Prince Fielder and the Detroit Tigers are close to a contract — a nine-year, $214 million contract. That’s a bigger deal than I expected Fielder to get, and I’m not surprised or particularly crushed that the Dodgers didn’t top it.

My main concern was that the Dodgers might miss out on a great deal on Fielder under the misguided notion that they couldn’t even consider him. With their new TV contract staring them in the face, the Dodgers still could have afforded Fielder even at this mammoth contract size, but I won’t lose sleep over the fact that they’re stuck without him. Life and baseball move on, and we’ll dream of what might happen for the Dodgers after the new owner is in place.

Forbes (via Maury Brown), by the way, says that based on initial offers, Frank McCourt can expect a minimum of $1.5 billion as a sale price. Man.