Projecting Prince Fielder's career

Prince Fielder has been a beast over the last 3 years. He missed only 1 game in that time while posting a 155 OPS+.

Since 1901, Fielder is tied for the 35th-best OPS+ over the 3 seasons comprising Age 25, 26, & 27 (minimum 1500 plate appearances.)

What does that mean for the rest of his career? Click through for more.
Here are the top OPS+ values from the above list, just since 1960:

Rk	Player	OPS+	PA	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	Pos	Tm
1	Frank Thomas	187	1840	411	1441	314	467	97	1	119	340	.324	.453	.641	1.094	*3/D	CHW
2	Barry Bonds	178	1867	444	1502	308	452	96	13	92	333	.301	.424	.566	.990	*7/8	PIT
3	Albert Pujols	168	2013	462	1691	347	557	109	4	122	357	.329	.430	.615	1.045	*3	STL
4	Dick Allen	166	1651	392	1422	255	405	71	22	88	256	.285	.376	.551	.928	753/684	PHI
5	Jeff Bagwell	164	1627	366	1383	268	448	98	6	80	291	.324	.410	.577	.987	*3/9	HOU
6	Joey Votto	162	1911	442	1615	289	513	114	6	91	300	.318	.418	.565	.983	*3	CIN
7	Norm Cash	162	1729	428	1395	277	417	54	13	98	284	.299	.427	.567	.994	*3/97	DET
8	Mike Piazza	160	1547	367	1386	233	463	51	0	92	290	.334	.400	.570	.970	*2	LAD
9	Bobby Murcer	160	1950	459	1730	279	533	84	15	80	285	.308	.381	.513	.893	*8	NYY
10	Jim Thome	159	1800	421	1441	315	428	87	7	108	303	.297	.429	.592	1.021	*35/D	CLE
11	Frank Robinson	158	1917	455	1636	330	509	102	12	97	351	.311	.403	.566	.969	*97/835	CIN
12	Prince Fielder	156	2125	485	1738	292	498	96	4	116	344	.287	.409	.547	.956	*3/D	MIL
13	Eddie Murray	156	1729	406	1510	259	463	81	6	87	299	.307	.384	.541	.925	*3/D	BAL
14	George Brett	156	1774	399	1604	285	537	120	37	56	287	.335	.388	.560	.949	*5/36D	KCR
15	Carl Yastrzemski	156	1931	454	1667	271	508	115	9	80	273	.305	.394	.528	.922	*7/89	BOS
16	Alex Rodriguez	155	2172	485	1863	382	569	91	9	156	395	.305	.395	.615	1.011	*6/D	TEX
17	Fred McGriff	155	1980	467	1636	273	462	67	5	102	286	.282	.398	.517	.915	*3/D	TOR-SDP
18	Vladimir Guerrero	154	2021	474	1784	314	587	110	17	117	342	.329	.402	.607	1.008	*9/D	MON
19	Manny Ramirez	154	1954	447	1654	338	526	109	5	115	398	.318	.411	.599	1.010	*9/D	CLE
20	Jim Wynn	154	1982	463	1631	300	427	69	9	96	261	.262	.380	.492	.872	*8/79	HOU

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 11/9/2011.

There's Fielder at #12, tied with 3 Hall of Famers in Eddie Murray, George Brett, and Carl Yastrzemski. Murray finished with a career OPS+ of 129. Brett had 135, and Yaz had 129. It seems like a reasonable guess that Fielder will finish in that range as well.

Following his Age 27 season, Murray posted 8,362 plate appearances with a 122 OPS+. Brett had 7,294 with a 133 OPS+. Yaz had 9,384 with a 127 OPS+. With Fielder, I'm of two minds--of one hand, he's a tough SOB who has played in a ton of games. On the other hand, he's a heavy guy and seems destined to have knee or back problems eventually.

So let's just take our best guess (an average of the 3 HOFers) and suppose that he finishes his career with 8,347 additional plate appearances and a 127 OPS+. What does Fielder look like with a 127 OPS+? Well in 2008, he had a 130 OPS+, and 0.049 HR and 0.147 RBI per plate appearance. That was considered a worrisome year at the time, but it would be a great level for him to perform over the rest of his career.

If he maintains those above rates over another 8,347 plate appearances, that will result in another 409 HR and 1,227 RBI. Adding to his current totals, that would put him at 639 HR and 1,883 RBI. Were he to achieve that, he'd pass Ken Griffey Jr for 5th in homers and Mel Ott for 12th in RBI.

That's a nice thought for whichever team lands him as a free agent, but of course he's only about a third of the way there...