Stupid is as stupid does...

The Manny news out of La-La Land...

The Dodgers announced Thursday night the star outfielder’s agent Scott Boras had declined a $25 million, one-year contract with a $20 million player option for 2010. It was the club’s fourth offer to Ramirez this offseason.

“We want Manny back, but we feel we are negotiating against ourselves,” Dodgers owner Frank McCourt said in a statement. “When his agent finds those ‘serious offers’ from other clubs, we’ll be happy to restart the negotiations.”

Nice to see some team management that's not willing to negotiate against themselves to get talent in their folds. As for Ramirez, it appears he and Scott Boras are negotiating his way out of baseball.

Someone needs to explain to Ramirez that market value isn't what his agent tells him it is, rather it's set by what someone is willing to pay. Evidently his market value is two years at $45 million less his agent's commission.

Congrats to Tom Brady on the nuptials.

After a rough stretch it looks like the Bruins are back on track.

Gotta admit, I thought the Celtics game against the then 14 win Clippers was a gimme. Evidently they did too.

It looks like Fred Taylor will be the newest member of the Patriots backfield. Taylor will be providing additional depth to a backfield that includes Kevin Faulk, Laurence Maroney, Sammy Morris, and BenJarvus Green-Ellis. My guess is that Heath Evans gets re-signed and that a back will be picked in the late rounds to round out the team's depth at the position in training camp.

Irony is funny and other thoughts...

So the Dodgers look like they have finally found a solution to the soap opera that is the Manny Ramirez situation.

As every Sox fan knows, Ramirez pulled every trick in the book in order to engineer his exit from Boston because he believed he could make more money if he was out from under the Sox's onerous two option years at $20 million per. Reportedly Ramirez's agent, Scott Boras, told Man-Ram that he could potentially land a four-year $100+ million deal. It looks like he's going to get a one year $25 million deal with a player's option for a second year at $20 million.

That means, in essence, that Ramirez landed a raise of $2.5 million (once you take out Scott Boras' commission) only if Ramirez doesn't exercise his option year. If he does, then all he's done is engineer a $500,000.00 raise spread over two years, but he's managed to pay Boras $4.5 million for pretty much the same money he would have made anyway had he stayed with the Sox.

Gotta love the irony.

Over on the gridiron I've been wondering what the Pats brain-trust has planned for the off-season in regards to rebuilding. I know that what I might see as an issue, or as the most important needs are not necessarily what Bill Belichick sees as the team's greatest needs.

Biggest need -

For whatever reason, last season the pass rush was horrible. Brutal might be the best word. Had the pass rush actually existed, the Pats probably would have beaten the Jets in the overtime game, might have actually made a game of it against the Chargers, and probably would have won the game against the Colts. Part of the issue was Ty Warren playing the season with a pulled groin, but I wouldn't be surprised to see them grab another defensive linemen in the middle rounds in an effort to add depth to the ends. I think it's more likely that they will try to find the solution, however, with an outside linebacker in the early rounds.

Second biggest need -

Defensive back would appear to be the next biggest need on the Pats radar. I put this behind the pass rush because a solid pass rush can cover for all sorts of sins in the defensive back-field, and lord knows that the Pats didn't have a solid pass rush last season. Also, due to injury, the team was forced to play a lot of young players that really had to learn on the job, some of whom may turn into solid DB's. However, I still think this is an area that they will address through free-agency or the draft in an effort to find a starting caliber corner.

Other places -

Depth on the offensive line - last season protection was an issue for two reasons; one - Matt Cassel had to get up to game speed after playing little since high school and often, early in the season held on to the ball too long and took the sack rather than throwing the ball away. Unfortunately, this issue was compounded by the fact that half the starting offensive line was injured for half the year.

I figure the team will, like in every year since Jabar Gaffney got there, look for a third receiver to slot in behind Randy Moss and Wes Welker.

The team will also draft or sign a free agent quarterback to compete with Matt Guttierez for the third string QB slot once the team trades Matt Cassel.

Other Patriot thoughts -

No, the team will not bring in Marvin Harrison.

I think Laurence Maroney is running on borrowed time.

I'd like to see the team bring Heath Evans back.

I'm curious to see if Larry Izzo is hit with a suspension for his admission to using performance enhancers provided by Greg Anderson.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Rosevelt Colvin back in camp with the Patriots. I wouldn't be surprised if he wasn't either - but I can see him being given the opportunity to make the team as a bench player.

Those option years don't look so bad now, do they?

Evidently Manny Ramirez isn't getting a whole lot of love in the free-agency market.

