Recently ESPN changed their default picture of Francisco Rodriguez to have him wearing a New York Mets hat. I was adamant that the Angels not re-sign Frankie and was actually relieved when I heard that New York was stuck with him. But it still stung the first time I saw him wearing someone else’s hat- like the first time your ex puts up pictures of her new boyfriend on Facebook. Ultimately though this slap in the face is what gets you off your ass and on to looking for someone new, and I have just the person in mind: Manny Ramirez. The window for the Angels is closing fast, they need a veteran, and their offense is a lot worse off than their bullpen. It may seem weird to want to replace your closer with a left-fielder- like moving from your high-school sweetheart to a Cougar- but I think this could be a match made in heaven.
The Angels’ lack of consistent hitting last year wasted a season in which the starting rotation was ridiculously healthy. Santana, Saunders, Jon Garland, and Jered Weaver each started more than 30 games, and once John Lackey came back he was dominant. All five had an ERA under 5 and Santana, Saunders, and Lackey had ERAs under 4. The Angels were Top-3 in ERA in the AL last year; but they were 10th in runs scored. They don’t need another Ace, they need a cleanup hitter.
The Angels’ offense has been on a steady decline for years. The 2002 World-Champion Angels were built on home-grown depth. That year they had 7 guys hit at least .280 with at least 50 runs driven in- 5 of which were from the Halo minor leagues. But by last year that number was down to 3 guys that hit .280 and drove in 50 and the only 2 of those that came from the farm system (Garrett Anderson and Casey Kotchman) are no longer with the team. In fact last season the Angels saw an across the board drop- Vladimir Guerrero went from .324 (in ’07) to .303 (in ’08), Chone Figgins went from .330 to .276, Reggie Willits went from .293 to .194; meanwhile Gary Matthews went from .252 with 18 home runs and 72 RBIs in 2007 to .242/8/46 in ‘08. This team is struggling offensively and they are now older than a Rick Reilly joke. Matthews will be 35 next season, Torii Hunter will be 34, Figgins will be 31, and Vladdy will be 33 with the knees of an 85 year old.
The big reason for the Angels’ annual splurge on a veteran is their highly-touted minor-league bats have turned out to be highly-overrated. The Angels farm-system continues to produce top-notch pitchers (Saunders, Santana, Jose Arredondo, etc.) But the same cannot be said for their young hitters. Last year Brandon Wood hit .200 (while striking out 43 times in 150 ABs), Sean Rodriguez hit .204 (55Ks in 167 ABs), and Jeff Mathis hit .194 (90Ks, 55 hits) and the thing they have in common is that all of them did better than ’07 sensation Reggie Willits (26Ks, 21 hits in ‘08). The Angels simply do not have the youth movement ready to compete against big league pitching.
Arte Moreno and Mike Scioscia know this. And that is why they were trying so hard to keep Mark Teixeira, but there was a big reason not to do it (besides the Yankees’ bottomless pit of evil and cash); Manny Ramirez is better than Teixeira. Last year Teixeira had a great season with 33 HRs, 121 RBIs, and a .308 batting avg. But Manny was better: 37 HRs, 121 RBIs, and a .332 avg. Or there was their postseason performance, Teixeira had 0 HRs, 1 RBI, and a .467 avg in 4 postseason games; Manny had 4 HRs, 10 RBIs, and a .520 avg in 8 games. The year before- when he lead the Red Sox to their 2nd championship- Manny had 16 RBIs in the 14 postseason games along with an on-base percentage of .508. He is the best hitter in baseball, and I mean ever (sorry Ted Williams.) And he is a better fit for the Angels.
The re-signing of Juan Rivera does not signal the end of the Angels’ hunt for an outfielder as some have speculated. Rivera is a backup; and that leaves Hunter, Matthews, Guerrero, and Willits taking the 3 outfield spots and the DH. Again last year Matthews hit .242, Willits hit .194, and Juan Rivera hit .246. No team can expect to contend if 3 of their top 5 outfielders hit less than .250! Looking at the stats a little deeper, the Angels got 86 RBIs for the left-fielder, that’s 17th best in the bigs; or looking at their production from the clean-up spot, the Angels got 95 RBIs from their #4 hitter- there were only 4 teams in baseball that were worse. The Angels need a clean-up hitter and a left-fielder…and a goofy Dominican guy to keep Vladdy company.
Contrary to what some people have said, Manny Ramirez is a perfect fit for a Mike Scioscia team. He doesn’t strike out a lot, he is a contact hitter who knows how to move guys over. He has a tremendous work ethic (you know, when he wants to.) The goofy Manny-being-Manny episodes are no worse than anything Vlad Guerrero has done. And man do I feel sorry for the guy that has to pitch to Vlad and Manny back-to-back. Any other right-hand hitter might make the Angels a little too right-hand heavy for Scioscia’s taste but both Vladdy and Manny are the rare hitters that do well off righties or lefties.
Amazingly because of all the attention CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira are getting, the market for Manny Ramirez’s services is getting thin. Manny has obviously burned the bridge back to Boston, I think the New York Mets of Queens are tapped out too. The Los Angeles Dodgers of Echo Park offered 2 yr 45-mil, but beyond them there are very few bidders. If the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim came in with a 3 yr 60+ million offer I think they would have the inside track. Manny has proven his ability to make every hitter in the lineup better, and this move buys the front-office some time to retool their minor-league hitting. It tells their fans they want to win here and now, and Manny puts butts in the seats. Nobody that knows Mike Scioscia believes that he would have any problem handling Manny Ramirez. If the Angels want to stop losing to the Red Sox in the first week of October each year, they need to sign the one guy who would make it his sole mission in life to destroy Boston in the playoffs.
I won’t miss all of the unnecessary drama that Frankie Rodriguez added to each ninth inning- a three run lead only meant you could count on Frankie to give up 2 runs. But I will always have a special place for him. I will remember September of 2002 when he came out of nowhere. I will remember that October when he turned into “K-Rod.” I will remember how excited I was before Game 1 of the World Series when the team finally started selling his jersey- and I still have the shirt I bought that afternoon with “Rodriguez 57” on the back. I will always think of Frankie and the Angels at the World Series; but now that he’s gone, the Angels need to replace him with the only guy that will get them back there.