Several folks predicted Prince Fielder would have a monster season in his first season with the Texas Rangers, including yours truly, who said he would bring home some postseason hardware in the form of the AL MVP award.
A week and a half into the season, I'll stick with that prediction, but the start hasn't been too promising for the slugging first baseman who the Rangers acquired in a November trade with the Detroit Tigers for second baseman Ian Kinsler.
Fielder was hitting just .143 entering Tuesday's game in Boston and had gone hitless in the previous three games with a 3-for-28 line. Yuck. He still hasn't gone yard, but he did pick up a couple of hits on Tuesday with a double while scoring twice and driving in two runs.
Fielder is hitting a lot of groundballs, even on some of his base hits, which is somewhat concerning but it's way, way too early to freak out. The guy's track record speaks for itself. Even in his big "down year" in 2013, he hit 25 homers and drove in 106 runs while playing half of his games in the cavernous Comerica Park.
So while he hasn't flashed the prodigious power he's been showing since he was a 12-year-old hitting bombs in the old Tiger Stadium, his bat is starting to show some life, and that can only be a good thing for the Rangers.
