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i would not my team (yankees) to sign ramiriez. sure he is a great hitter but hes a cancer to the clubhouse, your typical t.o, but only in baseball. i think the dodgers need to go out and get him because they are definetly going to miss his bat their weak line-up

Manny will get signed soon because some A.L. team out there will need a hittter and he's your guy to hit for you, or he would end up back at LA for less money. Would I sign him absolutely, he is a great hitter and could have some upside for the ballclub for a couple of years.

Haha not everybody he plays with. I don't think the 65 year old man that Manny pushed likes him to much. I don't think Curt Schilling like playing with him after he called him out on his blog on his website.

Amen to that, he can hit over .300 for your ball club and hit about 35 homeruns a year while driving in over a hundred runs in a year, to me that sounds good, God knows the Mariners could use someone like that.

Bob, Manny never pushed a 65 year old man, that was Pedro. And Curt Schilling doesn't like anybody.

SteveMJ31 wrote:

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\Manny has never gotten caught on live TV in the middle of a screaming match with a teammate.

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Anyone remember the Manny vs. Kevin Youkilis fight in the dugout during the game prior to his exit from Boston?

Bob is right about the traveling secretary, he was also fined and suspended for a game, and like Manny being Manny didnt agree with the fine and suspension so when he came up to pinch hit in a game soon after decided that his way of letting the team know he didnt agree was to watch 3 straight pitches over the plate and sat down. So with that being said there is no room on my team for the biggest individual who's playing a team game. Many teams have won it all without him and many more will continue to do so. I will admit though that he may be the best pure hitter I have ever seen play the game.

WallyGator wrote:

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Many teams have won it all without him and many more will continue to do so.

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What does that have to do with anything? You could say that about anybody. He does have two rings though.

He has two rings because he was an important hitter on that team. He did everything the Red Sox needed him to do to have them win the World Series. The Red Sox had great pitching that year and David Ortiz was the hitter he was becasue of what Manny did for David.

I would sign Manny!!! You can cout on 300 40 and 120....Dealing with his persona is fine because thats what make him great

The economy is not affecting baseball the way that many people believe it is. It is not affecting the signing of players. Bobby Abreu hasn't gotten signed yet because he's past his prime and asking for way more than teams are willing to give him. However, the economy is affecting baseball in one sense, the sponsors. Under Armour just had to end there ten year deal with the Cubs 3 years into the agreement. And many other sponsors have had to pull out of agreements too because they just can't afford it anymore. The only reason why the media keeps saying that the economy is the reason for the slow offseason is to relate to the common man. That's what the media does. They try to make sports franchises, which are essentially multi-billion dollar corporations, and make them more relatable to the average sports fan. But the truth is the majority of Major League owners are billionaires who are some of the wealthiest people in America. The economy right now isn't affecting them, it's mainly having a huge impact on the lower to middle classes. It's a nice scapegoat for the media and fans to put the blame on, but the true reason why certain players aren't getting signed is because teams aren't willing to give many of them the years or the money that they're asking.

Exactly, wierd that we agree on something here Bob. Bobby Abreu isn't the same Bobby Abreu from a couple years ago. He's lost a lot of what made him a really good player.

Ben Sheets is not a proven ace because he hasn't proven that he can stay healthy. And thank you for bringing up another point. So many teams over the last 3-4 years wasted tons of money on average to bad players, now those teams are stuck paying those guys big bucks that they can't afford some of the bigger names. The Royals are a perfect example, they are a small market team who made one big splash by signing Meche, now they're stuck with him, and being a small market team, they can't afford top dollar players.

Working in this economy the last couple of months, I have seen it gone down hill as every day passes. The same can be said for Baseball as well. When the free agent market it, teams went after the big name players. As the market stretched and the economy got worse, players asking prices got lower and lower.

Look at who is still left out there Ramirez, Sheets, Griffey Jr., Dunn, Hudson, Abreu just to name a few. All good caliber players.

The market is steadily getting effected by the economy. As America gets more urgent and weary with the economy as does the sporting market. While some teams have the money (The Yankees) there are also some teams that have the money and they just aren't spending it to play it safe.

Jeff, the asking prices for players got lower and lower because at the beginning of the offseason, the players asking prices were ridiculous. Manny wanted a six-year deal? Seriously? Of course that's gonna go down. Asking prices go down every year. Because agents start to realize that their players aren't top dollar anymore. And which Hudson are you talking about?

