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Is Hanley Ramirez Changing His Batting Stance?

MLB: Spring Training-Miami Marlins at Tampa Bay Rays

If you remember when Hanley first came into the league he was a young lead-off guy with some pop, and a whole lot of talent.

He came to the fish from The Boston Red Sox’s, and a couple of seasons after we had brought up another young talented player named Miguel Cabrera no less.

Hanley Ramirez leading off, and LF/3B Miguel Cabrera hitting 3rd! Man the future looked good for the fish.

Then someone in the front office thought they needed to ditch Miguel Cabrera to save a few bucks, and they went ahead with the worst trade since the Babe was sent to New York from Boston!

The Marlins traded Miguel Cabrera to the Detroit Tigers, and got a bunch of garbage in return… Am I being to harsh? Well Not 1 player from that trade is still here now.

Since then Miguel has gone to have monster season after monster season. While Hanley has seen his production fall each season since 2009.

Then in their ever expanding lack of talent evaluation they moved the young lead-off guy down in the order after he had a  monster year in 2008 which saw him hit a whopping .342 Avg 24HR and drove in 106 Runs. At the time the move looked like it was a good move due to the fact that Miguel was now gone, and the team needed some production in the middle of the lineup so who better to turn to then Hanley right? A Kid who’s never been a middle of the order type. Instead of going out, and finding another bat they decided to move him down the order, and for some time he was OK. Not as good as he was leading off but still good.

At first glance one looks at the following year 2009 which saw him hit .300 avg 21 HR 76 RBI’s and it’s easy to say ”hey he’s a shortstop! Those are good numbers for a SS.” But if you dig deep into the season, and start to see what was happening to Hanley half way into the season he changed his batting stance to mimic that of Manny Ramirez, and his avg started to dip. He spent the last 15 days on the injured list with a hang nail just to avoid hitting under 300.

Well the move down in the batting order is where it started but what really brought Hanley down to the point where last season he hit .240 avg, 10HR, and 45rbi’s was that after he wins the batting title, and he hit’s .342 was him changing his stance!

He starts again to mimick Manny Ramirez, and it was half way into the 2010 season which is exactly when he started to see his production slip.

To this day this is something which honestly puzzles me… He started to tweak his batting stance! I ask why? Why would you mess with what is working for you? Why would you allow your young hitter to do this? Why did nobody in the front office step in at anytime, and say something to him? And if they did, and he didn’t listen why is he still a Marlin? If a player doesn’t listen to the coaches, and he’s not hitting then he shouldn’t be here.

The real sad thing is that after 2 games it looks like he’s the same Hanley as last year, and not like the Hanley that hit .342 and lead the national league in batting.

The worst part of Hanley Ramirez 2012 is that now he’s playing out of position, and this is a guy who’s never played a position other then short stop. Tonight I called into the Steve White show on 560WQAM, and gave them my idea on how to fix Hanley, and what  he’s been doing wrong, and Steve agreed 100% to the point that he let me speak my mind for a good 5minutes, and even after my call dropped he asked me to call back in so I could finish my point because yes I know what I’m talking about folks.

I called back, and was allowed to finish, and I a fan pin pointed the major flaw in the player that is Hanley Ramirez… Why has nobody from the actual team figured this out?

Steve was sort of shocked that I a fan figured out something that the owners, managers, coaches, and mlb hasn’t! That Hanley Ramirez is stuck trying to be Manny Ramirez, and since he changed his batting stance his production has gone down. Steve suggested that what he needs is a change of scenery, and that the Marlins should trade him. But with the way he’s been playing does he even have trade value? He’s become a problem child who doesn’t hit… Who could you possibly get for him? Who would want him? Nobody. So unless we are willing to part with him for nothing! He’s un trad-able right now. We already traded Miguel Cabrera for nothing. They won’t ever live it down if they get nothing in return for Hanley. So he’s not going anywhere anytime soon.

Another thing which will hurt Hanley’s hitting is that the new Marlins Park is a pitcher friendly park, and he’s going to have a hard time  hitting home runs unless he changes his stance back to how it was in 2008. Hanley I predict will hit no more then 5HR this year in this park, and maybe another 3 or 4 on the road.

He could still prove me wrong, and I hope he does. But I really doubt he will… Sad thing is that the Marlins spent a ton of money this off-season but none of it was on parts they needed to make this a better team. Other then Bell they failed in every pick up.

Jose Reyes was not needed, and grossly over paid… Don’t believe me? Did you not Notice how nobody else wanted Jose Reyes?  Well after this season you will all see why mark my words… See I know a lot of Mets fans who hated him the entire time he was in New York, and if you follow the game at all you will know that he’s not exactly a great “team player” and he tends to break down a lot… In fact a funny coincidence with Hanley and Jose is that he’s been injured every year since 2009 which is when Hanley’s production started to slip.

