December 10th, 2006 → 10:15 am @ Seth Mnookin // No Comments
In today’s “Baseball Notes” column, Murray Chass has two items about the Red Sox (as compared to one that involves either the Mets or the Yankees. That one was about how Mike Mussina, who sits on the Little League international board of directors, isn’t in support of a ban on metal bats.)
The more vitriolic of the two Sox items is this total head-scratcher:
“Red Sox Being the Red Sox”
“The Boston Red Sox may have honorable intentions, but the next time they let it be known that they are trying to trade Manny Ramírez, everyone should ignore them. The Red Sox are wasting everyone’s time. The Mets were smart this time for not even asking about Ramírez. The Red Sox have supposedly tried to trade Ramírez, their slugging outfielder, the past three off-seasons and have yet to let him go anywhere. It’s understandable that they just don’t want to give him away, but if they haven’t been able to get equal value for him in three tries, they’re not going to get it.”
That’s an odd formulation, to say the least: because the Sox haven’t been able to get equal value for the best right-handed slugger of his generation, Boston is “wasting everyone’s time.”
What’s more, the Mets apparently are still interested in Manny. As the Globe‘s Nick Cafardo (who did put in a call to Minaya) writes in his “Baseball Notes” column, Minaya remains interested in Manny: “Minaya was a bit miffed early in the week that he hadn’t heard from Red Sox GM Theo Epstein about Manny Ramírez. It wasn’t until Thursday, moments before the GMs scattered, that Minaya struck up a conversation with Epstein. Minaya, who spent the weekend in the Dominican Republic on a scouting trip, has always had interest in Ramírez. Asked if anything was rekindled, Minaya said, ‘No. Theo was just the one GM I hadn’t had a conversation with. Just wanted to say hi.’ … Did the Sox feel Minaya was no longer interested in Ramírez because of the [Moises] Alou signing? Minaya sounded like a man who would have explored it even with Alou aboard. … You wonder whether something iwll get going again.”
It’s the second time in two days the Globe has, directly or indirectly, refuted one of Chass’s stories.
Chass also shows his difficulty with math. Referring to Alfonso Soriano, he writes, “The Chicago Cubs committed $136 million to a player who will have a salary of $18 million at the age of 39.” According to Baseball Reference, Soriano was born on January 7, 1976…which will make him 38 when his contract expires on October 31, 2014.
That’s just Murray being Murray.
Post Categories: 2006 Hot Stove Season & Murray Chass & New York Times
BillyBall
17 years ago
Seth –
While Chass’ vitriol clearly went over the top this time (The Red Sox are wasting everyone’s time.), you have to admit that this was the off-season when the Red Sox became indistinguishable from the Yankees. BoSox can never again make the claim that Yankees are the only ones who can pick a player and buy him as they wish.
Meanwhile, the two best deals of the winter may be the trade of Sheffield for young pitchers and the signing of Pettitte.
I think that Sox fans will even miss the sketchy fielding of Renteria after seeing a season of Julio Lugo at short. Cearly the Sox were bidding against themselves with JD Drew, another opposite of “The Idiots” who won it all.
Let’s see what the next 48 hours will bring because the season may rest on a roll of the Dice.