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Art's Notebook - December 12
I've been checking projo.com half hourly to see when Art would post a note on the Ramirez signing. He didn't disappoint, with one of his best articles of the year.
By the way, the comments on Ramirez being a "DH" and one dimensional are pretty preposterous. Hitting is far, far more important than baserunning and defense for an outfielder. Probably 80% of their job is what they do at the plate. Babe Ruth was a lousy baserunner. He was 110 out 227 stealing bases once he joined the Yankees. Ted Williams was always criticized for his defense or baserunning and Mark McGwire is no prize in the field. Who cares? Ramirez has led the AL in OPS the last two years. He is ninth in career OPS behind only Frank Thomas and Todd Helton among active players. Ninth in slugging and 44th in OBP. Manny is a phenomenal offensive player about as good as Alex Rodriguez. Manny can't play shortstop, which is why A-Rod is likely (not possibly, but likely) to be one of the top five players of all-time, but he can hit and hit and hit, and is in my mind a likely hall of famer.
The Red Sox now have three players with pretty good Hall of Fame aspirations, a great closer, a pretty good center fielder and decent supporting parts. Boston had a higher Pythagorean W-L% than the Yankees last year (with far more injuries) and Boston did more to improve themselves than the Yankees did. I think they will win the East and I don't think it will be all that close (five or six games). With some luck in the rotation, they could win 100 games next year.
I've been checking projo.com half hourly to see when Art would post a note on the Ramirez signing. He didn't disappoint, with one of his best articles of the year.
By the way, the comments on Ramirez being a "DH" and one dimensional are pretty preposterous. Hitting is far, far more important than baserunning and defense for an outfielder. Probably 80% of their job is what they do at the plate. Babe Ruth was a lousy baserunner. He was 110 out 227 stealing bases once he joined the Yankees. Ted Williams was always criticized for his defense or baserunning and Mark McGwire is no prize in the field. Who cares? Ramirez has led the AL in OPS the last two years. He is ninth in career OPS behind only Frank Thomas and Todd Helton among active players. Ninth in slugging and 44th in OBP. Manny is a phenomenal offensive player about as good as Alex Rodriguez. Manny can't play shortstop, which is why A-Rod is likely (not possibly, but likely) to be one of the top five players of all-time, but he can hit and hit and hit, and is in my mind a likely hall of famer.
The Red Sox now have three players with pretty good Hall of Fame aspirations, a great closer, a pretty good center fielder and decent supporting parts. Boston had a higher Pythagorean W-L% than the Yankees last year (with far more injuries) and Boston did more to improve themselves than the Yankees did. I think they will win the East and I don't think it will be all that close (five or six games). With some luck in the rotation, they could win 100 games next year.
posted by Sean Foran # 11:31 AM 
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