$100 million over five years will not lock up Prince Fielder

Milwaukee Brewers’ Prince Fielder (28) reacts at home with teammates after hitting a walk-off home run during the 12th inning of a baseball game against the San Francisco Giants Sunday, Sept. 6, 2009, in Milwaukee. The Brewers won 2-1. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

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There are no offers on the table and no negotiations afoot -- hell, Prince Fielder isn’t even eligible for free agency until the 2011 season is complete -- but the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Gary Howard is daydreaming about the Brewers locking him up all the same, building up to this:

So I figure a sweet, five-year, $100 million offer (even you can’t afford seven, like his agent, Scott “Pay Me!” Boras, would prefer) with incentives might, just might, get ‘er done. He’s not the “I” in team, no; he’s just the T, the E, the A and the M . . . It’s just that - without any inside dope on his intentions - I feel he would take a five-year deal at $20 million per to see what he could do with the Brewers. Every great baseball player wants to be the straw. And by anyone’s standards, Prince is just that for this Crew but maybe not for another club, incentive enough to re-sign with Milwaukee.

I like the optimism, but the odds of the Scott Boras-repped Prince Fielder accepting a $100 million deal two years before he reaches the market is absurd. He’ll be 27 when he reaches free agency. The last under-30, Scott Boras free agent first baseman -- a fellow by the name of Mark Teixeira -- got $180 million. Sure, Teixeira is the better defender and may age better than the stout young man in Milwaukee, but you can bet your life on the fact that $180 million will be Fielder’s starting point.

Will he get that? Heck, I don’t know, but I think the odds of it happening are greater than the odds of him even responding to a $100 million offer at this early date.