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Projecting Prince Fielder's career

Posted by Andy
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...

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