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Manny won't be needing that lumber for the next couple of months
(AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Breaking news from the baseball world today as another superstar is suspended for testing positive for performance enhancing drugs. Manny Ramirez will miss the next two months for the Dodgers because of a medication he was taking (or so he claims).
Right now the NL West standings look like this:
Los Angeles 21-8
San Francisco 13-13 6.5 games back
Arizona 12-16 8.5 GB
San Diego 12-16 8.5 GB
Colorado 11-15 8.5 GB
Last year the Dodgers made their major run at the playoffs after Manny was traded to them, prior to that they were barely a .500 team. This year no one was willing to anoint the Dodgers the favorites to win the NL West until Manny officially signed with them in the off season. Now that Manny is out for the next 50 games will the Dodgers fall? It will certainly give the rest of the division a chance to catch up.
Orlando Hudson who has batted in front of Manny for the most of the 2009 has an OPS (on-base plus slugging) of .964. His career OPS is .786 and he hasn’t had an OPS higher than .817 ever in his career. Safe to say that pitchers are going right down the middle when Hudson is at the plate because they would rather face him than Manny.
It was widely documented last year as to how much better Andre Ethier hit when Manny was in the lineup than when he was not.
People are starting to speculate that not only is David Ortiz hurt, but since Manny isn’t in the lineup he just isn’t getting the same pitches and isn’t as good.
Guys like Manny make everyone else in the lineup better. When his spot in the order is nearing pitchers are already worrying about him even if he is three batters away. When he has just come to the plate pitchers feel they need to go after the batters following him because they probably wasted pitches on Manny trying to pitch around him.
The Rockies are playing much better of late as they have won six out of their past 10 games and with Manny taking a seat until July the Rockies need to make it count. It will be very interesting to see how the division looks in two months when Manny returns.
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