Manny Ramirez as a Brave?
Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 2:42 pm
The local team needs a big bat and a left fielder. Manny Ramirez swings a big bat and plays left field and is a free agent. If you’re the Braves, do you chase him?
Yes, he’s a Scott Boras client, and the Braves regard Boras as the root of all evil. But Manny is also the kind of professional run-producer they lack, and his work with the Dodgers in the final two months and especially the postseason, during which he reached base two-thirds of the time, indicates he’s a young 36.
Yes, but he’s also Manny Ramirez. He loafed his way out of Boston, the same adoring city that toasted Manny the 2004 World Series MVP to the max. He’s as strange a character as there is, and the Braves have an aversion to strange characters. (John Rocker wore out his welcome in about eight seconds, Kenny Lofton in 10.)
Yes, but the Braves need a Manny in the worst way. This has become a team without oomph and without personality, and Manny, for better and worse, would supply both. He’d enliven the clubhouse, energize the batting order and re-ignite the fan base.
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