Goodbye Manny
I’ve said it many times. I’m a baseball fan first and foremost. I have never once tried to hide my Red Sox bias on this page, and I won’t try to do it here.
The Manny Ramirez trade had to be done. No question about it, Manny needed to be out of Boston, and he needed to be out ASAP. But the way everything went down in the past couple of weeks might have damaged baseball more than anything else.
What we saw today was just the latest and most high-profile example of a petulant, crybaby superstar who never wanted to be in the city he was in. And once again, the athletes have all of the power in these situations. Especially in baseball where the contracts are guaranteed, and a player can simply sit down if he no longer wants to play for his team.
Sure, Manny might get branded as a quitter, or a clubhouse cancer. But Manny’s reputation around the majors already precedes him. Teams know what they’re getting in Manny when he signs his next $80M contract in November – they’ll get a .290 hitter with 25-35 homeruns and somewhere around 95+ RBIs, and probably about 135 games played and at least three to five legitimate “sit down” games where Manny just doesn’t feel like doing his job.
It’s a sad state when an athlete can shoot his way out of town and get rewarded four months later with a massive contract, but it’s not the first time we’ve seen it, and it’s probably not going to be the last. I don’t know why I’m even surprised anymore.
As for the trade itself, let me be very up front about this. I like Jason Bay. When I lived in Pittsburgh, I had the opportunity to watch him play a lot. I think he’ll do very well in Boston. But I hate how much Boston sacrificed for what is essentially a lateral move.
Maybe Manny was such a headache in the clubhouse that everyone will perk up just with his absence. Maybe Brandon Moss & Craig Hansen will never pan out. Maybe the two draft picks that the Dodgers are now going to get when Manny walks away next year will never even get a cup of coffee in the majors. And obviously the Red Sox aren’t against paying other teams to take players off their hands (see Renteria, Edgar). But to give all that up just to get rid of a problem child seems a little ridiculous.
Of course, the Red Sox weren’t going anywhere with Manny this year. He would have continued to be a problem, perhaps even leading to a situation like the Angels had with Jose Guillen a few years back when they simply told him to stay home and collect a paycheck. So if getting rid of Manny was the ultimate goal, then so be it.
Personally, Manny lost me a few years back when he refused to come into a game in Tampa Bay after Trot Nixon was injured and unable to play, simply because Terry Francona had promised Manny the day off. The same game in which Matt Clement took a line drive off his head and people wondered if he was alive or dead. Manny couldn’t be bothered to get off his ass and help his teammates out by playing a couple of innings in the field. That one game summed up Manny’s time here for me – his teammates were doing everything they could do to help the team get through the game, and Manny sat in the dugout with his feet propped up spitting seeds.
For me, I say goodbye with no regrets.
Labels: Dodgers, Good Riddance, Manny, MLB, Pirates, Ramirez, Red Sox, Trade
Early Thoughts on Red Sox' Spring Training
It's going to be awful tough to accurately read this Red Sox team this year. They might have the best rotation in baseball, or they might have an overpriced, over-the-hill rotation that could collapse at any moment. I don't know about any of you guys, but I've got a real hard time putting complete faith in a rotation that consists of some five man combination of the following:
- A 40-year old starter carping about his upcoming contract situation...
- A 26-year old starter in his second year in the AL East, after a year when he had 16 wins, but a 5+ ERA...
- A 26-year old starter in his first season in this country, jumping to the most pressure filled city, in the toughest division in the Major Leagues...
- A 26-year old starter moving from closer to the rotation in order to help his sore pitching shoulder (yipes!)...
- A 40-year old starter who relies on the most uncontrollable pitch in baseball...
- A 32-year old starter that has been a complete bust so far, and is recovering from shoulder surgery after the orthopedic surgeon said his shoulder "looked like a bomb exploded" after doing an arthroscopy...
- And a 23-year old starter recovering from cancer.
Sorry - nothing about the above situation instills the utmost confidence in me, and I am almost always on the sunny side of the Red Sox situation.
Now, I know this may surprise some of you, but this year, Manny Ramirez & Curt Schilling have been generating the most (US) headlines. It certainly came as a surprise to me that the most enigmatic MLB superstar (Manny) and the most, um, media-friendly pitcher of his generation would be the ones getting the most press, or at least the most press in this country, but somehow they managed to do it.
