If the Dodgers had a choice, they probably would have liked Ramirez to opt out. The 37-year-old wasn’t too dominant last season. He hit .290 with 19 homers and 63 RBIs. The most noise he made was when he was suspended for testing positive for PEDs.

Ramirez also angered a lot of people with his antics — as is usually the case. As the saying goes, it’s just Manny being Manny.

Going into the 2010 baseball season, the Dodgers will hope that they get a season out of Ramirez like they saw in 2008. After being acquired via trade from the Boston Red Sox, Ramirez was very good.

In free agency, Ramirez might have scored a big deal from an American League team. That said, baseball clubs might have been scared off by all the baggage that Ramirez’s back comes with.

Manny Ramirez to return to the Dodgers (Image: Zuma Press)

Post from: EveryJoe

Manny Ramirez to Return to the Dodgers

The Dodgers had many stars on the night. Manny Ramirez was 3-for-5 with two RBIs, while Andre Ethier was 3-for-5 with two runs and two RBIs. Starting pitcher Vicente Padilla pitched seven innings and gave up four hits and one walk while striking out four.

The Cardinals got two hits from Albert Pujols but that wasn’t enough. St. Louis not long ago was one of the hottest teams in Major League Baseball — but they limped to the finish of the regular season and then their poor play continued in the postseason.

The Dodgers advance to face the winner of the series between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Colorado Rockies. Currently the Phillies and Rockies are tied 1-1.

Dodgers Sweep Cardinals (Image: Zuma Press)

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Dodgers Win 5-1, Sweep Cardinals

In the top of the first inning, Ramirez hit a solo shot to put the Los Angeles Dodgers up 1-0. Unfortunately for the Dodgers, they weren’t able to hold onto the lead. The San Diego Padres tied the game in the third and went on to win by a final count of 7-4.

Ramirez finished the game 1-for-3. On the season, he’s hitting .337 with seven homers, 21 RBIs and 23 runs. His on-base percentage is .480 and his OPS is 1.123.

Even with the loss, the Dodgers have baseball’s best record at 51-30. The disappointing Padres upped their record to 35-45 with the win.

The Dodgers play the Padres again on Sunday before starting a series against the New York Mets. Ramirez is expected to keep playing left field and hitting in the three hole in the lineup.

Manny Ramirez hit a home run (Image: Zuma Press)

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Manny Ramirez Hits First Homer in Return

NL All-Star voting shows a lot of Phillies (Image: Zuma Press)

All-Star voting update for the National League:

First Basemen
1) Albert Pujols – St. Louis Cardinals – 2,158,036
2) Ryan Howard – Philadelphia Phillies – 1,147,227
3) Prince Fielder – Milwaukee Brewers – 926,727
4) Adrian Gonzalez – San Diego Padres – 671,867
5) Lance Berkman – Houston Astros – 391,492

Second Basemen
1) Chase Utley – Philadelphia Phillies – 2,273,355
2) Orlando Hudson – Los Angeles Dodgers – 904,648
3) Rickie Weeks – Milwaukee Brewers – 707,074
4) Skip Schumaker – St. Louis Cardinals – 496,103
5) Brandon Phillips – Cincinnati Reds – 359,863

Third Basemen
1) David Wright – New York Mets – 1,256,736
2) Ryan Zimmerman – Washington Nationals – 920,780
3) Chipper Jones – Atlanta Braves – 864,017
4) Pedro Feliz – Philadelphia Phillies – 792,123
5) Bill Hall – Milwaukee Brewers – 705,978

Shortstops
1) Jimmy Rollins – Philadelphia Phillies – 1,216,007
2) Hanley Ramirez – Florida Marlins – 1,128,547
3) J.J. Hardy – Milwaukee Brewers – 865,306
4) Jose Reyes – New York Mets – 625,352
5) Miguel Tejada – Houston Astros – 608,367

