Prince Fielder Should Be Benched

By Charlie Portelli

The Detroit Tigers are in a desperate spot. They are down 3-2 in a best of 7 series with the Red Sox and have to travel to Boston to play in a do or die game 6; win or go home. The season is on the line and it is time for Jim Leyland and the Tigers to do absolutely everything they can do in order to win and that includes benching Prince Fielder.

Jim Leyland is a manager who tends to make decisions based on track records. For instance, if he has a proven major league hitter in his lineup that is struggling mightily at the plate over a long period of time, he will stick with that player based on his track record in the past. He is resilient enough to stay the course and withstand media and fans alike screaming and shouting both literally and figuratively for the benching of this said player. In my opinion, this is the proper way to manage and Leyland might just be the best in the game in that regard. However, this instance is different and it is time to make a change.

After Fielder went 1-4 with a weak groundball single through the box in game 5 in the ALCS he raised his postseason batting average to .211. Although that average is much lower than desired, the real problem lies elsewhere. Prince Fielder has just one extra base hit and zero RBI in the entire postseason. He has displayed no power, and no clutch hitting. He also has committed unforgivable miscues on defense as well. To put Prince's struggles into context, lets will compare his postseason production to the St. Louis Cardinal shortstop, Pete Kozma. Pete Kozma is the no. 8 hitter in the Cardinal lineup and has 9 RBI over the last two postseasons compared to Prince Fielder who has just 3 RBI in roughly the same amount of games. That is pathetic.

The major league baseball season is extremely long and players go through slumps of the worst kind throughout the dog days of summer. But unlike the regular season, the postseason is constructed into short series and in this best of 7 series it is time for Leyland to make an exception to his "stick with the track record" style of managing. The Tigers are one loss away from ending their season which was World Series or bust from the get go. There isn't time to play around anymore and the bottom line is Leyland has to field his very best lineup and Fielder is not one of the 9 best that they have right now.

The Tigers are lucky to have someone in Victor Martinez who is swinging one of the hottest bats of anyone in the entire postseason who could step into Fielders spot and produce. Jhonny Peralta would provide adequate protection behind Martinez. Also, by benching Fielder the Tigers would make improvements on defense. Victor Martinez could play first base which would open up the designated hitter spot for Peralta. This enables the Tigers to insert another left handed bat to play left field, either Andy Dirks or Don Kelly, who are both significant upgrades on defense over Peralta, who is a defensive liability.

There are two other options to consider. Moving Fielder down in the lineup in hopes that it sparks his bat like it did Austin Jacksons when he was moved from the leadoff spot to the 8th spot. Or, simply leaving Fielder as is. Jim Leyland is most likely going to stick with the track record of Prince Fielder and leave him as is and count on him to come out of it tonight and help the Tigers push this series to a decisive game 7 tomorrow. With that said, lets hope Prince spent the majority of his day off praying to the baseball gods to pull him out of this awful postseason slump.