Manny G?

Interesting stuff today from ESPN.com's Buster Olney on The Manny Situation, and how the Giants might still fit into the equation:

"...Lo and behold, the Giants have emerged as a player in this bidding. But it remains to be seen whether they are going to be shoving big chips at Ramirez, or if they're just hanging in the thing to position themselves in the event Ramirez gets so frustrated with the Dodgers that he'll walk away from L.A., at any price. It's possible the Giants are not really bidding up Ramirez, but just hoping that a Hall of Fame bargain with a chip on his shoulder drops in their lap.

"We're still talking to him," Giants president Larry Baer said on Friday, "and we have interest. But it's one of those things where it's got to fit. "Manny fits in one respect -- most obvious respect and probably the most important respect. He's a great cleanup hitter. But you have to look at the rest of it, how the contract fits, how the defense fits … On one hand, we'd like to do it, but we believe we've improved the team considerably..."

Things have reached the point where we've all started talking about the possibility of a team causing itself trouble by underbidding (didn't see that coming a few months back, I admit) on Manny, something Olney touches on as well:

"...Some rival executives believe that the Dodgers could offer a two-year, $30 million deal to Ramirez and still have the highest bid on the table -- and of course, two years and $30 million would represent less money than Ramirez would've made had he just stayed with the Red Sox. But part of the discussion, within the L.A. front office, has been about what number would completely embarrass Ramirez to the point that he would roll over on his team, in the way that he did in Boston..."

It certainly adds a level of intrigue, no doubt. As Spring Training approaches, those players still left on the market- and there are some useful ones- will begin to suck it up and sign. Where, I have no idea. I've never been good at predicting the markets. But there will definitely be short term bargains, like the Cardinals had last season with Kyle Lohse.  Could be the marquee names like Adam Dunn, could be Bobby Abreu, or Manny, or Braden Looper, or Ben Sheets, or dudes lower down the ladder, but at some point, the remaining dominoes will fall.

Rob Neyer has some interesting thoughts as well about where Manny should go.  LA... south.

BK