Beckett-Ramirez trade - revisited

kgrady · Post by **kgrady** » Tue Nov 24, 2009 10:52 am

I've been having an ongoing debate/dispute with a fellow sports fan who is absolutely convinced that the December 2005 trade of Josh Beckett for Hanley Ramirez was a disgrace to the integrity of the game. (He sees nothing wrong with Johan Santana to the Mets for three guys nothing close in value to Hanley, by the way.) His latest 'proof' of such is his assertion that there were teams so insensed by the Beckett-Ramirez trade that there was a clamoring from within the baseball establishment for Bud Selig to put a stop to the deal. Does anyone recall such a thing? My feeble mind is at a loss. Intuitively, I say this is nonsense. Sure there were teams disappointed that the Red Sox landed Beckett, at least in the short term. That's a long way from actually crying foul and calling upon intevention from the commissioner.

Thanks in advance from this beleaguered NFBCer.

Regards,

Kevin

DOUGHBOYS · Post by **DOUGHBOYS** » Tue Nov 24, 2009 12:33 pm

Strictly from memory, there was a small smattering of people saying that the rich continue to get richer and that there should be a stop put to it. I think that is all it amounted to though.

This deal was done at a time when Theo Epstein was on "sabbatical" from the Red Sox. Jed Hoyer, the new SD GM played a large role in the deal.

The prospects were legit so the clamoring of too many riches for the RedSox were mostly from typical fans. Nothing ever reached Selig's desk.

DOUGHBOYS · Post by **DOUGHBOYS** » Tue Nov 24, 2009 12:36 pm

By the way, there were a lot of folks back then that thought Anibal Sanchez was the key to that deal and that HE would go on to be a star, not Ramirez.

DiamondKing · Post by **DiamondKing** » Tue Nov 24, 2009 1:02 pm

I think the biggest problem with the deal was the Redsox had to take Lowell as a salary dump.

kgrady · Post by **kgrady** » Tue Nov 24, 2009 1:18 pm

I found some old on-line articles from the time of the trade. Reportedly, the Marlins were pushing for Jon Lester as the pitcher in the package. Florida agreed on Anibal Sanchez instead, with the provisal that the Red Sox also take the contracts of Mike Lowell and Guillermo Mota off their hands. Sanchez pitched very well for Florida as a rookie before the injuries took their toll.

Kevin

headhunters · Post by **headhunters** » Wed Nov 25, 2009 5:55 am

no offense- but how is that guy still saying that? that kind of trade goes on all the time. plus- this was one (of many) times that the team that was supposedly getting ripped off - got a pretty good deal. when someone says "the integrity of the game"; they need to be aware of several things: the meaning of the word integrity, the fact that, by definition "integrity" is subjective and that the "game" of baseball is different not only from other businesses but from the other 3 major sports. it is not, was not, and probably will not be set up as a sort of franchise system like the other 3 major sports. the only reason baseball instituted some revenue sharing was because the union and some congressmen threatened to take baseball to court. you should have won that argument a long time ago.

kgrady · Post by **kgrady** » Wed Nov 25, 2009 6:34 am

Originally posted by headhunters:

no offense- but how is that guy still saying that? ... you should have won that argument a long time ago. I did *win* the argument from the very outset, but that doesn't seem to matter. This is a very stubborn person who rejects anything and everything Sabermetrics, and insists that his position is correct simply because he says so. We actually have good debates on some topics, but this is one where he's in Cuckoo Land. I simply wanted to confirm that his latest line of reasoning was inaccurate.

Kevin

Raskol · Post by **Raskol** » Tue Dec 08, 2009 9:10 am

[ December 08, 2009, 03:10 PM: Message edited by: Raskol ]