Yea it's the sponsors who are pulling out of deals. The sponsors pay the teams. That's the only way baseball is being effected by the economy. It's in the business part of the sport. Look at the Cubs, the original asking price for the team was like $1.8 Billion, ended up selling for $900 million. There's no question the economy is having it's effect on baseball, but not when it comes to players contracts.

I guess I should probly answer the question. Would I want my team to sign Manny? No. I love Manny, but I'm a Cubs fan. Manny, Soriano, Ants in the Pants(from now on I'll be referring to Milton Bradley as a Milton Bradley board game), Zambrano, Sweet Lou, and the biggest ego on the team Derrek Lee would not fit together, ever. That would be a disaster which would end in Big Z punching someone in the dugout.

Who in the hell turns down 25 million dollars for at the most 8 months of work. Is this just Manny being Manny. I could deal with everything this guy does IF he was a team player. I do agree with Steve as far the economy not affecting the players contracts. I also dont agree with Meche being mentioned in the same sentence as Zito, Schmidt, and Hampton, cmon he signed with the Royals, with who they are and what they had around him has he really been that big of a bust, atleast he's on the field every 5th day. I will add another name to that list though, Adam Eaton who the Philles signed 2 years ago to 27 mil over 3 years guarenteed. Now he's a longshot to even make the team. They tried to trade him at the winter meetings, he's due 8 mill this year and the Phils were offering to pay 7 of the 8 mil and asking for nothing in return and still couldnt get rid of him. Back to the economy, I do think teams are scared to give that borderline/over the hill guy big money because of the mistakes they or others have made in past because maybe if the economy was say still this bad this time next year they are not on the hook for probably more money in the 2nd year. If the teams can collectively afford to pay Selig 17.5 mil in 2008 which was a 3 mil raise from 2007 they can certainly afford the players.

-- Edited by WallyGator at 04:26, 2009-02-04

Wally, I put Gil Meche in the same category with Zito, Shmidt, and Hampton because they were all signed to large contracts with huge expectations by the teams. And they were all giant let-downs.

And Peck, Yes I can remember when good players weren't signed this close to spring training. It was just last year. Kyle Lohse was a late signee. Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa were both expected to land on some team but never did. Luis Gonzales got signed by the Marlins at about this time last year. Other guys who had good talent that were signed late: Doug Mienkiewitcz, Shannon Stewart, Marcus Giles, and Mike Cameron. So stuff like this happens every year, the media is just focusing on it this year, because they want people to believe that baseball teams are just like the average sports fan and are also struggling.

The reason why they have made it a big deal this year is because it is a big deal. When different areas of team revenue are starting to pull out of contracts; franchises get scared.

Look at NASCAR this year, all there teams are downsizing, losing sponsorships, cutting crews. NASCAR and MLB have been two of the first two sports leagues that have been effected thus far.

It's hard for a company (i.e. Citigroup) laying off people when they sponsor a multi-multi million dollar stadium or franchise.

This is sadly just the beginning. (But I hope it's not)

In fairness to Citigroup they signed a naming rights deal with the Mets in 2006 which was long before anybody expected this.

jeffpeck wrote:

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As did most companies. Nobody saw this coming but pulling out of these advertisement deals is a way for them to save some money on what it should be used on the most...their company.

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I'm not going to go as far as to say that your wrong with your opinion on Citibank, because you certainly do have a point and I can see where your coming from.

But if Citi thinks that it's advertising value is greater then the amount they are paying the Mets, shouldn't they be allowed to keep the deal in order to increase the chance that they will be able to pay off the loan given to them by the U.S. government?

Obviously Citi must have otherwise they wouldn't have signed onto the deal in the first place.

Also if they back out of the deal, I'm sure the Mets have escape clauses in there to make sure they will be given at least some compensation, so it's a complete loss for Citigroup if indeed they do decide to back out of the deal.

As for Manny, I'd be willing to go 2 years with a 3rd year option, but no more then that.

Scott Boras is a smart man though.  He knows that if he takes a 1 year deal and Manny breaks down or gets pissy again like he did in Boston, he will in all likelyhood never again play in the Majors.

The only reason teams are even willing to put up with Manny is because he is a superstar.  As soon as his numbers begin to dip just a little, no team is going to touch him.

Here's a pretty good article today from Newsweek, which basically reiterates what I was saying before.

http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/ny-spnaming066025799feb06,0,3716096.story

As far as baseball being effected, it is definately being effected by the economy.  There's no question about it.

However it's one of the few industries out there that has immensly more interest from the general public then there is money invested in it, so I don't think it will be effected nearly as much as most other industries.