Go Crazy Folks…
Manny Ramirez pulls all the right strings for his All-Star Factory in 2013.
The journey starting at the 2013 draft. General manager Manny Ramirez was able to snag the right mix of players to lay the tracks to a championship. Players like Salvador Perez, Jason Grilli and John Lackey were fantasy studs for the All-Star Factory. Manny then spent his time early in the 2013 campaign studying his team to identify their areas of improvement. He knew he had a potentially great team, he just needed to make a few tweaks to be a serious contender.
On May 24th Ramirez struck a deal with the Quebec City Piglets to bring injured superstar shortstop Jose Reyes to Santo Domingo. Reyes had started the season on fire but went down with an ankle injury. The price was prohibitive in Austin Jackson and SD’s mi 3rd round pick. Even in May, QC had folded up shop on his chances for 2013 and was moving his veteran players for younger pieces. Reyes soon enough returned to action and solidified the hole at short which had previously been occupied by Alcides Escobar. So yea, the bar was pretty low.
As the trade deadline approached Ramirez recognized the need to upgrade his starting pitching staff. Going into the season Ramirez had hoped that a returning Daniel Hudson from elbow surgery and/or the emergence of top prospect Dylan Bundy would be able to provide the mid-season bump to his already good pitching staff. Things rarely go as planned. Hudson’s rehab was cut short when he reinjured his elbow; Bundy suffered his own elbow injury. Both, done for the year. Ramirez poked the tires on just about every available starter as the deadline approached. One player in particular that struck his fancy was Cliff Lee. Lee had been putting up big numbers for a Tokyo team that wasn’t contending in 2013. As Tokyo put Lee on the block, Ramirez tried his hardest to acquire the veteran. The negotiations met a stalemate when Ramirez refused to include the aforementioned young stud Dylan Bundy. In the end Lee was dealt to the Weymouth Shaddupu a few weeks before the deadline for what Ramirez felt was an inferior deal.
Luckily for Ramirez there were many sellers in EHCC at the trade deadline. The EHCC had become top heavy in 2013 with 4 teams (LV, SD, DUB, TIJ) setting the pace. Behind the big four, there were a few other teams hovering around the .500 mark. The remaining teams were far enough back to concede the season and try to sell off some pieces in an effort to get younger. This meant that there was multiple available starting pitcher options on the market. Inexplicably, the Weymouth Shaddupu were one of those sellers. His trade for Lee was met with a losing streak and the suspension of cornerstone outfielder Ryan Braun. Weymouth felt he wasn’t going anywhere and started making deals to improve his long term prospects. Cliff Lee had become available again and just hours before the deadline Ramirez was able to secure him for a package of Allen Webster, Mike Zunino, Nick Castellanos and SD’s 2014 mi 2nd round pick. A heavy but necessary price to secure one of the best, albeit older pitchers in the game. Lee ended up being nails down the stretch for Santo Domingo. In 3 playoff starts, Lee pitched 23 innings with 35 K’s, 1.96 ERA, .83 WHIP and a win. His performance in the playoffs will go down in SD lore.
The final piece added to the All-Star Factory was third baseman Ryan Zimmerman. Going into 2013, Ramirez had planned on Will Middlebrooks continuing his 2012 breakout at third base. Unfortunately Middlebrooks stumbled to the point where he was eventually sent down to the minors to figure it out. Zimmerman had been placed on trade waivers by Tijuana following his free agent pickup of Chris Johnson; SD was the claiming team. Ramirez didn’t think TIJ was serious about trading a cornerstone player that he’d drafted with his second pick of the 2012 ex draft. Upon negotiation, Ramirez got the feeling that TIJ might just dump Zimmerman on him for the 2nd round pick already on the table because of the claiming process. Instead he gave up his 1st round 2014 ma draft pick just to be sure the deal got done. This was the final glaring hole on the roster to fill, Ramirez had to give a little extra to be sure the deal was going to get done. Zimmerman ended up making more of an impact on the outcome of the 2013 season than expected. In a stroke of poetic justice, Zim caught fire and was the major reason why SD beat up on TIJ in the last week of the regular season, therefore securing the tiebreaker over TIJ should they meet in the playoffs.
Ramirez also added other key players throughout the season via the waiver wire. Jim Henderson, Koji Uehara and Bartolo Colon were important contributors to the All-Star Factory and their championship run.
But not all was roses as the playoffs rapidly approached. Bad news came in the form of season ending injuries to key players. Jose Bautista, the power hitting outfielder was shut down because of a bruised hip. Matt Harvey, the Cy Young candidate was also shutdown with a partially torn UCL in his pitching elbow. Wil Myers was called up to replace Bautista on the roster, but there wasn’t a ready starting pitcher in the SD system to replace Harvey. They’d have to make do with what was available on the waiver wire. Could Santo Domingo make any noise in the playoffs without Harvey and Bautista?
Speaking of a potential SD vs TIJ playoff matchup. Santo Domingo did meet up with Tijuana in the second round of the playoffs and it was probably the most compelling matchup ever. A nail biting miracle win for Santo Domingo; a brutal “quit the league” type loss for TIJ (Please don’t quit Keith, you’re a great owner). TIJ came out of the gates hard and fast, putting up impressive numbers early and often. Ramirez, sensing that he was on the verge of a one and done playoff exit went into desperation mode and started streaming starting pitchers. He picked up Dice-K, Kazmir and Petit for Fri, Sat and Sun. They pulled in a combined 2W, 23K, 1.40 ERA, 0.87 WHIP. Just what the doctor ordered. Even with the successful survival mode streaming it was still close. How close was it? It came down to sweating out the Sunday night game; STL vs MIL. SD had a 2 K lead where a tie in K’s would’ve lost it. TIJ had Joe Kelly, the starter for STL going and SD had Jim Hernandez, the closer for MIL going. Kelly struck out exactly 2. That puts SD at a tie for K’s and in losing position for the matchup. So here we are, hoping that the brew-crew would keep the game within a 1-3 run lead so that their closer would get into the game, then hoping that he can strike a guy out… And that’s just what happened. The Brewers took a 6-3 lead into the 9th and Hernandez strikes out the 2nd and 3rd outs of the inning. SD wins! Ramirez pulled all of the right strings to escape with the 5-5 win on tiebreakers.
In the championship matchup, Santo Domingo faced the three time champion Las Vegas Doggs for the title. This ended up being a bit of a tickle fight. SD put up some modest numbers that wouldn’t be matched by a suddenly ice cold Las Vegas team. SD was leading from day one and cruised for a 7-3 win. After the unlikely win against Tijuana, it seemed to be destiny that SD claimed the 2013 EHCC title.
posted by jeff at 4:44 PM
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