Talkin’ Baseball: Why don’t we have more love for Prince Fielder?

Last month I wrote a completely irrational column about how I have trouble warming up to Ryan Braun because I’m convinced that he’s going to leave us one day. Some readers and a few bloggers rightly mocked me for writing this because—as I noted in the original piece—Braun’s contract currently runs through 2015, so even if he decides to leave the Brewers, it won’t happen for several more years. And yet I still hold Braun at arm’s length because, well, I’m an idiot who won’t let himself be happy.

Strangely, I’m perfectly fine loving Prince Fielder, even though he signed only a two-year deal in the off-season, which makes me an even bigger idiot, not to mention a hypocrite and laughably inconsistent. (Though because I've pointed it out, it's acceptable.) There's a teddy-bear lovability to Fielder that Braun lacks; he has Babe Ruth’s physique and Lou Gehrig’s personality. If Braun is the cocksure “king of the school” type I’ve always loathed, Fielder is the secretly talented quiet fat kid who will one day grow up to be rich. How can you not love that kid?  When the guys are shooting the shit in the dugout, I like to imagine Fielder sitting in corner, drawing robots on his notebook cover. (Except when he's smacking around Manny Parra, which definitely needs to happen again soon.)

The problem I have with Braun is the problem most Brewers fans have with Fielder, either consciously or subconsciously. Because he hasn’t made a long-term commitment to the team—and likely never will—Fielder doesn’t get the kind of adoration Braun does. Not that Brewers fans don’t love Fielder—go to any game and you’ll see a sea of No. 28 jerseys. It’s just a different kind of love. If Braun is a long-time mate, Fielder is the person you plan on dumping before your relationship hits the six-month mark. You’ll have sex with him, but it’s not like you see yourself spending the rest of your life with this person. (I have officially taken this analogy too far.)

It’s interesting how people keep talking about how Fielder is “back” this year. Let’s review his 2008 numbers: .276 batting average, .507 slugging, 34 homeruns, 102 RBIs, and 86 runs scored. Every statistic was down from 2007, when Fielder hit .288 with a whopping .618 slugging percentage, a Brewers record 50 homers, 119 RBIs, and 109 runs. By practically any other standard, Fielder’s ’08 season was very good; his numbers were just barely below those of Braun, who hit .285 with a .553 slugging percentage, 37 homers, 106 RBIs, and 92 runs scored.

It’s not like Fielder was going to be the youngest player in MLB to hit 50 jacks for the second year in a row in ’08. And yet a lot of fans—including me—bitched about how “pouty” Fielder was all season because he wasn’t getting the money he wanted. And now that he’s getting $18 million over two years, he’s supposedly rejuvenated.

Truth be told, he has looked great this season, hitting .290 with 15 homers and 56 RBIs, and playing solid defense. Bleacher Report notes that his patience at the plate is much improved, with his swings outside the strike zone down from nearly 28 percent to just 20.1 percent, and his walk percentage up from 12.5 percent in ’08 to 18.2 percent in ’09. (He’s also looking great, standing relatively trim at the plate in what appears to be a less baggy uniform.)

Fielder has been a great player pretty much from the start of his career. But as wonderful as he is, he’s not really a star, and that (along with the contract) is why Brewers fans treat him differently than Braun. Fielder is just a baseball player, and baseball players entertain you for a few years and then go sign with a different team. Braun, on the other hand, is the new Brett Favre. (As in the old Brett Favre, the guy you once loved before he became the guy you’d like to strangle with a  pair of Wranglers.)

Fielder has Braun’s numbers, but he doesn’t have his charisma, hunger for the spotlight, and desire to parlay success in baseball into the kind of celebrity that transcends sports. (Fielder will never be offered a spot on The Bachelor.) That makes me like him even more, but it won’t make the Prince Fielder Fan Club more popular any time soon.