While it wasn’t expected that Prince Fielder would stay with the Milwaukee Brewers, the loss of their All-Star first baseman surely must have stung the Wisconsin franchise almost as badly as finding out that their MVP left fielder’s brilliant finish to the 2011 season was a fraud. Such are some of the blues that the Brewers are dealing with right now as they are just a few weeks away from starting up their 2012 campaign – without their greatest hitter since Paul Molitor.

Just Thursday, the Detroit Tigers introduced their most expensive signing in franchise history: Prince Fielder. With Scott Boras at his back, Fielder landed the deal of his dreams: long-term and filled with as Jerry Manuel puts it, “gangster money.” Dually noted, Jerry; $214 million over nine years – the fourth biggest deal in sports history - is insane money for any athlete.

There was hardly any doubt that Fielder would receive a monster contract. Fielder’s seven year career resume includes three All-Star appearances, a Hank Aaron Award, an All-Star MVP trophy, a Home Run Derby trophy, 230 home runs, 656 rbis and 998 games played. That’s pretty good value for the Tigers – especially since Fielder will in all likelihood be out on the field for at least 150 games a season. Now that’s earning $214 million. So, the only real questions about Fielder’s free-agency were: What team will sign him? When will he sign? How big of a contract are we going to see?

Considering Fielder gives a great deal of value to any team he plays on, him averaging of over $23 million a year isn’t that hard to believe. What would have been hard to believe is if he managed to stay with the Brewers. Despite their big moves in last year’s off-season to acquire Zack Greinke and Shaun Marcum, the Milwaukee Brewers weren’t expected to be able to afford Fielder. Their 2011 opening day payroll was just over $85 million. More than 1/4^th of their payroll would have gone just to Fielder. While it is nice to imagine that the Brewers love Fielder a lot, they simply weren’t going to shell out that much money for him.

The Brewers are no stranger to disappointments. Arguably their greatest player ever, Paul Molitor, left the Brewers in 1992 to play for a championship contender, the Toronto Blue Jays; The Brewers never have had much postseason success, appearing in postseason play only four times (if you’re counting their 1981 one-game playoff with the New York Yankees as a postseason appearance) and only made it to one World Series; and they just got over a 26 year postseason appearance drought. Arguably their best season ever came about last season as they did manage to boast one of the best bullpens and rotations in the MLB and had a strong lineup too. But once again the Brewers’s postseason hopes were dashed by the St. Louis Cardinals – this time in six games in the NLCS.

Their disappointments of much more recent time, however, probably sting even worse. Not so long ago their NL MVP Ryan Braun was busted for using PEDs – during the playoffs. The Brewers’s biggest award and player performance in years was suddenly mired in shame during one of their best runs in franchise history. Now with the loss of Fielder who was big protection for Braun in the cleanup role, the Brewers’s lineup doesn’t look quite as menacing. Braun has always been formidable with the Brewers and can pack a power punch, but he always breathed easy knowing that Fielder was hitting behind him. However, Braun will almost definitely be gone the first 50 games of the 2012 season, and when he does come back he will have to be the offensive juggernaut of the team – an interesting prospect considering it’s unknown how much of his performance is genuine. The recent disappointments hurt that much more for the Brewers.

But in reality, the Brewers knew this was coming. They made those big moves last off-season because they knew that they wouldn’t be able to afford Fielder’s substantial contract in this 2012 free-agency period. They decided to fortify their rotation with a couple of players rather than spending upwards of $200 million on one single batter, who, at the end of his deal, will probably hit half the home runs he hits now. The Brewers also spent a decent chunk of their free-agency money to sign Aramis Ramirez and keep Francisco Rodriguez. So, even from the beginning of the off-season there wasn’t much doubt about the direction the Brewers were headed. They got their best value out of Fielder while they could still afford him and watched him become one of the game’s best hitters. They picked him in the first round of the 2002 MLB Draft, despite the concerns about his weight. They saw him become one of the greatest Brewers in franchise history, amassing as many as 50 home runs in a season. After all that production that he gave them and all the fans he attracted to Miller Park, the Brewers were willing to part ways with Fielder. It’s the simple business of baseball: Thanks for your time and take care.

The Brewers still have a strong team. Zack Greinke, Yovani Gallardo, Shaun Marcum, John Axford, Francisco Rodriguez, and Randy Wolf are just some of the great pitchers they have. They still have Rickie Weeks, Nyjer Morgan, and yes, even Ryan Braun to pack an offensive punch. Their addition of Aramis Ramirez also makes up a bit for the loss of Fielder. So, despite their recent blues, the Brew Crew still has a great deal of hope for the 2012 season. In the end, losing out on Prince Fielder truly only resulted in them not having to dish out “gangster money.”