He Must Not Want to Play

Maybe it's not about the money, after all.

Manny Ramirez rejected the Dodgers latest 2 year, $45 million offer, which leads me to believe that maybe it's not even about the money at this point.  Maybe Manny Ramirez just has no desire to play.

We're already a couple of weeks into spring training.  Games are going on.  And while Manny Ramirez could easily walk in off the street and play opening day and be effective, maybe he just has no itch or desire to play after all.

He and agent Scott Boras continue to claim there are other suitors for his services and he's still waiting for the market to decide his fate.  Unless I'm missing something, there are no other suitors.  The Giants had mild interest but pulled out of the running a while ago.  There is no market for one of the game's greatest hitters and it's because teams are hesitant to pay a lazy jerk with a history of laying down. 

Isn't this pretty clear by now?

"We want Manny back, but we feel we are negotiating against ourselves,"  Dodgers owner Frank McCourt told reporters in a statement.  "When his agent finds those 'serious offers'  from other clubs, we'll be happy to restart the negotiations."

McCourt knows what everyone else knows.  There are no suitors.  They're throwing him a bone, by offering him $45 million when they don't have to offer him any more than fifty cents to be the highest bidder.  But since this prima dona wants to be paid $25 million a year, likely against their better judgment, they've offered it to him anyway.

And he still won't take it.  He must not want to play.

What else could it be?  He wanted out of Boston, played out of his mind in L.A. from August to the National League Championship Series presumably to break the bank.  He wanted a 4-year deal worth $100 million.  He couldn't get it.  And now that he's seen that there's no market for him because of his own doing, maybe he's decided he just doesn't need baseball anymore.

It's not like there hasn't been a love-fest from the players and manager Joe Torre in an effort to entice him to return.  After all, the Dodgers have already publicly admitted they need him, and without him they're considerably worse.  Considering they are in competition with no one and they're still willing to offer him nearly half his original asking price should be a sufficient message of respect.  And he was a mega-star in Hollywood last season.  Every time he strode to the plate they chanted his name at Dodger Stadium.  Trust me, I witnessed it live.

So if he won't go back to the Dodgers, when they're offering him $25 million for this season and $20 million for next season to play baseball in a depressed economy, it must be a lack of motivation.  At this point, he must know he cannot get the contract he desires.  And if he cared so much about returning to baseball, he'd take this deal and head to the locker already reserved for him at the Dodgers new spring training home in Glendale.  

Instead, he's still sitting at home.  And it makes me think maybe he's just tired of baseball.

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.

Teixeira Headed To The Bronx: Yankees to Sign Every Good Free Agent Available

As of slightly before 4 PM eastern time, word is that the Evil Empire has done it again.

Sources I have (including the NY Daily News, and, oddly enough, Facebook, which alerted me to the signing first), indicate that Mark Teixeira and the Yankees are reportedly closing in on an eight year deal worth over 170 million.

Talk about your all-time hogwash stories.  All those following the Teixeira "saga" heard was that the Yankees were distantly involved.  Earlier today, Buster Olney reported that the Red Sox and Nationals were the serious destinations for the 1B.  Brian Cashman has said that there wasn't anything on the table for the switch hitter.  

Suddenly (read: all along), the Yankees emerge as real contenders for Teixeira, and, within a seeming instant, they've signed the last remaining true prize left on the market.

How on Earth do you begin to analyze this?  Let's take a stab, shall we?

Yankee Apologist

On a baseball level, strictly on the field of play, it's a great move.  They needed a first baseman with the Giambino gone, and they went out and got the best one available.  Truth is, their offense outside of A-Rod is either really old (Hideki Matsui, Johnny Damon, Jorge Posada) or really inconsistent (Robinson Cano), and adding a huge bat to protect Rodriguez is a great thing.

Yankee Hater

Here they go again!  What was it, one summer ago that they wanted to hold onto all their prospects, do this winning "thing" the all-natural way?  Yeah, way to stick to the game plan.  Not to mention, do they have to sign everyone?  First C.C, then Burnett, and now Teixeira?  Let me guess, tomorrow they'll sign Manny to a 6 year deal, Lowe to 5 years, and Oliver Perez to a 4 year contract.

Financially Oriented Yankee Fan (As If It's Their Money Anyway)

This idea that the Yankees have spent over 400 million in the past few weeks is ridiculous.  These aren't 180 million, one year contracts.  In fact, with 88 million coming off the books from last year, the Yankees salary will actually be close or even under where it was last year.  

