I Have At Least One Suspect

Am I off base suggesting Shank here, despite his faux outrage at the Red Sox for releasing him?

I am starting a new media column. It is very cleverly titled.

This week, I look at how Hanley Ramirez’s name has been recklessly dragged through the mud. https://t.co/x4YL8H2cIb

— Alex Reimer (@AlexReimer1) June 26, 2018

Dan Shaughnessy - Wrong Again

It looks like Shank's more than eager retweet of 'bad news for Hanley Ramirez' on Friday (see previous post) was way off the mark:

After reports on Friday stated that former Red Sox infielder and current free agent Hanley Ramirez was “being eyed in connection with an ongoing federal and state investigation” that involved distribution of the opioid fentanyl, a new report from the Boston Globe says that Ramirez is not being linked to any drug ring. Ramirez’s name only came up with the investigation because a so-called friend tried to pin a box in his car with two kilograms of fentanyl on Ramirez when he was stopped by police.

Better luck next time...

Is This Why Shank Wanted The Sox To Keep Him?

Pure speculation on my part...

#HanleyRamirez, former @RedSox infielder, has some.. well, issues. Being eyed in connection with an ongoing federal and state investigation. Stay tuned.

— Michele McPhee (@MicheleMcPhee) June 22, 2018

All the better to keep taking shots at the Sox, right, Shanko?

Trolling Like A Jedi Master

Missed this little additional pile-on from yesterday:

Hanley a career .313 vs. Verlander

— Dan Shaughnessy (@Dan_Shaughnessy) June 3, 2018

And these as well:

And perms went out in the 80’s.

— bob m (@uriram82) June 3, 2018

Stop talking to Tony Mazz

— DrStranglove(@milliken587) June 3, 2018

Yeah, keep a guy for two years to hit against one guy in June.

— TzimBouki(@TheOriginalBouk) June 3, 2018

You sure about that? pic.twitter.com/lPrxmVJPks

— Tim Killian (@TimKillian25) June 3, 2018

It's not like Shank to deliberately use bad numbers to make his point - that's why we have Democrats!

The Departed

Shank doesn't like the imminent release of Hanley Ramirez:

The Red Sox dumped first baseman Hanley Ramirez Friday.

The move is being applauded by analytics geeks, luxury-tax toadies, and swing-path savants who permeate and pollute the game of baseball in 2018.

Swell.

I hate it. This move makes the Red Sox worse and less interesting. And it takes away the only proven clutch postseason hitter on a team that needs to prove itself in October. It sucks the color and cockiness out of the clubhouse. It takes away a big threat against lefthanded pitching. It subtracts a goofy, often-full-of-beans talent from a clubhouse peppered with millennial softies who routinely dance on the heads of the no-talent Orioles and Rays in May but have been zeros in October.

I think this is a case of Shank being contrarian just to be contrarian, but he does make a few good points.

Live From The Yankees Clubhouse

... Our Man Shank is there!

NEW YORK — Welcome to the visitors’ clubhouse at Yankee Stadium. This is where stuff happens.

This is where David Price had his first Jack Nicholson-esque, five-star nutty back in June when he hurled insults at writers and equipment into his locker. This is where the Sox staged that goofy champagne-and-goggles celebration last Sept. 29 moments after Craig Kimbrel surrendered a walkoff grand slam to the retiring Mark Teixeira. This is where Terry Francona, then-employed by ESPN, pulled up a chair and started a bull session with his ex-players in 2012 while “new” Sox skipper Bobby Valentine fumed in the corner office.

Looks like Shank has found a Red Sox player to latch onto and trash for the rest of the season.

Sincerity Doubted

It wouldn't be a summer with the Boston Red Sox without Shank openly ragging on one of the players.

Hanley Ramirez says he cares, he really does

Hanley Ramirez knows. He is not stupid. He is not clueless. This is his 13th year in the big leagues and his third season in Boston, and Ramirez knows he’s getting ripped in multiple media platforms.

