Electoral Math
Reality-Based^TM Political Numbers from Nicholas Beaudrot

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Can't anybody here play this game!

10am

The Red Sox have placed Manny Ramirez on unconditional waivers. A number of columnists have interpreted this as a sign that the Red Sox are looking to dump Ramirez and the $100+M remaining on his contract. They've claimed that the Sox are unhappy with Ramirez "attitude problems", to the point where they're just looking to dump his salary

Hogwash.

If Ramirez clears waivers, the Sox could release him, at which point they would be paying $100+M to have him not play for the Red Sox. The odds that they are so monumentally stupid is, well, low. At that point, they're stuck with having Manny Ramirez as there starting left fielder next year. You could do much, much worse than that.

If a team has the guts to claim Manny Ramirez, they're taking on his entire salary. This instantly gives the Red Sox millions of money to play with in the offseason, and essentially gambles that they can sign Vladimir Guerrero or Gary Sheffield for the same amount of money, or perhaps lest. Or they could sign Kevin Millwood or Bartolo Colon for less than $15M, and use the remaining $5-6M to pick up random spare parts for their LF/1B/DH rotation, in much the same way they did this year with the four-headed monster of Gabe Kapler, David Ortiz, Kevin Millar, and Jeremy Giambi.

The Sox aren't unhappy with Manny Ramirez at all. They're not worried about his "attitude" problems. They're just looking to give themselves as much flexibility as possible. Letting teams ponder the idea of picking up Manny Ramirez is just another form of flexibility. It's a sign that Manny can be had, if the price is right

Am I the only one that understands this?

5:10pm

Wow. I'm just never going to go home.

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Last updated by Nicholas Beaudrot on 11:34 13 February 2005