Remember in the film Money Ball when Brad Pitt a.k.a. Billy Beane is sitting in a room with his “guys” going over certain players? After he scolds them for trying to replace Giambi and Damon yet again, he hold up names of three different players all of whom were previously passed off by his guys for one reason or another. Jeremy Giambi had off the field issues, David Justice was to old and Scott Hatteberg couldn’t throw the ball due to deteriorated elbow ligament. After he took each name and threw it on the board he received backlash but then he said that what each of these players could do was get on base.
Well folks the Money Ball mantra is still alive and well in Oakland as the Athletics have signed Manny Ramirez to a minor-league deal on Monday, which opens up possibilities in the latest of rounds for prospective fantasy owners this season. Just like the three players Beane mentions in the movie, Ramirez is viewed as flawed by just about everyone else, and in many ways he is flawed. The silver lining? You guessed it, he gets on base.
What We Know
As a pure hitter Ramirez will go down amongst some of the best of all time. He’s a lifetime .312/.411/.585 hitter, he’s 14th all time with 555 home runs and 18th all time in RBI’s with 1,831. To crack the top 10 on the home run list, Manny would need 28 home runs, but we certainly don’t see that happening.
Beyond his lifetime statistics we also know that when he’s played in the O.co Coliseum in the past he’s hit .316/.419/.527 in 65 career games which bodes well for his future prospect this season.
The bottom line here is that while Manny will be in a limited role with the team, he should be able to get on base enough to warrant a late (ie. last round) flier pick to anyone interested. Furthermore he’ll make for great daily fantasy baseball pickup on most sites assuming his price is low when he returns from his suspension. Speaking of suspension lets talk about the risks.
The Risks
This list could probably be a bit longer than I’m going to make it, but to say that drafting Manny is a low risk play, even if its in the last round of a draft would simply be a lie. For starters the guy is going to be 40 years old in May, which is not exactly prime baseball playing age. Surely he can still whack some balls out of the park, but overall everything decreases with age; bat speed, power, speed, etc. Stuff like this is why players turn to performing enhancing drugs, which brings us to our next point.
Manny will serve a 50 game suspension to start off the 2012 MLB season, which means that at the earliest he will return to the big leagues on June 2nd. Missing a 3rd of the season is reason enough for most prospective owners to take a pass on the aging slugger, and rightfully so. For most of you that are competing in 8-10 man leagues you’ll be able to pick up Manny off of waivers before he returns anyway.
The last major concern I have is whether or not Manny will decide to pack it in again and return once and for all as the 50 game suspension bears down on him. This is a sentiment that many in the industry have been echoing as of late and rightfully so. Trying to get inside the mind of someone as off the wall as Manny Ramirez is no easy task.
At the end of the day if you’re in a deep league you might consider taking a flier on him, those in shallow leagues should be able to pick him up off waivers, and those in daily leagues can wait until he returns before deploying him.
What are your thoughts on the Manny Ramirez return to baseball? Let us know on Twitter, Facebook or the comment section below.
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Regardless of issues both on and off the field with Manny Ramirez, he deserves a proper exit. He used performance enhancing drugs, so what, who wasn’t during his era. One of the most feared hitters in the game over the last 20 years deserves a proper exit and a return to baseball.