Kuzul

After a tumultuous offseason, Ryan Braun is shutting up his critics so far in 2012.

In early October, Braun tested positive for a banned substance. He appealed the findings and was eventually exonerated due to a chain of custody issue. Because of this, the majority of fans believe that Braun got off on a technicality and have labeled him a cheater.

Many thought that the hatred from the fans during road games would distract Braun and his level of play would decrease. Critics of Braun also pointed out that, with Prince Fielder’s departure, teams would pitch around Braun more often, and he wouldn’t see as many good pitches as he did with Fielder behind him.

Braun claims that he tunes out opposing fans and doesn’t let it affect his play. He must be telling the truth.

For the season, Braun is hitting .357 with one home run and four runs batted in. In four games on the road, Braun is hitting .375 with three RBI. This includes three games at Wrigley Field, where Cubs fans loudly booed him every time he stepped to the plate. If Braun doesn’t let the wild fans in Chicago faze him, I don’t see what will.

Aramis Ramirez is no Prince Fielder, and Ramirez will be the first to admit that. Since Ramirez is no Fielder, many people thought Braun would struggle without someone like Prince behind him. Although Ramirez is struggling mightily, batting .111, Braun has still been able to deliver. It doesn’t seem to matter who’s hitting behind Braun, because he is just that talented. When Ramirez starts hitting like he has his whole career, the Brewers will be extremely dangerous.

Say what you want about Ryan Braun. He may very well be a cheater who got off on a technicality. Or, he could be telling the truth. Personally, I’d rather believe that Braun is clean and has done things in the most professional manner. It’s better for baseball if people believe in him.

We may never know the absolute truth, but what we do know is that not many things affect Braun, as he’s proving. Braun is a once-in-a-lifetime player, and he will contend for the NL MVP once again.

If Braun continues to perform in MVP style in 2012, there will still be critics, but not as many.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Technically, I may be a little late with these “preseason” predictions because the regular season officially started early Wednesday morning in Japan…but honestly who watched the games in Japan anyways?

This past offseason has been one for the ages as we saw names like Albert Pujols, Prince Fielder, and Jose Reyes all switching teams. This regular season shapes up to be even more exciting and interesting, especially with the addition of a second Wild Card. Division titles now mean even more, and there is a chance that we could see someone completely unexpected make the playoffs.

How will everything shape up after October? Here is my opinion.

Begin Slideshow

The Detroit Tigers will be the best team in baseball in 2012, so if you’re looking for fantasy baseball sleepers, they are probably a good roster to check out.

Superstars like Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder are given fantasy studs, but they aren’t the only players on this roster that put up big numbers.

Catcher Alex Avila had a breakout year last season with a .295 batting average, 19 home runs, 82 RBI and .389 OBP, so he’s going to be a fantasy favorite.

And then there are the pitchers. With Justin Verlander, Doug Fister and Jose Valverde being the big-name arms, the Tigers pitching staff is obviously jam packed with must-have arms.

Who will be the sleepers on this year’s team, though?

Once you get to the later rounds of your draft, you will need to have player or two that can produce big numbers at a good value.

I’d keep an eye on these two Tigers for the sleeper pick role:

Brennan Boesch:

Do you remember when Boesch had that exceptional start to his rookie season and absolutely looked like a stud?

This kid’s got one of the nicest left-handed swings you’ll ever see in the MLB, and he’s full of raw potential and talent. The problem with Boesch is his consistency, and he missed the playoffs last year with a thumb injury.

There have got to be questions about how he’ll bounce back, but I’m confident in the young left-hander. He can only get better with both Cabrera and Fielder in the lineup, and he’s going to get better pitches to look at.

Expect a big year out of Boesch.

Austin Jackson:

Jackson ran into somewhat of a sophomore slump last season, only batting .249 with 10 homers, 45 RBI and a .317 OBP.

He definitely had his struggles from the plate, but some of his slide may have come from the exceptional rookie season he had and the expectations that were placed on him.

He doesn’t need to be the team’s star anymore, he just needs to play his role, continue to dominate the outfield and get on base.

Without that pressure, I expect to see a free-swinging and very efficient player this summer.

He’s the perfect fantasy sleeper candidate.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Somewhere, surely, there was a boy last summer with a baseball glove dangling from the handlebar of his bicycle, on his way to a hastily put together, loosely organized version of our national pastime.

