Manny Ramirez

3 rank in K's/9. 

We can't overlook his No. 14 rank in wins, either. 

29. Manny Ramirez-LF

The first of the active players, Manny's in the top 20 in both homers and RBI. His totals will increase in those cumulative statistics as his career crawls to its end, and he's a superstar in one non-cumulative stat...

Continue reading "The Top 30 Players in MLB History"

Keep that in mind as you read on.

Also, when I originally wrote this piece, Manny Ramirez had not yet been signed by the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Dodgers' new outfield of Manny, Matt Kemp, and Andre Ethier could be good enough for the top spot on this list. Manny's quite an upgrade over Juan Pierre...

Continue reading "MLB's Top Five Outfields"

Dear Readers (all five of you):

I've been active on my other blog at www.fannation.com, under the username JFro, but I continually forget to publish those posts here. That said, the next five posts should be considered my belated MLB preseason predictions -- a preview, of sorts. There's the top five infields, outfields, bullpens, and starting rotations, and of course The Big Kahuna:

Continue reading "Note about forthcoming posts"

Manny Ramirez turned down the Dodgers 1 year-$25 million contract today. $25 million would have made Manny the second highest player this year. Can you guess who would be the highest? Maybe the third baseman for the New York Yankees?

Continue reading "Want $25 Million? Manny Ramirez Doesn't"

, the king of landing big name players (Martinez, Santana, Beltran), has "no interest" in Manny Ramirez. Ramirez is a raker with a long list of issues, but I'll take 500 ABs from him over the 500 from a Murphy/Tatis platoon. For all the headaches Manny causes, if getting him prevents another September choke job, then do it.

Continue reading "Mets "Not Interested" in Ramirez; ..."

iculties or the intended direction of the club.

Why have we taken such measures to steer clear of Manny Ramirez? What, it's not worth investing in one of the top five players in the world, a player who, offensively, is either or second or third best? We're talking about one of the greatest run producers in the history of the game, and a guy who showed absolutely no signs of slowing down after being traded to the Dodgers last season. 

Continue reading "Does anyone know what the Mets are thinking?"

18 and doubles with 54, and batted .326 with 17 homers and 83 ribbies.  Especially considering Manny Ramirez’s departure and injuries to David Ortiz and Mike Lowell, Youkilis and Pedroia carried the Red Sox offensively, all the way to a Wild Card berth.  Youkilis and Pedroia had a better supporting cast than Morneau, even by virtue of having one another—so Morneau is more deserving of the MVP but the two Sox are numbers two and three in my book.

Continue reading "MVP Award Picks"

    Manny Ramirez and the Dodgers' hot starting pitching has Los Angeles in first place by 4.5 games over the Diamondbacks in the NL West.  Just 10 games ago, Arizona was in first by 1.5 games, but the Dodgers have won eight of 10 and the D'Backs have lost eight of 10 to turn the tables.

Continue reading "Ayala Joins The Blown Save Party"

.  Injuries to David Ortiz and Mike Lowell have crippled the once-potent offense at times, and Manny Ramirez became a distraction before his departure.  If the Rays falter and Boston's rotation regains consistency once Josh Beckett returns, the Red Sox may have a shot at winning the division, but either way they should be in a dog fight for the Wild Card down the stretch.

Continue reading "Seven Runs: Too Little, Too Early"

easing by the day with his 8-0 record and five complete games in nine starts for the Brewers.  Manny Ramirez stopped playing hard when contract issues arose with Boston, but he's been tearing it up for the Dodgers, hitting over .400 with more RBI than games in Los Angeles.

Continue reading "Pelfrey Goes The Distance"

m Philadelphia in Los Angeles two weekends ago.  After that tough series against Joe Torre and Manny Ramirez, the Phillies meet the Mets for a quick two-game series at Citizens Bank Park.

Continue reading "Delgado, Easley Spark Comeback Against Braves"

dle of the batting order, and this move looks like Arizona's counter to the Dodgers' acquisition of Manny Ramirez.

