http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/01/21/2027865/rays-agree-to-terms-with-johnny.html
Posted on Fri, Jan. 21, 2011
Rays agree to terms with Johnny Damon and Manny Ramirez
By Sports Network
The Sports Network
St. Petersburg, FL (Sports Network) - The Tampa Bay Rays have reportedly reunited former teammates Johnny Damon and Manny Ramirez, agreeing to terms on one-year deals with the veteran outfielders, pending the outcome of physical exams.
According to SI.com, Damon will be paid $5.25 plus $750,000 in attendance incentives, while Ramirez's deal is worth $2 million.
Damon, who is from and lives in Orlando, Florida, batted .271 with eight home runs and 51 RBI his lone season for Detroit in 2010.
The 37-year-old had spent the previous eight years in the AL East with the Red Sox from 2002-05 and the Yankees from 2006-09.
He is a career .287 hitter with 215 homers, 1,047 RBI and 385 steals in 16 seasons with Kansas City, Oakland, Boston, New York and Detroit.
Ramirez suffered through the worst power season of his career in 2010, hitting only nine homers and driving in just 42 runs, while hitting a combined .298 over 90 games with the Dodgers and White Sox.
The mercurial Ramirez was suspended for 50 games in 2009 for violating the leagues' substance abuse policy but returned and finished the campaign with a .290 average, 19 home runs and 63 RBI, to that point his lowest offensive output since his rookie season of 1994.
The 38-year-old is a career .313 hitter who has blasted 555 home runs and driven in 1,830 runs during 18 big league seasons with the Indians, Red Sox, Dodgers and White Sox. Damon and Ramirez played together in Boston for four seasons and were part of the 2004 team that won the World Series to end an 86-year championship drought and the so-called "Curse of the Bambino."
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/01/...agree-to-terms-with-johnny.html#ixzz1BjBUIxix
Posted on Fri, Jan. 21, 2011
Rays agree to terms with Johnny Damon and Manny Ramirez
By Sports Network
The Sports Network
St. Petersburg, FL (Sports Network) - The Tampa Bay Rays have reportedly reunited former teammates Johnny Damon and Manny Ramirez, agreeing to terms on one-year deals with the veteran outfielders, pending the outcome of physical exams.
According to SI.com, Damon will be paid $5.25 plus $750,000 in attendance incentives, while Ramirez's deal is worth $2 million.
Damon, who is from and lives in Orlando, Florida, batted .271 with eight home runs and 51 RBI his lone season for Detroit in 2010.
The 37-year-old had spent the previous eight years in the AL East with the Red Sox from 2002-05 and the Yankees from 2006-09.
He is a career .287 hitter with 215 homers, 1,047 RBI and 385 steals in 16 seasons with Kansas City, Oakland, Boston, New York and Detroit.
Ramirez suffered through the worst power season of his career in 2010, hitting only nine homers and driving in just 42 runs, while hitting a combined .298 over 90 games with the Dodgers and White Sox.
The mercurial Ramirez was suspended for 50 games in 2009 for violating the leagues' substance abuse policy but returned and finished the campaign with a .290 average, 19 home runs and 63 RBI, to that point his lowest offensive output since his rookie season of 1994.
The 38-year-old is a career .313 hitter who has blasted 555 home runs and driven in 1,830 runs during 18 big league seasons with the Indians, Red Sox, Dodgers and White Sox. Damon and Ramirez played together in Boston for four seasons and were part of the 2004 team that won the World Series to end an 86-year championship drought and the so-called "Curse of the Bambino."
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/01/...agree-to-terms-with-johnny.html#ixzz1BjBUIxix
al east just got more interesting yes it did for the drama.. but damon and manny offer nothing to the rays as offensive threats, but the drama will be fun..
amazing some of the strange moves made this year.. red sox went all out to sign 2 studs, yankees signed 4 key quality players, rays sign an ex red sox, and an ex yankee/red sox...the division will be interesting
amazing some of the strange moves made this year.. red sox went all out to sign 2 studs, yankees signed 4 key quality players, rays sign an ex red sox, and an ex yankee/red sox...the division will be interesting
good ridance pena is addition by subtraction, PENA batted .196 and the cubs signed him for 10 million, THE RAYS HAD THE MOST WINS IN THE AL LAST YEAR, and still have the best pitching in the AL (and more on the way...) GET OVER IT.....
