Brewers Owner Unsure What to Do With Prince Fielder

A year ago at this time the Milwaukee Brewers were wrapping up their first postseason berth in 25 years, and even though they were knocked out of the Division Series by the Phillies, expectations were raised in Milwaukee. Those expectations weren't met this season as the Brew Crew is battling just to finish .500.

So it's no surprise that the team's owner, Mark Attanasio, is disappointed with this year's results, but he's focused on the future of his club and how it can get back to the postseason. Obviously changes will need to be made in Milwaukee if the Brewers are going to contend in the NL Central next season, and that means there are some tough decisions to be made.

There's a particularly big decision to be made with first baseman Prince Fielder. Fielder has one year remaining on his two-year, $18 million deal and is eligible for one more year of arbitration in 2011. Considering that he's hit 43 home runs and driven in 137 runs this year while putting up an OPS of 1.002, he isn't going to come cheaply. So the biggest question on Attanasio's mind is that even though the Brewers have control of Prince for two more seasons, is it better to trade him now while his value is at its highest, or continue building around him.

"I don't like thinking about the Milwaukee Brewers without Prince Fielder, I'll tell you that," Attanasio said. "It's a challenge, because on the other side, if you concentrate too much on one player. . . . It's not like basketball. If LeBron James or Michael Jordan is on your team, you can dominate. Prince could not have been more of a dominant player and we're scuffling to get to .500 with the challenges we've had with starting pitching. What do you do?

"If you play that player too much you have to surround him with good enough players to win. On the other hand, players like Ryan Braun and Prince, they come along only every 10 years or so. Believe me, I think [GM Doug Melvin] thinks about that every day."

While Brewers fans may not like the idea, it really does make more sense for the Brewers to move Fielder this winter than to bring him back.

He's a big presence in the middle of their lineup, but the team has a lot more holes to fill if they want to get back to the playoffs -- holes that could be filled by trading Fielder while his value will be at it's highest.