The Answer Lies Somewhere In-Between — Hanley Ramirez and the Dodgers

I wanted to wait before I wrote anything about Hanley Ramirez’ trade to the Dodgers. With time comes perspective, and I didn’t want to be a reactionary Dodgers fan talking about how he can be the difference between getting to/winning a World Series and making the playoffs at all.

But then I thought about what I have written recently. My dislike of Juan Uribe at third-base for the Dodgers has overflowed to the point that I just picture a win-sucking vortex down the third base line.

He’s better than Juan Uribe!

Hanley Ramirez was only hitting in the .240’s this year and having statistically as bad a season as he’s ever had. When people have pointed that out to me over the past 24 hours, my response is a quick “He’s better than Uribe,” which also isn’t saying much. Almost anyone, Wilson Betemit included, is better than Uribe. But Hanley is better in a different way. His “upside” is Kemp-like. Just 18 months ago we were wondering whether Kemp would ever harvest the fruits of his pure talent and here we are with him as the cornerstone of the franchise for the foreseeable future.

Not only is Hanley better than Uribe, based on past performance Han-Ram has such potential that it’s scary. Or exciting. Really exciting.

You should hope he doesn’t turn out like Manny…

First of all, the premise that the Manny Ramirez trade was a bad one is erroneous. The original trade for Manny required the Dodgers to take on only part of Man-Ram’s salary (the Red Sox paid a lot of it) and basically get a hall-of-fame level rental for almost two years. Manny led the Dodgers to back-to-back playoff and NLCS appearances in his first two years. If you want to argue that the re-signing of Manny was a mistake, then I think a valid argument can be made, but the original trade brought excitement to the team and with casual fans paying more attention, maybe even gave the anti-McCourt sentiment that followed a nudge.

He’s going to be as good as he used to be!

Maybe. Even if he isn’t the MVP caliber player he once was, the Dodgers are only committed to him for two years. Even if he turns out to be a little better than Casey Blake (which would be the downside of Hanley), it would still be much better than what they have now and would give Dodgers management time to figure out what they want to do with the infield long-term.

The Pressure Cooker

For the past two years, Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier have had a heap of pressure on them. While other players in the lineup have exhibited positive stretches, Kemp and Ethier have been forced to be the stalwarts, often playing through injuries and leading the Dodgers’ offense. With Ramirez in the lineup, the collective pressure is eased. Words cannot describe (though I’ve tried) the tremendous pressure put on the entire rest of the lineup by a .185 hitter who is playing every day at a corner infield position. Now the Dodgers don’t only have a player who won’t put additional pressure on other guys. They have a potential superstar who can take as much pressure off other guys as Kemp and Ethier. And that’s something to be really excited about.luke chat

So what will he really be?

So will Hanley be the old Hanley — terrorizing opposing pitchers from a middle infield or third base position? Or will he be this year’s Hanley — a spoiled child not able to cope or play nicely with new friend. My prediction is that Hanley Ramirez will end up somewhere in between. His tarnished image and game will begin to dissipate and while he is unlikely to be the Hanley of old, he is a huge upgrade at the position the Dodgers sorely needed a change.

Last night Ramirez’ acquisition paid off in a tangible way when he sent the ball over the outfield wall in San Francisco to secure a Dodgers extra-inning win and pull them one game closer to the first-place Giants.

Now if we could just do something about this first-base thing…