Who would of thought it would come down to this? Manny Ramirez literally threw himself out of Boston with both his mouth and actions. It started by a slap to Kevin Youkilis’ face, proceeded with a shove to the team secretary, and continued with his big mouth to ESPN DePortes.

Today marks the end of the Man-Ram era in Boston, and to be quite honest, it’s sad. Granted the Red Sox needed to get him out of the organization; it’s just a shame it had to happen like this. Manny Ramirez was one of the most loved Red Sox to date. Ramirez’ eight-year run brought 2 world championships to Boston, a feat that was missing for 86 years.

(Fellow writer Mike Comtois probably said it best when he said losing Ramirez is like losing a girlfriend. It’s true, it’s just hard to picture a Sox team without Ramirez in the lineup. Personally, it’s all I’ve known since 2000 when I was just 14 years old.  But hey, everyone must move on)

It’s tough to tell how Jason Bay will do in Boston. Sure, he’s coming to a much tougher American League, but he is now in the middle of one stellar lineup. Hitting between Youkilis and Ortiz will provide Bay with the much needed protection he was missing in Pittsburgh. Hitting between Ryan Doumit and Doug Meintkiewicz isn’t what we would call “ideal”. Bay had a tough ‘07, but his numbers have turned around this year. Fenway Park is a hitters ballpark certainly to a right-handed batter like Bay.

So what’s next? Now that the Red Sox clubhouse has been rid of the cancer, maybe the post All-Star break struggles are about to turn around. We sure hope so.

One thing is for certain, Manny Ramirez will never be forgotten. No if’s, and’s, or but’s about it, most of us enjoyed watching him roam left field, high-five fans, become a cut-off man in center field, and smash many home runs over the Monster. We thank you Manny, and hope Joe Torre and the Dodgers can deal with you.

Sox & Dawgs - Ian over at Sox & Dawgs talks about Dice-K’s meltdown and provides the NESN video montage of Big Papi & Manny with a little help from Bruce Springsteen.

Hugging Harold Reynolds - Is Michael Phelps the Best the US has to offer? According to HHR, what’s to make of this half merman/half Budnick(Salute Your Shorts) look-a-like?

Open Sports - Open Sports presents the MLB’s All-Time ugly team….and boy…..some of these mugs are in dire need of a fine-tuned makeover.

Sox Addict- Mike over at SoxAddict.org summarizes The Great Manny Debacle of ‘08. Trade him? Let him walk? Receive draft picks? Mike goes over the options.

Red Sox Monster - Yowzers! Looks like the obsession over Heidi Watney is soaring.

Fire Brand of the AL - Manny to Dodgers? I’d gladly trade him for Matt Kemp.

On Deck Fantasy Baseball First Half Report
By Buster Softly

Already halfway through the fantasy baseball season in On Deck Fantasy’s inaugural season and we have learned 3 things:

1. The beginning of the season does not foreshadow the end, or even the middle of a season.
2. Drafting young is no indication of looking toward winning in the future.
3. Number of roster moves does not equal number of team wins.

We have seen a large swing in the momentum throughout the league since the beginning of the season, most notably, the Dirt Dawgs of Walla Walla. Led by Trot Nixon, the Dirt Dawgs came out of the gates with 3 wins of 7-3 or 8-2 margins in their first 5 games and GM Kevin Neville could not stop gloating to the rest of the league. Since beating hometown rival, The Great Guys, 8-2 in Week 5 though, Walla Walla has lost 6 straight including a 10-0 thrashing to the [REAL] Milltown Monsters. The team is now in 2nd to last place, 9.5 games out of a playoff spot. Who is talking now Neville?

Two of the top 6 teams, Lima Time and the Santa Monica Wildcats, were said to be battling for the 2010 championship at the beginning of the season. But the way things have been coming together; it looks as if they may be right in the thick of things when it comes down to the end this season. Lima Time is only 2 games out of first place, and has been a fixture at the top of the standings all season. After losing 5 out of their first 7 weeks, the Wildcats have come out of no where to roll of 4 straight, scoring a remarkable 7 categories in each win.

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Fantasy Owners are always looking for the “next big thing”.  Here is a couple of profiles that you should take a look at during your next keeper-league minors draft.

Josh Reddick (High-A, Lancaster Jethawks: Red Sox Organization):   While Lars Anderson gets a lot of publicity from the Lancaster (and knowledgeable Boston) fans, Josh Reddick has been tearing the cover off the ball this season.  The 21 year old right fielder swings a pretty sweet bat from the left side.  He has followed up his rookie season in Greenville (in which he hit .306, had 18 bombs, and knocked in 72 in 94 games), with a strong start to the 2008 campaign.  He’s off to a very strong start, batting .333, launching 12 balls into orbit, and driving in 50 runs between low-A Greenville (53 ABs), and high-A Lancaster (205 ABs).  The knock on him so far is his plate discipline.  He has 44 K’s and only 14 BB’s, but with production like we’re seeing now, we can live with that.  Keep this JuCo draftee on your radar.

