Tejada Talk
ESPN Deportes is reporting that the Red Sox are interested in Miguel Tejada. Giving credit where credit is due, I got this from MLBTradeRumors.
Tejada in Boston, eh? Interesting. Would the Red Sox trade for Tejada to play baseball or act as a Manny Ramirez babysitter?
ESPN's Peter Gammons tore Manny apart today in his blog. Gammons points out that Manny has decided he was hurt when it came time to face some of the toughest pitchers in baseball in 2008:
Felix Hernandez - twice
Joba Chamberlain - twice
Edison Volquez - once
Justin Verlander - once
In addition, he says Manny leaves David Ortiz to "face the heat" for him.
I guess my cynical side says this trade idea is an insurance policy. Bring in Tejada to make sure the Red Sox don't "lose" Manny. Well, I don't like it. Tejada would cost Boston $4m this year and $13mm in 2009. All for a player who is 2 years older than we thought and not hitting like a $13mm a year player. His current .738 OPS is his lowest since his 2nd year in the Majors.
Manny is forcing an enhanced risk management program.
Also, can you seriously argue that Tejada is that much better than Jed Lowrie (.732 OPS) or Julio Lugo (.683 OPS). I would say his glove would be an improvement for sure (especially over Lugo), but not much else at an enormous expense (especially in 2009). With Tejada being mentioned heavily in the Mitchell report, that's just makes this rumor upsetting.
It's too bad the Red Sox have to worry if Manny will tank it the rest of the way instead of just having to focus on getting that player or players to make a deep run in the playoffs.
Comments
The thing I don't get is how can Manny tank it the rest of the way? The guy has to put up numbers if he wants a mega-deal from some other team and at some point his antics will cost him money. It seems pretty telling that the Mets, who desperately need a corner outfielder aren't interested at all. Put Manny in that lineup and they should cruise to the World Series. Manny seems like a smart enough guy to realize there is a line that he is crossing with his behavior and that is going to cost him money down the line so I think he will behave himself the rest of the way. (Am I really betting on Manny not "being Manny"?- yikes)
Posted by: Peter![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://yankeesredsox.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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July 28, 2008 10:35 PM
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Yikes is right. When you said he seems like a "smart enough guy" I was worried.
Listen, I think he might be smart enough, but he is officially one of the many people that "just don't get it." We all know a few and too bad for the Red Sox and their fans, they have one on their team.
Posted by: andy![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://yankeesredsox.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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July 28, 2008 11:08 PM
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is mlbtraderumors really a respected site or a bunch of guys like us that have a cool site name that sounds respectable?
some of the stuff on there is as bad as my stuff :)
Posted by: blmeanie![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://yankeesredsox.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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July 28, 2008 11:23 PM
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BL
They link to stories from established news sources. The problem of course is that at this time of year there are a million stories floating around.
And, they just published a link refuting the Tejada story
http://blogs.chron.com/sportsjustice/archives/2008/07/would_you_trade.html
Posted by: Peter![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://yankeesredsox.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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July 29, 2008 12:08 AM
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bl, Peter is right. Anytime someone has a link, I'm inclined to consider it far more than not.
MLB Trade Rumors is more like a news aggregator. They do the difficult task of compiling the many, many rumors floating around there and put it into a neat, easy to find package.
I think some knocked the site when it first started, but they now always include a source, which ultimately puts the judgement on the accuracy of the rumor on the author, not MLB Trade Rumors.
Posted by: andy![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://yankeesredsox.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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July 29, 2008 12:16 AM
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