On Monday, Florida Marlins manager Fredi Gonzales benched Hanley Ramirezfor what he viewed as not playing his hardest. Ramirez made a horrible error in the game, where he booted the ball clear across the field, and then ran slowly after it.
Ramirez countered that fouling a ball off of his knee earlier in the game prevented him from running at full speed. Gonzalez fired back by saying the 24 other guys on the roster would have ran hard after that ball even if they had fouled a ball off of their knee.
Now, to this point, I don't view Ramirez's actions as that bad. It does appear he was loafing in the game, something someone should efinitely not do, especially when in many ways they are the leader of the team. However, it does happen time to time, and his head just may not have been in the game.
The real problem I have is how Ramirez has responded to being benched, by saying things such as "It's his f---ing team, he can do what he wants with it." and saying that he wasn't in the wrong at all. Ramirez is easily the best player on this team, and probably one of the 5 best player sin baseball in terms of Wins Above Replacement, he should not be acting this way when he served as a role model for the other players.
It's a difficult spot for the Marlins, since they locked Hanley up in a six year, $70-million contract that runs through 2014. Obviously they don't want to alienate their superstar, and end up with a Manny Ramirez in 2008 situation, so it's very difficult for them to find a proper way to respond.
Of course, Ramirez could simply have had a better attitude about the situation and admitted his wrong-doing, instead of pouting in the way he is. Hopefully Fredi Gonzales can find a way to smooth things over, that's really the only route that can be taken now.
Who do you side with?
1 comment:
Well it looks like Hanley wised up and apologized but I think his comments were way out of line so I side with Gonzales. Every thing in said in reaction to HanRam's words were very calm and level-headed. Hanley popped off about Fredi never playin in the majors which is a cheap shot I think. Fredi said "yeah that's true but I played 6 years in the minors and I know how hard it is to play this game."
Billy Martin didn't even wait for the inning to end to take Reggie Jackson out of a game for not hustling. JRoll got benched for something similar and I didn't hear him diss Charlie Manuel at all. Hanley is a tremendous player but I think he was being a baby and was way out of line.
Obviously the Marlins are committed to him, rightfully so, and Fredi's contract is up at the end of the year. A lot of rumors have him going to Atlanta to replace Bobby Cox. In the modern era of baseball the players are the ones really in charge and they know it, they make the most money and have the most clout. I respect Hanley's game but this knocked him down a peg or two in my eyes.
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