Scott Boras

See, I told you there was a mystery team!

Not Yankee Haters, per se, But Let's Just Say They Wouldn't Call The Yankees Back After A First Date

This is awful for baseball.  The Yankees, more importantly, the power of the almighty dollar is ruining professional sports, at a time when we're simultaneously seeing the ruin of our current economy and financial structure.  When people are losing their jobs, right and left, these jerks are going out and dumping hundreds of millions on ball players.  The Yankees aren't necessarily to blame, other teams were offering similarly high amounts (the Nationals were, in fact, offering more), but, the symbolism of this move just demonstrates the decline of the true spirit of the game (editor's note:  we have no idea what that actually means, but "real" fans always say it, so it has to be true).

BERNing on Sports' Take (read:  Scott's)

As a fan of baseball's most hated team, I'm quite torn.  Are they better with him? Yes.  Is it a boat load of money?  Yes.  Is it my money, is it honestly costing me anything?  No, and not really.  Will I cheer for him, and still root for the Yankees? Yes, no doubt.

However, it'll be with a heavy heart.  Recently, I remarked to a friend of mine that I'm feeling more and more detached from the Yankees.  It just seems like its a new team every year, filled with a new, free agent du jour.  Gone are the days where the young stud comes through the farm system, and he's actually given time to develop.  Your either Joba Chamberlain or Ian Kennedy, it seems, in the eyes of Yankees brass.

While I can't say I'm thrilled about it, what I can say I'm angry about are people that will act disgusted by the Yankees.  They play by the rules, they have the money, and they're aggressive.  Albeit, overly aggressive, but still, if the Steinbrenners were running the Cubs or Red Sox or Dodgers or Angels, no one from those markets would be complaining.

The real crime is, with all that they've done, all they've added, what happens if they don't win the World Series?  Rumor has it that Moses (no, not Malone, the biblical one) will be up for free agency next winter.

And so, as a Yankee, I'm caught in between a desire to see my team win and not be constantly picked on by fellow baseball fans.  Between a desire to see them bring home another championship and to see them actually earn another championship.

In effect, that's what it comes down to.  Sure, they can win, and, they should.  But, did they earn it?  Are the Yankees better, just because they spend more? It's almost like the kid that used to beat the crap out of the weaklings at lunch for their money.  Was that kid really to blame for being stronger?  No, but, should he feel good about beating up a bunch of younger, skinny nerds?  

Regardless, I'll root, upset or not.  I'll watch the press conference, where he'll tell me how badly he wanted to be a Yankee (yeah, sure, like Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey were together because she was sooo smart).  And, if they win, I'll be happy, though, it won't feel right.  It won't feel earned.

Enough Already

It's December 23rd, sometime in the afternoon, do you know where your targeted Scott Boras client is?

Likely sitting at home.

As reported by Y! Sports, only one Boras client has signed a FA contract his winter.  His name, Felipe Lopez, and he's now a Diamondback, in case you cared.  Quick aside...best line of the whole article, came in the comments section:

"Shocking Boras even accepted him as a client."

While that observation is quite true, the more shocking fact is that he's the only one that's signed.  Then again, when you consider that Scott Boras could very well be the anti-Christ of Major League Baseball, it isn't that surprising.

Boras' supremely talented clients, Mark Teixiera, Oliver Perez, Manny Ramirez, and Derek Lowe among them, sit at home, while their agent postures and preens and pauses.  There are usually a few "mystery teams" that no one seems to know much about (their whereabouts, how they are offering that player a contract without anyone knowing about it, or why they are the only team offering 2 more years and 40 million more).  

There usually is a ridiculous waiting game played, where teams go back and forth saying they are "out" of the bidding.  Boston said they were out last week.  The Angels have withdrawn their offer.  Sure.  And the Yankees were really done bidding on A-Rod when they said so last year.

Now there's word out of Washington that the Nats are offering more money (up near the 180 million mark), with the potential for more years.  As has been said previously here on BERNing, that's clearly not a good idea.  Though, Collin Balester might have something different to say about that.

However it winds up breaking down, with Marky Mark wearing Bo-Sox red next year or Natty gray (who even cares what color they are?), I've had quite enough of this Mark Teixeira saga.  Let's get a move on this whole process.  Let's get him signed, let's get these other guys signed.  Who cares if it's for too much money?  At least, once it's over, we'll be able to get rid of Scott Boras til next winter.