Somewhere a gaggle of fellow boys—friends, acquaintances and even strangers—found an empty diamond and quickly picked teams and went at it under the mid-day sun, and into dusk.

Someone brought a bat, someone brought a ball, right field was out and depending on the rules established, the game was “pitcher’s hand” or “pitcher’s mound.”

The games were announced that way, like they do with poker as the dealer shuffles his cards.

“OK, gentleman. The game is Texas Hold ‘Em…”

Perhaps a foul ball on strike three was a strikeout. An empty potato chip bag, held down with a brick, might have been one of the bases.

They played for hours, until the light of day abandoned them, leaving the boys alone on the pebble-filled diamond, giving each other assurances that the interrupted game WILL continue.

This was, of course, in addition to the “real” games that were played under the auspices of Little League—those matches on a Tuesday or Thursday evening, played out before parents on lawn chairs and interested passers by who parked their bikes or wandered over from their nightly walk to take in an inning or two—or more.

Surely this must go on, somewhere in America.

I still see the occasional Little League drama play out as I drive by a local ball field, but I sure am not seeing the kid on his bicycle with the glove on the handlebar.

Tell me that still happens. Lie to me, if necessary.

Baseball season is coming. The boys are down in Florida and Arizona, working out winter’s kinks and engaging in a very grown-up, very business-sheathed version of the neighborhood pickup game.

But you wouldn’t know that it’s all business. You also wouldn’t know how high the stakes are if you look at the images being uploaded from spring training.

Grown millionaires, giggling and rough housing with one another. Smiles from ear to ear as the millionaires take batting practice, whooping and hollering. Sheer joy of the game exuding from their 6’2”, 200-pound bodies.

Prince Fielder, the newest multi-millionaire Tiger, has been positively a darling so far in his new digs in Florida. Fielder signs autographs every day, until writer’s cramp sets in. Then he shakes it off and signs some more. His has one of those ear-to-ear grins.

And it’s not just that he needs a Brinks truck to cash his bi-weekly paychecks that causes all the grinning.

Big league ballplayers have been at it since age five or six, likely. So even as rookies they’ve been playing organized baseball of some sort for about 20 years.

The fun doesn’t go away, apparently. And that’s a good thing.

But WAS there a boy last year, cruising the neighborhood on his bike, looking to scare up a game of mini-baseball?

I sure hope so. Because I didn’t see one last summer. Or the summer before that.

Do boys even own baseball gloves anymore?

Surely they do. But I’m not seeing them.

Growing up in Livonia in the 1970s, before parents had to pray their kids would make it home from school safely, the bicycle for my pals and me was basically a car for kids.

Your bike kind of defined you, as cars do for adults. The bike wasn’t just a mode of transportation. Kids would compare bikes, like the men do when they look under the hoods.

Bikes were accessorized. Pimped, if you will, to use today’s vernacular.

One of the accessories was the old baseball card attached to the spokes with a clothespin thing. You know, so when you pedaled, the card would make a cool sound as it was abused, spoke-by-spoke.

A good summer’s day for us kids meant some sort of truncated, hurried-through breakfast, a brief announcement to mom that you were out the door to play, and oh by the way—I’ll see you around dinner time. Maybe.

And our moms would nod, tell us to be careful and they wouldn’t be worried about our well being for the entire day. Heck, it was one less thing to be bothered with.

We wore many hats at the ball field, we kids did. We were general manager, manager, player, radio announcer and PA announcer. Even trainer.

“Walk it off!” was our usual medical advice.

We were GMs because we had to choose teams (personnel). We were managers because someone had to construct a batting order. We played, of course. And we announced.

“Two outs! Imaginary runner on third! 4-3 you guys!” was a typical announcement when the next batter strode to the plate. The scenario had to be reset, batter to batter.

Speaking of batters, there were two schools of thought when it came to hitting. Some kids had their own batting stance, while others would mimic those of their favorite players. I liked to be Norm Cash, even though he was a lefty and I wasn’t.

Oh, and we were our own umpires, which would cause the occasional spat.

Rarely did we have enough kids to man an entire outfield, so right field was out. Unless a left-handed hitter was up; then left field was out. You hit the ball to a field that was out, and you were…OUT.

No umpiring needed there. No arguments there.