    It's been interesting to see how some players have performed since being traded over the last couple of weeks; most of the hitters have been outstanding and most of the pitchers have been awful.  Xavier Nady has a .365 batting average, five home runs and 13 RBI in 15 games since joining the Yankees.  Jason Bay is hitting .333 with eight RBI and 11 runs scored in nine games with the Red Sox, and Manny has been tearing it up in Los Angeles, hitting .475 with four homers and 13 RBI in 10 games in Dodger blue.  On the other hand, Damaso Marte is 0-2 with a 9.00 ERA for the Yankees, and Kyle Farnsworth has an 8.31 ERA and has given up three homers in 4.1 innings for the Tigers.  Livan Hernandez gave up nine runs in 2.2 innings for Colorado on Sunday, after the Rockies acquired him from the Twins in a waiver deal.

Continue reading "Heilman Heads Up Another Bullpen Meltdown"

ce coming over from the Pirates and was named co-Player of the Week in the AL.

    Manny Ramirez went 4-5 with a home run and three RBI on Sunday to help the Dodgers split a four-game series with the Diamondbacks.  Los Angeles is just a game over .500, but only one game behind Arizona for first place in the NL West.  Manny is 8-13 with two homers and five RBI in three games as a Dodger, so it seems that he's once again playing hard.  Still, neither team in the division is going to run away with it, so the race should go down to the wire.

Continue reading "Shaky Pen Gets Mets Swept By 'Stros"

           Ye Gods, they traded Manny. I, for one, didn’t think it was going to happen. Manny’s rant on ESPN Desportes, notwithstanding, my money was on him staying. Though now that he’s gone and Joe Torre’s problem, I’m not as surprised as I thought I’d be or as disappointed, either. Ok, let’s face it. . first ballot Hall of Famer, who worked hard at his primary objective – hitting baseballs. Can’t fault his work ethic there. It was the other stuff that was a little troublesome. Doggin’ it to first base. Getting’ a big kick out of failing to toss a ball in from left field? We all chimed the mantra – Manny being Manny, but you know what? I’m not at all sure if I were his boss instead of a relatively (and I stress, relatively) devoted fan, I wouldn’t have just fired him. Sorry, boyo, you may think it’s funny that a guy advanced a base ‘cause you were too full of yourself to hustle, but I don’t find it amusing. Nor do I think bad-mouthing management was all that amusing either. . . Later. .

Continue reading "Ding Dong, the (Boston Red Sox) Witch is Dead"

o deal a top prospect to bring him into a town with this much pressure to win.

    Manny Ramirez would certainly be worth a top prospect or two, but Boston is looking for major league talent in return.  There have been rumors of a

Continue reading "Trade Market: Will The Mets Be Involved?"

Most of them are selected by the fans, with the expected popularity-contest results. Manny Ramirez is starting in left field, instead of Carlos Quentin (who is younger, a better defender and having a season that's as good as, if not better, than Manny's). Josh Hamilton (with superior offensive numbers) is in center, over the better defender (Grady Sizemore, with only slightly inferior offensive numbers). Jeter’s the starter at short, in spite of being as poor a defender as ever, with Mike Young (better on both sides of the ball) on the bench. Would you take Kevin Youlikis at first over Justin Morneau? Perhaps, or perhaps not—but Terry Francona must, because The Fans Said So.

Continue reading "Gimme A Break!"

lbon and the Red Sox in 10 innings on Sunday, Boston edging out Minnesota in a 1-0 stalemate with a Manny Ramirez RBI single in the eighth on Monday, Hiroki Kuroda flirting with a perfect game on Monday, the Pirates scoring three in the eighth to beat the Astros 4-3 on Tuesday, and the White Sox outlasting the Royals 8-7 in a back-and-forth 13-inning game on Tuesday.

Continue reading "Mets Go For Seven Straight Tonight at Shea"

           Hey, Sox Fans, how’s it been goin’? Been a while. . .

            I’ll be honest with you, following the Red Sox on a daily basis can turn into a full-time job, and this doesn’t even include the other teams you tend to watch as they jockey with the Sox for position. Just got out of the habit of writing about them.

Continue reading "The Boston Red Sox at mid-season ..."

