Now that the dust has settled and Prince Fielder and the Tigers agreed to a nine-year contract worth $214MM, I have to admit, I'm cautiously optimistic about the deal.
For probably the next 5 years the Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder, 3/4 in the batting order will be the scariest duo in baseball. Miguel Cabrera is one of the best pure hitters I have ever seen in my life and that paired up with Prince who is obviously known for the power swing has got between 38 and 50 home runs the past 5 years, but also hits for average (he's a career .282 hitter). This signing also helps out the whole line up. This will make players like Austin Jackson, Delmon Young and Johnny Peralta lives so much easier with this protection in the line up. This also pretty much makes the loss of Victor Martinez irrelevant. I believe Tigers fans would do the Prince for VMart deal any day.
I also believe after the initial 5 years of this contract, the worst player he turns into is David Ortiz and if I was a Tigers fan, I'd take that in a second.
That offense paired with a pitching staff led by Justin Verlander makes the Tigers the instant favorite for that division and maybe even the World Series.
Because everything comes back to the Red Sox in this blog, how much does the Adrian Gonzalez 7 year, 154 million dollar look like a steal? I would still take Adrian over Prince or Pujols if you ask me.
P.S. How ridiculous is little Prince's outfit? He was a Tigers, Cubs and NY Giants fan.