Manny

LA's the perfect place for Manny. It would be hard for him to wear out his welcome there because to do that, the fans actually would have to care. People in LA are too busy getting nip/tucks and going to oxygen bars.

And for the record, he never wore out his welcome in Cleveland. They love him there.

 

There were rules (as in, no rules) for Ramirez/Martinez and there were rules for everyone else. That goes back. Somebody told me (in March 2004) there had been a big blowup about Manny smoking on the team bus and nobody doing shit about it. The Red Sox enabled him for years.

 

Because the Red Sox knew Manny had them by the balls. They had a $20 million option for next year that he wanted renegotiated. Their choices were exercise the option and have a pissed off crazy man (and hitting savant) on their hands, renegotiate and have Boras hold them up, or give him away (and a few other players) for a decent but not great left fielder.

So they have Jason Bay, nice player. The Dodgers, for now, have Manny Ramirez, first fucking ballot Hall of Famer, best hitter of his generation, the guy who will put them in the World Series and if the play the Red Sox will hit .900 with 10 home runs in a 5 games series.

Whoever wants to meet Boras' demand for 4 years, $100 mill will have a totally motivated Manny next year -- he's got something to prove -- and a potential headache (who will still be the most feared hitter in any lineup) for three years after that.
I think I'd take him in left field at Citi Field next season.

 

The Mets would be the only team Manny couldn't lead to a title.

 

i don't think want him back for four years, so yeah, you can have him.

 

If he could pitch the ninth inning he could do it!

 

Notice the number of ABs in July. He produced, but 25% of his AB are gone because he wouldn't play.
What good does it do to bench a guy for not wanting to play?

And different rules for stars is hardly a Boston-only issue.

 

No way he gets 10 ABs in 5 games. 1-for-10 Ethier is going to have to beat me if I'm Francona.

 

Manny pulls himself from the lineup one night in the Bronx. MRI shows nothing, he's faking it, he's giving up on the team.

Beckett pulls himself from a start one night in the Bronx. MRI shows nothing, no one questions it, he's welcomed back ASAP.

I kinda thought the difference in response from the team and Red Sox fans was funny.

 

A clown like Ramirez needs a strict performance-based contract frontloaded and backloaded with incentives. Five-hundred AB. Thirty-five-plus home runs. One-hundred-plus RBI. One-hundred forty games. Make Manny earn his money. He'll do it anyway -- but it must be a necessitation.

 

Look at the track record of the two players, Ramirez has had a history of taking longer to recover from injuries (going back to Cleveland) to the point where it got on teammates the way Drew does. Same way you can't compare punishing Upton, or even Rollins, to Ramirez.

LJB, if you could get away with that, he'd put up numbers that we've rarely seen.

 

sorry, but i think james is busy at the moment ...