Cleveland Indians: Jose Ramirez snubbed in preseason All-Star prediction
Cleveland Indians 3B Jose Ramirez wasn’t listed as a starter on ESPN’s preseason All-Star team.
How does Cleveland Indians third baseman Jose Ramirez start getting the respect, nationally, he deserves?
As you’ll see, he was just slighted again.
ESPN’s David Schoenfield made his preseason predictions for the All-Star Game this summer, and Ramirez was left out of the starting lineup. As a condolence prize, the writer listed Ramirez as a reserve.
When the four-letter network’s scribe made his case for starting Anthony Rendon over Ramirez, he used his first sentence to acknowledge the Cleveland fan base would be ticked. He argues that Rendon deserves the spot because he “tore it up” in the final 40 games after a slow start, in which he hit .333 (1.008 OPS).
Never mind Ramirez (.293, .933 OPS) basically carried an offense–that could go freezing cold at times–for the entire truncated campaign to finish second in the MVP voting. That’s three top three finishes in three of the last four years.
Anthony Rendon has a bigger contract and plays in a bigger market. Keep underrating J-Ram, though. The saying “Cleveland against the World” stared for a reason.
1. Overreacting to All-Star predictions made in February? You’d have to think I’m a pretty salty guy. Well, aren’t you feeling a little worse about your baseball team after the Dodgers locked down Trevor Bauer for three years–to the team that just won the World Series!?
The former Indians will make $40 million next season, which will probably be just $8-$9 million less than Cleveland’s entire payroll.
2. For what it’s worth, I thought Bauer’s video in which he revealed his new team was pretty cool. It’ll be interesting to see how Bauer performs now that he’s making Gerritt Cole and Clayton Kershaw type money.
3. Bauer said–dating back to his days with the Indians–that he would only sign one year contracts. His new deal comes with his choice to opt out after the season if he so chooses.
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4. As for Schoenfield’s All-Star prediction…Shane Bieber and Zach Plesac were also listed on the squad. I’d like to think Eddie Rosario has a shot as a reserve because of his ability to hit bombs, but with that said, he’s never made an All-Star team in his six seasons as a big leaguer.