Back in the mid 2000s Prince Fielder, along with Albert Pujols and Ryan Howard, sat atop the first base positional rankings. Fielder was a consistent first round fantasy pick who crushed homers, got on base, and hit for a surprisingly high batting average. He broke out in 2007, just his second full MLB season, with a whopping 50 home runs. However, his best year came in 2009 when he hit 46 bombs with 141 RBIs and a .299/.412/.602 triple slash line. During his time with the Brewers Fielder combined with Ryan Braun to form arguably the most dangerous 3-4 punch in baseball. Additionally, and perhaps more impressively, the two had the best run scoring celebration in the game.
For the entirety of Fielder's prime he was an incredibly durable player for such a big dude. In an eight year stretch from 2006 through 2013 he played in at least 157 games every year, which included a five year stretch where he missed just one game. He started to break down in 2014 following an off-season trade from the Tigers to the Rangers. The slugger was dealing with neck pain that caused him to miss 120 games that year. He bounced back in 2015 and played 158 games before hanging up the spikes this past summer. Since Fielder technically didn't retire he is still owed the full $96 million left on his contract through 2020. It's a shame baseball lost such a great player too early due to injury, but the above video reminds us how fun and underrated of an athlete Fielder was during his hey day.
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