Mannyhood

For the next month, Bridgeport, the neighborhood home of Comiskey Park, shall be known as Mannyhood. Or just call it Bridgeport, I don’t care, the point is Manny Ramirez is presently on his way to join the Chicago White Sox in Cleveland. The odd thing is that the White Sox had the best team batting average and scored the most runs in the AL in the month of August. SO why are they adding a bat, especially now when the bullpen is depleted with Threets, Putz, and Thornton injured and Brian Fuentes could have possibly been had via waiver claim and has now landed on the very team that they’re in a race with to win the Central division? Well folks, I’ll tell ya. Manny is playing for a contract in this last month. That’s it. It’s that simple, sure there are other variables involved, but all can be broken down back to that fact. Of course, regardless as to how he performs in this last month Manny will get signed somewhere, but with a typical motivated Manny-like performance it’ll be the difference between $2M a year and $5 or 6M a year. He’ll be motivated, but will he produce? My guess is he’ll produce. I think it’s a good…let’s call this taking a chance on Manny a gamble because that’s what it is, it’s a good gamble for the White Sox to take. The options out there for relief help were and are still weak. If Sox fans are upset that they missed out on Brian frickin Fuentes on the waiver wire, they obviously think the Sox are way worse off than I do. The Sox would certainly not win the Central if their fate was to be decided by Fuentes. He’s pretty expensive and essentially, he’s a LOOGY (Lefty One-Out GuY). Well, at least that’s all I’d ever use him for as righties have pretty good numbers against him, but lefties are hitting below the Mendoza-line. By the way, Ron Gardenhire said that Capps will retain the closer job and Fuentes will have more of a set-up role, just to give you an idea what they’re planning on doing with him. A pretty costly set-up man, right? I don’t blame them for trying to shore up their bullpen, but my point is the money the White Sox are paying to Manny is better used on the gamble rather than trying to acquire Fuentes. Besides, All-Star Matt Thornton wasn’t as hurt as originally thought as he said he feels great and he should be back on the active roster soon. Chris Sale has stepped it up and is a better option than Fuentes anyway and better than a washed up Scott Downs or an inconsistent Jason Frasor as well. The Sox bullpen imploded in recent weeks, but it seems to be back on track starting with Bobby Jenks. The September call-up is Wednesday, since it will be September of course, and they’ll be able to add more arms, inexperienced arms, but arms at the very least as the bullpen trouble stemmed from a work overload. The starting pitching picked it up after April and May, but they still have only thrown five complete games all year. The pitching all around will continue to have its ups and downs, but as evident from yesterday’s game they need to try to out-slug the opposition down the stretch run here. No matter what the numbers are or how it’s achieved, the goal in baseball is to score more runs that the other team in nine innings. Manny will contribute to that.

PREACH