A look inside Prince Fielder’s numbers

DJC has been a little harsh is evaluating Prince Fielder’s transition to the American League and the Detroit Tigers. In an effort to be a little more fair let us look deeper inside his numbers and compare them to where he was at last year in his more familiar National League settings. The first thing we should point out is we have seen other players struggle when switching leagues, sure most of the time that is pitchers but some batters have had a rough time of switching leagues. In a piece in the Detroit Free Press Fielder says he is going about his job in his own way, and that it is all just playing baseball.

Which brings us to a mere observation, every so often we see a lot of Cecil Fielder in Prince. But he is a enormous man, and he seems a littler more quiet, a little more reserved than his old man. He has a quite confidence about him, but we have seen in his past that there is an intense desire to compete and win in his belly. However, with the loss of the locker leadership guys (Victor Martinez, Carlos Guillen and even Magglio Ordonez) this feels like a team that needs a vocal locker room leader. DJC doubts that that leader will be Prince based on what we have learned about his personality.

With that being said Prince numbers through 41 games are very comparable to what he did last year. So let us debunk the first myth that playing in spacious Comerica Park will effect Prince’s home run totals over playing 82 games at Miller Park in Milwaukee. So far this year Comerica is averaging 1.096 HR’s per game and Miller Park is averaging 1.587 HR’s per game. That may seem like a wide disparity however for the entire 2011 season the two parks were far closer in HR’s allowed per game, both averaging about one pre game.

Now here is a look at Prince’s numbers from 2011 and 2012 as compiled by the Free Press:

2011 Brewers

2012 Tigers

Batting average

.280

.303

Plate Appearances

150

152

Runs

24

25

Hits

42

46

Doubles

10

7

Home Runs

9

7

RBI

31

24

Walks

15

16

Strike Outs

21

29

DJC stance is the Tigers did not bring Fielder to town to have a high batting average or on base percentage. They brought him here for RBI’s and to hit home runs. That is what they need out of their cleanup hitter, and for the most part the hitters in front of him have done there job, IE getting on base. We can see by the numbers Prince is performing essentially as he did one year ago in a different home ballpark and in a different league. That means his number one sin is not living up to expectations and that is not entirely his fault. Of course when you sign a nine year 200 million dollar plus deal, and get billed as the piece that puts a good team over the top one has to live with the high expectations. Fair or unfair Prince so far has failed to live up to what Tigers fans thought they were getting in him.

It certainly could be worse, but again expectations are high, and Fielder (along with his teammates) has so far failed to meet them.