We need Prince Fielder as much as any team needs a single player!

[GoldGlove21]

If I were doing everything strickly off of WAR then I would say $100M, but as we see in most sports there is no metric when it comes to game changers. Leaders are born, I do not think they are developed. You either have it or you do not. Who is the Orioles true leader? I hear Wieters and Jones, but those guys do not match up to Fielder in any way. 4 years and $64M for Dunn was a risk, I know it is two years shorter, but what is two years when you are not getting production? I am not ignoring what Fielder has done in the past, not at all. His career OPS is .927 and that will likely contuinue to go up this season. His career OBP is .388, Derek Jeter who leads off for the Yankees is .383 over the course of his career.

Fielder's WAR numbers are seriously derailed at times due to his fielding numbers, but if you were to make him a DH at any point you could compensate for some of that lost WAR. I am not a huge fan of WAR, because it just looks at stats and doesn't take into account how a single player could make other better or the leadership of a given player. Did Jeter get and deserve $23M-$25M a year from the Yankees? No, but if you just looked at the stats then you would never see the real value he adds to that team, he leads. Rodriguez isn't the leader, but Fielder has that kind of offensive potential. If I were asked to list the top first baseman in the game I would be hard pressed not to put Fielder in the top-5.

I think you are foolish to ignore stats, but they can't be the entire story either. I see a fire in Adam Jones that I do not see in Nick Markakis or Matt Wieters.

[GoldGlove21]

Is anyone going to argue that what it takes to get a top of the rotation starter is less risky than the contract we would give Fielder? We need both an Ace and Middle of the Order bat, but an Ace might not hit the open market this year. That means that Fielder should be even more of a priority. I think $25M is overpaying for Fielder over, yes, but I would do it on a 6-year deal. I am not going 7/$175M on him, but I might go 7/$165M and defer some of those funds.

[GoldGlove21]

The Orioles can't have it both ways. The philosophy should have always been to develop the best talent possible and supplement it with free agents as needed. We don't want to spend a lot of pitching because it is fragile and risky. We don't want to spend on top hitters because they are too risky. Sounds to me like a team that doesn't want to spend money for the best of anything at all. That is not going to work in the AL East. Hell, we didn't even offer Mussina an extension because we didn't feel he was worth and we saw how much more the Yankees gave him!

[OrioleMagic]

Prince Fielder would be a bad investment. He is not Mark Teixeira or Adrian Gonzalez. I disagree.

[Can_of_corn]

Prince Fielder would be a bad investment. He is not Mark Teixeira or Adrian Gonzalez. I disagree.

I don't think the Tex deal is working out all that great for the Yankees. He isn't really a top echelon first baseman but he sure is getting paid like one.

[zsacks]

Prince Fielder would be a bad investment. He is not Mark Teixeira or Adrian Gonzalez. I disagree.

From a defensive standpoint he isn't but he has more power than either of them.

[OrioleMagic]

I don't think the Tex deal is working out all that great for the Yankees. He isn't really a top echelon first baseman but he sure is getting paid like one.

I agree he is overpaid. I just think he is more durable and a better return on the dollar. Just an opinion of course...

[GoldGlove21]

Adrian Gonzalez maybe right behind Pujols in terms of the best first baseman in the game. It took the Red Sox 7/$154M to extend him after giving up Anthony Rizzo, Casey Kelly and Raymond Fuentes. Kelly was the 31st ranked prospect and Rizzo was 75th by Baseball America. So the Red Sox essentially gave up their Zach Britton and a Yonder Alonso type in addition to Fuentes for a guy that they needed to turn around and extend for $22M per season. How are the Orioles going to get top players without some form of risk?

[GoldGlove21]

I agree he is overpaid. I just think he is more durable and a better return on the dollar. Just an opinion of course...

I think Tex's defense helps him a lot. If both guys were a DH Fielder would be right up there. The bottom line is that coveted players at any position are not cheap. You can sign a great player or keep running out first base "prospects" that would not be real prospects in any good system and guys like Lee who will be place holders until something better shows up. Good teams find ways to get better, mediocre teams get lucky every now and then, and teams like the Orioles lose because they do not understand how to allocate their resources.

[Birdfan21]

Might be better off sneaking in and offering Sabathia a monster deal right after he opts out of his deal with the Yankees. Thought is he wants to stay in NY but wants more money/years and will 100% opt out to get that.

[OrioleMagic]

I think Tex's defense helps him a lot. If both guys were a DH Fielder would be right up there. The bottom line is that coveted players at any position are not cheap. You can sign a great player or keep running out first base "prospects" that would not be real prospects in any good system and guys like Lee who will be place holders until something better shows up. Good teams find ways to get better, mediocre teams get lucky every now and then, and teams like the Orioles lose because they do not understand how to allocate their resources.

I just think trading Guthrie for someone like Alonso, or maybe a young KC 1B would be a better option than sinking over $140 million into Fielder. (Sure KC may not even be interested.) I don't think he changes the lineup quite as dramatically as earlier posts would lead one to believe. I think we are a young team on the rise and we need to stay patient and make smart moves. Dropping Fielder FA money would very likely hamstring the club for the foreseeable future.

[GoldGlove21]

Might be better off sneaking in and offering Sabathia a monster deal right after he opts out of his deal with the Yankees. Thought is he wants to stay in NY but wants more money/years and will 100% opt out to get that.

Sabathia will be 31 at the start of next season and will turn 32 in July of next year. You need to remember that he would be opting out of a deal that paid him $21.5M per season to get more money. He might not even opt out and if he does it could be to renegotiate with the Yankees.

[GoldGlove21]

Depends what kind of production you want I suppose. If you want a legit All Star and middle of the order bat then you go with Fielder. Alonso has shown very little power in the minors and is league average at best on first. Maybe he can play left, but then we would still need a first baseman. By trading Guthrie we would be opening another hole in an already poor rotation as well. I think we need to trade Guthrie, but then why not trade him for Alonso and let him play left and sign Fielder to play first? We are going to have to pay for pitching one way or another.

We need two quality starters right now to go with Guthrie IMO, if you trade Guthrie then you need 2-3 starters next season. If you get Alonso and a guy like Boxberger then you fill a position need at 1B/LF for the rest of the season and you get a solid pitching prospect in Boxberger. If you get Fielder then the focus can fully shift to starting pitching in free agency and you give a pitcher an awesome lineup to appreciate. This team needs its young pitching to develop and you mitigate that risk by allowing 3-5 guys to pitch for 2 slots verses 4 guys pretty much being guaranteed a roster spot.

[GoldGlove21]

As far as the finances go, we see the Orioles run out somewhat washed up guys like Lee, Guerrero, and Segui all the time. They also love the high priced relief pitching market. I can go find a laundry list of guys making $4M-$7M per year that never should have been on an Orioles roster. I know the Rays were able to develop a dynamite young pitching core and they sustain their winning through that core, but they are also one of the exceptions to the rule. They were the worse team in baseball for about a decade and drafted highly. They also spend a ton in the draft and worked the system. If the Orioles were better at any of this I would say they should go this route, but they continue to operate in the somewhere in between.

Either go all in at around $100M-$115M or operate a much lower prodict and truely build through the system. In order to operate in this mode however we will need to trade guys like Jones, Wieters and Hardy when their value is at the highest peak. We will have to take on what's left of bad contracts to gain prospects or pick.

[Hank Scorpio]

Sabathia will be 31 at the start of next season and will turn 32 in July of next year. You need to remember that he would be opting out of a deal that paid him $21.5M per season to get more money. He might not even opt out and if he does it could be to renegotiate with the Yankees.

And he's another really fat guy.