If nobody else is talking about it, I might as well — the M’s have hired Paul Molitor as their new hitting instructor. The most interesting part of this typically bland AP story, however, is this: When Molitor was interviewed recently, [Bret] Boone and [Edgar] Martinez were in the building and got word of his visit. “The message from Edgar was, ‘What are we waiting for? Let’s hire him,’ ” [Bob] Melvin said.
Now I don’t know about you, but that sure makes it sound to me that Edgar is planning on being back next season.
Update! Because I don’t want to leapfrog Dave’s post: problem’s solved, thanks again to the helpful intervention of readers, I’m up and running again. Content, content, content tonight. And I promise now to not to talk about what it cost to set up the site, as the site has now clearly given more back to me than I invested.
I’m sure many of you are thinking “I sure wish I knew how Derek was doing with his computer.” Let me tell you: Badly. I overnighted all these replacement parts, got the computer to power up, to find that it wouldn’t boot — it’d go to boot, and then I’d see a flash of the blue screen of death, and it would reboot before I could do anything. Repeat. I end up re-installing XP off my CD, which I had (to my credit) removed from the flimsy envelope it came in, put into a solid jewel case and stashed with the enevelope away from everything else. So install install install… boom, I need the flimsy envelope… and it’s nowhere to be found.
I get email sometimes from people who complain I’m too full of myself, but I sit down to write an article, or a post, and I remember all the things I’ve got wrong, from last week’s inability to remember Sterling Hitchcock got sent to the Cardinals to years and years back. I’m a guy who can’t succesfully keep a 25-character code for Windows XP attached to the CD it absolutely must not be separated with.
Anyway, this whole adventure has now cost me hours and hours and $hundreds. If there’s one thing I can pass along today, here:
Don’t buy cheap RAM for your computer unless you’re not attached to it, or your data, or your time.
I’d really have rather updated the GM scoreboard than torn my room up looking for the CD key. #@$@#%!@%!!!!
The Red Sox placed Manny Ramirez on waivers yesterday, allowing any team that wants to inherit his contract to take him off of Boston’s hands. These are irrovocable waivers, so if anyone claims Ramirez, the Red Sox lose him and are not awarded any kind of compensation. These waivers are different than the ones in place during August, when teams can pull players back and then complete a trade. If the Mariners were to claim Ramirez (and be the team with the worst record in the AL to do so), they would simply take on his contract and not have to work out a trade with Boston.
However, I can’t imagine them doing it. If they won’t pay $25 million for Alex Rodriguez, they won’t pay $20 million for Manny Ramirez, a vastly inferior player with character issues. I don’t think I would claim him either, if I were in their position. The market for free agents has deflated in the past several years, and I don’t expect anyone to fetch that sum this year. If you offered me a choice between Ramirez and Vladimir Guerrero, I’d take Guerrero. Guerrero will sign for less than what Ramirez is slated to make over the next 5 years.
For what Ramirez will cost, you could probably acquire Ivan Rodriguez, keep Mike Cameron, and make a run at Kazuo Matsui. I’d rather have that trio than Ramirez, whose defensive issues would be exacerbated in Safeco Field.