending surgery a couple years ago. The reasoning was for the Tigers to compete they needed protection for Cabrera. With VMart proving he is fully healthy and back to his old self the value of Fielder is less. It only made sense to plug a hole at 2nd base and improve the defense. The cost is to give up part of a strength which is power hitting. My take is this trade would have been done regardless of Fieders attitude or even if he had had a significantly better year.
If Fielder had had a monster year and a good playoff run he would probably be here, assuming that he hadn't become too much of a clubhouse distraction due to his off-field issues.
Wish him the best, but I thought this trade was good when it was made and nothing so far has made me question that decision.
Prince and I are the same height but he has 100lbs on me. I can't imagine trying to get out of bed let alone walk or try to hit a moving object with a baseball bat.
lane kiffin had a pretty good quote near the end at USC - once people decide not to like you you cant do anything right. i think that was some what true of fielder's last few months here. though he was doing very little right at the time.
this sucks for him, with his personal issues it seems likely baseball would have been a good escape.
and this didnt have to happen to make the trade a win for detroit. nor does kinsler need to continue his great play. it was a win from the second it was agreed upon, it just seems to continue to look better and better.