The big decision was, “pitcher’s hand” or “pitcher’s mound”?

Big difference. Big decision.

The former meant that the baseball need only be in the pitcher’s glove (or hand) before the runner reached first base in order to record the out. The latter meant that the pitcher not only needed the ball, but he needed to be standing on the mound as well.

The “mound,” by the way, was simply a rubber slab on flat ground.

Anyhow, the establishment of pitcher’s hand or pitcher’s mound was like whether a poker game was of “hand” or “stud” variety.

Big doings, I’m telling you.

So these loosey-goosey games would carry on all day. Throughout, there was attrition. Churn. A couple guys would leave. A couple more would take their place—stragglers who were cruising the schools and parks, looking for a game. They were like pool hustlers that way.

If you didn’t secure replacements right away, you played shorthanded, which meant that maybe a team would have to provide its own pitcher. It also meant that the bases would be crawling with imaginary runners. A batting order was maybe sliced down to four people.

But it was baseball. It was three outs per half inning, three strikes and you’re out and the umpire was, as former big league arbiter Dave Pallone once told me, “Maybe not always right. But never wrong.”

At the end of the day, when it was too dark to safely see the ball, we hopped back on our bikes and rode home, where mom was waiting with dinner.

“How was the game?” she’d ask.

“What’s for dinner?” we’d reply.

Tell me this still happens.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

In the words of the great Henry Rollins and his weekly KCRW radio show, “As-salamu Alaikum fanatics!”

I hope Rollins hasn’t copyrighted that greeting.

And anyways, in this instance it’s Tigers fanatics!

OK, so it’s day two of our 20-day, 40-player introduction of current Tigers listed on the club’s 40-man roster headed into spring training.

Yesterday, we were introduced to a true infield prospect who will probably be spending most of his playing days down in Toledo this season, Hernan Perez. The 20-year-old Venezuelan who, for the past three years, the Tigers have been grooming at second base and shortstop in their minor league affiliations.

Young Hernan is another good reason to get down to Toledo to catch some minor league ball—especially when the Tigers are out of town and you need to get your baseball fix!

Hopefully, Perez is a name and face we will all come to know well in the coming seasons.

Secondly, we also took a look at the Tigers’ All-Star catcher from last season, Alex Avila. We reinforced and reminded ourselves of a lot of what we already knew about this valuable piece to the Tigers clubhouse, both as a defensive and offensive player, and as a true baseball professional.

As far as today goes, if I weren’t the person blindly picking the pieces of paper out of the coffee cup, I would think this whole exercise in getting to know our team was rigged.

Believe it or not, the first name that was drawn for today was, of course…do I even have to say it?

Prince Fielder.

And I have to say: I don’t even know how I feel about this. Ever since Prince was signed a week or two ago, we’ve been flooded with information on the guy. So, in a sense, everybody could probably use a break from the Fielder mania.

But at the same time, how appropriate that the roster cup gods chose for Prince to be drawn on only the second day.

We’ll get to Prince’s introduction and bio in a moment, but let me also fill you in on the second player to whom we are to be introduced today: Joaquin Benoit.

Holy Cow, talk about two big names on the Tigers roster. And they’re both relative newcomers to the team.

Let’s get started with the first player whose name was drawn, the Detroit Jungle’s own, Prince-and-the-New-Power-Generation-Fielder.

As everyone knows, Prince is the son of Cecil, who played for the Tigers in the 1990’s. A lot of you may not remember the days when Cecil was here in Detroit. But for those who do, you can’t forget those glory years when to hit 40-50 homers in a season meant stardom, adulation and a song written for you on the radio (96.3FM).

While he was with Detroit, Cecil was a three-time All-Star in 1990, 1991 and 1993; and he won the Silver Slugger Award in 1990 and 1991 as well.

Cecil hit 51 homers in 1990 and 44 in 1991. When he hit 50 in 1990, Cecil was the first player to do so in a single season since George Foster of the Cincinnati Reds, who hit 52 in 1977. And that was how Cecil got a song written for him on the radio.

Cecil was known for being something of a slow base runner, and some of you may remember being in the stands of old Tiger Stadium with the crowd chanting, “Run, Cecil, Run. Run, Cecil, Run,” whenever he was on first. Those were good times in Detroit.

