Late Innings

ESPN’s Buster Olney speaks out on the possible “destinations” for Manny:

And yet just two teams have shown an interest in Ramirez, who hit .388 after the All-Star break last season – the Dodgers have serious interest, but only on a deal of one or two years, apparently, and the Giants have limited interest. Ramirez is one of the greatest hitters we have ever seen, a unique talent who put on one of the most extraordinary performances of our generation in his 10 weeks with the Dodgers, and he’s probably going to have to take about half of what Jim Thome got from the Phillies six years ago.

Don’t get me wrong, Ramirez was fantastic last year, a 6+ WAR player (even with his fielding being at a disadvantage.) However his attitude about his contract, plus his ridiculous contract demands, have limited his demand. The best contract received by a corner outfielder this year was the three year, 31MM deal received by Raul Ibanez from the Phillies. And that was considered by many in the media to be a “bad contract.”

Manny shot down a pair of offers from the Dodgers which any other outfielder on the market would have taken with open hands. He’s still expecting to land a 100MM contract. News flash, not going to happen. He’s expecting to land four years, again not going to happen.

Still this news only proves one thing, that CNN’s Jon Heyman is full of shit whenever he reports “news” about Manny. In other words, this glowing piece he wrote about Manny and Scott Boras two days ago is suddenly not worth anything.