The Last Piece of the Puzzle
I’ll start this post by proudly admitting I’m a huge Skip Bayless fan. Why all the hate? That said, I’m agreeing with something Stephen A. Smith said today on 1st and 10: the Yankees should sign Manny Ramirez.
I’ll start this post by proudly admitting I’m a huge Skip Bayless fan. Why all the hate? That said, I’m agreeing with something Stephen A. Smith said today on 1st and 10: the Yankees should sign Manny Ramirez.
J.A. Happ and Carlos Carrasco, two pitchers in the Phils system that played for my own Lehigh Valley IronPigs last year, have been ranked at #2 and #9 respectively in Baseball America’s annual Top 10 list. #1 honors went to Dominic Brown of the Fightin’s Single-A BlueClaws club in Lawewood. Read the story here at the ‘Pigs website.
Are you kidding me, MLB???? If it’s true that Romero bought a legal supplement over the counter and was never informed by anyone (either before or after doing his own due diligence), that it would cause him to test positive for banned substances and, even more to the point, the player’s union didn’t even know the substance was banned, I don’t see what MLB has to stand on here. Let me be clear: illicit PEDs have no place in baseball or anywhere. But something I could buy at the mall? Let’s ban vitamins while we’re at it.
From the beginning of the 2008 season I
thought this was the best fit for both parties come 2009.
The Phils-Rays World Series underscored the point. The
Bat loves sunny climes, he won’t have to field and the Rays
need a righty and a veteran older guy to complement their
young talent. I love that it was Pat’s last hit as a
Phil that put the winning run on against Tampa in the
Classic. Godspeed, Pat, and thanks for everything.
Best of luck (until next
October).
From today’s MLB.com article by Ken Gurnick:
The agent for Manny Ramirez contacted the Dodgers on Tuesday, one day after word that the club was considering making a run at free-agent outfielders Adam Dunn and Bobby Abreu.
[Dodgers] General manager Ned Colletti said he received a voicemail from Scott Boras in regards to Ramirez, the first contact between the two sides on the free-agent outfielder since a session at the Winter Meetings went nowhere earlier this month.
“He left me a voicemail about an hour ago,” a raspy Colletti, fighting off laryngitis, said Tuesday night. “I’m sure we’ll talk in the next few days. Hopefully, I’ll have my voice back.”
Ned, I think we all know that when it comes to these negotiations, you’ve got your voice back and then some. I said last week that Teixeira to the Yankees neutralized Manny’s already waning appeal and left Team Ramirez with few options. As Gurnick puts it: ” The market for Ramirez has been essentially non-existent. The Dodgers’ two-year, $45 million offer with a $15 million third-year option — made in October and withdrawn soon after their window of negotiating exclusivity closed on Nov. 14 — remains the only one yet extended to the slugger, who turns 37 next year.”
The original offer, if it’s even still on the table, seems like Manny’s only option at this point, but don’t be surprised if someone else makes a move when a Dodgers deal seems close.
(This began as a comment on the previous post, but I’ve made it it’s own entry because it started getting a little long and it’s something that I think will interest people who have been watching the MLB Network promos. See the previous post, “For Pete’s Sake”, for context).
I think technically speaking, being banned from MLB doesn’t actually ban one from the HOF…they have separate governing bodies and rules for these things as I understand it.
That said, I don’t think that betting on baseball is in the same category as steroids when it comes to the HOF. I can see a valid argument against people who haven been proven to have used PEDs during their career, because the PEDs do exactly what the acronym says: they enhance performance in an unfair (and illegal) way. Betting does not give one an unfair competitive advantage, unless you’re betting against the team you manage, and I doubt Rose did this. Even if he did, I find him a far more sympathetic character than steroid users.
Sure, betting is against the rules, but betting didn’t help Rose become the hit king. Steroids (presumably) did help Bonds and others reach their HOF-like numbers, so it’s different. I know there are sabermetrics people who say you can take Bonds’ pre-steroids numbers and extrapolate an HOF career, but for me, these numbers are forever tainted. Minus the PEDs, we’ll never know about a player’s natural longevity or proneness to injury. We just can’t know what would have been. With Rose, however, there’s no question.
I was just scrolling through the higher channels on my digital cable package and was extremely happy to discover that I will, indeed, be receiving the MLB Network starting on New Year’s Day at 6 PM.
…is named Mark Teixeira. We know Manny’s not going to Boston. Teixeira singing with the Yanks makes a Bronx move less likely. Where do you see this going? Would a move to South Philly surpise you? The Fightin’s already have a new left fielder, but it’s interesting to think about adding Manny to that line up. And I think he’d play with passion (think Dodger Manny) and drive for a team like the reiging champs.
I think the Yankees are going to sign Manny.
I bet it gets done before the New Year, especially if
Boston signs Mark Teixeira.