Susuto

LADodgers: That isn’t true. I go to a good number of games and watch any ones I don’t go to on television. It isn’t just me who thinks this. Vin agrees, as well as others. If you watch the games, not just in person, you will hear them talking about how the crowd is more interested in the hope of Manny then the fact of it. It happens far more lately with Manny then other players. And I never said Manny didn’t have an effect on their standing. I merely said it isn’t ALL him. If you knew where they stood, you’d know they are still tied right now and haven’t actually been in first place (ahead of the Dbacks) for any significant amount of time. Even with Manny on the team. Manny has made an impact, but not one large enough to reason 100M for. They are putting themselves in the same situation as they have numerous times in the past. Most of the time they sign a free agent or someone like for a lot of cash, the guy ends up either not living up to the hype (ex: Jones) or being injured or some junk. One exception for that would be Kirk Gibson who made up for his injuries by making that history making home run in the World Series.

I personally think Manny would be good to keep for the rest of the season but if the price is going to be 100M for 4 years, I don’t think the Dodgers should keep him. Right now, McCourt is more interested in filling seats right now from the Manny-mania then anything else and that is what Manny is doing - filling seats. (Remember the 30,000 tickets sold within 24 hours for the first weekend that Manny was signed?) Perhaps one reason I’m so annoyed with the entire Manny concept is because of the blind fan-dom of him. Prices for tickets for games increased significantly after it was announced Manny was coming to the Dodgers. Like I said, I try to go to a lot of games, and I don’t pay for cheap seats (upper deck and pavilion are not my thing, I like to actually SEE the game), so watching as prices climbed within a day of Manny being signed was rather annoying. I can understand when it is against leading teams like the Dbacks, but it shouldn’t be the case for lesser teams. My hope is that McCourt’s love for money won’t overlook the importance of having a well working team. Any glitch in the system can end up throwing the entire team off causing them to not perform as well as they can. And like I pointed out before, there already seems to be issues between Manny and Torre. And that is never a good thing. Eventually the “new kid on the block” feel of Manny will wear off, and we will be dealing with what is left behind.

And with your comment about Manny’s defense, that is what I’m most worried about. Manny’s “Manny-moments” are a lot to deal with. And while he may be a good player in different ways, let’s just hope his “moments” don’t end up coming back to kick our team in the nuts when we need him most.

Also: The Juan Pierre comment was toward Clinojim. Not toward you LADodgers. I agree that Kemp and Either are more preferable, but you can’t say Pierre is not a good runner on base, and he gets the job done well.