Dodgers made offer to Fielder

I guess Mike Petriello of MSTI feels the same way as I do. I was happy that we can finally move on from the Prince Fielder story, but then this broke today over the inter-webs. Jon Heyman reports that the Dodgers did make an offer to Prince Fielder. Apparently the Dodgers offer was for seven years and about 160 million, which is well short of the 10 year 214 million dollar contract he got from Detroit. What does this mean?……

It means that it’s not the Dodgers fault. We can’t blame the front office for this. Despite the Dodgers still technically in bankruptcy, and being in the process of being sold. I’m surprised, but I guess the Dodgers offered Fielder an opt out clause after four seasons. If Fielder had accepted the Dodgers offer, he would have made 26 million over the first four seasons and then 20+ million dollars over the last three years of the contract.

What can you do? Nothing. The Dodgers did in fact make a reasonable offer to Prince Fielder, and he turned it down. Obviously more money played a big part in his decision and the possibility of playing at DH to extend his career. This brings up another argument trending over the inter-webs. Two of the games biggest sluggers have jumped ship from the National League over to the American League. I’ve been reading a lot of people are upset about this, and want to revisit the idea of adding the DH in the National League argument again. My opinion on that is no! I like things the way they are. Besides the National League would never go for it. Since a change that big would require approval from all 30 MLB owners, because it’s not part of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. It’s not gonna happen. Besides,

The schedules aren’t really changing much in 2013, teams will still only play 15-18 inter-league games. The rules should remain the same, DH in AL parks and no DH in NL parks. Simple. Also consider American League rosters, they are built very differently than National League rosters. While you may think it is a distinct disadvantage for an American League team to play without the DH, think again. Since rosters are constructed differently, it can be easier for an AL team to take a weak bat out of their lineup, then for an NL team to insert a 30+ homer slugger from their bench. NL rosters are not built with natural DH type hitters on their benches. Plus we’re only talking about a handful of games right? No need to change the entire landscape of the game because a couple of sluggers want to play into their early 40’s. Besides the National League has better pitchers anyways……right guys?

Anyways, the Dodgers tried to sign Fielder, they met with his people, and they made him an offer. Fielder simply chose to accept a different offer, as he is free to do. Perhaps Loney will surprise us with a productive year? We have a lot more pressing things to be complaining about. Sure we can gripe all we want about not having Fielder, but what good does that do us?