Would You Sign This Guy? I wouldn't.

He has 527 career home runs and 1725 career RBI. He has a .314 career batting average and a career on base percentage of .411. He's also a 10 time all-star.

Yet he remains unsigned, because he's an expensive liability.

If I were a major league baseball general manager, I would never sign a guy like Manny Ramirez. I don't care how clutch he is, or the fact that he's won two world series rings. I don't care that he has hit 28 post-season home runs or that he has a .399 career on base percentage in the post season. He'd never be on my team.

He's lazy. He doesn't run out ground balls and he trots after fly balls that he knows will fall. He's a brutal outfielder whether he's trying or not.

He whined year after year about how he wanted out of Boston and how much he hated it when the fans there adored him and defended him no matter what, even when during a pitching change he urinated inside the green monster. It was just "Manny being Manny", they cried.

He laid down. He faked injuries and made up excuses to force the Red Sox to trade him to Los Angeles.

His performance with the Dodgers made this even more infuriating. His .396 batting average and 17 home runs in just 53 games in Dodger blue only showed what he's capable of if he's motivated. He basically carried a team that really wasn't all that good to the NLCS, and in the process was in serious consideration for National League MVP. And while he's an incredible player when he wants to be, how do we know he'd be motivated once he gets the contract he covets?

Obviously, that's why he hasn't been signed, and that's why he'll be a hard sell by agent Scott Boras to get him the four or five year, 25-plus million dollar per year contract he desires. The Giants pulled out of the race today, and the Dodgers say they're "talking" to him and Boras, but they're still not close to a deal. The Yankees opted to sign Mark Teixiera instead, and other teams that might have the finances to land the 36-year-old Ramirez are opting not to take the risk.

Some team will eventually bite the bullet and overpay to have him. They'll justify it by saying that he's a great hitter and he'll sell tickets. With those reasons, they'll be right. But they'll be taking a considerable risk that in a year or two his numbers will decline. They'll be making a bigger gamble that Ramirez won't destroy his new clubhouse or be an enormous off-field distraction in the near future.

But if it were me, I wouldn't pay him a cent.