Manny Ramirez going to the Dodgers

[Mobbme]

Report: Manny Ramirez going to the Dodgers; Bay to Boston



TSN.ca with files from SI.com

7/31/2008 4:38:56 PM




BOSTON - The Boston Red Sox have traded slugger Manny Ramirez to the Los Angeles Dodgers, according to a report on SI.com.

The report says that Canadian Jason Bay will end up with the Red Sox while four prospects will go to Pittsburgh.

According to the report, the Pirates will receive outfielder Brandon Moss and reliever Craig Hansen from the Red Sox as well as third baseman Andy LaRoche and right-handed pitcher Bryan Morris from the Dodgers.

Laroche's brother, Adam, is Pittsburgh's first baseman.

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Wow, the Red Sox have managed to lose their minds. They suffered for over 100 years I believe, and this guy, Manny, the MVP brought the Championship not ONCE but TWICE to the great city of Boston. Was this any way of treating such a FHOFamer??!!

To think I was actually starting to like the Red Sox, sheesh, good luck winning another championship you dope heads!

[Exarecr]

Your right, they are talking about the trade on Sports net.

[ofogs]

Manny was an MVP, true, but he also created an enormous problem with the team, the fans and the management. He was such a distraction and he hasn't been performing at nearly his MVP or HOF levels that they pretty much had to trade him. Bay will do fine and give the Sox a fully capable LFer who will perform very similarly to a declining Manny for another year, at a greatly discounted rate.

The better question to ask is whether this is how a future HOFer should treat the team and city he's done so much with?

[Mobbme]

Manny was an MVP, true, but he also created an enormous problem with the team, the fans and the management. He was such a distraction and he hasn't been performing at nearly his MVP or HOF levels that they pretty much had to trade him.

Playoffs haven't even started yet. So i'm assuming you're a regular season fan and would take A-Rod over Manny ONLY because A-Rod's a proven regular season hitter? Manny is Mr. Playoffs. A-Rod is Mr. Choke.

Bay will do fine and give the Sox a fully capable LFer who will perform very similarly to a declining Manny for another year, at a greatly discounted rate.

Red Sox were finally in Tier 1, and now they got a guy that will do just fine? Not good enough. Its not about regular season at all, its about winning in the playoffs. Manny's never choked.

The better question to ask is whether this is how a future HOFer should treat the team and city he's done so much with?

Its that famous quote we're both well aware of long before the 2 championships:

"Manny being Manny"

But after 2 titles and an aging Manny, it seems to be a distraction.

[Southie]

OK, not knowing that much about sports, but having one of the biggest Red Sox fans in my house, apparently, besides all the other crap that Manny has been doing, he didn't play against the Yankees during the 1st game claiming a knee injury, yet the MRI didn't show any problems. He's been slacking out on the field. Looks like he was wanting to be traded.

[ofogs]

Playoffs haven't even started yet. So i'm assuming you're a regular season fan and would take A-Rod over Manny ONLY because A-Rod's a proven regular season hitter? Manny is Mr. Playoffs. A-Rod is Mr. Choke.

Manny Ramirez Career Playoff Stats:
BA: .269 OBP: .376 SLG: .515 with 24 HRs in 353 ABs

A-Rod
BA: .279 OBP: .361 SLG: .483 with 7 HRs in 147 ABs

A team dealing with Manny quitting for for the last 2 months of the year isn't going to make the playoffs. After all, we can't forget that Manny, not the team, created the situation at hand. For this team to have a chance to make the playoffs and not self destruct, the Manny trade had to happen.

Red Sox were finally in Tier 1, and now they got a guy that will do just fine? Not good enough. Its not about regular season at all, its about winning in the playoffs. Manny's never choked.

1. Manny has choked. I personally remember being in Fenway waving goodbye to Manny in the '99 series when he was with Cleveland (.056/.261/.111). Of course, I could cherry pick sample sizes that show almost everybody "chokes" at one time or another.

2. Bay (top) and Manny (bottom) side by side.
BA OBP SLG OPS+ HR BB RC/G
.282 .375 .519 135 22 59 7.7
.299 .398 .529 140 20 52 7.6

Considering Bay makes $6M this year (vs. $20M), is 29 years old (vs. 36), is already signed for another year, fields better and won't be the center of the circus that Manny was, he will definitely do just fine.

Its that famous quote we're both well aware of long before the 2 championships:

"Manny being Manny"

But after 2 titles and an aging Manny, it seems to be a distraction.

