Prince Fielder has been on fire at the plate. (Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports)
PHOENIX — Texas manager Jeff Banister liked what he saw of first baseman Prince Fielder long before the games began this spring. It was almost as if he could see Fielder’s hot start coming.
“From the very beginning when Prince showed up, just his attitude, the energy level, the smile on his face, you could tell that he felt good,” Banister said. “I was convinced. I believe when athletes aren’t feeling good and they have questions about themselves, you can see it in the body language. You can see it in their face. You can see it in their energy level. When you watch athletes that are running all over the place and have that young-boy attitude again and that energy level to bounce all over the place, they are feeling good.”
Fielder is hitting .367 with one home run and nine RBIs this season, with his first home run coming in a 7-1 victory against Arizona on Tuesday. He was 0-for-3 with a walk Wednesday, scoring the Rangers’ first run in an 8-5 loss, only the second time in 14 games he has not reached via a walk or a hit.
It is the kind of start the Rangers hoped for after Fielder played only 42 games in 2014, when a herniated disk in his neck in mid-May caused him to miss the rest of the season.
“I knew I was healthy once they cleared me in September,” Fielder said. “I just had to get back in the swing and get my timing back and everything. I used spring to get ready. Once I started feeling good in spring it was all right.”
Fielder is tied for third in the AL with 22 hits, tied with Miguel Cabrera and one behind Billy Butler and Adam Jones. Fielder’s homer Tuesday was his first of the season, the 289th of his major league career.
“You’re a hitter first, before you are ever a power hitter,” said Banister, who spent the previous four seasons as Clint Hurdle’s bench coach in Pittsburgh. “I’ve watched him over in the National League. He was the complete RBI hunter. I think he loves the RBI most of all.
“I know everybody has been wanting to see the power, we’ve wanted to see the power. Prince is going to be a power hitter again.”