Catchers
1) Yadier Molina – St. Louis Cardinals – 1,051,485
2) Brian McCann – Atlanta Braves – 895,663
3) Jason Kendall – Milwaukee Brewers – 815,880
4) Carlos Ruiz – Philadelphia Phillies – 809,633
5) Bengie Molina – San Francisco Giants – 793,580

Outfielders
1) Raul Ibanez – Philadelphia Phillies – 1,897,905
2) Ryan Braun – Milwaukee Brewers – 1,667,029
3) Carlos Beltran – New York Mets – 1,367,412
4) Alfonso Soriano – Chicago Cubs – 1,340,699
5) Shane Victorino – Philadelphia Phillies – 1,116,524
6) Manny Ramirez – Los Angeles Dodgers – 999,800
7) Mike Cameron – Milwaukee Brewers – 936,014
8) Jayson Werth – Philadelphia Phillies – 834,910
9) Corey Hart – Milwaukee Brewers – 791,646
10) Rick Ankiel – St. Louis Cardinals – 721,842
11) Ryan Ludwick – St. Louis Cardinals – 697,720
12) Adam Dunn – Washington Nationals – 584,602
13) Matt Kemp – Los Angeles Dodgers – 549,420
14) Andre Ethier – Los Angeles Dodgers – 521,452
15) Kosuke Fukudome – Chicago Cubs – 458,902

Post from: EveryJoe

National League All-Star Voting Update

Vote for Manny - Joe Torre Won't Do It (Image: Zuma Press)

However, don’t expect to see Dodgers manager Joe Torre vote for his suspended outfielder. When asked about Ramirez playing in the All-Star game, Torre had a simple retort.

Said Torre: “No. I think if you asked Manny, he’d give you the same answer.”

Torre later went on to talk about how the point of the All-Star game should be to reward the players who played the best in the first half of the baseball season.

Although Torre said that Ramirez himself wouldn’t accept a starting spot in the National League All-Star outfield, the suspended native of the Dominican Republic hasn’t addressed the issue as of yet.

Post from: EveryJoe

Vote for Manny? Joe Torre Disagrees

Image © Everyjoe.com

It’s also easy to be skeptical when you really don’t know if the product can harm you. They aren’t tested and regulated by the FDA unless there is potential that the product in question may be harmful. If it’s never brought up in suspicion of being dangerous then they don’t bother.

What worries a lot of people is not knowing where or how some of these products are manufactured and by whom. You don’t have to have a license, you don’t have to list all of the ingredients and you can literally make supplements out of your home if you buy the supplies. If no one complains, no one is investigated.

Back to Sports Illustrated. This weeks SI has a great write up about the supplement industry.  David Epstein and George Dohrmann uncover how dangerous it could be and possibly is, how some companies market the side effects of their products as the intended effect and kitchen chemists. Here are some excerpts from the article. The cover features recently suspended [for use of PED] Manny Ramirez and hits news stands today. (after the jump)

Epstein and Dohrmann explain: “In 1994 Congress passed the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA), which allowed supplements—broadly defined as vitamins, minerals, herbs, amino acids and other products that don’t contain approved pharmaceutical drugs and don’t claim to treat diseases—to be sold with no proof of effectiveness or safety, and without approval from the FDA. That legislation, heavy with lobbyists’ fingerprints, razed virtually every barrier to entry into the marketplace.”

Rene Gonzalez has no background in chemistry or nutritional science, yet he owns a nutritional supplement store, Just Add Muscle, and dreams of one day owning his own manufacturing company. Gonzalez seems completely unqualified to offer advice on supplementation, let alone design and manufacture his own line of products. However, his dream is not nearly as fanciful as it would appear. In a Sports Illustrated special report, staff writer David Epstein and senior writer George Dohrmann reveal how would-be experts such as Gonzalez, in addition to a litany of untested (and potentially deadly) products, feed a multibillion dollar obsession with better performance across all levels of sports (page 54).