Here's some other quotes:
"The Red Sox don't deserve a player like me." -Manny
"Say what you want about A-Rod, but he plays every day and he plays his behind off." -Unidentified Sox Player quoted in Gammons' 7/28 Article
"Manny being Manny means Manny wanting money." -Gammons

And yes, it is a huge distraction when he fires off shots in the media and asks to be traded. Or asks out of games with phantom injuries. The act is old. He was great while he was with the Sox, but he wrote his own ticket out of town.

[Herodotus]

Team chemistry is very important and maybe is being overlooked in this discussion. Let's not forget the Red Sox traded Nomar in 2004 for a weak hitting Offerman; the Red Sox went on to win the WS that year.

[ofogs]

Nomar was traded for Cabrera and Mientkiewicz- neither of whom could really hit. I think you're right about the clubhouse issues being enough to make it necessary to get rid of Manny. His attitude and actions were clearly disrupting the team enough to impact the play on the field.

[Herodotus]

Nomar was traded for Cabrera and Mientkiewicz- neither of whom could really hit. I think you're right about the clubhouse issues being enough to make it necessary to get rid of Manny. His attitude and actions were clearly disrupting the team enough to impact the play on the field.

Oh sorry, I thought it was Offerman. Bay is a stud though, cheaper and younger than Manny, he has a lot of upside to him, and coming from the Pirates I'll bet he's hungry to win. The trade was smart for the Red Sox no doubt about it.

[ofogs]

Agreed. I look forward to seeing how he performs in Boston.

[Mobbme]

Agreed. I look forward to seeing how he performs in Boston.

Playing in Boston -in todays game- is just as tough as playing with the Yankees: Pressure. Hopefully the lad does well because the Red Sox are my 2nd favourite team.

Ofogs, i'm saying things from a biased point of view. Red Sox have been getting their arse's handed to them the past century, and they finally found a way to win, twice. Why break up the core? They did win again after losing Johnny Damon, so you could be right on the money. But I think Manny is irreplaceable. Mr. Damon was no Manny. If its the future they're thinking about, what happens with Ortiz and Captain? They're both just as old. You win now when you have these veterans, who knows when they'll win again? I just think management got cocky, thats all.

[Albany Rifles]

Good Riddance

There is no one on this board a bigger Red Sox fan than I am.

This was a had to do move for the Red Sox. When David Ortiz was not standing up for Manny any more that tells you something.

Manny had quit, plain and simple. I'll take a hungry Bay, Youk and the other young kids.

Yankees are still too old.

But I do have to say the class of the AL is the Angels

[Mobbme]

There is no one on this board a bigger Red Sox fan than I am.

This was a had to do move for the Red Sox. When David Ortiz was not standing up for Manny any more that tells you something.

Manny had quit, plain and simple. I'll take a hungry Bay, Youk and the other young kids.

Yankees are still too old.

But I do have to say the class of the AL is the Angels

About time you joined in big brother. Well, we'll just have to wait and see. I don't see Red Sox winning again though, you guys can even resort to using violence against me lol but I think Yankees will win next year -if not this year.

[Mobbme]

Trade deadline winners and losers

Story Highlights
This year's winner is an easy choice: the Los Angeles Dodgers
The Brewers won, even though they traded the only premium prospect to get dealt
The Marlins whiffed on a big chance to get better and impress their fans


The biggest winner at the trade deadline is an easy call this year. It's the team that dispelled the notion that it was incapable of making a monster trade, that established itself as the favorite in baseball's most winnable division, the team that landed one of the greatest hitters and greatest clutch hitters for nothing more than a song. And for not such a great song, at that.

The Dodgers, the storied West Coast franchise without a World Series title in 20 years and with a lot of front-office tension following a few recent failed free-agent signings, managed to acquire the great Manny Ramirez -- in a deal first reported by SI.com -- on a giveaway plan, surrendering only two OK prospects in the deal with Boston. Sensing the Red Sox's last-minute desperation at the deadline, Dodgers GM Ned Colletti agreed to take Ramirez, and all Colletti had to give up was a young third baseman who could never seem to crack the Dodgers' lineup (Andy LaRoche) and an A-ball pitcher who has already undergone Tommy John surgery (Bryan Morris). Making it even sweeter, Boston agreed to pay the $7 million remaining on Ramirez's salary.

Not only that, but the Dodgers will get the best of Manny, as the prearranged deal had any acquiring team agreeing to waive the two $20 million option years that Ramirez found so onerous. So he goes to L.A. as a content and motivated man, free-agent riches awaiting the slugger whose $160 million Red Sox deal turned out to be one of the best ever, even if the Red Sox became so exasperated with him that they tried to give him away a couple times in the last four years. And in the end they finally did give him away.

