This off-season, Prince Fielder will be a free agent. He will get paid a lot of money by a Major League baseball team. It will not be for his physique (Google suggested search: "Prince Fielder Fat"), but for his prodigious power production (Career Slugging %: 538). With that comes big HR and RBI totals, and a big pay day. He rejected a 5 year/$100 million offer from the Brewers before this season, so he is either planning on getting more money or more years than that, and he has done nothing to make us think he will not. He currently sits third in the NL in homers, first in RBIs, fourth in BB%, third in ISO, second in OBP, fourth in slugging and fifth in wOBA. He is really, really good with the bat. Really good.
He is also, ironically, a really, bad fielder. Really bad.
The value of his bad defense is hard to quantify, but that is not the exercise we are looking to take on here.
A more abstract thought crossed my mind as I watched Mr. Fielder's Brewers destroy the Mets this weekend: Prince Fielder will be overpaid this off-season.
I know, ground breaking stuff you say. Free agents are always overpaid, you say. RBIs are overvalued in free agency you say. Offense is overvalued in free agency you say. Yes, yes, yes I say. But I believe he will be overpaid for another reason:
His Prince-ness.
His father was a major leaguer. He is a vegan. He is fat. His father named him Prince when he lived in Minnesota in the 80's. He has an awesome beard. All account are that he is a good guy. He is working on a mini-afro. He is really, really fat. He hits the ball really, really far. He is one of the few African-American stars of the game.
All of these facts bring him into the public consciousness more often, and, I would argue, into the subconsciousness of owners and GMs in the game. This will in turn make him more money than he deserves as purely Prince Fielder, ball player. I would argue that all of those facts will make Prince Fielder get paid more than if he was named or looked like Ryan Braun.
