March 29, 2005
Minor Tragic Poet
The Brewers sent down three today, including the tragic poet of MTV, Corey Hart. More importantly, however; what does Prince Fielder have to do to make a major league roster? He had a fine spring and he's hit well everywhere in the minor leagues. If you have both Overbay and Fielder clogging up first base, wouldn't it be wise to trade one for something you need? Wouldn't you love to see Fielder punching holes through the roof of Tropicana Field. Or Fielder and Pickering making Kaufmann Stadium tilt when they sit in the dugout together? Prince should be pounding balls out of a major league stadium somewhere.
That, of course, is the problem with starting your career at the offensive end of the defensive spectrum. You can play first or DH, or stay at AAA.
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Prince Fielder was OK last year, but I don't think he put up the kind of numbers where you'd have him skip a level of minor league ball and go straight to the majors just because he had a good spring. Plus, they already have a solid first baseman that you aren't paying much in Lyle Overbay. Kind of a silly idea if you ask me.
And the tone of those jokes about Tropicana and Kaufman makes it seem like you're forgetting that the Brewers are in the NL, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt on that one and assume you were thinking interleague play (even though the Brewers don't play KC this year . . .).
Actually, I was bringing up those two stadiums because I thought those were two teams that would benefit from receiving Fielder in a trade.
I heard on XM from Drew Olsen of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that the Brewers were keeping Fielder down at the AAA level for now to work on his defense. He said he's basically ready offensively, but with Lyle Overbay in there they don't need to rush PF into the majors. He and, um... two other big Brewer prospects... were all sent down for more or less the same reason. They wanted those guys to develop together and be fully ready when they came up.
Also, I seem to remember when Corey Hart the singer was around 20 years ago hearing something about him having played minor league baseball. Can anyone confirm this?
Adam
Ahh, OK Dave. Thanks for clarifying.
Adam, good point about his defense. I forgot to mention that.
Prince is 20, and is rather pedestrian on D. He'll be up as soon as he dominates AAA...which could be as early as the trading deadline this year.
