Manny’s being Manny…again

3-13-2010 @ 12:45 Andy Charles

Nothing changes in the wild and crazy world of Manny Ramirez after he started spring training in the headlines for the wrong reasons again late last month.

Ramirez sparked plenty of speculation about his future when he said that 2010 would be his final season with the Dodgers, only to take his comments back the day after and joke that he might play for three more seasons and then make the move to Japan to end his career.

The laugh-a-minute outfielder is coming into his 17^th season in the major leagues and will hope that 2010 is much better than a 2009 that started with a 50-game suspension for doping and ended with just 19 home runs and 63 RBI.

Baseball Betting experts suggest that Ramirez will be the primary left-fielder at Dodger Stadium as the club looks to match last season’s NL West title performance and perhaps do a little better in the playoffs after a disappointing 4-1 defeat by the Phillies in the pennant round.

The 37-year-old is going to be a vital cog in the lineup which should again be a good source of runs with Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier and James Loney looking for repeats of 2009 and Russell Martin looking to bounce back to his numbers from the previous year.

Let us just hope what Martin told USA Today of Ramirez is true: "You never really know when he says something publicly if that's what he really means or if you should believe it. It's not that he says things for no reason. He usually has a reason. He's smart. But he also likes to play around like he isn't smart, but he really is."

Manager Joe Torre also admitted that he will be doing his best to keep some of his veteran bats – Ramirez and Casey Blake in particular – fresh for the end of the season by giving them a few more days off.

That is going to make the batting depth all the more important, with Reed Johnson expected to provide numbers off the bench in the outfield and Jamey Carroll and Blake DeWitt required to do the same for the infielders unless Carroll wins the second base job ahead of Ronnie Belliard, who still has to prove to MLB Betting pundits that he has some his weight issues under control.