One glaring example of what happens when supplement makers ignored testing protocol: “Almost every sports-supplement store sells products that contain the steroid prohormone DHEA, which is legal but banned by the NCAA, the NFL, the NBA and WADA. DHEA is marketed for everything from muscle growth and fat loss to antiaging. Levels of DHEA in the body do decline with age, but in scientific studies on thousands of senior citizens, supplemental DHEA failed to improve muscle mass or brain function. Studies have, however, documented side effects, including facial hair growth in women and breast enlargement and elevated blood pressure in men, in addition to a number of dangerous interactions for those also taking prescription drugs.”

Also in the article it talks about how Muscltech sometimes has 62 pages of supplement ads in Muscle & Fitness Magazine. That’s not surprising at all. I’ve been reading through what I thought was a good article just to turn the page and find out it was nothing but a Muscletech ad. In fact, out of November’s Muscle & Fitness’ 280 page magazine there were 151 pages of supplement ads to include the back page. Muscletech ads were probably half of those. It’s kind of ridiculous.

(Excerpts provided by SI Publicity.)

Post from: EveryJoe

Supplements: Sports Illustrated Report

Manny Ramirez
After all the drama that went on in Boston last year, who wouldn’t pay money to see Ramirez back with the Red Sox.

Pedro Martinez
Since the Montreal Expos are dead, Martinez should sign with their remains … also known as the Washington Nations.

Sammy Sosa
Watching the Cubs just isn’t as fun without Sosa. Without roids he probably weighs about 125 these days but at least we’d get to see that famous home run celebrations at least a couple of times.

Joe Torre
After Torre’s book that is supposedly trashing the Yankees, it’d be awesome to see him back in New York. Hey, if Phil Jackson can write a book and then return, why not Torre?

Mark McGwire
McGwire and steroids should have a reunion. Watching him chase the home run record while juiced up was amazingly fun.

Alex Rodriguez
Whatever happened to Alex Rodriguez and Madonna. Supposedly there is an Alex Rodriguez and Madonna sex tape. That relationship was headed in the right direction.

Post from: EveryJoe

Baseball Reunions We Want To See

5) New York Mets
If the Mets ever want to become known as something other than “the other New York team”, they should invest in Ramirez. He’ll bring a spark to the team and will bring attention — both good and bad. On the field, at least Ramirez isn’t known to choke like the rest of the current team.

4) Texas Rangers
The Rangers need to a face a sobering fact: their pitching was, is and will be horrible. With that in mind, it’s time for Texas to just try to slug their way to a championship. To do so, they should lock up the best bat on the market.

3) San Francisco Giants
The Giants were a disturbingly bad hitting team last season. Ramirez would solve that all by his lonesome. Another bonus is that we know Giants fans have no problem rallying behind a sometimes shady outfielder who likes to hit homers and disenfranchise teammates.

2) Washington Nationals
Is this team even real? Has anyone out there really seen the Nationals play? I’ve seen their name in the newspaper and you can find evidence of their existence online but I’m still skeptical. Perhaps if they sign a player we’ve heard of we may start to believe.

1) Boston Red Sox
Why not? With the way the Yankees are bringing in the talent, the Red Sox have to figure out a way to catch back up. Why not go with the player who you know can bring titles to Beantown? Forget the drama and let him just be the big stick in the middle of the lineup again.

Post from: EveryJoe

Teams that Need Manny Ramirez the Most

“You’ve got to be a boat knowing where you’re going,” saith the sage of the Green Monster. “We’ve got money. We’re famous. But you’ve got to know what you want.”

There’s more.

“Hey, you’re the architect of your life,” he said. “Let me tell you something. We’ve got so much bad stuff inside, it’s up to us to make the best of it.”

I seriously think he’s just screwing with us. There is no Manny being Manny. He just decided one day that if he acted eccentric, he wouldn’t have to actually answer questions from the media for the rest of his life. Also, he could get away with not fielding, ever.

Post from: EveryJoe

Manny Ramirez Practices The Secret