"Probably the best I can say, he’s a combination of Henry Kissinger and Frank Howard. He’s got brute strength power. He’s a diplomat in the locker room."
(Scott Boras, via Nationals Journal, 1/2/2012)
Ahem. And so, while you're sitting around wailing and gnashing teeth over a Tweet about Prince Fielder signing, enjoy the video above, when Prince Fielder tried to get into the Dodgers locker room after getting beaned by the immortal Guillermo Mota with 2 outs in the 9th inning of a 2009 Dodgers-Brewers blowout (17-4, LA). BLEEP! BLEEEEEEP! BLEEP!
That's our guy right there! Unfortunately for Nats fans, there's still no done deal, obviously. Safe to say at this point: nobody really knows what's happening, except maybe Boras. Definitely not Stan Kasten? Between the bluffing of Boras (is he waiting out Darvish and the Rangers, or isn't he? Pffft!) and Lerner's silence, your guess is as good as Prince's. "Hearing" (air quotes!) again from a person who is right more than he is wrong about this Nats stuff that the Nats want this done sooner -- end of this week; prefer not to wait until the January 18 Rangers deadline for Darvish. And if what the Rangers are saying publicly Wednesday is to be believed (via MLB Trade Rumors: not interested in Fielder!) there's good reason for Boras to want this done sooner too.
Then again, we wouldn't be surprised if a mystery team (Blue Jays?) swoops in at the last minute and gives Boras the 7 year, $175-ish million deal he might need to adjust his (and Fielder's) expectations to. Or will it be "8 by 25 or 200 million with opt outs and all kinds of bells and whistles", as Ken Rosenthal/Fox Sports guesses it could be? Again: who knows?
Meanwhile, until Boras finally caves and adjusts his expectations lower, we can almost picture Mike Rizzo standing by with Mr. Lerner's checkbook at the ready -- or one of those giant, blank, Publishers Clearing House checks -- just waiting for Prince to accept a 5ish-year deal loaded with options. Oh, and options that make sense for BOTH the club and player to go past five years. Remember how Boras screwed Lerner last year with the Werth deal? Hey, payback's a bitch. Don't underestimate the impact of Werth's 2010 season on these negotiations and the options Boras wants to extract for Fielder. Ted Lerner may not budge this time around -- and, honestly, can you blame him? -- and Boras knows he could be backed into a corner if Lerner waits him out (despite Nats wanting to do this deal sooner) and the Darvish negotiations end as expected, with Darvish signing with the Rangers. Just "guessing" here (air quotes!) that if the Nats are even considering moving past that 5-year boundary it will be on a back-loaded deal with plenty of escape hatches built in to allow everybody to grin for the cameras and paint it as a win-win.
Until Friday, or until a mystery team swoops in to give Boras good reason to keep pushing this thing, we'll just keep watching that video above on repeat and imagining it's Prince trying to bust down the door of the Phillies locker room to beat somebody down.
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Prince wants to win the same way Teixeira wanted to win. I don't see him wanting the 4th place Blue Jays or the 5th place Mariners.
I think it is between the Nationals and if Darvish doesn't sign, yes, Texas now has the money in hand to spend.
If Rizzo had the cajones, he should call the other GMs and find out if anyone is "in" on Fielder. The Nats may just be the only game in town.
Posted by: Michael L.G. | January 04, 2012 at 10:10 PM
That [beep] video was [beep] [beep] awesome!! That's exactly the [beep] attitude we [beep] need in [beep] [beep] Washington. You won't see [beep] Ryan Zimmerman beating down the [beep] door to kick [beep] Chipper Jones' skinny [beep] ass. We [beep] haven't had that [beep] [beep] attitude [beep] in Washington since Rick [beep] Mahorn and Jeff Ruland with the [beep] [beep] Bullets. Yes I said Bullets [beep] [beep] not Wizards you [beep] [beep] politically correct mother [beep] [beep]!
Posted by: Homer | January 04, 2012 at 10:16 PM
@Homer Amen, and [beep] yeah.
Posted by: The Nats Enquirer | January 04, 2012 at 10:20 PM
I guess Prince didn't sign last night that 7 year $23 million per year deal that Cheryl Nichols was hooping up. So much for sources.
I wouldn't be surprised to see Boras roll the dice and wait on Texas and whisper to Nolan Ryan (a former pitcher) that a pitcher who goes every 4 days is worth it but not a pitcher who may go every 5 days and in Japan Darvish pitched on average every 6.33 days.
Posted by: TwitterBug | January 05, 2012 at 09:47 AM
Any new news?
Posted by: NatsLink | January 05, 2012 at 05:07 PM