Fielder is represented by agent Scott Boras, who is notorious for driving up the price tag on his clients, which narrows the market for elite players like Fielder, to teams with high payrolls. The Brewers are not of those teams and should not spend most of their future on a first baseman with weight concerns. I will admit that Fielder is as durable as they come, evidenced by him not missing a start in over two years; but there is concerns that Fielder may have issues with his weight as he gets older. That is not a risk the Brewers should be willing to take. Fielder's agent Boras already turned down an offer from Brewer's management that would have paid Fielder $150 million over eight years. Boras said he thinks his client is worth in the $200 million range, which would pay him more than Yankee Mark Texeira or Phillies Ryan Howard. $200 million is a serious amount of money and if the Brewers were to give Prince Fielder that much money, they would be mortgaging their future on one player, and for a small market team like the Brewers, the safe bet is to trade fielder for prospects and build from within. The Brewers desperately need young pitching and Fielder is their best bet to acquire young arms and hopefully can develop them into major league pitchers. As evidenced by the past few seasons, home runs will not get a team to the playoffs. Instead, pitching is the key and right now the Brewers have few options in that department and Fielder is a key chip in acquiring pitchers. The Brewers might not get comparable value for Fielder, but they have to take the chance because if not, it could be a long time before Milwaukee has a playoff worthy pitching staff.
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