The Yanks starting pitching is a joke, Boston lost 2 future Hall of Famers as well....
http://yankees.lhblogs.com/2011/01/22/rays-now-favorites-to-win-2004-world-series/
Rays now favorites to win 2004 World Series
Posted By Sam Borden On January 22, 2011 @ 12:36 pm In Misc | 119 Comments
http://yankees.lhblogs.com/2011/01/22/rays-now-favorites-to-win-2004-world-series/
[1]Greetings from Pittsburgh, where I’ll be writing columns about the Jets this weekend. For those of you who may live in this area year-round: Wow. It’s really, really cold here. Kudos to all of you for not freezing on a daily basis.
Anyway, there have been some – what’s a nice way to say it? – interesting moves over the past few days, no? From an AL East standpoint, two things jump out at me:
1. If you’re a Yankees fan, you should probably start worrying more about the Blue Jays. Not because they’re going to be making much noise this year, necessarily, but because GM Alex Anthopoulous is the real deal. Anyone who can get Vernon Wells’s contract traded [2] is a borderline miracle-worker in my book.
2. The Rays seem like they’re conducting their offseason in a time machine. Look, could they strike gold with Johnny Damon and Manny Ramirez? [3] Sure. They could. As a value play I like Manny at $2 million more than Damon at $5 million-plus but in both cases there’s a reasonable chance that the Rays end up with two big names who don’t produce much (or, in Manny’s case, simply stop showing up to play). I understand it’s a hard time in Tampa right now and nobody goes to the games, but I’m not so sure that these two guys – once you get past the initial name value – will do much to help stabilize the franchise.
[4]It’s also worth noting that, if you’re upset about how little the Yankees have done this offseason it could be worse – you could be an Angels fan. I’m sure GM Tony Reagins has some kind of reasonable explanation for wanting to take Vernon Wells from Toronto (I mean, he does hit for power sometimes) but that contract is just indefensible. Put it this way: The Angels will end up spending slightly more on Wells than they were planning to spend on Carl Crawford. I’m not a scout or anything, but that doesn’t seem like it makes a whole lot of sense.
* Those are AP shots of 2004-version Manny and Johnny.
Rays now favorites to win 2004 World Series
Posted By Sam Borden On January 22, 2011 @ 12:36 pm In Misc | 119 Comments
http://yankees.lhblogs.com/2011/01/22/rays-now-favorites-to-win-2004-world-series/
[1]Greetings from Pittsburgh, where I’ll be writing columns about the Jets this weekend. For those of you who may live in this area year-round: Wow. It’s really, really cold here. Kudos to all of you for not freezing on a daily basis.Anyway, there have been some – what’s a nice way to say it? – interesting moves over the past few days, no? From an AL East standpoint, two things jump out at me:
1. If you’re a Yankees fan, you should probably start worrying more about the Blue Jays. Not because they’re going to be making much noise this year, necessarily, but because GM Alex Anthopoulous is the real deal. Anyone who can get Vernon Wells’s contract traded [2] is a borderline miracle-worker in my book.
2. The Rays seem like they’re conducting their offseason in a time machine. Look, could they strike gold with Johnny Damon and Manny Ramirez? [3] Sure. They could. As a value play I like Manny at $2 million more than Damon at $5 million-plus but in both cases there’s a reasonable chance that the Rays end up with two big names who don’t produce much (or, in Manny’s case, simply stop showing up to play). I understand it’s a hard time in Tampa right now and nobody goes to the games, but I’m not so sure that these two guys – once you get past the initial name value – will do much to help stabilize the franchise.
[4]It’s also worth noting that, if you’re upset about how little the Yankees have done this offseason it could be worse – you could be an Angels fan. I’m sure GM Tony Reagins has some kind of reasonable explanation for wanting to take Vernon Wells from Toronto (I mean, he does hit for power sometimes) but that contract is just indefensible. Put it this way: The Angels will end up spending slightly more on Wells than they were planning to spend on Carl Crawford. I’m not a scout or anything, but that doesn’t seem like it makes a whole lot of sense.* Those are AP shots of 2004-version Manny and Johnny.
Don't look now...but past three seasons for
Crawford/Damon
BA .295/.288
OBP .346/.365
OPS .790/.815
2B 70/99
3B 31/13
HR 42/49
R 273/283
RBI 215/204
SB 132/53
2011 Salary $18m/$5.5m
Looks like a solid $12m for Sox to get clearly better base stealing, more OF defensive range and that's pretty much it