He knows some folks think he simply doesn’t want to play first base. He knows there’s a perception that he’s a handful to manage. He admits to being immature and something of a manager-killer in his early big league life, but he wants you to know that’s not what’s happening now.

“It’s not like that,’’ Ramirez said while standing at his locker before batting practice Wednesday before the Red Sox played the Twins. “Fans believe what they hear. Those guys that are saying that about me should come in here, in the clubhouse, and do interviews and ask teammates. Don’t just create things that are not good for the team.

Shank goes on to ask manager John Farrell and Hanley himself some questions. Naturally, Shank doesn't believe any of the answers.

The Obligatory Hanley Ramirez Column

This time around, the column's not all cookie cutter spring training stuff - Shank gets to discuss Hanley's bad shoulder for the entire column!

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Who’s on first?

Not Hanley Ramirez. Not yet, anyway. But he says he still wants to go back there.

The offseason blueprint for the post-Ortiz Red Sox calls for Ramirez to serve as DH against righthanded starters while lefty-swinging Mitch Moreland plays first base. On days when lefties start (there are a lot of them around), the Sox plan to put Ramirez at first while Chris Young DHs.

Manager John Farrell also hopes to use the southpaw days to spell some of his everyday starters while Ramirez plays first.

Unfortunately, Ramirez says his right shoulder is bothering him when he throws, and he hasn’t raised his hand to play first all spring. The Sox open the season Monday at Fenway Park against the Pirates, and Farrell sounds as though he has all but given up trying Ramirez at first in Florida.

One of the Globe commenters thought Shank was trying to create some controversy, which is entirely expected. With today's column, I didn't get an overwhelming feeling of venom or shitting on Red Sox management / ownership, which are prime attributes of a Shank hatchet job, so I don't think Shank's stirring the pot right now. He'll wait until next week to write that column, the first time Hanley isn't at first base for the first couple of games.

Incomplete Thoughts, By Dan Shaughnessy

Surely he left something out here...

Why jump on the Hanley Ramirez bus? Because things can

— Dan Shaughnessy (@Dan_Shaughnessy) September 17, 2016

...and a reader fills in the blank:

@Dan_Shaughnessy ...because things can change quickly and when they do I will trash him in a column.

— Christopher E (@cje1213) September 17, 2016

Once Again, The CHB is Not Very Hanley

Hyperbole reigns today.

Writing on Hanley Ramirez, The CHB asserts: "In a single season he made himself New England sports public enemy No. 1. He vaulted past the ghosts of Grady Little, Carl Everett, Jose Canseco, and Carl Crawford and took a seat alongside despised Boston opponents like Matt Cook, Alex Rodriguez, and Roger Goodell."

Wrong. So much went south with the Sox in 2015, it would be irresponsible, let alone false, to claim fans held Hanley to blame more than anyone else. In fact The CHB himself spent far more time mocking John Henry than he did any of the players, saying his payroll management was turning the Sox into Kansas City-on-the-Charles, a move that backfired -- "Royally," shall we say? -- when KC won the World Series. In the wake of this, Ramirez was an afterthought.

But pretenders must pretend, right?

So now, per Shank, Hanley -- and keep in mind, he's a minority -- dogged it on the field (conveniently ignoring he hit 19 HRs and slugged nearly .500 for the first half of the season before badly injuring his shoulder), and the Red Sox played "respectable baseball" once Ramirez was shelved for good (conveniently ignoring that just a few months back The CHB was discounting it as a "lost summer of meaningless games").

Here are the questions The CHB intimates he asks Ramirez:

• "Why do you think folks believe you don’t care?" 
• "Why does everyone blame you?"

Straw man arguments, one and all. It's Day 3 of Spring Training and The CHB is already in mid-season form.

