You are what you eat

MILWAUKEE -- The Brewers' big fella had a plane to catch, but first he needed a few minutes of deep thinking after going oh-for-the-series against the Reds. If looks could kill, the bobblehead doll in Prince Fielder's locker would have keeled over.

When he turned around to answer reporters' questions, Fielder did not waste time sugarcoating his slow start. He was 0-for-4 in Thursday's 4-1 loss to Cincinnati, and made it abundantly clear he's not happy with the way he's swinging the bat right now.

"Come on, dude," he said to a veteran TV reporter. "What do you think?"

We think you're upset, Prince.

"Of course I'm not OK with it," he said. "You've seen the scoreboard, it's God-awful. If I want to be in the middle of the lineup, I've got to do a little better than that. Keep going out there, keep swinging hard, you might run into one."

He has not run into one yet. No one panicked when Fielder hit just one home run in Spring Training, but now he has yet to go deep in 33 regular season at-bats. He left for the Brewers' three-city road trip batting .242 with only two extra-base hits in nine games.

This comes after a 2007 campaign in which Fielder led the National League with 50 home runs and ranked third in the circuit with 87 extra-base hits.

If you're wondering whether his well-publicized switch to a meatless diet is the culprit, don't even ask. The fact he's a vegetarian has nothing to do with the fact he's not hitting home runs, Fielder said.