Buhner Dot Com Est. 2000, which is like 1947 in Internet years.

25Jan/120

The Price For Prince – What If?

When the baseball world learned that Victor Martinez would (likely) miss all of 2012 with a torn ACL, fans and experts alike wondered how the Tigers would replace him. At the same time, those same people were wondering where Prince Fielder (who was still on the market and seeing his big payday options disappearing) would end up. Prince's best options seemed to be the Washington Nationals (willing to spend the money and had the need), the Texas Rangers (less cash, but offered up a team with back-to-back pennants), and the Baltimore Orioles (professional baseball team). When I retweeted Aaron Gleeman's post on HardballTalk about V-Mart's injury, my favorite Tigers mark @phenom1984 responded with this:

@MrWorkrate @aarongleeman Prince Fielder - 1yr/$40M. hehe

It was an interesting thought - something you do in a video game like OOTP and not in real life, because players want guaranteed money and an extended payday - especially Scott Boras clients - so the thought of signing Fielder to a one-year deal was unlikely. Plus, on the flipside of that, paying $40 million for one season of baseball would be - by far - the largest salary for one season of professional baseball in history, a little less than $12 million more than Roger Clemens' "play when you like" contract he signed with the Yankees in 2007.

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15Sep/110

K-Rod SHOCKINGLY unhappy with non-closing role

Pity poor Francisco "K-Rod" Rodriguez. In July, the former Mets closer was shipped to Milwaukee where he could play for a team in playoff contention while not having to worry about his paychecks bouncing as a result of a Ponzi scheme. The catch - the Brewers already had a closer in John Axford. It was believed that the Brewers implied to Rodriguez that he and Axford would share save opportunities, which sounds adorable and is nice on paper but is like two guys dating the same girl - one is always secretly rooting for the other to fail.

This hasn't been the case, as Axford has been the closer for the Brewers the entire time since Rodriguez's arrival, while K-Rod has finished a grand total of one game. One.

PURELY COINCIDENTALLY, K-Rod has a $17.5 million vesting option for next season if he finishes 55 games this season. He finished 34 with the Mets before the trade. With his one game finished so far, he needs only 20 more games finished to guarantee his $17.5 million payday next season. There are 12 games left in the Brewers regular season. Oops.

So K-Rod is pissed that he's not making $17.5 million guaranteed closing because he wants a saltwater pool has a "closer's mentality", although he's being a good sport by complaining to the media saying that "winning is the most important thing."

Milwaukee is doing the right thing here, both financially (the Mets kicked in cash as well in the deal, so K-Rod's cost to them is minimal) and as a team (Axford is truly the better option at this point, putting together a sub-1 ERA since the All-Star break), but really without the financial stuff they'd be wise to be doing the exact same thing. If I were K-Rod, I'd be pissed too, but mainly pissed at myself that I managed to put that kind of loophole in my contract. As for the bitching to the media, at least he backhandedly "said the right things" at the same time by saying that he was going to go out and help the Brewers win regardless, but his timing couldn't be any worse on the heels of Prince Fielder saying he's probably gone from Milwaukee after this season.

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