Hanley, Boston and the Big What If?
The Red Sox and Marlins met Tuesday night for the first period since 2006. This was significant -- and only in a minor course -- no because it was the premier time the 2 groups met since the fateful Josh Beckett-Hanley Ramirez (and other premonitory parts) trade, but because it was the first time where we could even begin to reckon that swap with any historical viewpoint.
Back then, Ramirez was just a beginner shortstop with a cloud of talent and two good months under his strap. Beckett, brought in as the presumptive ace, was str
uggling with the transition from the NL to the AL East and sported a bloated ERA hovering close 5.00 for a Boston team brained for a robust fall in the second half.
Much has changed since then, not the fewest of which is Ramirez, who, particularly this season it seems, has appeared from his shell and begun to make his voice listened a bit more in the media. (Beckett, for the disc, seems largely unchanged -- still has dominating matter, uneven representations and complete disdain for anyone carrying a cmd or a tape recorder.)
Ramirez had plenty to say approximately his first voyage back to Fenway Park since the Red Sox traded him.Hanley Ramirez never trusted he had the belief of the whole Red Sox organization when he was the team's No. 1 prospect 4 annuals antecedent.
And those doubts -- real or dreamed -- still steer him. ...
"People said I couldn't activity in the huge leagues," Ramirez said in remarks relayed at the Miami Herald. "Now they understand. Eighty-five percentage of the folk thought I could melodrama because I was the No. 1 prospect. The other 15,
tods sneakers, you understand. ... I just look forward to having a agreeable sequence." ...
"Theo didn't want to commerce me," Ramirez said. "And I got traded while he discontinue."Ah, yeah. It's effortless to forget the halcyon days of '05.
Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein left the organization afterward the end of that season -- escaping Fenway Park in a gorilla suit, no fewer -- amid speculation of a falling out with team chancellor Larry Lucchino. Weeks later, but ahead Epstein returned to his post in the front office, Boston traded Ramirez to the Marlins for Beckett, the front-line pitcher it had craved since the departure of Pedro Martinez prior to the season. It also sent Anibal Sanchez and two other pitchers to Florida, receiving third baseman Mike Lowell and reliever Guillermo Mota in return.
Two things stand out. First, it's awfully strange to think of the Red Sox for dysfunctional these days, but that's equitable what they were in '05. (There was abundance of fully unsubstantiated presumption behind then in Boston that Lucchino orchestrated the trade to distract fans from the Epstein dark eye.) Now, they fair appear favor a machine, a full comprehension of Epstein's dream, fraught with pitching and teeming with high-ceiling aptitude in the minors.
Second, and more interestingly, Ramirez-for-Beckett has got apt be one of the more fascinating what ifs of this decade in American amusements.
Beckett and the oft-forgotten Lowell were instrumental in Boston's 2007 World Series competition, its second of the decade and a satisfying affirmation of the 2004 heading for all Red Sox fans. Ramirez, not that he had much competition from Jeff Conine or 1994-97 Gary Sheffield,
Supra Vaider Shoes, is the most recognizable Marlin in franchise history yet and arguably the most dynamic athlete in all of baseball with his rare power-speed combination.
It's safe to say there is no one in Miami or aboard Yawkey Way wishing for a mulligan right now.
It couldn't have went out any better for the Marlins, that much is decisive. Beckett was going one way or another that winter, and they weren't getting Albert Pujols back for him. Who another in the entire baseball landscape would you rather?
The Red Sox got their trophy, and as sports fans we're trained not to question that arrange of thing because they are so precious and rare and there are so many variables.
Causation is a tricky game -- perhaps the trickiest -- but let's play it anyway. Ramirez would certainly be the Red Sox shortstop by now. Since, Alex Gonzalez, Julio Lugo, Alex Cora, Jed Lowrie and lately Nick Green have manned the location, which has actually had a revolving door since the Nomar Garciaparra trade in 2004.
There namely not Lowell and no Beckett,
timberland high, so no 2007 World Series in always likelihood, merely Kevin Youkilis would certainly make a nice third baseman, the Sox would still have Sanchez and, we have to assume since all of it is both of the homegrown or free-agent kind,
ghd pink, one of the quite deepest pitching rotations in all of baseball. Hey,
hermes birkin handbag, there would even be chamber for Clay Buchholz and/or Michael Bowden, both of whom would be in maximum important ally rotations right immediately, yet are languishing by Triple-A Pawtucket for of Boston's borderline ludicrous depth.
The Red Sox would too have more money. Ramirez ambition make $5.5 million this season, but he has made a mini over $1 million the last three seasons combined. By season's end Beckett and Lowell ambition have cashed a combined $72.325 million in checks from the Red Sox. That's a gaping disparity, even if you factor in all the accessory revenue from obtaining a World Series etc.
What to do with all that money arranging approximately?
Mark Teixeira -- the first baseman Boston so desperately coveted this offseason, but afterward decided not to sign over a few million -- swiftly comes to mind.
Perhaps the only game trickier than causation is assuming the Yankees tin be outbid for everything, and whether pressed, most Red Sox fans probably wouldn't want to press the reset button. But can you imagine a Red Sox team minus Beckett and Lowell, but plus Ramirez and Teixeira?
We're pretty sure Theo Epstein has.
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That way, the entire industry could turn the Fall Classic into a bustling convention – not unlike the Super Bowl, which has become America's favorite TV sports event. By comparison, the World Series continues to suffer from its hurry-up, hastily thrown-together agenda, a victim of the league championship's unpredictability.