Prince lands in Detroit

Pujols has a better bat than A-Rod ever has, and relies on his mobility much less (when A-Rod signed his first deal he was a guy who added 5-10 runs per year with the glove at the most difficult position on the diamond). Yes, A-Rod’s second contract was terrible. 10 year deals pretty much universally are. But Pujols’ deal is paying him $35 million less at a time when salaries are significantly higher across the board.

Nobody’s saying Pujols’ contract is good. But specifically between Pujols and Fielder, I think the point that’s getting lost is that Pujols has been a consistently excellent bat. Fielder’s bat has shown up in a big way in 3 of his 6 full seasons, (though again, he’s never logged a single season that’s particularly close to Pujols’ career average), and it’s been somewhat middling in the other 3 for a bat-first guy who’s supposed to be a star.

Both players will decline over the course of these deals. But even pre-decline, there’s a good chance Fielder will log a few pedestrian seasons that will be inferior to what a declining Pujols is capable of. Even if Fielder staves off his physical collapse for a few years after we see a pronounced decline from Pujols, there’s a good chance that a declining Pujols will still be more productive.

Again, the point isn’t that the Pujols contract is good whereas the Fielder contract is bad. They’re both going to suck at the back end. The point is that Pujols is a consistently historically great hitter, whereas Fielder has had an up and down career.

If I’m putting nearly a quarter of a billion dollar bet down, I’m taking the high performer and betting he can hold his productivity into his mid-30s over the 27 year old pushing 300 pounds whose career so far has 3 years of very good offensive performance and 3 years where he’s more in line with the Paul Konerkos and Carlos Lees as a good but not elite hitter.

Just asking.

He struck out at a higher rate, but MV hit .297 .310 .300 .326 .315 .337 over a six year stretch. That’s a .315 hitter in his prime.

So he puts up 30-35 homers and 400 obp for 6 or 7 years and has 2 or 3 above avg to avg years where he’s still making 24 mil/year?

Please go back and look at Fielder’s performance record. Even his biggest fans can’t claim he’s been a consistently even performer. His lines in even years are only slightly above average given that he’s a bad defensive 1B.