Drew moved both over with a groundout, and Manny Ramirez walked to load the bases. After Lowell drove in Ellsbury with a sac fly to short left, the Yankees looked like they might escape without further damage, if they could only get one more out.

Continue reading "More Bad Yankee Luck"

there, I'm going to commit the ultimate fan heresy and argue against ARod, and in favor of Boston's Manny Ramirez, as the greatest hitter in the game today. He doesn't have anywhere near the defensive value that ARod does, and he's more of a clubhouse canker (I won't say "cancer" as he's more annoying than destructive) but he gets my nod for a consistently good eye, consistent power, and postseason performance. 

Continue reading "Manny Ramirez: Baseball's Best Active Hitter"

uding one last night where he moved into scoring position with two outs in the ninth inning, giving Manny Ramirez the opportunity to tie the game up with a mere single. Julio Lugo also has 5 steals and even the self-proclaimed lead footed Dustin Pedroia has contributed 4 steals. In total, 7 different Boston players have successfully swiped a base so far this season.

Continue reading "The Go Go . . . Red Sox?"

rfield job and now Boston seems content to hold onto him until it gets blown away by a trade offer. Manny Ramirez, who has started slowly the last couple of seasons, is also on fire and leading the team in RBI’s and coming through with a big hit almost every time the Red Sox need one, none bigger than his ninth inning home run last night in Cleveland to put the Red Sox ahead 6-4. Dustin Pedroia is also beginning to sting the ball around the field with more authority and sooner or later Mike Lowell will come off the disabled list and David Ortiz will snap out of his funk and the offense will be back to hitting on all cylinders.

Continue reading "Red Sox Should Feel Good About The Season So Far"

n the Major Leagues where pitchers are supremely adept at keeping hitters off balance and guessing. Manny Ramirez does not just roll out of bed and hit .300. He spends hours hitting in the cages, taking soft toss, and hitting off a tee to get his rhythm down and fine tune his swing. Batters constantly watch video looking for the slightest glitch that could be the difference between a week ground out to second base or a frozen rope hit into the gap. So when players are taken out of their routine and not given a chance to find their rhythm at the plate, even the best will struggle to get hits.

Continue reading "Red Sox Hitters Just Need to Find Their Rhythm"

           If you’re a baseball fan (any team), you know better than to get excited about the results of any single series of games. If you’ve been a Boston Red Sox fan for longer than (say) 10 years, you know better than to get excited about almost anything until (say) mid-September (and even then. . ).

Continue reading "Don't get too excited. . .but the ..."

I was so looking forward to watching the Boston Red Sox battle the Oakland As in Japan in what is the earliest opening season game in MLB history and figured that down here in North Carolina, I'd be less apt to hear about the score before I was able to watch a replay later in the day (I'm a fan, but 6 a.m. is just insane). Anyway, I stepped in to talk to my significant other around 9 a.m. and first thing, she tells me that according to Regis Philbin, the score is 4-4. Less than two hours later, I get an e-mail from a Sox fan down here, who tells me that they won, 6-5 in 10 innings. . . Grrrrrrr!

Continue reading "As I watch. . .the Boston Red Sox ..."

The recent induction of "The Spaceman" Bill Lee to the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame brought on a flood of memories, which, in addition to putting a smile on my face, brought to mind a rather cogent fact of Red Sox Nation life: We have always LOVED our characters; the stranger the better, it would seem, and Lee would have to rank up there among the strangest.

Continue reading "The Spaceman, Manny being Manny and ..."

With all indications that the Boston Red Sox will hit the field in 2008 with the exact same lineup as they did last October, I thought I'd take a look at that 2007 team and see just what the package consisted of.

Continue reading "If the Boston Red Sox were a 'single' ..."

Sean Casey, who helped the Tigers win their title in '06, is now a member of the Boston Red Sox, so I went fishing for a performance 'snapshot' of him to see what we were getting for our $800,000.

Continue reading "Casey at the Bat"

Before I start any major contributions geared toward a dialogue among fans of this major league baseball team, I consider it appropriate to define the word 'fan,' particularly as it relates to me and the Red Sox.

Continue reading "Boston Red Sox Fan - Defined"