His reaction is to threaten retirement if he doesn't get the deal he wants.

So far the only contract offer the 36-year old Ramirez has received is the two-year $45 million contract that the Dodgers have since pulled off the table.

I said before that Ramirez and his agent Scott Boras were working under some delusional assumptions, one of which being that someone was going to throw a ton of cash at a 36 year old slugger in a long term deal, but that's only one part of his problem. Ramirez dug his own hole, and here's how...

Ramirez, a supremely gifted hitter, helped the Red Sox and Dodgers to, and in the case of the Sox, through the post season, and could, possibly, have four good seasons left in him. However, he has a history of playing only when he wants it - and his time with the Dodgers is a perfect example of that.

After obviously giving up on the Red Sox (including an obvious attempt at interfering with a fellow fielder by rolling over and sitting on the baseball in one game), Ramirez, knowing that his option years were voided in the trade with the Dodgers, very obviously turned the switch back on and was playing for a contract. Yes, Ramirez has the talent to help a team...almost any team, but GM's everywhere are going to wonder everyday which Ramirez they're going to get - the guy that plays hard? Or the prima donna that's going to lay down like railroad tracks just because he doesn't feel like playing that day?

This is not a guy who toughs it out, he's not a guy who plays through injury, and, by all accounts, is not a team guy. No, he's not the Barry Bonds who destroys club house chemistry, but he's also not the guy the goes out and has a beer with his teammates - unless he's playing for a contract.

Another issue for Ramirez was his complaint about the lack of privacy playing in Boston. Well, the only other team that can lay out the money over four to five years the way the Sox can is in the Bronx - and there's no more privacy there. Not so curiously, Brian Cashman has stayed away from Ramirez thus far. Now, I'm not saying it can't or won't happen - as a matter of fact, I think that the Yankees will go after him if the Sox sign Texiera, but I still don't think Boras is going to land his client the contract he kept telling Ramirez he could get if only he didn't have those option years.

The bottom line - either Ramirez makes good on his promise to retire because he's not getting the contract he wanted (and he won't), or he sucks it up to take a shorter contract (which assures a GM he will play hard for the next contract) with less money than he wanted. I think the latter happens, because no GM is going to invest $100 million over four years in someone he's worried is going to quit on him. In today's economic climate, those people that can still pay to go to games will run that GM out of town for paying a guy like that if he's not earning his money.

Can't say I feel for ya, Manny.

Bay State and fishing for a contract...

The first pitch Manny Ramirez saw in a Red Sox uniform was knocked out of the park. The first at bat with the Dodgers resulted in a ground out.

The line for Manny in his first game for the Dodgers 2 for 4 (two singles), no RBI's, no runs scored, one man left in scoring position, and he grounded into a double play that killed the Dodgers chances for a come from behind win in the ninth inning. Bay, on the other hand, went 1 for 3, walked twice and scored both of the Sox' runs in their win to go along with a highlight reel catch in left.

Sure, that's one game, and ten games, twenty games, fifty games from now, the end result might be very different, but I still don't think so. I think the pundits that believe the Red Sox lost out in this trade haven't paid close attention to Manny over the last couple of seasons - I'm not talking about this season - but this, the last, and the one before that. This is, as I noted in a previous post, how the two stack up against each other...

Ramirez has hit 75 home runs and driven in 258, while Bay has 78 homers and driven in 257 in the Pirates line-up. Bay has not had hitters like David Ortiz, Mike Lowell and Kevin Youkilis around him.

Based on those numbers, Ramirez sabotaged his remaining days with the Red Sox, engineering the trade in an effort to avoid the team held $20 million per year options and, according to his agent, land a new four year deal worth $100 mil. $25 mil per year. For the same guy nobody would claim on waivers. In his prime. For less money than that.

Now he's older, his stats aren't as good, and the Red Sox had to pay the Dodgers to take him.

And somehow, he believes that he's going to get better than $20 million per year on the market for the next four.

I guess that's just another case of Manny being Manny. Although I suppose, depending on how it all plays out, it could be a case of Manny being Nomar - the man who was insulted by the Sox' 4-year $60 million contract extension, became disgruntled in the club house, and, as a result, was traded to the Cubs. Nomar, who began to show signs of being...fragile...had an undistinguished second half and, as a result, has made approximately half the money he would have made had he signed the extension.

Manny will be better than Nomar was, but he's not going to put up the numbers in cavernous Dodger Stadium that he did in the friendly confines of Fenway, batting in the 21st ranked offense, as opposed to the fourth. Just like that will negatively affect his offensive production, Bay's move from the Pirates to the Red Sox should positively influence his.