2010 Baseball Thread No. 2 (which was my Little League number!)

Surely, there's an apologistic LeBetard column/blog post in the works, no?

In related news, I'm (not so) secretly hoping this thing escalates and the Marlins fire Gonzalez, so that the Braves can hire him as Bobby Cox's replacement. The guy's a damn good manager. He's work wonders with a shoestring budget in a pretty tough division.

 

The lack of hustle by Ramirez on that play is disgraceful.

 

And just when you thought it couldn't get any better, Ramirez busts out ...

“That’s OK. He doesn’t understand that. He never played in the big leagues,” he said.

 

The last offer to Damon was for one year at $5 million. They gave him one last shot at it, then gave it to Johnson. No way Damon was ever going to take that. At that point, it was most definitely Damon or Johnson.

Try to revise history all you want. Johnson was signed because they were playing games with Damon. Rather than stick with their previous offers, they decided to lowball him and it failed.

 

They made a $5 millon offer to Damon in FEBRUARY .... 2 months after Johnson was signed ... to be a back-up outfielder and sometimes DH. They turned around and used that $5 mill for Winn and Thames.

Yes, they played games with Damon, but the first offer was 2 years, $14 mill and an option year. Bor-ass first tried to compare Damon's stats to Jeter and wanted 10 or 12 mill a year for two or three years.
And given where they are in the standings, I don't think they miss Damon a whole lot, even if Johnson never plays another game.

 

No, there were rumors that they still might sign Damon. Besides, they knew he wouldn't take one year at $5 million. Just like they knew Torre wouldn't take the offer they made him when he left. In both cases, it was about PR, not a real offer.

I said all along that they have enough bats to overcome it, or they may just trade for/buy another one if they need the help. Still, that team is in a lot better shape right now with Damon than with Johnson and that was the decision they made.

Bottom line is they got stuck counting on Johnson as their primary DH because they played games with Damon. There was no good reason to pull the 2-year, $14 million offer. They just wanted to prove a point. That led them to wasting $5 mil on Johnson, now in his customary place on the disabled list.

 

What is it with Florida Marlins players hatin' on managers who never played in the bigs? Isn't that what got John Boles fired in 2003? (of course, Boles was replaced by Jack McKeon, who also never played in the majors).

When will this cease to be a big deal in baseball, the way it is in football? By my count, there are nine current big-league managers who never played in the majors. And four of the ones who did are Jerry Manuel, Don Wakamatsu, Brad Mills and Tony LaRussa, who combined for about 500 major-league at-bats.

Of all the managers in baseball, I'd say only Joe Torre, Lou Piniella, Bud Black, Dusty Baker and Ozzie Guillen were what you would call "good" major-league players (though Torre, you could argue, was a "great" major-league player). The rest of them were back-up catchers (A.J. Hinch, Bruce Bochy), utility infielders (Bobby Cox, Ron Gardenhire) or pinch-hitting specialists (Charlie Manuel, Terry Francona).

EDIT: To include Bud Black

 

And who knew you had to play the game to be able to recognize a guy lollygagging his ass after a ball he kicked 150 feet while the other team has guys laughing their way around the bases.

 

The Brewers are taking the concept of sucking, polishing it, perfecting it and honing it into a new science.

And Trevor Hoffman should never see the mound again. He may have exceeded Willie Mays-as-a-Met level of a sad end to his career. Didn't retire a single batter today in his blown save against the Reds.

 

the replay of the ramirez play is the only evidence ANYONE needs to merit keeping his talented ass glued to the bench until he apologizes to the manager and all of his teammates. what a disgrace. and then he compounds it by blaming it on a hbp in the previous inning? what a dog.

he didn't even other to fake a limp going after the kicked ball. just jogged his sorry ass after it. again, a DISGRACE.

WOOF-WOOF. BOW-WOW.

 

Derek Turnbow says hi.

 

I thought it was only BYH who thought Scioscia was overrated ...