Manny Ramirez faces 50-game penalty

Dumbass 😀

Enough with these clowns I say throw em all out of Baseball

Don't Overreact to Manny Ramirez Drug Flap
by Robert Ferringo

California wild fires, fueled by fierce ocean winds, are ravaging Southern California. But it was fuel of a different sort that led to Mannywood going up in flames today.

Manny Ramirez has been suspended for 50 games for violating Major League Baseball's drug policy. This news is less than a couple hours old so information is sketchy as to the nature and scope of his "usage". But early reporting from Peter Gammons - who is not prone to being used as a puppet - is that Manny actually wasn't using steroids but was suspended for using a prescription drug that was given to him by a Florida doctor.

Regardless of what Manny did and why, the bottom line is that the enigmatic slugger is going to be out of the Dodger lineup for most of the summer. And while I think that the impact on the field is going to be significant, I definitely don't think it's going to be as devastating as the knee-jerk, bobblehead reaction believes it will be.

Manny is clearly the difference-maker on this team and everything was built around him. He has been a mentor to the younger players and his looseness, his quiet confidence, and his professional approach at the plate have all been infectious in this locker room. The guy made the Dodgers almost unbeatable against left-handed pitching.

However, the Dodgers just went from being an elite team headed for a 100- or 105-win season to a very good team that will still win 85 to 90 games and will still win the West. That is the difference: with Manny the Dodgers are elite, and without him they are very good. So this loss did not submarine their season. In fact, it might even open up some strong value situations for them moving forwards as bettors and books overreact to his loss.

The Dodgers started the year as a 10-to-1 shot to win the World Series and had even worked their way up to 7-to-1 with their hot start. I believe we're going to see a backlash here, especially if they struggle at first without their leader, and we'll see this number dive back toward 15-to-1. I think that getting the Dodgers to win it all at 15-to-1 is an absolute steal. And I think that if you can get the Dodgers at anything higher than 7-to-1 to win the National League pennant you have to pound that.

Here are some reasons why the loss of Manny is bad, but not devastating, to the Dodgers:

This was a good team before he got there.
This was still a very good team on the verge of taking the next step before they got Ramirez last fall. A core of Andre Ethier, Matt Kemp, James Loney, Rafael Furcal and Russell Martin is still very good. Mix in true professionals like Casey Blake, Orlando Hudson and Juan Pierre and this club is still the best in the National League West.

This team is fortunate that it still has Juan Pierre to set up at the top of the lineup. And now knowing that all eyes will be on him I think that one of the feistiest, proudest, hardest working players in the league will step up.

The National League West still sucks
L.A.'s prime competition was going to come from the Giants this year. Arizona is terrible, even though it will improve a bit when Brandon Webb comes back. San Diego is terrible. The Rockies are the Rockies. The Dodgers still have the best team in the division. And what's great about this happening - the lines on them are going to plummet and we're actually going to find tremendous value on this club.

Joe Torre can guide the ship.
All this means is that Torre will have to take fewer naps in the dugout. But the guy is a future Hall of Fame manager and if he can handle the drama of New York City and the Yankees then there is absolutely no doubt that he can handle the apathy of the fan base in California.

Panic and pressure can sometimes bring out the best in people.
It's "all hands on deck" right now in the Dodgers clubhouse. The alarms are sounding and this team is going to go into "fight or flight" mode. Yes, there will be an adjustment period as the lineup shuffles and as the guys get used to the reality of not having Manny in the middle to clean up their messes. But at the end of the day everyone - from the makeshift pitching staff to the vets on the bench - is going to step forward with their best game. I think that the focus of this team is going to sharpen and I think that everyone is going to be ready to pick up the slack.

And in the end, I think that learning to play and win without Manny is going to make this an even better team.

He'll be back.
Apropos to end with a catchphrase from a state governed by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Manny's season isn't over. His career isn't over. The guy is going to miss a few months. That's it. The Dodgers have played 29 of 162 games. That means that when Manny comes back there will be more than half of the season remaining. That's more than enough time for him to find his groove and for this team to slide back into the groove that it's been in since the start of the year. And when this team is playing like it has been in the opening month it is clearly one of the two or three best teams in the N.L.

With Ramirez, and if this team can make a move and pick up another frontline starter, this club is right there with the Phillies, Mets, Cubs and Cardinals for the best in the National League.

