Cubs not a good fit for Pujols, Fielder

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Everybody is clamoring for the Cubs to sign Prince Fielder or Albert Pujols this offseason. The logic makes sense: The Cubs need to improve, have a wide open first base position and these are two MVP-caliber players. Oh yeah, and the Cubs have a ton of money.

But the last part is a bit false. They don't have that much money, largely because of the albatross contracts of Alfonso Soriano, Carlos Zambrano and even Ryan Dempster's 14 million.

Plus, one guy won't suddenly make the Cubs a playoff team, even if that guy is Pujols.

ESPN's Buster Olney concurs, tweeting Sunday:

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Buster OlneyAnd neither Pujols nor Fielder is a perfect 1B long-term target for the Cubs -- Pujols because of his age, Fielder because of defense.
Nov 27 via webFavoriteRetweetReply

That's exactly the point. Even if Pujols is only 31 and his age was never doctored (a rumor I won't even touch on besides this mention), he's looking for a megadeal and the Cubs' new front office doesn't want to tie themselves down with a contract that will be paying a 40-year-old 23 million.

At four years younger, Fielder seems to be a safer option for a long-term contract. He would still be in his prime (at age 33) roughly six years into the deal. But even in the midst of his prime right now, he's a below-average fielder (despite his name) and will only lose range and possibly gain weight (given his body type) as he ages.

Olney makes the point that Fielder would be a better fit on an AL team where he could sign a 10-year deal and spend the last three or four years serving primarily as the designated hitter:

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Buster OlneyAn AL team would be best-suited to be really aggressive on Prince Fielder, because it could project him as a DH at end of contract
Nov 27 via webFavoriteRetweetReply

But what AL team would be the best fit?

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