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As Gary Grund previously reported here at Hot Foot, the Los Angeles Dodgers have acquired Manny Ramirez in a three-team deal, which also sent Jason Bay to the Boston Red Sox and four prospects to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
If the Dodgers don’t win the World Series, general manager Ned Colletti lost this trade. As the Boston Herald pointed out:
Ramirez agreed to waive his no-trade rights stemming from the 36-year-old’s 10-5 status (10 years in majors, five with one team) in return for the agreement by the Dodgers to get rid of the two $20 million team options for 2009 and ’10.
Earning $20 million in a year is nothing to sneeze at. Clearly, Ramirez wants to become a free agent in the offseason and get a multi-year deal. So if the Dodgers don’t give Manny said deal, the worth of the trade is all on 2008. To be honest, even with Ramirez, are the Dodgers suddenly the team to beat in the NL? The Dodgers may prove me wrong, but on paper, it doesn’t look like it.
The Dodgers’ outfield was already overcrowded. With Colletti giving foolish deals to Juan Pierre and Andruw Jones, the team’s outfield is very expensive. Funnily enough, with the addition of Ramirez, Pierre and Jones don’t look to play regularly. Both Andre Ethier and Matt Kemp have more at-bats than Pierre and Jones, who have both rode the pine or been injured this season. Having one of Pierre or Jones on the bench doesn’t look great. Having both on the bench looks terrible as far as getting your bang from your buck. At the same time, the Dodgers have to bench both to maximize their chances, considering Ethier and Kemp are better players. Even so, Pierre has been decent and sitting his 36 stolen bases will be tough. In summary, outfield help was hardly a need for the Dodgers.
As for Boston, Bay is only under contract through 2009. The Red Sox have to lock up Bay for this trade to look good. If the team doesn’t, they lost this deal, as well. If Bay only stays a Red Sox through 2009, they gave up too much to get rid of Ramirez.
On this day, Pittsburgh looks to be the big winner. The Buccos didn’t take away a king’s ransom, but they got more than they would have from the rumored Rays deal. All the prospects the Pirates got look to have some upside, with Andy LaRoche probably having the most.
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2 Responses for "Colletti Being Colletti"
You are not “reporting.” You are directing readers to real journalists and such that use their contacts, make phone calls, confirm sources etc… (i.e., do work) to report. You do a good job of summarizing and otherwise cataloging this information, and sometimes providing commentary, but it is not reporting.
I did not realize that all reporting had to be first-hand for it to be relevant and topical. That must mean that if I want to read about some Bush foreign policy issue, I will have to seek out that one paper in Portland, Oregon that happened to break the news, I guess.
Also, I never claimed to report anything; this is an opinion piece, those things in newspapers with opinions written in them.
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