When is Manny’s endgame?
Posted: Wednesday, January 14, 2009 5:41 PM
Five questions still to be answered as we hit mid January and notable free agents are still unsigned:
1. WHEN DOES MANNY RAMIREZ MAKE A DEAL? The longer certain Scott Boras clients wait, the more they will be rewarded (see Oliver Perez below). That appears to be the Ramirez strategy.
There is already a screaming need for Ramirez with the Dodgers. The Giants perplex me -- there is a need and a faction of ownership is obsessed with the "marquee factor." Ramirez gives the Giants a name, provides value to those ticket holders who remain after four consecutive losing seasons and attracts new customers. But at what cost?
New managing partner Bill Neukom has promised a "Giants Way." Does investing a minimum of $75 million (educated guess) in Ramirez slow the player development rebuild that must be the backbone of the "Giants Way?" It's a topic heatedly debated in San Francisco.
Meanwhile I can't shake a hunch that the Mets still have a play in the Ramirez sweepstakes. They need to fill the higher-priced seats/suites of a new stadium. They have been quiet this off-season in relation to their city neighbors. Nothing puts the Mets back on the marquee like bringing Ramirez back to his hometown. And remember what we offered here months ago -- a Ramirez/Pedro Martinez package, allowing Martinez to continue his career and serve as a clubhouse haven for Ramirez.
2. IS OLIVER PEREZ ABOUT TO WIN THE LOTTERY? We laughed when Scott Boras' dive into the absurd produced a tome that dared to mention Perez in the same sentence with Sandy Koufax. As ridiculous as that statement is, it appears the Boras wait has produced that "screaming need" for the Mets to sign Perez. It's a domino game -- the Braves didn't finish a trade for Jake Peavy or win the A.J. Burnett derby, so they overpaid for Derek Lowe. Now, Boras has the Mets, who need Perez more than ever, and a salary bar set by Lowe. Does Mets general manager Omar Minaya walk away from Boras and trust a Randy Wolf/Tim Redding/Pedro Martinez combination on the back side of his rotation?
3. WHO IS THE BEST FREE-AGENT BARGAIN REMAINING? This view suggests Bobby Abreu. His numbers, both homers and walks, have decreased slightly in the last two years but his 2008 OPS was still 23rd in the AL, one spot ahead of Raul Ibanez, who landed a 3-year, $30 million deal with the Phillies. Abreu will be 35 in March and he still has legs and enough defense to have value to a NL team. Someone is going to swoop in and snag this productive player.
4. WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO PUDGE RODRIGUEZ? A surefire Hall of Famer sits without a team. While the East Coast-centric media is absorbed by Jason Varitek, Rodriguez has been the standard bearer for catchers in this generation. Cast aside by two teams in 2008, has he hit the catchers' "wall" that analysts show arrives in their late 30s?
5. WHO TAKES A SHOT AT BEN SHEETS? In six months he has gone from the starting NL pitcher in the All Star Game to a free-agent gamble. Clearly, I don't have his medicals, the teams do and perhaps that explains the hesitancy. But in a time when starting pitching has never been valued higher (just look at Lowe's deal), Sheets would seem a good "prove it" gamble on a one-year deal.
FIVE MORE SWINGS:
1. QUITE A CHANGE IN ATLANTA…over the last 12 months. Last year's rotation was Tim Hudson, John Smoltz, Tom Glavine and Mike Hampton. Now, it's Derek Lowe, Javier Vazquez, Jair Jurrjens with Glavine a possibility and Hudson for the second half. The wild card name is Tommy Hanson, a righty about whom Chipper Jones said, "He's got the best stuff of anybody in the organization, even at the big league level." The Braves give the appearance of a team trying to return to its starting pitching roots, which makes the lack of a trade for Jake Peavy perplexing.
2. THE RED SOX…sign a flurry of one-year deals. Why? Here's a thought: there is only one signature offensive player due for free agency next winter -- Matt Holliday. Last March, the Rockies offered Holliday a five-year extension to the two-year deal he had signed. The average value was over $15 million per year. An insider tells me Holliday was excited about staying in Denver through 2014. That night, his new agent, Scott Boras, flew into Tucson and squashed the deal. At that point, the Rockies knew Holliday was gone and the insider predicts Holliday will be next winter's Mark Teixeira -- a prize to the highest bidder, pure and simple. Wouldn't it make sense for the Red Sox to begin preparations to win the bidding they failed to close with Teixeira?
3. WORST PART OF HALL OF FAME BALLOTING…is the identity of the electorate. Or more precisely, who votes? Corky Simpson was an internet sensation this week. He is a 70-year-old retired columnist from Tucson. My question: how does he get a vote? Did he ever cover a team for a full season? I read a Bay Area columnist's vote this week and asked the same question: did that writer ever travel just one season? Or does the vote go to someone who attends five games a year to write columns? There should be transparency AND accountability on who gets to vote.
4. MOST DISAPPOINTING PART OF HALL OF FAME BALLOTING…was the lack of progress made by Jack Morris. As Bert Blyleven has become the patron saint of exclusion for many, Morris is such for me. All he did was win. Sometimes we are all guilty of overthinking.
5. HOPE FOR THE INFIRMED...the following pitchers, with their career best single season win totals in parentheses, signed minor league deals this week: Russ Ortiz (21) with Houston, Shawn Estes (19) with the Dodgers and Mark Prior (18) with the Padres. Assuming these are low-risk deals for the teams, they are good gambles at a time when the market cost of starting pitching is defying the recession.