Here’s an assignment though: how many players have hit 50 home runs since Cecil did it in 1990? Or perhaps the better question is, how many players have hit 50 or more home runs since the strike in 1994?

Aw shucks, we won’t get into that. This 20-day, 40-player introductory extravaganza is intended to be positive and informative, not negative and conspiratorial!

But here’s the answer anyway: according to Wikipedia, in the 17 years between George Foster’s 52 home run season with the Cincinnati Reds in 1977 and the 1994 strike, a total of two players hit 50 homers in a season (Foster and Fielder).

In the 17 seasons between 1995 and 2011, 24 (count ‘em, t-w-e-n-t-y–f-o-u-r) players have hit 50 or more home runs in a season.

Moreover, in the 33 seasons between 1961 and the 1994 strike, a grand total of only five players hit 50 or more home runs in a season. And those players were Mantle, Maris, Mays (two Yankees and a Giant), Cincinnati’s Foster and Papa Fielder. That’s why it was total insanity in Detroit in 1990 when Cecil did what he did.

Moving on, it’s worth noting that Cecil won a World Series title in 1996 with the New York Yankees after being traded from the Tigers in July of that same year.

Cecil played for five teams across 13 seasons (seven with the Tigers) and ended his career with a .255 batting average, 319 home runs and 1,008 RBI.

That gives us just a little insight into our current Fielder’s old man. Now let’s dig a little into his son, the player currently known as Prince.

Prince Fielder

Prince was born in 1984, which is a good omen for Tigers fans. He spent six years of his youth between the ages of 6 and 12 right here in Detroit while his dad played for the Tigers between 1990 and 1996.

In 2001, Prince was 25 when he began playing with the Nashville Sounds, the Brewers’ minor league, Triple-A affiliation.

In June of the 2005 season, Prince was called up to play as a DH during interleague play. He was then sent back down before being called up again later in the year to be used as a pinch-hitter for the remainder of the season.

In December 2005, Brewers first baseman Lyle Overbay was traded to Toronto, opening the door for Prince to become Milwaukee’s starting first baseman in the 2006 season.

In seven seasons, Prince has hit a total of 230 home runs (50 in 2007). His career batting line thus far is .282/.390/.540 with 656 RBI, 566 BB, 571 runs and 779 strikeouts in 3,527 at-bats.

That’s roughly one home run every 15 at-bats and one strikeout every 4.5.

Over 7 seasons, Prince’s 162 game average is 37 home runs, 106 RBI, 93 runs and 126 strikeouts.

Prince is a three-time All-Star (2007, 2009, 2011), a two-time Silver Slugger Award winner (2007, 2011) and the 2007 NL Hank Aaron Award winner.

I guess the royal question everyone wants to know the answer to is what will the next nine years bring?

Joaquin Benoit

Our second player today is the 34-year-old Dominican relief pitcher, Joaquin Benoit. For those of you who don’t already know, JB is 6’3”, 220 lbs.

That’s a lot of mound presence.

He comes at you with a mid-90s fastball, a mid-80s slider and a low-80s changeup.

Joaquin first signed with the Texas Rangers when he was only 16 and started playing in the majors in 2001 at the age of 23. He played eight years for the Rangers through the end of the 2008 season but missed the entire 2009 season after having surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff.

Then came the 2010 season with the Tampa Bay Rays; he was lights out, finishing the season with a 1.34 ERA and a phenomenal .68 WHIP.

In 2010, Benoit allowed only 30 hits, 11 walks and nine earned runs in just over 60 innings pitched, striking out 75 batters.

In November 2010, our Tigers went out and got him, signing him to a three-year, $16.5 million contract.

In 2011, Joaquin got off to a rough start with the Tigers, which may have had something to do with acclimating himself to being north of the 35th parallel. But he finished strong, pitching 61 innings over 66 games and allowing 47 hits and 22 runs, 20 of which were earned.

Benoit’s 2011 regular season ERA was 2.95 and his WHIP was 1.05. He finished with 63 strikeouts and 17 walks having faced a total of 241 batters.

Joaquin’s 2011 postseason was excellent. He appeared in five games pitching a total of 7.2 innings and allowing only four hits, one earned run, three walks and nine strikeouts.

JB’s 2011 postseason ERA was 1.17 with a 0.91 WHIP.