So we gave a 100million dollar contract to a guy who is hurt every year but we trade Miguel Cabrera who’s a future hall of fame player for garbage? Who’s running this front office again bozo the clown? Reyes is the worst pick up we made this off season not only did we get someone we didn’t need (another lead-off hitter in a team with 3 leadoff hitters already!) we are paying him over 100 million! Yikes! But worse of all it creates all kinds of bad issues for us. Now we have to put Hanley out of position, and he’s going to take this as a personal thing regardless of what he says in the media you know he wasn’t happy when they signed Jose Reyes, and found out he had to move to 3rd.

Carlos Zambrano is so bad the Cubs are paying 17 Million for him to play for us! As for Mark Buehrle he is nothing special… Can you say “Brad Penny!”  That’s who Mark Buehrle reminds me off. He’s an alright pitcher he will win 10 or 11 games but he’s not the answer, and neither is anyone else in our rotation this year. Which honestly isn’t very impressive.

The team needed a middle of the line up power hitter, and failed to land that hitter. They needed a stud pitcher, and they failed there too. They had a long list of hitters they could have gone for, and they didn’t land any of them. They had Prince Fielder, Albert Pujols or Yoenis Céspedes to name 3, and one would think at least Yoenis Céspedes is a shoe in to come here! He’s Cuban, and this is a Cuban community.  How bad were the Marlins pitch that he went to Oakland? We NEEDED to land someone who can make a major impact on this team, and we simply didn’t.

I don’t think this will be a special season like 1997 or 2003 guys you see the Braves, Phillies, and even Nationals will be a head of the Marlins this year.

Maybe it’s a good thing Hanley isn’t hitting that many Home runs these days since every home run triggers that awful thing in CF that our tax payer money paid way to much money for…. Another big mistake by the Marlins front office.

In closing the way to fix Hanley is for him to ditch the Manny act, and gets back to being himself.

Written By: Angel Espino

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_GLSTZRVI5AJDCBN3TTWH44NIL4 Michael

    I stopped reading when you ‘predicted’ Hanley would only hit 9 HRs on the season. He has 3 in spring training and was killing the ball with the same stance. He is not trying to be Manny, he is working with coaches to try to figure out what works. He changed his stance becuase it was not working the old way anymore for him once he put on the weight. That kinda thing happens. And trading Hanley Ramirez…. Really? You yourself said the Marlins didnt get their value back for Miggy, and now you want to send Hanley away…. please do not ever write something with such little baseball knowledge again. This was a rant from a fan, not an article by a writer.

    • thajackal

      I didn’t say I wanted to trade him I said Steve white did. But I wouldn’t turn down a trade if it made sense.

      As for Zambrano his best days are behind him, like Buehrle who isn’t terrible but he’s not a 20game winner. He will win 10 to 13 games tops.

      And ill stand behind my prediction on how many homeruns Hanley will hit.

      Dude hit 10 last year… And this is a pitchers park. He hit 3 in spring in those minor league parks they play in. Mostly against sorry pitchers.

      Anyway its only 2 games in let’s see how they do this weekend.

      Oh and Prince Fielder just went deep… Fuck genetics. He’s worth every penny.

      He’s a much better athlete then his dad ever was, and he’s the main guy we should have gone for. More then even Pujols. Him and Cespedes.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_GLSTZRVI5AJDCBN3TTWH44NIL4 Michael

    ok.. so I finished the article and got some good laughs. 1. Mark Buehrle had the lowest ERA in the American league over the last 3 years other than Halladay and CC. I’ll let you use that stat in the future when you realize just how good he is. 2. Zambrano was a fantastic pick up because it saved money, got rid of Volstad (who has dont nothing but get worse) and gives us a guy that was a #1 last year, as our 5th starter. Thats a solid baseball move.
    3. You talk about overpaying people and you wanted Pujols or Fielder to come here? we would have had to WAY outbid those other clubs. An equal contract with the Tigers or Angels would not win one of those guys for us. We would have to blow them out of the water, Not worth it. Pujols will be 41 when the Angels are paying him 30MIL+/per. And Fielder will NEVER, mark my words, NEVER be the same guy he was in Milwaukee. Why you ask? Genetics. His father never had a great season after 27. Fielder is 28 now. You can run from many things in life, your genes you can not. And Cespedes is a guy that would have been our 4th outfielder,lol. Thats why he didnt come here. He wanted playing time, Something that a crummy team like Oakland can give him.

    And 4., RELAX!!!! its two games into the multiple YEARS this team will be together. Both starters have given us quality starts (maybe you should look up what a quality start means, you seem to not understand baseball) the only thing that hasnt happened is us getting hits. Oh, except for that Reyes guy you seem to hate. He has 3 of them…hahaha.

  • http://twitter.com/thajackal Tha JackaL

    So now who doubts me? I was pretty much on point on everything. Last place, Hanley did nothing this year for us, and ended up traded. Jose Reyes outside of his little hitting streak he’s done nothing worthy of his contract, and Big Z? Was I right or what? He’s in the pen now. I hate to have to tell people “I told you so” but hey I did….