What should the Pirates offer for Fielder?

[DocJon49]

Fielder's body type is a worry to me.  Guy has a body mass index of 33.5 based on 5' 10" height and 240 lbs in weight.  That is obese and not by just a little bit.  I know that he is young and athletic but from personal experience as he gets older his weight will become a problem unless he loses a good bit.  His ideal weight is somewhere around 172 lbs according to most health professionals.  That ideal weight does not take into account how much of it is muscle vs plain fat.  I would think that if he got down to 200 lbs and it was muscle he might be just fine.

The extra weight will do nothing for his legs.  They have to support the extra weight and all the running and stuff he does will just add extra stress to his legs.  I could see him having 5 - 6 years of pretty good ball left in him but unless he trims down in my opinion he will be done when his legs give out on him.  And if it is not his legs who knows, healthier athletes than him have had heart problems at young ages.

As much as I would love to have his bat in the Buccos lineup I would steer clear of him in his current physical condition.

Fielder is closer to 300lbs than 240.  James Harrison is probably 5'10" 240.  Try telling him he is obese.   

A big concern with Prince would be that his Dad fell off so bad when he turned 33.  Anything more than a 5 year deal for a team would be a risk.  Prince is clearly the better player, but teams will wonder if he will have a similar fate.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/f/fieldpr01.shtml

Agreed.  He's listed as 5'11" - 275 lbs., so going by the usual fudging of numbers, he's more likely 5'10" - more than 275 pounds.  He'd be a better risk for the AL, and would probably extend his career a bit if he went DH now.

That was another issue I wanted to ask about before, but I don't like tackling more than one thing at a time.  I don't follow AL, so I never saw Cecil play, but I know he was out of baseball shortly before his 35th birthday.  I was hoping someone who knew more about it could fill in the end-of-carrer arc he had.

[Possum]

My bad on Fielder's weight.  But at 270 or 300 lbs the problems that I discussed are even a bigger factor.  Guy is morbidly obese. 

[Dogknot3]

Even if Prince Fielder does go downhill in five or six years like his dad, that would be a 13-14 year career.  I would say that was a pretty successful career. 

I just think a ten year contract is a concern based on his age and the economy.  No team wants a 37 year old making over $20 million a year. 

A five year deal seems about right for him now.  And don't forget that he just made $15 million last year.  I don't blame him for trying to get seventy-five percent raise. 

[ECBucs]

I wouldn't go ten years for him either.

I also think he is going to have to be DH in a couple years at most.  Is he still a little smaller than Frank Thomas?

[zeitgeist]

My bad on Fielder's weight.  But at 270 or 300 lbs the problems that I discussed are even a bigger factor.  Guy is morbidly obese. 

What you mean to say is "He is an awesome beast". 

I suspect his performance will drop dramatically in his early 30's but he is hardly morbidly obese at this point in his career.  He carries his weight quite well from what I can tell which is why we would love to have play first-base for us, if it were at all possible.

[Bloop and a Blast]

     I would find a LH 1B that could hit 275 .354 .483 .838 and play him everyday a RH takes the bump. Oh yeah, we have that guy in Garrett Jones. I think Jones is just fine at 1B. The real key to making a platoon that results in above average production at 1B is someone stepping up to hit LHSP. I think the variables to our 2012 offense rest with Alvarez and a Jones and McGahee /Evans platoon. Evans should get a shot against LH's due to his career 295 .360 .489 .849 line against them. The Pirates don't even need to ask that 1B platoon to improve on career norms. They simply have to produce to the favorable splits match-ups they've displayed in their careers. If a true platoon can produce an.800 +/- OPS at 1B and Alvarez can establish himself at 3B, the offense will look a whole lot better than 2011.

[SammyKhalifa]

Looks like he's signing with the Tigers

"a nine-year, $214MM contract"

[TNbucs]

Looks like he's signing with the Tigers

"a nine-year, $214MM contract"

And once again, as much as we hate to admit it, Boras comes through--great deal for Fielder and a great fit.

[Born4RF]

I did want the bucs to go at Fielder but now I'm so glad we didn't.  The consolation prize is that this deal is so good and the Tigers such a perfect fit for the Flesh Prints of FieldAir that we never would have had a chance.   Now he's in a city he can root for with a contract no one could match and he has a DH slot to fall into when he gets too immobile to play 1B...   2013 would be my guess 

[CentralCABucsFan]

Looks like he's signing with the Tigers

"a nine-year, $214MM contract"

More than I think the Pirates should commit, even to an offensive force like Fielder.  It helps that he is in the AL and can DH.

As much complaining as we see about the Pirates payroll level, the impact players were again out of their reach, by a long distance, so I don't quite see where we could smartly have spent another $10 million.  I'll hold out hope that for some odd reason Edwin Jackson would choose the Pirates over all the other teams, but he certainly won't make too big a difference in wins and losses this year.

[RJReynolds]

While it would have been nice from a PR standpoint to hear that the Pirates were making an offer, the is no way on god's green earth that they could have remotely come close to this. Nor should they have. No NL team in their right mind could have gone anywhere near 9 years on that fat arse.

Here's hoping Dickerson or Bell is able to supply some power down the road.

RJR

[ECBucs]

Looks like he's signing with the Tigers

"a nine-year, $214MM contract"

More than I think the Pirates should commit, even to an offensive force like Fielder.  It helps that he is in the AL and can DH.

As much complaining as we see about the Pirates payroll level, the impact players were again out of their reach, by a long distance, so I don't quite see where we could smartly have spent another $10 million.  I'll hold out hope that for some odd reason Edwin Jackson would choose the Pirates over all the other teams, but he certainly won't make too big a difference in wins and losses this year.

it depends upon when you think you could start spending the $10 million.

Part of it could have gone to Maholm or Doumit (maybe neither a good idea).  Perhaps for Carlos Quentin, Betemit, Scutaro, Gavin Floyd, Carlos Pena, Jonathan Sanchez will (probably be as good or better than any Pirate starter in 2012) maybe Ramon Hernandez instead of Barajas.

There aren't as many options now but going into the off season with idea of a having a payroll of $55 or $60 million might have enabled NH to make better moves than he has this off season.  Instead of just replacing people leaving he might have been able to add.