In closing - DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE. Everyone is going to act like the sky is falling in the next few days. Don't buy it. This is still a very, very talented team. And while they won't be the godless killing machines that they have been with Ramirez and through the first month of the year this is still a very talented team that we can collect with.

Docsports.com

Dodgers Futures Odds to be Affected
by T.O. Whenham

It seems like no player in baseball is clean anymore. In news that has to be described as shocking, Manny Ramirez has reportedly tested positive for performance enhancing drugs and is going to be suspended for 50 games starting immediately. Ramirez has been off to a truly blistering start this year - he's hitting .348 with six home runs and 20 RBI - and he has helped the Dodgers to the best record in baseball. Needless to say, this news changes everything for the Dodgers.

It's not known yet at this point what Ramirez tested positive for, and the player is reportedly going to claim that the positive test was the result of medication given to him for a personal medical problem. That is potentially true, but given the number of high-profile drug cases in the sport recently it's extremely hard to believe. It also appears that Ramirez didn't take steroids, but that the drug he did test positive for was clearly a banned substance by the league. Regardless of whether the drug was specifically taken for a competitive advantage or not, it's completely inexcusable for a player of this stature to be taking something questionable or saying that he didn't know what he was taking.

At this point it's impossible to overstate the impact that this development will have on the Dodgers. There are dozens of ways that this will affect the team. Let's look at five:

1. Loss of Ramirez - This one doesn't take a rocket scientist to assess - you take the best hitter in the world out of a lineup and the team is going to suffer. Ramirez hits so well that he can't be replaced. That impact goes beyond just the numbers he puts up. His reputation is larger than life, and he strikes terror into the hearts and heads of opposing pitchers. The team will likely replace Ramirez full time with Juan Pierre. He's a solid hitter - .300 on his career - but he doesn't have the presence or aura that Ramirez has, and that will immediately become obvious. Think of the boost that the team enjoyed once Ramirez joined them last year and settled in. It was massive. Now take the opposite of that and you could have what happens now.

2. Impact on rest of batting lineup - Ramirez is one of the rare players that impacts more than him in the lineup. Opposing teams can't help but try to pitch around him or strategically minimize his impact. That has a positive affect on the rest of the lineup. Andre Ethier and Orlando Hudson are both off to incredible starts, and the influence of Ramirez definitely factors in as a cause for that. We won't know right away what impact the loss of Ramirez will have, but it will be big.

3. Loss of confidence - Ramirez brings a swagger to the game, and he is so good that it's justified. Losing that will unquestionably affect the confidence of this squad. The way in which they lose their star will have a big impact, too. Players are lost all the time to injury, and teams can cope. The fact that Ramirez was caught cheating, though, makes the absence so much worse. Players could question what impact the drugs had on his performance, and how much of what they have accomplished this year is actually real. The potential psychological impact of this news is massive. On top of that, 50 games is a long time. That's two months - a third of the season. Knowing that long absence is looming, and that Ramirez normally takes a while to return to form after an absence, means that the players will be left to dwell on the fact that they are on their own for a long time.

4. Distraction - No one associated with the Dodgers will be able to go two minutes for the next two months without being asked about this situation. The media will be on high alert. This is a huge story - just think of how much coverage Ramirez got when he was clean. You can expect at least as much noise surrounding this as there has been from the A-Rod debacle. That level of distraction hasn't seemed to help the Yankees, and it certainly can't be viewed as a good thing for the Dodgers.

5. Fan response - Dodgers fans will feel betrayed. Opposing fans will have a field day both now and when Ramirez returns. Ramirez is a magnet of attention. The hometown crowd has been a big reason why the Dodgers have got out to a major league record start at home, so it can also have a big and far less positive impact going forward.

The biggest immediate lesson for bettors to take on this one is patience. The long-term loss of Ramirez is probably the single most disruptive roster move a major league team could currently face. There is no justifiable reason to bet on or against the Dodgers until we get a sense of how things will change and what this means. The team could immediately go into the tank, or they could rally in the face of adversity and stay strong before a likely decline. Until we get a sense we would just be guessing about the impact, and guesses are rarely profitable in the long term.

One interesting indicator that we can follow is the future odds. Last year when Ramirez joined the Dodgers they immediately dropped from 20/1 to win the World Series down to 15/1. This year they opened at 10/1 and fell to 7/1 in the face of their strong start. How those odds react immediately and in the coming weeks will give us a sense both of how the books are reading the situation and how the public is responding.

Docsports.com