Manny will be worth the wait

The Kinks - Tired of Waiting (via MisterGris)

Im so tired
Tired of waiting
Tired of waiting for you

I was a lonely soul
I had nobody till I met you
But you keep-a me waiting
All of the time
What can I do?

Its your life
And you can do what you want
Do what you like
But please dont keep-a me waiting
Please dont keep-a me waiting

cause Im so tired
Tired of waiting
Tired of waiting for you

Our mantra around here is "Waiting for Manny" but as we hit the 1st intra squad game I'm thinking that most of you are tired of waiting for Manny. Back in October I was adamant that Manny Ramirez would not sign with the Dodgers for several reasons.

1. Scott Boras was his agent and rarely do the Boras free agents re-sign with the team they most recently played with.

2. It appeared Manny would be able to hit a payday around 100 Million for four years at the least.

3. I didn't think Frank McCourt would be able to afford Manny while still building a competitive team given the losses of key players.

However the economic landscape has changed and so has my opinion. On December 28th I wrote the con for signing Manny Ramirez but with the changes to this team, I've changed my mind. I still believe everything I wrote but I now believe this team with Manny could get back to the World Series and so he is worth the risk. Plus the risk is much less now, since I expect he will sign a two year deal with an option for year three. We have no other options with Dunn and Abreu off the market, they have no other options unless he wants to take his bat to frigid SF. In October I felt the Mets would be a strong player for him. Madoff took care of that.  I'm as surprised as Manny that he didn't get his 100 Million payoff from someone but he didn't so now we wait.

Frank has been able to par his payroll down to 87 Million while still signing three key players in Furcal/Hudson/Blake for much less then I expected back in October. Rafy Furcal was talking about 3 to 4 years at 12 Million each. We snared him for 6.5 Million in 2009 and 30 Million total over 3 years. Orlando Hudson was talking about 4 years and 48 Million and ended up signing for 4-8 Million on a one year deal. Casey Blake came in at 5 Million per year. So three players that I would have expected us to be paying at least 28 Million for in 2009 are all signed for a min of 15 Million with Hudson incentives possibly moving that upto the 19 Million range. Then they didn't just release Andruw Jones they completely restrucutured his contract so they only had to pay him 3.7 Million this year.

Frank/Ned/Manny/Boras all doing a dance right now, but at some point this marathon dance has to have someone still standing. I'm tired of waiting but I think it will be worth the wait. Of course all of this predicated on Frank still being able to afford Manny. Los Angeles waits for the answer.

Can anyone point me to the story about how Manny's bat plays perfectly in Los Angeles? TIA