Prince Fielder

Prince Fielder hit a solo home run in Sunday’s loss to the Yankees in New York.

Fielder’s fourth inning blast off of CC Sabathia was his only hit of the afternoon, and just his third home run of the season. He hadn’t gone deep in 20 games coming into this afternoon. He’s hitting an excellent .309/.387/.444, however, suggesting plenty more home runs should soon be on the way.

Prince Fielder went 2-for-4 with a stolen base and two RBI in Wednesday’s 4-3 defeat of the Royals.

Fielder hit a run-scoring double in the fifth inning and an RBI single in the seventh, then picked up his first steal of the season (and only the 17th of his career). He’s batting .356/.412/.533 with two dingers and eight RBI through his first 12 games of the 2012 campaign.

Prince Fielder belted two towering home runs off of Josh Beckett as the Tigers downed the Red Sox 10-0 on Saturday.

Prince went opposite field with a solo shot in the fourth inning and followed it up with a massive drive to right in the fifth. The new Detroit first baseman finished the day 2-for-3 with two runs scored and two RBI. He also had a bit of a scare in the seventh inning as he was hit in the shin by a Matt Albers fastball. Fielder did stay in the game to run and should be fine moving forward.

Prince Fielder hit his third spring homer and walked Sunday against the Mets.

Fielder hasn’t made as much noise as some of his teammates this spring, but he is hitting .283 with three homers. The homer today came off R.A. Dickey.

Prince Fielder went 3-for-3 and hit his second spring homer as the Tigers edged the Mets 7-6 in 10 innings on Wednesday.

Fielder, of course, was long gone by the end. He was removed for a pinch-runner in the fifth inning. Fielder is now 7-for-22 this spring.

Prince Fielder doubled in a run in his lone at-bat Friday against Florida Southern.

The Tigers used their most likely Opening Day lineup in this one: CF Austin Jackson, RF Brennan Boesch, 3B Miguel Cabrera, 1B Fielder, LF Delmon Young, C Alex Avila, SS Jhonny Peralta, DH Andy Dirks and 2B Ryan Raburn. It won’t always look like that: Dirks figures to sit against lefties and Raburn should face competition from Brandon Inge and Ramon Santiago. Still, it’s the primary arrangement Jim Leyland appears to favor.

Tigers manager Jim Leyland said that when Victor Martinez (knee) returns in 2013, he will bat fifth behind Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder.

If that will be the setup next season, then it stands to reason Miggy will hit third and Prince fourth this year, which was the most likely scenario. Fielder will be in line for a nice RBI total, while Cabrera’s run total will be lofty and he could also see more pitches to hit.

Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com reports that the Dodgers made a “major push” for Prince Fielder before he signed his nine-year, $214 million contract with the Tigers.

The Dodgers’ offer was for seven guaranteed years at around $160 million and included an opt-out after four seasons. He would have made around $26 million annually over the first four years of the deal and something in the low $20 million range for the final three years. It sounds like things got pretty close, as the Dodgers and Fielder even met at an “undisclosed neutral location” a few weeks ago. We may have had a very different ending here if Victor Martinez’s knee injury didn’t push the Tigers into the bidding.

Tigers signed 1B Prince Fielder to a nine-year, $214 million contract.

Fielder will be officially introduced as a member of the Tigers during a press conference on Thursday afternoon at 2 p.m. ET. The contract is the fourth-richest in baseball history and runs through 2020. Fielder will make $23 million in each of the next two seasons and $24 million per season over the final seven years of the contract. Some have questioned the logic of giving a long-term deal to someone with Fielder’s unique physique, but the 27-year-old has a .929 career OPS and has appeared in at least 157 games in each of his six full seasons in the majors. Fielder’s arrival is expected to push Miguel Cabrera back to third base, which could give the Tigers one of the worst infield defenses in recent memory, but the middle of their lineup will be positively scary.