Joaquin was a crucial part of the Tigers greatest moment in 2011, which came in Game 5 of the ALDS against the Yankees in New York. In that game, he recorded five outs, striking out Nick Swisher with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 7th with Granderson on 3rd, Cano on 2nd and Teixeira on 1st and the score 3-2 in favor of the Tigers.

That’s four out of 40 so far, leaving 36 remaining roster players to go over the course of the next 18 days.

We’ll see who the roster cup gods draw for us tomorrow.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

In the past couple of weeks, every ounce of excitement directed toward the Detroit Tigers has been matched with equal amounts of criticism.

The Tigers made arguably the biggest splash of the offseason, catching the baseball world by surprise and inking star first baseman Prince Fielder to a contract lasting nearly a decade. The nine-year, $214 million deal signed by Prince will provide Detroit with endless options in the lineup and the field.

Some of those options however, aren’t exactly considered to be favorable choices. Fielder’s arrival will push Tigers’ current superstar slugger, Miguel Cabrera, back to his original position at third base.

Perhaps the fear of facing Miggy and Prince in succession is what has critics suddenly zeroing in on just how the infield transformation could destroy Detroit’s title hopes. But I sense the move has some Tigers’ fans concerned as well.

Maybe the fact that Fielder and Cabrera finished dead last together in fielding percentage, among qualifying first basemen in 2011, has kept the some of the celebration at bay. Or possibly the letdown in ’07 that followed a World Series appearance and the massive trade that brought Cabrera to Detroit, re-appearing in the minds of Detroit’s followers.

But fear not fans, the Tigers will be just fine in 2012 and beyond. And here’s why:

Begin Slideshow

The Detroit Tigers are most likely to win the AL Central division with very little competition from the other division rivals—there is no arguing that. But what about the fine print? What could the Tigers do to shake things up? Will any of the lesser known players break out and become all-stars?

With no one expecting the loss of Victor Martinez to an ACL tear, truly anything could happen this year. I have made some bold predictions, and I am going to tell you why.

Begin Slideshow

With a wave of his hand, or should I say wallet, Mike Ilitch has dramatically altered the Detroit Tigers fortunes. With the signing of Prince Fielder, the cloud of despair that formed over the city when Victor Martinez went down has cleared. 

The forecast for next season is sunny skies and plenty of victories.

It was surely one of the biggest, and most surprising, moves in Detroit sports history. It also showed how serious Ilitch is about winning. The addition of Fielder has made the 2012 season one of the most anticipated in Tigers’ history.

The Fielder signing has all the trappings of a feel-good story of the year. Everybody knows the story by now. He was born in 1984—the last time Detroit won the World Series—and grew up as a Tigers’ bat boy. He learned baseball from his father Cecil, who holds the Tigers record for most home runs in a single season

As Ilitch pointed out at this press conference, the Tigers just missed drafting Fielder. Milwaukee selected him just ahead of Detroit.

With all his connections to the city and the team, maybe it was fate that brought Prince back to Detroit. I’m sure the obscene amount of cash didn’t hurt either.

With this signing, the Tigers are automatic American League favorites to go to the World Series and they should put up impressive numbers along the way.

As for Prince, he has the talent to supplant his father as the best Fielder to play for Detroit. The lore surrounding Cecil is great. He legitimately hit 51 home runs before everyone and their brother was doing it—before steroids took over.

But with his skill set, and playing on this team, Prince has a chance to have a special season. He has a chance to break his father’s team record—51 home runs in 1990.

Here’s why I think he can do it.

Begin Slideshow

Everyone around the Detroit Tigers organization knew that the massive signing of first baseman Prince Fielder would create a shift in the way that the team plays baseball going into the 2012 season.

The biggest shift was thought to be the expected move of Miguel Cabrera from first base to third base, and how the slugger would react to such a move.

Cabrera didn’t mind the move at all, according to manager Jim Leyland. At that point, everything involving controversy should have ended.

But it didn’t. Enter underachieving third baseman Brandon Inge.

Now, Inge has had a great career as a Tiger. For many years he was considered one of the best defensive third baseman in the game. However, as time has gone by and injuries have accrued, Inge has found himself as a solid, yet not spectacular, defender.

