We See You Hanley
On July 25th the Dodgers completed a trade to bring Hanley Ramirez to Los Angeles. Most fans seen this as a surprise, not to toot my own horn but I listed it as a possibility in a blog post last month.
The Miami Marlins invested a lot of money this offseason to sign some big name free agents, one of which was Jose Reyes, an all-star shortstop, a position that was already occupied by Ramirez. Instead of consulting Ramirez about a move to another position, they pretty much forced him in to the move. His numbers went down significantly from his MVP-caliber seasons of years past and his unhappiness was very apparent in spats with manager Ozzie Guillen. It was apparent Ramirez wanted out but owner Jeffrey Loria wasn’t ready to let his former batting champion go. With a large payroll and a losing record the Marlins decided to sell. The combination of Ramirez’s large contract and lack of production made him moveable but not for nearly as much as they would’ve got for him three years ago.
The Dodgers were receiving no offensive production from the left side of the infield (3B and SS). Juan Uribe is terrible and greatly overpaid; Dee Gordon isn’t ready to be a leadoff hitter and played below average defense. Now the Dodgers lineup consists of rookie Luis Cruz and Ramirez who is now back to his natural position of shortstop and his put the claims of not hustling and just completely losing his game to rest. He has 10 RBI’s in nine games for the Dodgers including a game-winning homerun against the rival Giants in San Francisco. A change of scenery was all that Ramirez needed to start producing again, maybe not exactly the Ramirez of old but a very productive #5 hitter in a very dangerous lineup.
The fans seem to love Ramirez already. He gets a loud roar from the crowd and they do his “I see you” gesture every time he gets a hit. Matt Kemp has been known to do the “I see you” at Ramirez which seems to come across like “you see me on base bring me in”. The swag that Ramirez had a few years ago is back. Yesterday he had the game winning single and once he made contact he posed after his hit just like Kobe Bryant would after a jumper. Dodgertown now has three signature chants “MVP” (Kemp), “Andre” and “Hanley”. Hopefully they will be able to ride their new found production into the post-season and have a chance to win a World Series.
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