2009 March « Mike Scioscia's tragic illness

New Headline: ESPN Is Trying To Kill Me

March 3, 2009 at 6:05 pm | Posted in Manny Ramirez | 8 Comments

Per MLBtraderumors and ESPN, Manny’s agreed to a… wait for it… two year, $45 million deal. Hey, glad we waited four extra months to agree to the same deal that was proposed in November!

Details to come.

The unhappiest man in camp? No, it’s not Juan Pierre. It’s Danny Ardoin – just you wait and see.

Update: This is what I get for trusting Enrique Flerking Rojas. Jayson Stark – you know, someone with actual writing credentials – is now saying:

A source told ESPN.com’s Jayson Stark that obstacles still remain to completing the contract.

Enrique Rojas: the worst…. person…. in the woooooorld!!!

(besides Boras and McCourt, of course.)

Update #2: And just in case there was any doubt, MLBTR adds:

8:32pm: Will Selva, the anchor on staff for ESPNews, says Rojas’ report is “false.”

I Have Bad News and Worse News

March 2, 2009 at 5:27 pm | Posted in Frank McCourt, Ivan DeJesus, Manny Ramirez, Scott Boras | 4 Comments

Bad News: As I mentioned yesterday, this whole “making me sympathize with Scott Boras” thing needs to stop, now-ish. Because it’s really making me feel dirty. The kind of dirt that just a shower won’t wash off; we’re talking a full bio-hazard cleansing here, complete with guys in radiation suits spraying you with pressure washers as your clothes are incinerated and the ashes launched into space.

Oh, don’t get me wrong – Scott Boras is not the “good guy” here. It’s his own stubbornness and refusal to see the truth that’s gotten us to this point. As ESPN’s Jayson Stark astutely noted,

When you’re mixed up in a major free-agent negotiation with Scott Boras, you know it’s going to take a really … really … really … long … time. So you know you’re going to need patience, patience, more patience and also, well, patience. But on this Manny Ramirez front, Boras has outdone himself, even by his own slow-mo standards. Think about this. On Wednesday, it will be exactly four months since the Dodgers offered Manny a two-year, $45 million contract.

And now, FOUR MONTHS LATER, what are these two sides still talking about? A two-year, $45 million contract. Is this the theater of the absurd, or what? How many weeks ago, how many months ago, would an agent who was a deal-maker have gotten this done? But not this agent. He’s so obsessed with squeezing every last non-deferred penny out of this contract that he has somehow allowed the offseason, for this player, to extend into March.

So it’s pretty clear that Boras could have avoided this whole mess months ago had he merely accepted the reality of the situation. But, as we all know, the sides are merely $1.5 million apart now, and Boras made what seems to be a reasonable counteroffer, as I noted yesterday. And what was Frank McCourt’s response?

Because he said so.

That was more or less the reason Dodgers owner Frank McCourt gave Sunday morning for refusing to consider a proposal made to him by Manny Ramirez’s agent, which differed from an offer the Ramirez camp made last week only in the timing of the payments.

“He won’t even consider it.” Surely, there must be a mistake. I like Dylan Hernandez a lot, but he had to have misheard here; why would McCourt just ignore an offer after he gave Boras such grief for doing the same?

But why not consider the offer when the two sides appear to be so close?

“Because we’re going to start from scratch,” McCourt said.

But why start from scratch when you’re so close?

“I answered it twice,” McCourt said.

Oh. Well, now I understand. What exactly are you trying to do? You have Boras down to just about your offer; are you trying to drive Manny into the arms of the Giants? This is getting ridiculous, and not only because I feel like I’ve made the same post four days in a row. Yes, Frank, you hate Scott Boras. WE GET IT. We all do, no argument there. But you know what I’d hate to see more? Manny Ramirez, starting left fielder for the San Francisco Giants, hitting a ball so hard to left field that it collapses the head of Juan Pierre, starting left fielder for the Dodgers. (Well, okay. There’s some part of me that wouldn’t hate that. Love you, Juan!) So please, Frank. I’m begging you. We all are. Enough with trying to run up the score, and enjoy your victory. Just end this already.

