The Trade deadline passed with a big flurry this year and every division except the AL West has some good pennant races going. We have an exciting year fellow fans.
I think the biggest winner in the Manny trade is sadly Scott Boras. Manny took him on as an agent. Boras convince Manny that he can get him a 4 year deal worth $100 million. If the Red Sox had signed the extension, Manny’s old agent would have got the commission and not Boras. So even if Boras fails to get Manny $20 million per year, Boras sadly comes out ahead. Boras is a cancer on baseball. I hope this turns out poorly for Manny so more players will realize that Boras is only looking out for Boras and not them.
I also wonder is Manny being Manny and this act of striking while a team is in a pennant race and he is already making $20 million per year will cost Manny enough votes to prevent him from being a first ballot Hall of Famer that his stats clearly show he should be, but his actions show he should not.
I am not advocating that he does not get into the Hall, just that he gets dissed enough to not make it the first year he is eligible. I got thinking about this yesterday when I realized that three probably first round Hall of Famers got moved in 24 hours.
There is a legitimate argument the irregardless of Manny’s antics, the Red Sox are a better team today, then they were yesterday. If they dealt Manny for equal talent it doesn’t matter that they couldn’t keep him happy. Also I want to make clear that I’m not alone in thinking the Dodgers screwed up royally with their handling of Laroche. He is young, his minor league numbers are great, and scouts think very highly of him. Pretty much the only people who didn’t think he would be a very good player work for the Dodgers.
Huh? First off those were team options. Manny and Boras had no control over whether they were picked up or not. Unless you are arguing Manny intentially under performed in order to get out of your contract, he would have no affect on the situation. Given that Manny has behaved in a way similar to how he always has behaved I find that highly unlikely.
Secondly, Boras’s job is to get the best possible contract for his clients. He is very good at his job. Getting Manny 100 million doesn’t make him a cancer, it makes him a great agent. Boras has time and again gotten players way more money then anyone expected. He isn’t always successful, but he usually is. What should he be doing? Encourage his players take less then market value?
You make it seem like his stats aren’t due to actions. You don’t hit 500 home-runs by slacking off all the time. Yeah, Manny can be over emotional and doesn’t always give 100%. I’d rather my star give 90% then give 100 and get hurt all the time. Manny has put up hall of fame numbers, and entertained the masses while doing so. He should be a no doubt about it first ballot hall of famer.
Hawkeyeop, Actually I do think Manny and Boras deliberately conspired to ensure Manny’s options would not be picked up and I believe that Manny sat out to do so and not due to any injury.
I also don’t believe Manny can get a 4 year $25 million per year contract, but who knows, Boras is very good at his bullshit.
Back to the Dodgers, they now have to be considered to have a much better chance to win the division. They might be wrong about Laroche and they may have mishandled him, in which case the Pirates will be very fortunate. However, as internally the Dodgers did seem to have serious doubts about him, moving him for Manny when the Red Sox picked up the $7 million still appears to be a wonderful move for them.
I am not sure what the Dodgers and their fans will consider for it being worthwhile. They may well make the playoffs and be eliminated in the first round, but that might be enough for the people that need to evaluate it. When your team makes the playoffs nearly every year like the Yanks & Red Sox your expectation sometimes get raised to unreasonable levels. The Dodger fans might be quite content just to have a chance in the post season.
Then they can rue the day when Laroche makes a solid contribution to the Pirates and the Dodgers are still looking for a third baseman. However, I thought I heard scouts questioning is Laroche would stay at third. Do I have that wrong?
Jim (Sorry if my other post came out a little snarky, I reread it and it was sharper than I intended)
That is a pretty serious charge that I think we need to have a lot more information on to make. We certainly can’t tell if a player is hurting from a far. I don’t see much evidence that Manny is obsessed with money. I just think he is feeling under appreciated and lashing out a bit.
I tend to agree. However, Boras also has a habit of asking for the moon and then getting the stars. If Manny gets say 3 years, 66 million, it still would be a great job by Boras.
So here is my question. Let’s say the Yankees decided to play Wilson Betamit at third every day and bench Arod. They then deal Arod for Derek Lowe to upgrade their starting pitching. Now that trade clearly helps them in that scenario, since they weren’t playing Arod and would play Lowe. However, it is only potentially a good deal since they were playing a suboptimal lineup to start. That is kind of how I feel here. If the Dodgers ran their organization better, and used the assets they had, this trade would be unnecessary. They could win the division, and keep all their young assets.
I’ve heard he is a mediocre fielder, but not that he was bad enough to require a position switch. Anyone else hear that?
I was quite happy to see the D-backs took the first game against the Dodgers last night. Tonight the D-backs have Johnson and Sunday Davis will pitch. That gives us an excellent chance to win 3 out of 4. I’ll be interested to see how Manny does this weekend. Hopefully he’ll spend time talking on his cell phone out in left field rather than trying to field his position.
6th place in a 5-team division? You’re a bigger pessimist than most.
The Mets, Phillies, and Marlins are all 6-4 over their last 10 games. Eh. And such is the NL East. The Marlins are the team playing way above their expected wins – I expect them to drop back down to earth and the Mets and Phillies to be pretty even in September.
(I also expect Fernando Tatis to hit 2 grand slams in a inning a few more times.)
Speaking as a die hard Manny fan, I suspect Manny does better when he doesn’t think. Perhaps you’re better off (presumably as a D-backs fan) if Manny DOES puts a ton of effort into fielding.
The Cubs, having managed to totally trash the Brewers, lose 3 - 0 against the Pirates. At home, no less. If there is one troubling trend with the Cubs this year, it’s the tendency of the offense to totally disappear for no apparent reason. Jason Marquis letting only 3 runs deserves a hell of a lot better result than sitting and watching some Yankee reject blank his teams hitters, who were on a total tear against the Brewers, including two of the best pitchers in baseball. Ugh.
I keep saying **Karstens ** is a fairly good pitcher when he is healthy. He is actually a little better than Rasner who the Yanks still have in the rotation. His problem is he is injury prone. If he stays healthy he could be a solid 4 or 5 guy for the Pirates for years.
By the way, going back to the Pudge Rodriguez trade:
I seem to recall that some in the July thread were claiming that the Tigers didn’t give up that much having Inge hit. I wasn’t sure, and was too busy to check, but that seemed pretty unlikely.
Yanks got a great game out of Ponson and couldn’t scratch a run themselves. Once again Mariano proves while he is sure bet with a close lead, it is a bad idea to put him into a tie game this year. I keep wondering when Joe will acknowledge this. So the Angels won again as did the Red Sox and Rays.
It’s still very, very early, and anything can happen, and probably will, but I think I can safely say that as on this afternoon, Manny has found a home in LA. The acquisition of Casey Blake at third, Angel Berroa at short and getting Manny for pocket change has made the Dodgers a totally different team. I’m sure Manny will self-destruct sooner or later, but so far, he has 7 hits in his first 11 at-bats with the Dodgers. Brad Penny is rehabbed and ought to be back this week.
Ok, here it is, it’s official as of today:
The Cubs have a chance to win the whole shebang this year!!!
Yes, ok, I’ve done it. I’ve doomed them to a fall from grace so hard it will make '69 look like a mild slide. But darnit, they have THE best rotation in baseball right now, they are hitting as a team (no single person with all the glory, just everyone getting it done when needed), and they spend 19 games in August at HOME, where they have simply been blowing away the opposition this year.
And to top it off, they made it past the trade deadline without doing anything STUPID.
So here it is, the official notice to everyone else: this year, the hot dog days of August are NOT gonna melt the Cubbies. Y’all better watch out, it’s the Year of the Bear.