Daryl Thompson (AAA, Louisville Bats: Cincinnati Reds Organization): Thompson has been cruising up top prospect lists this year, and he should.  This 6’, 180 lb. right hander has been stellar on the mound this year.  To start the year, this 22 year old was playing for the Chattanooga Lookouts of the Southern League.  He was nothing short of spectacular.  Getting overshadowed somewhat by other prospects in the organization, a la Edinson Volquez, Johnny Cueto, and Homer Bailey, Thompson has put forth an excellent 2008 campaign.  In 61 innings in Chattanooga, he posted a 1.76 ERA, K’d 56 batters and had a .208 BAA.  His performance earned him a promotion to Louisville, where he has been excellent as well.  With the exception of one rough start, Thompson has gone 22.2 innings, only allowing 2 Earned runs (0.81 ERA), and striking out 16 in those starts.  Combined this year, he’s 6-2 with a 2.22 ERA, striking out 78 in 89 innings.  With the way Cincy has been playing, this righty may be getting the call up sooner rather than later.

Until next time, I’m your minor league lookout, Matt Austin!

With the South Carolina Force off to a rocky start, fans of the team have turned some of their attention to their minor league club, the Charleston Blunt Force Trauma (BFT) or Bufffttt, as the locals say. Here’s a look at how the BFT’s top starts are performing this year:

Clayton Kerhsaw (acquired for Alex Rios from Milltown): 0-3, 2.28 ERA, 1.08 WHIP, 47 K’s, 43.1 IP

Rick Porcello (acquired for J.R. Towles from US Millarmy): 3-6, 2.87 ERA, 1.24 WHIP, 36/17 K:BB

Wade Davis (10th selection, minors draft): 6-3, 3.15 ERA, 1.25 WHIP, 52 K’s, 71 IP

Fautino de Los Santos (3rd round selection, 34th overall, minors draft): 2-2, 5.87 ERA, 26 K’s, 23 IP

Colby Rasmus (21st Round, Majors draft, optioned 3/31): .225, 9 HRs, 25 RBI, 8 SB

Jarrod Parker (2nd round selection, 15th overall, minors draft): 4-3, 2.72 ERA, 1.24 WHIP, 34 K’s, 40 IP

Billy Butler (Signed 6/3): .364 AVG, .962 OPS, 5 Runs, 2 RBIs, 6 Games

Nick Adenhart (acquired in Peavy/Phillips trade from San Diego): 5-3, 3.02 ERA, 1.38 WHIP, 1 major league win

As you can see, the future looks pretty bright down in South Carolina. With GM Matt Austin’s eyes always on the lookout for future prospects, feel free to send trade proposals along if you’re looking to win this year. Send inquires to his screen name at “Primetime at FSC”, or e-mail him at mattaustin1@gmail.com. Go Bufffttt. Go Celtics.

The Red Sox really have something special in the young Oregon native Jacoby Ellsbury.  I was listening to Dennis & Callahan this morning on WEEI radio and Jerry Remy was their guest.  Remy didn’t want to go too far into this, but he told the duo that he sees shades of Rickey Henderson in the 24-year-old Sox outfielder.

Now let’s not compare Ellsbury to Henderson, we all know it’s way too early for that, but this kid is the real deal and he’s provided such a sparkplug at the top of the potent Red Sox hitting attack.  Ellsbury isn’t your normal prospect.  When the front office drafted Ellsbury 23rd overall in 2005, they obviously knew what they were doing.  These days we see many hyped-up prospects come and go, but it looks like Jacoby Ellsbury is here to stay.  Nevermind the pressure that comes with playing in Boston, Ellsbury has shown he can go out night after night and get the job done.

From a fantasy analysis, those owners who drafted Ellsbury most likely got him for a great bargain. According to ESPN, sis ADP (Average Draft Position) was somewhere around 157.  Now, let’s play a little numbers game.

Player A: .283-110-10-56-75
Player B: .280-119-12-57-78

Player A is the pace that Jacoby Ellsbury is on, and that’s based on a pace of 494 at bats in 2008. Player B is the 2007 season stats of Jose Reyes.  Reyes had 681 AB last year.  If Ellsbury puts up these numbers then I will be quite surprised, the odds of it aren’t very good, but hopefully in the case of Boston fans(and fantasy owners) his real stats will be similar. Now Jose Reyes’ ADP was 4.5.  Maybe fantasy owners drafted him so high because of his power potential(he did hit 19 HR in ‘06).  I’m not buying that, people have been saying the same thing about Carl Crawford and his “power potential” which has yet to show up.  I’m not knocking Jose Reyes, but I do think he’s overvalued in Fantasy baseball.