Worse News: As mentioned in several places, shortstop prospect Ivan DeJesus, Jr., broke his left leg on a play at the plate in this morning’s game and is likely out for the season. While the Dodgers still have pretty nice depth behind Rafael Furcal in Chin-Lung Hu, Tony Abreu, Mark Loretta, and possibly even Blake DeWitt, this is a pretty big blow for the man named as the Dodgers #2 prospect by Baseball Prospectus. Reaching Triple-A, as he almost certainly would have this year, at 21 would have been pretty impressive, and although he’s still young, losing an entire year of development is a killer. Besides, look at the “bad” section from that BP report:

He has slightly above-average speed, but there is some concern that he’ll play his way off of shortstop if he loses a step or two, which would downgrade his projection dramatically.

Let’s hope that this broken leg doesn’t take away any of that speed, for his sake and ours. And yeah, that might not be the greatest picture in the world of him… but I didn’t want to jump on the “Shea Hillenbrand sliding into second base” train that everyone else did.

How Mind-Blowing Is It That Boras Might Actually Not Be the Bad Guy Right Now?

March 1, 2009 at 6:08 pm | Posted in Manny Ramirez | 12 Comments

Well, okay, that might be going too far; Scott Boras is clearly always going to be a greedy soul-sucking demon who takes the fun out of baseball and probably literally takes candy from children, and that’s not going to change.

But after all the months and months of piling on Boras for his insane salary ideas for Manny in the face of a horrible economy, complete lack of suitors, and Manny’s age and questionable history, we have somehow reached the point where Boras isn’t even public enemy #1 in the eyes of Dodger fans right now: it’s Frank McCourt. And believe me, I do not enjoy saying that. I’m a Dodger fan first and foremost, and I don’t get paid to write this blog – I do it out of love. Despite not even growing up in Los Angeles, this is the team I’ve followed since I was seven years old, and I want nothing more than to see them win a title for the first time since, well, I was seven years old. So when Scott Boras - after all of the vitriol directed towards him – is no longer the main bad guy in this tragicomedy, because McCourt has now assumed that role? Well, you know you’re doing something wrong.

Because, after all of the “he said, she said” back and forth and this latest imbroglio over deferred money, we entered the day thinking that the sides were steadfast. The Dodgers were willing to offer two years and $45 million, with more than half deferred, while Boras noted that he would accept a two year $45 million deal if none of the money were deferred – which would still be a huge win for the Dodgers, considering that for months Boras refused to come down off of four years and $108 million.

Except that today, we learn from multiple sources that Boras and Manny have announced they’ll compromise even further and accept deferred money. Diamond Leung has it:

Manny Ramirez is speaking out, and he’s willing to “compromise” and accept deferred payments in a contract to re-sign with the Dodgers, agent Scott Boras said in a statement Sunday.

Boras said Ramirez directed him to make the Dodgers a third two-year contract proposal “with some deferred compensation,” placing the value of the contract at $43.5 million. The second-year player option was not specified in the statement, but was something Boras wanted included in previous two-year offers.

Ramirez apparently now wants a contract in between the two-year, $45 million contract without deferrals that Boras proposed on Friday and the team’s two-year, $45 million offer with deferrals that Boras values at $42 million.

Sounds like Manny’s trying to meet in the middle, no? In fact, as Jon Heyman puts it:

According to the email, the Dodgers, who offered a $45 million contract with a value of $42 million, have yet to respond. It appears the sides are now about $1.5 million apart in their offers.

Anyone want to explain to me what the hold up is? As I said on Friday, you’ve won, Mr. McCourt. You’ve beaten mega-agent Scott Boras. Is there any need to try to trounce him? It may be that you just personally dislike him – and believe me, I don’t begrudge you that – but this has gone on long enough. This is an offer you should be jumping on, and if the sides are this close and it doesn’t get done, believe me when I say that you will be the one bearing the brunt of public blame. Considering that we’re talking about, in your opposition, a man who is made of pure evil and has been laughing away $20m+ offers while millions are out of work, that’s really saying something.

Do it, Frank. Now.

Oh, and just in case anyone’s forgotten how much this team needs Manny… Juan Pierre is 0-for-the-spring so far. But hey, at least he got thrown out stealing today.