At the midway this year, the All-Star Break, the
L.A. Dodgers were one game short of playing .500 ball. The good news was they were the same distance from 1st place in the National League's Western Division. The bad news has been injuries to Nomo Garciaparra and especially to Rafael Furcal.But the really, really bad news was that Andruw Jones has been drawing a salary of $14,726,910 for playing baseball this year.
$14 Million and he's hitting .161! The traditional standard for measuring absolute failure at hitting has been the Mendoza Line: is the batter hitting his weight? Since Jones weighs 240 lbs, that means he's only been hitting 2/3rds of his weight! At the plate he's been looking hopeless, if not legally blind. Additionally. Jones' multi-year contract at that level was killing the Dodgers' trading opportunities for the rest of the season. Those of us out here who bleed Dodger Blue had given up on all hope.And then ... A miracle!
Future Hall-of-Famer Manny Ramirez falls into our laps! Manny makes $20,000,000 this year, but the Dodgers don't have to pay a cent! The Boston Red Sox were fed up with him and gave him up for a couple of mitts and a bat or two.
Ramirez is a contact hitter. He doesn't like to go deep into the strike zone, but hits the first pitch close to it. He's a smart hitter who loves to play the game. Even when he strikes out, he's enjoys the play. Because of that, Ramirez appears immune to pressure, and hits well in the clutch with runners on. On his current season, including his time with Bosox, he's hitting 310, with 22 home runs. That's twice as much as any 
other Dodger in 2008. He's hit two homers in his first three games in L.A.! He's picked up the entire Dodger line-up.The heck with the Olympics! Let the 2008 Season begin!
Do I read this correctly?
ReplyDeleteM. Ramirez is the talented and natural outsider who brings with him the audacity of hope? And A. Jones is the veteran hero whose best years are behind him?
The remaining schedule does not favor L.A. The Dodgers will start a six-game trip in St. Louis, facing a contending Cardinals team that took two of three from them at Dodger Stadium in May and owns a 15-5 record against them since the start of the 2005 season. The Dodgers have 20 games against teams with winning records, 14 over the next three weeks, including eight games against NL East-leading Philadelphia. The Diamondbacks over the same stretch face only one team with a record better than .500, the Florida Marlins. The Dodgers and Diamondbacks have six more games against each other, the first three of which will be in Arizona at the end of the month.
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