A sports blog by and for Midwest Sports Fans
The Prince formally known as a Brewer is no more – Prince Fielder is now a Detroit Tiger – this after the franchise came out of nowhere with a 9-year, $215 million contract offer.
Midwest Sports Fans has done a couple pieces in the past few days regarding the end of the Fielder sweepstakes. If you are a Milwaukee Brewers fan, you have had plenty of time to face the inevitable. [Read more...]
Well, I’m not surprised in the least that Prince Fielder didn’t return to the Brewers, and quite frankly I don’t think any Brewer fan is surprised.
Yet, although I knew it was coming and have had a long time to prepare for it, a part of me is still very sad that it’s official that Prince won’t being wearing a Milwaukee uniform in 2012.
The Detroit Tigers are reportedly close to signing Prince Fielder to a 9-year, $214 million contract. Friend of the site Ken Rosenthal has a breakdown of the deal here, which he calls a “classic Boras shocker” on Twitter.
On this episode of Call to the Bullpen, Corey and I talk about the most important happenings in baseball over the last week.
In this edition of the Call to the Bullpen, Corey and I discuss Bud Selig’s extension as Commissioner and, if he were to retire tomorrow, what his legacy would be.
We also talk Matt Garza possibly being traded, the Yankees looking at Edwin Jackson, an update on where Prince Fielder may wind up with the options dwindling, and we focus special attention on the Oakland A’s as their firesale and potential move to San Jose pick up some steam.
In the inaugural edition of MSF’s baseball podcast “Call to the Bullpen” Corey D’Souza and I look at where remaining free agents Prince Fielder and Edwin Jackson may end up, and they analyze the Carlos Zambrano trade to the Miami Marlins from the Chicago Cubs and what that could mean for each team.
In case you’re missing it, we are living in a baseball world where the following two tweets can pop up in succession, as they just did in my feed:
Do not confuse Albert Pujols with LeBron James.
Albert wound up as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals for 11 years and helped lead his team to two World Championships, the most recent being just six weeks ago.
By comparison, Prince Fielder is likely walking away from the Milwaukee Brewers after the minimum six years.
Can you name the last Brewer to win the NL MVP award?
The answer is no one.
That is because the Brew Crew has not had an MVP award winner since Robin Yount in 1989 when they were a member of the American League. They have their first NL MVP award winner this year in Ryan Braun.
It is an annual rite of passage: as soon as the World Series is over, baseball fans outside of the still-celebrating title city turn their attention to that year’s free agents. Yes, the hot stove heats up and doesn’t cool until pitchers and catchers report.
To satiate your baseball appetite, MSF baseball analyst Pat Suley teamed up with Corey D’Souza to preview the biggest names on this year’s free agent market and the teams who will be the biggest players. If you’re a baseball fan, this is a must listen.
The Milwaukee Brewers fell to the St. Louis Cardinals in the NLCS, bringing an end to easily one of the greatest seasons in franchise history. The Brewers have never won a World Series, and 2011 was looking like it would be the franchise’s best chance to win it all since 1982.
Sadly for Brewers fans, the team’s hitting and starting pitching was nowhere to be found in the NLCS, and now we have to sit back and watch the hated Cardinals play in the World Series knowing that it could have just as easily been us going toe-to-toe with the Texas Rangers.
Behold the power of cheese.
Things have been pretty good in Wisconsin in 2011. Outside of all that political crap, the sports scene has been unreal. From the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day, to the Packers’ run through the playoffs and their Super Bowl XLV win, and even Marquette and Wisconsin making it to the Sweet Sixteen, it has been a dream season for everyone in America’s Dairyland.
And then there are the Brewers.
There is a surprising name on the “Stock Up” list this week: Yuniesky Betancourt; but his recent hot streak cannot be ignored. On the flip side, the stock of Royals supposed phenom Mike Moustakas could not be much lower right now (at least for 2011 fantasy purposes).
Over the next 38 days, the National League Central Division will go a long ways toward being decided. During that time-frame, the Milwaukee Brewers and St. Louis Cardinals will each play 35 games…including 12 against each other, beginning Monday night at Miller Park. By the time the team have their 18th and final head-to-head matchup on September 7, there will be a mere three weeks remaining in the regular season.
And based upon events of the last week, the Cardinals better make sure they are still within striking distance.
My friend’s father once spent an afternoon explaining to me the Black Swan theory, and how it relates to sports. Surprisingly, it has little to do with Natalie Portman and much more to do with Roger Maris.
Maris was a decent hitter, he explained, but never a great one and certainly not the person you would peg for an all-time power-hitting season. His 61 homers in 1961 was an aberration in the same way Brady Anderson hit 50 homers in 1996 or even Barry Bonds hit 73 in 2001. Those home run totals were so out of whack that they have almost nothing to do with the player’s past or future performance.
Think of it this way: if you see a black swan swimming amidst a flock of white swans, does that mean that there are more black swans on the way? Or is he the only one of his kind?
Deep stuff.
With that brain buster in mind, I wanted to take a look at some MLB players who are having black swan seasons either heading into free agency or right after earning a big contract.
Should MLB executives pay the guys who are about to hit the open market based on how they have done in the past, or how they will do in the future, or a blend of both? And which guys are rewarding or punishing the GMs who paid them the big bucks last winter?