CHB Column Latest Underperformer

Six days after The CHB was laid to waste, scooped on the Dave Dombrowski hiring by the likes of Heidi Watney (!) and David Wade (!!), he picks up the pieces long enough to claim the renewed energy at Fenway owes itself to players worried about losing their jobs.

Who, exactly, is worried remains to be seen.

Pablo Sandoval has a huge contract, and the Red Sox don't have a viable replacement at third base. He ain't worried. Hanley Ramirez has an even huger contract, and while they have lots of outfielders, none of them is making $22 million a year. He ain't worried either.

Dustin Pedroia is injured but the heart and soul of the team and has a contract that runs through 2021. The only guy in the system who might be able to fill his spot today is the current starting centerfielder, Mookie Betts. He ain't worried.

And on it goes. The other underperformers have already been traded (Mike Napoli, Shane Victorino) or released (Justin Masterson), or are on the DL and unlikely to be booted without a long look next spring.

The other myth The CHB tries to push is that the Red Sox are suddenly going to return to the Stone Ages of baseball; that is, when the league RBI leader was the default MVP. Ha! Wonder if Shank knows the difference between the Red Sox and, say the Cardinals and Giants is not their scouts but rather their so-called baseball people NOT taking the stats guys' advice. Keep in mind, it was the stats guys who said don't sign Sandoval. The CHB, on the other hand, made it the platform of his off-season campaign. Who's the smart guy now?

Money Can't Buy Memories

Quick: Who remembers what The CHB said when the Red Sox signed Carl Crawford?

"Carl Crawford brings new dimensions" and "He is a superior athlete ... And Sox fans are going to like his defense.

And remember what he said when the Sox signed Adrian Gonzalez?  "[Gonzalez] could be the answer to Mark Teixeira, and "Suddenly, the Red Sox are back.

Here's what else he wrote:

• "It’s a glut of talent, success, and celebrity, and no American city has seen anything like it."
• "Now they have new weapons, guys in the primes of their career, playing first base and left field deep into this new decade. Christmas at Fenway. Indeed."

Now let's look at the false equivalency he lays out today: "When you have won a playoff game in only one of your last six seasons, it’s time to throw cash at the problem, even if it means blowing up your blueprint."

They won a goddamn World Series, dumbass! Yet there's Shank, acting like the Sox are the New England version of the Pirates, a bunch of penny-pinchers who are just glad to be here.

Keep in mind that the Red Sox spent  $312 million on player salaries in 2013-14, good for fourth in all of baseball. The Yankees -- the team The CHB thinks the Sox should emulate -- spent $432 million -- and didn't make the playoffs. The Phillies spent $345 million -- and didn't make the playoffs. And the Dodgers spent $451 million; they made the playoffs both years but never even got to the World Series.

Also keep this in mind when Hanley Ramirez and Pablo Sandoval get old or hurt or go hitless for a few games next year. Need we remind you what The CHB said about Gonzalez and Crawford when things went south for them?

Just Spend, Baby

The Boston Red Sox have made a few acquisitions in recent days, third baseman Pablo Sandoval and outfielder Hanley Ramirez. Shank weighed in on yesterday's Gresh & Zolak show.

“This isn’t quite Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez, but I’m applauding this,” Shaughnessy said Monday. “They have a surplus of outfielders, a surplus of right-handed bats and now they can trade some of that to get starting pitching.”

After winning the 2013 World Series and then resting on their laurels with minimum impact signings, Shaughnessy is glad they’re finally spending money again.

“At least what they have demonstrated is they’re willing to spend some dough. There was a lot of money off the books last year, and now they’re putting money back into the payroll. I applaud that. Some of these contracts may not look so good four, five years from now when you see what these guys look like, but I won’t care.”

And if anyone believes that last bit, just wait until the first three or four game losing streak. At that point, one or both of these guys will join that long, long line of Boston Red Sox players like the aforementioned Carl Crawford who have made the Shaughnessy Shit List ^TM.