Winners
1. Dodgers. The trade for Manny was such a steal that it might make owner and Bostonian Frank McCourt forget the $36.2 million that he sunk into the disintegrating Andruw Jones last winter ... for a few minutes anyway. The Dodgers' offense has been atrocious, and this can only help. Joe Torre has to love seeing Ramirez on his side for a change. His only problem is that he now will have five outfielders who consider themselves starters -- including Juan Pierre, Andre Ethier, Matt Kemp and Jones. Oh yeah, and they got infielder Casey Blake from the Indians, too.

2. Manny. All his petulance and pouting paid off. He got those club options that were tormenting him dropped and this winter will have the chance to shop for a multiyear deal on his terms. While he lost a lot of good will earned over the years in Boston, he'll be able to bathe himself in green, assuming he can find a team to take this hitting savant who's all ego, id and wrists.

3. Brewers. It's easy to forget they actually made the most beneficial deal of this trading season, as it happened a month ago. But CC Sabathia has been brilliant since going to Milwaukee, helping to instill pennant fever in that deserving town.

4. Cubs. While the Brewers made the biggest splash let's not forget that the Cubbies still have the best team in the National League, something they proved with their four-game sweep at Miller Park, their home away from home. Rich Harden is a "top five'' pitcher in the game, according to one GM, assuming he stays healthy. If he doesn't, well, they imported Harden's own personal insurance policy in Chad Gaudin in the very same deal. The one negative was their whopping $500,000 fine for draft shenanigans, which was only $250,000 less than Patriots coach Bill Belichick got for cheating, setting the stage for what could be one of the messier franchise sales ever.

5. Angels. The team that needed a big stick to pair with Vladimir Guerrero got it when it landed switch-hitting star Mark Teixeira. Casey Kotchman was a steep price to pay merely to enhance their October chances (let's face it, the Angels were assured of making the playoffs no matter who played first base). Yet it was a great gamble for Arte Moreno, who may be baseball's best owner. One thing seems sure: He has baseball's best team.

6. Scott Boras. Baseball's most famous agent couldn't have written a better script for his players. Ramirez got out from under the two option years (meaning Boras will get paid for a new Ramirez deal starting in 2009), Teixeira went to the great Angels (meaning he and Ramirez will both be in Boras' backyard, though Teixeira will be in the literal sense, as he plans to stay in Boras' guest house in the O.C.), Ivan Rodriguez went from the so-so Tigers to the big stage in the Bronx and a fourth Boras client, Xavier Nady, went back to New York after a brief and productive time in Pittsburgh.

7. A's. As one competing GM said, "They've set themselves up for 10 years with their trades.'' Of course, genius GM Billy Beane couldn't have done the same kind of pennant-race rebuilding if he operated in a major media market. But out on the left coast they accept an early white flag. It also doesn't hurt that Beane really knows what he's doing. Josh Outman, who came for average starter Joe Blanton, is going to be better than Blanton. So between the Blanton and Dan Haren deals the A's are in great shape for the future again.

8. Ned Colletti. This trade can be the first line of his varied bio. He began his baseball career as a public relations man in Chicago, and the Manny deal works as a great PR move, too. He has come under heat from ownership for the inexplicable disappearance of the real Andruw Jones. But this makes amends. For today, anyway.

9. Ken Griffey Jr. His Reds tenure didn't work out as hoped, so it was probably a bittersweet moment for the future Hall of Famer. But the good part is that he goes to a great city with a chance to play in October for the first time since he left Seattle, and he gets to go back to center field, a position he never really wanted to leave. The deal fulfills GM Ken Williams' wish to unite with perhaps his favorite player (and also his desire to make a deal, any deal). But it's going to be interesting to see whether Griffey can still play center after he didn't exactly look like a Gold Glover in right for the Reds. In case he's worse than they think, the Sox do have Alexei Ramirez and Jerry Owens to caddy for him.

10. Yankees. They're all still celebrating in the Yankees front office after hearing just after the trade deadline that Manny was gone from the AL East. The dread of seeing those dreadlocks is gone (Manny was about a .450 hitter against the Yankees the last three years). As a bonus they also got Nady, fine lefty setup man Damaso Marte and Hall of Fame catcher Pudge Rodriguez, who upgrades their offense and catching depth...........

Trade deadline winners and losers - Jon Heyman - SI.com

No more kumbayah.

[GraniteForge]

I'm sorry to see this. Manny is a shooter, and an occasional customer at my local range. We get a fair amount of celebrities, but baseball players are rare.