Prince is Patient... McGehee is Clutch

So I was checking out a breakdown of Joe Mauer following his mega-deal and found a couple interesting Brewer-related items within the article about Prince Fielder.

Now given his prodigious power and the violent nature of some of his swings you typically associate Fielder with being a fastball hitter. Power vs Power, Strength vs Strength, etc...

However, only Ryan Howard deposited more off-speed pitches (25) into the bleachers than Fielder (23), which shows just how refined his vision at the plate has become. After those two it drops all the way down to 16 for the third place tie between Mark Reynolds and Michael Cuddyer.

As a subset of that figure, Fielder also led the majors in home runs off of changeups with 10 -- one better than Miguel Cabrera and three ahead of Cuddyer, Howard and Aaron Hill.

I know it's a hot button issue in Milwaukee as to how much money and how many years to offer Fielder, but I don't see this guy regressing at the plate anytime soon. He's just a professional hitter in every sense of the word.

Is his defense average at best? Yes.

Is his weight a concern? Yep, but he's only 25. You're telling me he'll have eaten his way out of the league by the time a six- or seven-year contract has run its course? I don't buy it.

For whatever reason Fielder is lumped in with the tier of first baseman below Albert Pujols, but the reality is he should be his own tier (at least offensively). He's a much more complete hitter than Howard or Adrian Gonzalez, who can't handle southpaws. He's got more power than Teixeira, even in Yankee Stadium, or Cabrera. It should be Pujols, then Fielder, and then everyone else.

Maybe it isn't fiscally responsible for a small/mid market club like the Brewers to invest such a high percentage of payroll into Fielder, but you can't argue the impact he's had on the franchise. He's a perfect fit for Milwaukee and gives them something they lacked since the days of Robin Yount and Paul Molitor... an identity.

ONE RANDOM ITEM

The other eye opening stat from the Mauer breakdown was his work with runners in scoring position and two outs where he hit .388 in 68 PAs against a league average of .241 in the same situation. Not bad.

However, that was a full 124 points behind the leader, Casey McGehee. Amazingly, McGehee hit .512 w/ RISP and two outs in 48 plate appearances. The runner up: Hanley Ramirez at .442.