The Week that Wasn't

Arte Moreno and his Angels didn't get left at the alter by a free agent as they have so often in the past.  When the Angels lost out on Carl Crawford last Winter they traded for the untradeable Vernon Wells.  I'm sure if Albert Pujols had returned to the Cardinals Theo Epstein would have raced to Jerry DiPoto's suite with a case of Sam Adam's Winterfest, some hot wings, and Alfonso Soriano's contract.

While the news of the past week centered around the Angels going for broke (perhaps literally) and signing Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson the other slugging free agent first sacker is still...well, free.  Prince Fielder is rumored to have the interest of the Cubs, Rangers, Blue Jays and Mariners.  The only people happier than Pujols and agent Dan Lozano after Albert's staggering deal with the Angels are Prince Fielder and agent Scott Boras.   Fielder is four years younger than Pujols and will almost certainly be gunning for a 10 year deal.  Good luck with that.  

Prince Fielder could be hurt by the track record of his equally famous and rotund father, Cecil.  The senior Fielder pretty much crapped out after his age 32 season in 1996 when he was productive enough  to break my heart with a playoff homer against Mike Mussina.  Fielder posted a .768 OPS in '97 and a .725 in '98 before calling it quits.  He was out of the big leagues at 34.  Prince is currently 27 but any contract over five of six seasons carries great risk.  Too bad the Angels aren't looking for a DH.

Yu Darvish has finally been posted by the Nippon Ham Fighters (lord i love typing that).  We likely won't know the winning bidder until sometime next week.  Given that the Blue Jays, Rangers, and Cubs are involved with both Fielder and Darvish we probably won't see the Fielder market heat up until Yu's destination has been determined.

Jimmy Rollins is still hanging out there as a free agent.  The Brewers opted to sign Alex Gonzalez to be their new shortstop.  The Cardinals spent $14 million for two years of Rafael Furcal for some odd reason.  I'll assume they lost a bet.  The Giants seems to be crying poor.  It's a foregone conclusion that Rollins returns to Philly, but his agent is the aforementioned Lozano so anything is possible.