Many are wondering whether free-agent first baseman Prince Fielder is more inclined to sign with the Cubs now that they have hired Dave Sveum as their manager. Sveum had a positive working relationship with Fielder in his most recent job as Milwaukee's hitting coach. Despite the speculation, Cubs president Theo Epstein refused to get into the relationship between Fielder and Sveum. "I'm not going to comment about any free agents or anything like that, but I don't think that (relationship) was unique. I think the relationship Dale has with Prince is the relationship he had with a lot of those players over there," Epstein said. "He earns his respect by his approach to the game, his work ethic, his fearlessness, his ability to just talk to them. "It's hard in this game to find someone who is a superstar and just walk up to him and talk to him and be able to tell him sometimes what they don't want to hear. That ultimately wins players' respect. And Dale has that. You could look up and down that (Brewers) roster, or you could look up and down the Red Sox roster when he was there. You can talk to players about him in the minor leagues. I challenge you to find somebody who doesn't respect Dale and hasn't connected with him on a pretty meaningful level."