Of course, the new star in town, Daisuke Matsuzaka, has been generating about five times as many headlines back in his native Japan. When the guy sneezes, the front page of the Japan Times reports the snot's size, color, texture and which garbage bin it got tossed into (hopefully, there's no information on the taste...). Matsuzaka will be under a microscope for the next five years, and never more than in the next three to six months. His transition to the big league in the US will be front page news in most newspapers in Japan, and probably a few major papers and webpages back in this country.
The other big pitching storyline coming out of the beginning of Spring Training is the most obvious question surrounding the team - who's closing games? Jonathon Papelbon was a revelation at the end of games, and an unbelievable weapon for Terry Francona to have at his disposal. Papelbon's presence basically shortened every game where the Red Sox had a lead to a seven or eight inning affair - opposing teams just weren't going to score on him.
But now, Papelbon's back in the rotation because his shoulder couldn't handle the strain of pitching every day or two, or at least being asked to warm up in the bullpen. Ironic - last year, 2/3 of the yahoo Red Sox fans on the radio were clamoring for the team to take Papelbon out of the bullpen to provide rotation help, but now that he's being turned back into a starter, those same fans are screaming that he needs to be the closer. This is why it's tough to be a Major League GM - you can never win.
The most obvious choice to take over the closers' role (for now) is either Mike Timlin or Craig Hansen, both of whom have closing experience, both of whom have the stuff to close out games. Problem is, Timlin almost has a mental block about coming in to a game with runners on base, and Hansen hasn't proven that he can handle big time situations since coming to the Major Leagues. That leaves a pu-pu platter of possible closers or, ugh, closers by committee. Suddenly, those yahoo fans are starting to make some sense.
On the offensive side, the two biggest questions involve both corner outfielders - can J.D. Drew hack it in Boston (and earn his ridiculous 5 yr/$70M contract), and how long will Manny last before shooting his way out of town?
There was a report about a week ago that the Red Sox might actually consider picking up one or both or Manny's $20M options for '09 and '10, considering the price of high-production outfielders this off-season (Vernon Wells - 7yr/$126M, Alfonso Soriano - 8yr/$136M, Carlos Lee 6yr/$100M... and we won't even talk about Drew, Gary Matthews or Juan Pierre). Financially, picking up the options makes perfect sense. Manny is still a better hitter than any of the six guys just listed, and only Wells could truly be called a better all around player. So two more years of Manny, guaranteed, at $20M per season suddenly seems like a reasonable number. The question then becomes - where will he be playing for those two seasons?
I like Manny. I'm OK with most of his antics (see my two posts on the situation: Post 1, Post 2) although his blatant quitting on the team last season was completely inexcusable. But even I am starting to think that he's finally worn out his welcome in Boston. He clearly doesn't want to be here (although he did grace the team with his presence this morning, three days ahead of his personal scheduled arrival date of March 1st). So why not move him? His contract numbers are at least palatable, if not wonderful. He's a Hall-of-Fame hitter who just needs to play somewhere less crushing. There's a lot of rumblings about a Manny for Todd Helton swap with the Rockies, but that's been tossed around for the past three seasons, with nothing coming out of it yet.
Given the choice, I'd like to see Manny end his career in Boston. Obviously. But I just don't see it happening. He wants out, the management seems to be done with him, and even the fans have finally shifted to a majority on the "ship him" side of the fence. It's time.
As for J.D. Drew... There is nothing I can say here. You will never convince me that he is worth $14 Million a season (by contrast... David Ortiz makes $12.5M this season. Curt Schilling makes $13M). The Red Sox were, by all accounts, bidding against themselves for Drew. His opt-out from the 3yr/$33M remaining on his Dodgers contract shocked the entire baseball world, mostly because everyone thought he was already overpaid. Then the Red Sox went out and gave him $70 Million. Amazing.
So that's the early breakdown of the Red Sox, at least from me. I'll be back with the full team-by-team breakdown sooner or later, and will probably be back next week with some NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament breakdowns.
Lata.
Labels: 2007, Baseball, Manny, Red Sox, Spring Training
