eastbaybaseball

Manny Ramirez has finally been traded and sends his homers and headaches to the Los Angeles Dodgers in a three team, six player blockbuster deal. Manny Ramirez goes to the Dodgers, Jason Bay, formerly of the Pittsburgh Pirates, goes to the Boston Red Sox, 3B Andy Laroche and P Ryan Morris of the Dodgers, P Craig Hansen and OF Brandon Moss of the Red Sox goes to the Pirates in the deal.  This deal automatically upgrades a Dodgers lineup managed by the great Joe Torre without giving up one of their young stars Matt Kemp or Andre Ethier and only giving up a couple prospects that didn’t even go to the Red Sox. The Dodgers lineup is deep with Ramirez and with the return of their ace Brad Penny to the rotation and hoping Nomar Garciaparra recovers from a recent injury and returns to full health and field SS for them, they look to make a run at the NL West and possibly contend for the World Series. However, they must get to the playoffs first. They have a big four-game series against the first place Arizona Diamondbacks that starts tonight, however Manny looks to make his Dodger debut to be a part of that series in Game 2 tomorrow night at home in Los Angeles. It is going to be an exciting series and Dodgers fans must be stoked to have a future hall of famer and big-named Star, starring and playing for Hollywood’s hometown team.   

  The Red Sox don’t feel that they lost in this deal because they lost their headache in Manny Ramirez and gets a fairly young, power-hitting outfielder in Jason Bay that gets to play in his first meaningful games, as well as looks to have the same production as Manny in that Bay is hitting .282 with 22HR and 64 RBI, but must contribute quick to win over the Red Sox fans and help their team to the playoffs to defend their title.

The Pirates must be excited for their future as they get possibly four more major-league ready prospects (in LaRoche, Morris, Moss, and Hansen) to help in their rebuilding project for 09′ and beyond.   Andy LaRoche must be sad to leave the Dodgers, but excited to be reuniting with his older brother Adam LaRoche, who currently is the first baseman of the Pirates, but is on the 15-day disabled list. 

Other Notes: Sigh….GM Brian Sabean and the Giants didn’t make any deals as the trade deadline passed to get rid of some veterans either to lack of interest or being to picky and must be disappointing to the fans who are ready to rebuild with the young guys and still have some of these aging veterans on the squad. It doesn’t help that their team is second to last  (4th) in the NL West and has one of the worst records in the majors, and Bochy continues to try and showcase and play these guys.