It's one thing if a player will take 18 million a year to play in LA but requires 25 million per to play in the Northwest. When a bottom-feeder requires a "you suck" tariff on top of the standard payment a free agent would get, it can hurt too much to make it worth it. Better to get some lesser lights, improve, and not get bent over the barrel with a price hike for the stud you wanted.
Jack doesn't strike me as the kind of guy who gets bent over by anyone. I would hope that if Fielder came here it was because we ponied up what others were offering and Fielder liked the plan, the field, and the potential of the team going forward. He knows Jack. Hopefully that helps. ;-)
But our main competition would appear to be the Cubs, who are a big-city team but won just 4 more games than we did last year. If it's just about 85-vs-65 wins, then we're at a disadvantage to some teams, but not to the Cubs.
If he wants a bigger spotlight then Chicago would provide one. If Chicago can choke down 7 x 22ish when they don't have a DH spot, that is. But Prince loves baseball, doesn't appear to be a fame-chaser, and seems more at home in a place like Seattle than in Chicago. If Jack can sell him on that, and on our future ("Hey Prince, you know how we never got you a pitching staff in Milwaukee? Let me show you the cupboards here...") then I wouldn't count us out.
If we're willing to pony up the going rate, that is. Boras will never go for a discount, but he's never charged us a fee for being a media backwater, either. Of course, we weren't losing then like we have been recently...
~G
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