Well, I was trading emails with Eric yesterday afternoon, telling him about a few ideas I had for articles on this site. One of the ideas was to not write anymore Manny Ramirez rumors because every rumor/story to date has not lead to him signing anywhere. Well, you know as soon as I wrote the email, there would be a Manny rumor floated.
In addition, I told him I had an Orlando Hudson rumor that I may write about. I had read a few blog post written by Diamond Leung over at the PE (Press Enterprise) last Friday.
Colletti also would be interested in another infielder "if the right player came along," and he mentioned the Dodgers already have Mark Loretta, Chin-lung Hu, Ivan DeJesus Jr., Hector Luna and Juan Castro.
Leung also wrote the following yesterday:
The Dodgers scheduled to attend Matt Kemp's celebrity charity event on March 14 are Billingsley, Casey Blake, James Loney and Russell Martin as is unsigned second baseman Orlando Hudson.
O-dog hanging with the Bison, Billz, Blake, J-Lo and Martin?? Sounds a little odd, but who I am to judge? I don't know if these guys a buddies off the field. Well, last night we got this from Scott Bordow at the East Valley Tribune:
Don’t be surprised if the Dodgers not only sign Manny Ramirez but Orlando Hudson as well.
Los Angeles needs an everyday second baseman, and Hudson is still out there, unable to land the rich multi-year deal he thought he would get when he became a free agent. The Dodgers likely could sign Hudson to a one-year deal worth between $5 million and $7 million.
Scoot Bordow is certainly not from ScottBoras.com, nor does he carry the weight like a Ken Rosenthal or a Jon Heyman-hey, isn't he from ScottBoras.com-but the rumor could have some validity, at least partly. Why partly? Because we have this quote from Dodgers owner Frank McCourt about Manny Ramirez from his interview on the MLB Network last evening:
"Well hopefully we are going to sign him soon. That is certainly our intention. You know Manny had a tremendous impact on L.A. and made great contributions to our run at the end of last season. I've seldom seen a situation like his with our fans. I mean that love affair was tremendous. It's our intention to try and bring Manny back. We've tried to do that, been unsuccessful to date, but that doesn't mean we are going to stop trying."
In addition, spring training starts this Friday with pitchers and catchers reporting. After the spring training debacle last year that saw the Dodgers start in Vero Beach, make a stop over in China, then finish in Arizona, I am sure Joe Torre and Ned Colletti want to start 2009 on the right foot. They could accomplish that by ending the soap opera that is Manny Ramirez and sign him, and sign Orlando Hudson to man 2b, while Blake Dewitt becomes trade bait, or back up Casey Blake at 3b.
Should this rumor become fact, the Dodgers could have one of the better lineups in the NL:
Furcal
Martin/Hudson
Ethier
Ramirez
Loney
Kemp
Hudson/Martin
Blake
The Dodgers will need alot of offense after losing Derek Lowe and Brad Penny to free agency.