Jacoby Ellsbury is good, very good. He currently leads the league in SB and is 4th in the AL in runs. Is Ellsbury better than Reyes? Probably not, at least not at this point in his career(mind you he’s still a rookie).  But if the pace continues, should he be drafted in top 20 next year?  10? If the trend continues with the way Reyes has been drafted then we should certainly see him climb the ADP ranks. For now, we’ll just have to  wait.  And while we wait, let’s enjoy watching this 2008 American League Rookie of the Year.

Hello, welcome to the first week of This Week in On Deck Fantasy Baseball, an Insiders guide to everything that is ODFB. Here at TWIODFB, we pride ourselves in providing more than just scores and projections, we want to get inside the GM’s mind. Breaking down trades, weekly pickups and power rankings.

To do so, we open up our mail bag (providing we get email, (mhssoccer13@yahoo.com) Club house becoming the dog house, call a press conference, we will send out one of our street reports to cover whats going down. Proud of your prospects? Promote it in our “down on the farm segment”. We want to know how you feel, get it off your chest, you want a one on one interview for a Prime Time special, we can set it up (via AIM) and publish it to the world. Since week one and two is done and week 3 is on the down side, full coverage will start on Monday of week 4. This week we will quickly break down the first big name to move area codes, provide the TWIODFB Spring Training awards and lastly a quick top 4 power rankings.

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Hitter of the Week
Xavier Nady (Huapayas Playas)
.385, 3 HR, 9 RBI

Pitcher of the Week

Jake Peavy (San Diego Stingers)
2 Wins, 0.56 ERA, 0.56 WHIP, 1 Dirty hand

Disappointments
Magglio Ordonez (King of Kings)
.280, 0 HR, 0 RBI

Miguel Cabrera (Milltown Monsters)
.111, 1 HR, 1 RBI

Robinson Cano (US Millarmy)
.185, 0 HR, 0 HR

CC Sabathia
7.59 ERA, 9 K’s, 2 Starts

Roy Oswalt (South Carolina Force)
6.00 ERA, 6 K’s, 2 Starts

Huston Street
12.27 ERA, 1 Blown Save

Rookie PTP’er
Johnny Cueto (Santa Monica Wildcats)
1.29 ERA, 0.14 WHIP, 10 K’s, 1 Win

It’s tough to base predictions off of one week of baseball, so here goes nothing!

Urindanger vs. US Millarmy

Well, it’s no wonder why Urindanger came out with a 5-3 win last week, and US Millarmy took a tough 7-3 loss. Both teams rely heavily on Relief Pitching (10 and 11 saves, respectively). Just one team pitches Matt Cain as their starter, and the other picks up Daniel Cabrera and expects him to produce. Sorry, US Millarmy, I’ve got Urindanger picking up a 7-3 win this week, led by overpowering hitting and strong stats in ERA & WHIP. (As a side note: Hank Blalock is currently hitting .278 with no HRs and no RBIs. Derrek Lee is hitting .400 with 3 HRs and 4 RBIs, and is ranked 9th in Yahoo going into Monday…. Just sayin’…).

Huapaya’s Playas vs. Walla Walla Dirt Dawgs

Huapaya’s playas whacked 13 Home Runs last week, tied for the league lead with Milltown. Walla Walla had a respectable 9 HRs in dismantling South Carolina 7-3. Neither team can steal a base to save their life, but both teams had a great WHIP last week. I don’t expect Huapaya’s Playas to strike out as many batters as last week, but Primetime’s got Huapaya’s Playas taking most of the hitting categories and cruising to a 7-2 win.

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It’s been less than a week since On Deck Fantasy held it’s draft and the biggest player in baseball has already been shipped.

Alex Rodriguez, the first (overall) pick of team Lima Time, was sent to Italiano Sporco along with the promising young pitcher Yovanni Gallardo and the well-established outfielder Nick Markakis.

In return Lima Time received three bright stars that will certainly be secured for years to come in outfielder Matt Holliday, outfielder BJ Upton, and 1B/3B Alex Gordon.

When asked about receiving the best player in baseball in Alex Rodriguez, Italiano Sporco owner Jared Mercuri said: “I feel confident with A-Rod anchoring my offense, it gives me a much better shot at competing for the championhip.”

The bold owner of Lima Time, Peter Coulouras, is flourishing with young talent with the likes of Holliday, Upton, Gordon, Delmon and Chris Young, Felix Hernandez, and Rickie Weeks amongst others. If not in 2008, Lima Time will most certainly be a force to reckon with in the next few years.