The Trolley Dodger

Let me give you another example of the Red Sox propaganda machine hard at work. Peter Gammons (I know, big surprise) posted an ESPN Insider article on Friday in which he discusses the Pedro Alvarez situation and includes some more shots at Manny. Check this out:

Management people point out that Boras proudly orchestrated the Manny Ramirez shutdown in Boston and, as Boras has told GMs, got Ramirez where he wanted him in Los Angeles. Getting a player to opt out in the middle of his contract and essentially refuse to honor what he’d signed isn’t easy, but the Red Sox are 16-8 since the trade, and, when they scroll down the ESPN.com sortable stats, find that Jason Bay has more runs created than Ramirez.

Unlike Gammons, I actually went to ESPN’s sortable stats and did some sorting.

As I mentioned in “Who wrote Bill Shaikin’s column?”, Manny hit .347/.473/.587/1.060 for the Red Sox in July. How is that not honoring his contract, especially with Big Papi out of the lineup?

Here’s August 1st-31st for Manny and Jason Bay:

Player  AB  R   H   2B  3B  HR  RBI BB  SO  BA  OBP SLG OPS
Ramirez 106 21  44  7   0   9   25  18  18  415 508 736 1.244
Bay     111 22  35  6   2   4   29  8   26  315 358 514 871

Not to take anything away from Jason Bay — he had a fine August — but to suggest that his fine August was significantly better than Manny’s in any way is just Red Sox propaganda of the worst kind.

I like Peter Gammons and his writing; he seems like a personable guy. But this is just blatant and willfully wrong.

Congratulations to our third baseman on his first career homer! :)

Oh, and a hearty “Way to go!” to the rest of our power-hitting lineup, who have a trio of homers so far in tonight’s game. :)

AB R H  2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO  AVG  OBP  SLG  OPS
45 5 10 3  0  0   6  0  0  3  8  .222 .308 .289 .597
40 3 7  1  0  1   2  0  0  6  11 .175 .283 .275 .558
41 4 6  2  0  0   4  1  0  7  11 .146 .271 .195 .466
43 6 3  0  0  1   3  0  0  9  10 .070 .231 .140 .370
40 3 4  1  0  0   1  0  0  6  14 .100 .217 .125 .342

(See below.)

(more…)

Andruw Jones, though April 12th, 2007.

G  PA  AB  R  H 2B 3B HR RBI  BB IBB  SO  BA    OBP   SLG   OPS
10 43  37  6  7  3  0  2   5   6   0  14 .189  .302  .432  .734 

Andruw Jones, through April 11th, 2008

G  PA  AB  R  H 2B 3B HR RBI  BB IBB  SO  BA    OBP   SLG   OPS
10 38  35  0  4  1  0  0   1   3   0  11 .114  .184  .143  .327

Rumor has it the Cubs are looking for a CF and are taking a serious look at Coco Crisp.

The Cubs were reportedly looking to resign Juan Pierre before the Dodgers picked him up. (They gave up a lot to get him in the first place.)

From a Cubs news item on February 2007:

Long gone
CF Juan Pierre: He led the NL in hits with 204 and swiped 58 bases, third-best in franchise history. But Pierre left via free agency because he wanted a long-term deal, and the Cubs didn’t want to block prospect Pie. They’ll miss Pierre’s expertise — he was a good mentor for young players — and his energy.

Think they’d still be interested? If they’re that interested in Crisp, why not Pierre if we subsidized the salary?

2007 stats

PLAYER G   AB  R  H   2B 3B HR RBI SB  BA   OBP  SLG
Crisp  145 526 85 141 28 7  6  60  28 .268 .330 .382
Pierre 162 668 96 196 24 8  0  41  64 .293 .331 .353