Then there’s his 2011 campaign. Inge had a .197 average, and for most of the season he wasn’t even living up to that standard. While he had a few good games after coming back from his demotion to Triple-A Toledo, he spent a lot of the season splitting time with Wilson Betemit and Don Kelly.

This needs to be prefaced by saying that if Inge were getting cast away to the bench in favor of someone like, say, Don Kelly, there would be some room to be upset.

That being said, Inge has no room to complain after his 2011 season. He’s being replaced by Miguel Cabrera, who is arguably the best hitter on this team even with the acquisition of Prince Fielder. The fact that Leyland had to address Inge at all during Fielder’s press conference–the manager said that Inge was not a happy camper–is simply ridiculous.

The city of Detroit, for the most part, identifies with Inge. He’s always been considered a blue-collar player; that is, a grind-it-out kind of guy that puts on his hard hat and goes to work.

However, as of late, it seems as though he spends quite a bit of time complaining about his situation rather than actually playing baseball at a high level. This is a player with a superstar mentality and a bench player’s stat line.

It’s understandable that Leyland was merely addressing a question asked of him by the media when referencing Brandon Inge, but the fact is that until Inge starts playing at the level of Miguel Cabrera or Prince Fielder–something that he’ll likely never do–no one should care how Brandon feels about being on the bench. Is that harsh? Maybe, but that’s the way it has to be if you want a successful baseball team.

Will all of that being said, there’s still a place for Brandon Inge on this team, if he can accept the role. Since Leyland loves his “lazy Sunday” lineup, which includes a lot of role players, Inge could see a bit of playing time still.

All in all, this shouldn’t be a huge distraction going into the season. But if Inge wants to keep his fan base, he should probably let this go and just play baseball.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

As the two marquee players available in this year’s MLB free-agent market, Albert Pujols and Prince Fielder figured to cash in mightily once they received a favorable contract offer and signed upon the dotted line.

Both career-long members of their respective clubs, the two sluggers have built impressive resumes for which they were paid handsomely by their new clubs.

Pujols, a modern legend during his career with the St. Louis Cardinals, has produced Hall of Fame caliber numbers through his first 11 seasons as a major leaguer. Even a cursory glance at his career statistics is enough to recognize the staggering nature of his greatness.

Fielder, though not quite on the same tier as Pujols, has proved to be incredibly durable and has become one of the game’s most-feared power threats. His combination of sheer power, plate discipline and durability is rather formidable. 

It was once unthinkable that Pujols would ever leave St. Louis, but when he took a stand in spring training and issued an ultimatum and end-date regarding discussion of a contract extension, many took it to mean that the Cardinals had missed their opportunity to secure the future of their star first baseman. Pujols though, on several occasions, professed his love of St. Louis and his desire to remain with the only organization he’s ever known. During spring, he spoke about the option of staying in St. Louis and said, “It’s a great piece to have on your resume. There’s not too many players that stay with one organization. Hopefully that happens.”

That wasn’t to be, as the lure of $240 million proved too much for the star to resist. Rather than play out the second half of his Hall of Fame career with the Cardinals, he risked scorn from his adoring fans in St. Louis by moving out west to Southern California. A new era in Angels’ baseball was born.

The situation with Prince was different however, as he was quoted during the pennant race as saying, “I’m signed for this year, but being real about it, it is probably the last year.” In that conversation with Brian Anderson, Milwaukee Brewers play-by-play announcer, he confirmed the likelihood that he will take his services to the free-agent market.

While the Fielder situation took far longer to play out than that of Pujols, it ended in a similar fashion. Though some had questioned whether he and his agent had waited too long, it turned out to be a perfect strategy, as the Detroit Tigers were forced into a semi-desperate state following the loss of Victor Martinez to a knee injury.

Surprising many that had expected Prince to sign elsewhere, the talented, young slugger signed a massive, nine-year $214 million deal to assume the Tigers’ first base position, moving incumbent Miguel Cabrera across the diamond to third. The deal suddenly has Detroit dreaming of a return to the World Series over five years after their bitter disappointment of 2006.

Despite the indisputable talent of each player, there is always concern when a club commits the type of money and contract length that the Angels and Tigers did in securing their new stars.

Since 1999, Major League Baseball has seen 32 contracts signed with total values in excess of $100 million. 

Let’s take a look at the richest contracts in MLB history to see how well those have worked out over time.

Begin Slideshow