Twitter is the second-greatest baseball-related invention.

3. Bill James.
2. Twitter.
1. Striped socks.

I love my job, but every moment that I'm writing or editing is a moment when I'm not simply staring at my computer screen, and watching the latest goodies populate my Twitter feed.

Here's a curated sample of tweets from today's Prince Fielder flurry ...

ESPN's Karl Ravech:

Great day for prince but is this a good day for competitive balance in baseball?

It's not a great day for competitive balance in the American League Central. Not in the short term, anyway. But it's good to see different teams spending money. While the Yankees are always going to dominate with their dollars, at least the Angels and the Rangers and the Tigers are going to keep the Red Sox company in that next tier.

As for the National League, I say to hell with those Pantheists!

Ken Rosenthal:

Average salaries, first basemen: Howard $25M, Pujols $24M, Prince $23.8M, Teixeira $22.5M, Adrian $22M.

Yeah. Prince Fielder is going to make nearly as much money as Albert Pujols ... and Ryan Howard is going to make more. I know this is Scott Boras Day and he deserves it. But shouldn't some sort of big trophy be sent to Ryan Howard's agent. Or just a big bit of modern art that just says +1 for his office wall?

Bob Nightengale:

The Tigers have now guaranteed $338 million for the upcoming years to three 1B/DH types in Fielder, Cabrera and Martinez.

I don't know. Kinda seems like a lot of money for guys who can't play anywhere but first base. But at least they're good first basemen, right Jayson Stark?

Fielding Bible's ranks of bottom 5 first basemen over last 3 years: Dunn (-31), Konerko (-25), Howard (-24), Cabrera (-16), Prince (-15).

No. But it's okay because one of those last two guys won't be playing first base any more and -- wait, what?

Expect the Tigers to play Prince every day at 1B, and to move Cabrera to 3B. And don't be surprised if he's better there than you think.

You're not the boss of me, Danny Knobler!

I'll be surprised if I want to be surprised. And I will be very very surprised if Cabrera does play third base and is not terrible. Actually, I could be surprised because Cabrera could be less terrible than I think. Maybe Danny and I need to get together, so I can tell him exactly how terrible I think Cabrera will play third base.

Same general theme, Dave Cameron:

Cabrera at 3B, Peralta at SS, and Fielder at 1B? I'd like to take the over on every Doug Fister ERA projection now.

Because, see, Doug Fister is a ground-ball pitcher. The good news is that he's not an extreme ground-ball pitcher. The bad news is that Rick Porcello is (to a greater degree, anyway).

Joel Sherman:

Rival execs think Fielder was done above GM Dombrowski's head, just like other Boras clients were: Magglio, Pudge, Damon

Now, we're taking Sherman's word for this but ... Do you notice anything peculiar about those guys? Yeah: They were all terrible.

Actually, they weren't all terrible. Damon was even worth a little more than his $8 million salary. Pudge wasn't terrible, either, though his hitting fell off the cliff in the second season of his four-season deal. Magglio ... well, that one didn't work out too well. That one didn't work out too well at all.

What gives Sherman's suggestion more credibility is Scott Boras's repeated claim that this process would take longer than most because ownership would be involved. So apparently this was his strategy all along: Bypass the front office -- you know, the people who know what baseball players are actually worth -- and go straight to the top, to the guys who think it's a good idea to put pineapple on top of pizzas.

Speaking of which, here's Lynn Henning:

Mike Ilitch turning 83 in July, wanting a World Series way more than he ever wanted a Stanley Cup, just wrote a check for all the Tostitos.

I'm not smart enough to get the Tostitos reference, but the rest makes sense. And I can't help but recall 1990, when the Royals blew a bundle on Mark Davis and Storm Davis because Ewing Kauffman was really old. With the Davis Boys aboard, Kansas City finished sixth, sixth and fifth, and Kauffman keeled over.

This time it'll probably go a little better.

Finally, we'll give the last word (for now) to Braves reliever Peter Moylan:

Will Boras ask Prince to loan some $$$ to Madson??

/ zing.