Baseball Returns to Los Angeles!

Manny Ramirez will see to that.

Manny Ramirez will play for the Dodgers for one or two more years at $25 billion a pop. Not surprising. In 16 MLB seasons, Manny has earned $162,149,269.

On July 31, 2008, Manny was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers in a three-way deal in unusual circumstances: his salary was to be paid by the hapless Boston Red Sox. The Dodgers had him for free for the remainder of the season.

The numbers Ramirez put up for the Dodgers in those two months, when projected over a full season, would have amounted to a .396 batting average, 51 home runs, 159 runs batted in. No player has been able to put up those kind of numbers in a full season, in major league history.

Ramirez is a great hitter in a clutch. He explains his immunity to pressure in his hitting this way:

We've got nothing to lose. Just play the game. Why panic? If we don't do it, we'll come back next year ...... There's always next year. Who cares? It's not like the end of the world.

His presence in the batting order at positions three or fourth transforms the line-up from an average offense to a contending threat. We’re looking at this group of probable starters: Russell Martin, Casey Blake, Blake DeWitt, Rafael Furcal, Orlando Hudson, James Loney, Andre Ethier, and Matt Kemp. All of these guys have pop and there's not an easy out among them. With Ramirez batting in front of- or behind- them, these guys will produce plenty of runs.

Of course, the season will hang as it always does, on the lack of injuries.

And the pitching. Manny doesn't pitch (baseballs).