but yeah, he’d be great. My vaguest understanding is Cecil and Prince’s mom had a pretty bitter marriage/divorce. And that Cecil lost money gambling or lost to bad investments that Prince felt should have gone to his mom. I do like any son that sticks up for their mother. Being a dad myself I’d like to think my boys would stand up for their mom at all times.

Cecil helped negotiate Prince’s contract with the Brewers and a portion of his signing bonus (about $200,000) went to Cecil. There were some reports that Prince thought Cecil was helping to negotiate the deal for free and didn’t realize that Cecil had kept a portion of the signing bonuse.

That same year, debt collectors reportedly showed up at Prince’s ballpark when he was in rookie ball, asking Prince where Cecil was, which was the first time Prince apparently realized his Dad had run through the family’s money. The Fielder’s divorce, which apparently was pretty bitter, occurred shortly thereafter. A Detroit News article a few years ago indicated that Prince’s mom ended up losing her house and had no medical insurance as of 2004 while Cecil ended living in “a penthouse in Atlanta.” Subsequent reports indicated that Prince is supporting his Mom financially since he made the majors.

While still in the minors Prince stopped talking about his father for some time until saying on one occasion that Cecil was “dead to me.” Cecil then did an interview in the Detroit paper saying that he was a good father and that he was the reason Prince had gotten drafted at all.

Prince appears to have remembered that remark, as he’s metioned more than once resenting the notion that he was only drafted because of his name. Prince made some not-so-nice comments about Cecil to the press as he neared 50 HRs last year and reporters realized that Prince and Cecil would become the only Father/Son combo to hit 50HRs in a single season. Prince made a specific mention of the fact that he reached 50 HR’s before his father did, and he targetted 52 as the number he wanted to hit, to best his father’s best single season HR total of 51. When asked if he’d like to win the MVP in 2007, Prince responded that it would be nice and that it would “shut him up again” because Cecil never won it. Prince also mentioned wanting to hit .300 in a season because his father never did.

Those comments appeared to be in response to comments made by Cecil earlier in the year that Prince “hadn’t grown up” and needed to “treat me like a father.” In that same interview, Cecil once again claimed he was the reason Prince had made it as far as he had. Asked to comment, Prince said they should consider the source because Cecil “isn’t really the brightest guy.”

Pretty ugly stuff, but I’m not sure I blame Prince. Hopefully they can patch things up in a few years when Prince’s salaries go up dramatically and he finally feels comfortable supporting his entire family. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Prince complained publicly about the level at which his contract was renewed last offseason, saying he deserved the 900k that Ryan Howard had gotten the year before (the Brewers gave him 600k, or thereabouts, saying that Howard got more because he won the MVP). Fielder has rejected all offers to extend his deal, which according to leaks from the Brewers, weren’t all that dissimilar from the 9 year contract Ryan Braun signed this summer. Prince is arbitration eligible and it appears unlikely that they’ll settle for anything less than the $10 million Howard won in arbitration last year. The Brewers, meanwhile, seem unlikely to offer that much given the fact that Prince’s production hasn’t matched Howard’s prior to his first year of eligibility, not to mention the curious dropoff in power to the opposite field Fielder suffered for much of this year (which looks to be the primary reason he’ll hit about 15 fewer HRs in 2008 than in 2007). In his defense, the HR drought he went through in August coincided almost exactly with Braun’s rib injury and subsequent decline in production, which made it easie for teams to pitch around Prince in my opinion.

It’s a tough situation for the Brewers. Prince has Boras for an agent and is clearly motivated to maximize his earnings. He’s an intense player, which was always spun as a positive until this year. But this season that intensity occasionally seemed like a negative, particularly when he attacked Manny Parra in the dugout after a verbal argument. Parra swung his jacket down to the bench angrily after their verbal exchange and the bottom snap of his jacket appeared to hit Fielder near his face. Fielder lost it and shoved Parra down on the bench twice before being restrained by several other players. Up until this year it wasn’t uncommon to hear team officials and even a player or two describe Prince as the heart of the team and a guy who drew other players to him in the clubhouse, but I don’t remember hearing that this year.

That said, his has been the only bat that hasn’t gone silent this September and he’s virtually single-handedly kept the Brewers in the playoff chase, as evidenced by his walkoff HR last night. Those rumors that Fielder might get dealt this offseason have been swirling for a couple of months now. It’s hard to say if it’s true, particularly since there’s at least an outside chance the GM could be fired if the team misses the playoffs, but it’s pretty obvious that the Brewers have concluded that Fielder won’t be with the Brewers beyond his first year of free agency eligibility, which likely means he’ll be dealt at some point. Some NL watchers soured on him this year, as he seemed even heavier than last season, seemed to lose some range defensively at 1st, and has put up a career high 16 errors to date. He certainly seems destined to become a DH at some point, and it may well be that the Brewers will try to deal him sooner rather than later in the hopes of getting more in exchange.