Man Ram in TO

by bunner on Nov 8, 2010 1:14 PM EST

I work downtown Toronto about half a kilometre away from the dome. A Co Worker of mine just got back from lunch and saw Manny Ramirez walking down Bremner Blvd towards the Dome (with a hot piece of eye candy on his arm).

Wonder why Manny would be wondering around downtown Toronto with a companion within spitting distance of the Rogers Centre? Hmmmm

I'm not going to be too disappointed if the Jays bring Manny in at the right price.

Tweet Comment 22 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

Nice

Manny under $7 mill would be good and we would have to rely on the long ball even more next year. The likely attendance boost never hurts and will help offset his price tag, as well.

by lambo on Nov 8, 2010 1:40 PM EST reply actions

plus...

anyone with a .400+ OBP and the ability to hit with runners in scoring position will be a good addition to the Jays lineup.

If Manny comes in and replaces Lyle Overbay in the lineup (with Lind taking over at 1B) our offence will be GREATLY improved.

by bunner on Nov 8, 2010 1:49 PM EST up reply actions

Manny actually only hit 9HR last year

in 320 AB. Give him 650PA at DH and he doesn’t hit many more than 20 HR. His SLG was .460 last year.

I also want the Jays to sign Manny to DH (particularly if it’s not too expensive). However, his primary value at this stage in his career isn’t really his power bat, it’s his ability to get on base. While his SLG was .460 (good, not great for a power hitter), his OBA was .409, which is phenomenal and something the Jays really need.

You could argue that this past season was a down year for Manny, but he is in his late 30’s and his ISO has been trending downward since 2004. I think next year we are looking at similar rate stats from Manny over a full year if he DH’s. That’s still extremely valuable (his 2009 offensive stats was worth 4WAR pro-rated over a full season of PAs).

Though this may be somewhat controversial, I would actually advocate batting Manny 2nd in the lineup next year, to take advantage of that OBA. I might even bat him first, but the shouting from sports-yak radio would be too deafening.

I think a lineup with Escobar, Manny, Bautista, Lind, Wells, Snider, Hill looks pretty damn good.

by SuckaMD on Nov 8, 2010 1:58 PM EST up reply actions

Agree. I like the lineup:
1. Escobar – SS
2. Ramirez- dh
3. Bautista 3b
4. Wells – RF
5. Snider – LF
6. Lind – 1B/DH
7. Hill – 2B
8. JP/Molina – C
9. Mastroianni – CF

If Mastrioianni hits then move him up to the one or two spots. But regardless I like the lineup…

by peterzm on Nov 8, 2010 4:52 PM EST up reply actions

oh god no

in the realm of reality, Mastro hitting is going to be something like 700-725 OPS (pretty split between OBA and SLG). keep him at 9, he is not going to deserve 160 more PAs (though maybe in a season or two he’ll be worthy of them).

but I like that lineup very much as well… pretty dangerous, nicely balanced too

by benk on Nov 8, 2010 5:39 PM EST up reply actions

Ideally

I’d find a way to split up Lind and Snider, but that’s really just picking nits.

by SuckaMD on Nov 8, 2010 5:55 PM EST up reply actions

I was going to analyze

LHB/RHB balance but didn’t feel like it

by benk on Nov 8, 2010 6:01 PM EST up reply actions

I would put Ramirez

behind a power hitter. David Ortiz hasn’t been the same since Manny left.

by JaysSaskatchewan on Nov 8, 2010 6:15 PM EST up reply actions

1. Escobar
2. Snider
3. Ramirez
etc.

by neilrqm on Nov 8, 2010 9:45 PM EST up reply actions

The guy who lead MLB in HRs isn’t a power hitter?

by siggian on Nov 9, 2010 9:38 AM EST up reply actions

I was commenting on the lineup above which was:

1. Escobar – SS
2. Ramirez- dh
3. Bautista 3b
4. Wells – RF

by JaysSaskatchewan on Nov 10, 2010 5:10 PM EST up reply actions

apologies

by siggian on Nov 11, 2010 10:51 AM EST up reply actions

Assuming we actually have an outfield opening next year, is Darin Mastroianni really a serious candidate for consideration? He hasn’t even played in AAA yet. I know some people on here are big on this idea of having our pitchers skip AAA, but surely position players are a different story. To AAA young man, go forth and hit!

by jabalong on Nov 8, 2010 11:22 PM EST up reply actions

the thinking goes

(at least mine does) that while Mastro probably won’t hit much (optimistically 700-725 OPS, probably more like .680) he has shown excellent on-base ability through the minors (.375 career OBA, .390 last year in AA). he’s also got great speed (85% steal rate with 166 swipes in the minors) and plays ++ defense in centre – which lets Wells slide to RF, giving us a plus defender there too (JoBau would slide to third). as well, doing that lets us non-tender E5 to save cash and give Manny a two-year deal without a huge amount of financial risk.

by my estimation, Mastro would be about even in fielding runs playing centre, which gives us at least 7 RAR (Wells was okay there this year, but I don’t he’ll have a better year considering his two previous years were very bad) and Wells could easily be a 10 RAR player in RF, which would be another win and a half. so doing so is almost certainly a substantial upgrade on defense, and it lets us sign a much more productive DH (Manny had 4 WAR offensive numbers last year) while keeping Lind’s bounceback season in the lineup

by benk on Nov 9, 2010 12:27 AM EST up reply actions

He was spotted at Real Sports the other day too.

Eternal Hope
Twitter is the thing with all the tweets...

by JohnnyG on Nov 8, 2010 1:56 PM EST reply actions

Well... i think the last thing we need is another HR threat....

So a guy like Manny with his on base skills and his ability to hit with risp would be a great addition to our lineup… i´d have no problem with a 20 HR season and a OBA north of .400

"Without a catcher we´ll have a lot of passed balls!" Casey Stengel

by jaysfanfromeurope on Nov 8, 2010 2:34 PM EST reply actions

more homers

is better than fewer homers. perhaps not at the expense of OBA, but top “sluggers” are rarely just “mash the ball” types. Adam Dunn, the prototypical “slugger” (as in, hit it out or strike out) takes tonnes of walks

by benk on Nov 8, 2010 5:40 PM EST up reply actions

well, that's what makes Dunn a particularly valuable player

arguably the top offensive FA this offseason. I’m sure we could find plenty of guys who can mash the ball like Dunn, strike out a lot when they don’t make contact, but don’t walk a lot. Problem is, those guys aren’t very good and thus won’t stick around as long as Dunn will in MLB.

“Sluggers” as a group don’t necessarily take a lot of walks, its just that the good ones do because they wouldn’t be good if they didn’t.

by SuckaMD on Nov 8, 2010 5:56 PM EST up reply actions

"Man Ram"? Seriously?

Tell me you didn’t just refer to Manny Ramirez as “Man Ram”. Oh god, Google actually shows this as being one of his nicknames. If Ramirez signs with Toronto, let’s make a pact here to never refer to him this way again.

Might as well just cue the Blue Oyster theme every time he comes to the plate. Man Ram, geez.

by jabalong on Nov 8, 2010 11:28 PM EST reply actions 1 recs

You never heard him referred to as ManRam?

I thought that was a standard commonly known nickname for him.

Eternal Hope
Twitter is the thing with all the tweets...

by JohnnyG on Nov 9, 2010 9:25 AM EST up reply actions

I guess I’ve never paid much attention to Manny Ramirez over his career. That’s one of the worst nicknames I’ve ever heard for a player. “ManRam” is totally gay (not that there’s anything wrong with that). :P

by jabalong on Nov 9, 2010 9:53 AM EST up reply actions