Daily Archives: January 22, 2009

I don’t totally get this

Posted on January 22, 2009 by | 3 Comments

Posted by Steve

Apparently the Brewers have not only avoided arbitration with Prince Fielder, but signed him to a two-year $18 million deal. Personally, I don’t really understand why.

This is not an extension. Fielder is not eligible for free agency for three more seasons, so he’ll actually have one year of arbitration eligibility left after this two-year deal.

It’s not that I think $18 mil for two years is way too much for Fielder, it’s that I’d just much rather have a one year deal for $7 or $7.5 mil. The Brewers submitted a price of $6 mil while Fielder submitted a price of $8 mil. Initial reports were that they would work out a deal before reaching an arbitration hearing, which is why I figured assuming 7 or 7.5 was safe.

Generally, I’m of the opinion that buying out arbitration years is not worth it unless you are buying out years of free agency (i.e. Ryan Braun’s extension last season). This obviously doesn’t do that, so I don’t really see the point. Sure, I understand this protects the Brewers if Fielder has a repeat of 2007, but it’s also a risk if Fielder regresses even more from 2008. That isn’t to say that I expect Fielder to regress, but you have to admit it’s not out of the realm of possibility that his weight could get even more out of control and his defense could get even worse. If Fielder would have made 7 mil this season, that means the Brewers feel he’ll be worth $11 mil or more next season. If he did regress though, he would not have received 11 mil in arbitration next year. In that scenario the Brewers come out as losers.

On a semi-related note, this probably means I need to lay my Adam Dunn aspirations to rest. Signing Fielder to a two-year deal definitely indicates the Brewers are not considering trading him. I think this is a mistake because this is a rare opportunity to get an even better slugger (Dunn) at an economy-discounted rate. Signing Dunn for first base and trading Fielder would have been a great way to add pitching on the cheap without losing any production at first base.

Sigh. I definitely had higher hopes for this off-season than were apparently warranted.

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Posted in 2009 Hot Stove

Toughest loss of the off-season

Posted on January 22, 2009 by | 1 Comment

Posted by Steve

By most accounts, this has been a pretty frustrating off-season. Losing out on Sabathia was expected, but receiving just a second round pick for him was not. Jack Z left. Ben Sheets may leave, which likely would result in the Brewers not receiving a first-round pick for either of their two aces from last season.

Now Jim Powell is leaving to call games for the Braves.

It may sound strange, but for me this may be the biggest loss. Sheets leaving would probably still be more painful, but at least I’ve been mentally preparing for that. Powell leaving, on the other hand, was out of the blue. Jim is easily my favorite baseball broadcaster. He is a student of the game and was always up to snuff on the latest news. He called play-by-play perfectly. God bless Bob Uecker, but half the time it’s difficult to tell what’s going on in the game when Ueck is calling it. I’ve never had that problem when Powell was calling a game. Powell doesn’t have an annoying catchphrase or schtick like so many play-by-play announcers have; instead he knows when to get excited or when to ease off. He followed the Brewers’ minor league system and gave updates during each Brewer game. He always has interesting pre-game interviews. He even reads brewerfan.net! In summation, he’s about as good as it gets.

I can’t blame him for leaving; he’s from Atlanta and he’ll be their number one radio announcer. That doesn’t make it less disappointing though. Just like the Brewers won’t be able to adequately replace Sabathia or Sheets, they won’t be able to replace Powell. He set the bar too high.

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