Pierre impact

There's no reason to critique the Manny Ramirez situation other than to say Manny's 50-game suspension means owners will have to stash their prized outfielder for what amounts to a near two-month injury. That's brutal.

What's interesting is the sudden emergence of Juan Pierre. The Dodgers fourth outfielder suddenly finds himself in the starting lineup again, and the pressure is off. Pierre will bat at the bottom of the order and merely has to do a serviceable job in order to keep the Dodgers hot while Manny is out.

Fantasy Impact: Grab Pierre. There's nothing to lose. The lifetime .300 hitter went 2-4 with a steal and a caught stealing in his first game as a starter. The Dodgers are unlikely to find a better replacement in the outfield via trade, so Pierre should see regular at bats for the 50 days without Manny. If you already have him on your roster, reap the benefits of a decent average and a good number of stolen bases.

Manny gets on many times in debut

It's all good for Manny Ramirez in his first outing of the spring. A single and two walks in three at bats left him with a perfect on base percentage in 2009.

Three times up, three times on. And so Ramirez, late to spring training after signing a two-year, $45-million contract, was back in action.

"I said, 'You haven't lost of any of your flair, from last year to this year,' " Dodgers Manager Joe Torre said.

Despite his perfect on-base percentage, Ramirez complained about his timing at the plate. But he said his legs -- a balky hamstring had delayed his Cactus League debut for one day -- felt fine.

"It takes time, that's why we're here in spring training, to get a lot of at-bats, make a lot of mistakes and get it out of your system and move on to the season," Ramirez said.

We'll have to wait and see if a tight hamstring costs Manny any power at the plate leading up the regular season. Most of a batter's power begins with his legs. Manny's got plenty of legs when he's healthy.

Manny debuts Friday

Good thing Manny Ramirez' tight hamstring pushed his Dodger debut back to Friday. Otherwise there'd be too many debuts to write about. (See below!)

Winners and losers in Manny deal

I find the LA Times coverage of Manny Ramirez's signing odd, if not overly cynical. The Times' headline on Wednesday's agreement between the Dodgers and Ramirez: Manny Ramirez deal with Dodgers: Who won?

Bill Plaschke says Dodgers General Manager Ned Colletti was the big winner, "correctly reading the market and holding firm despite a winter's worth of criticism.''

You can follow Plaschke, by the way, at twitter.com/latbillplaschke.

Jeff Passan of YahooSports! writes that all the stalling still didn't give the Dodgers enough time to recognize "the gravity of their mistake.''

As for Ramirez, he reportedly will appear at a news conference tomorrow in Arizona, but he spoke to T.J. Simers last night and revealed that he was close to returning to Mannywood.

I guess it's not just the paper that has the cynical view of the deal being between enemy combatants "The Dodgers" and "Manny Ramirez." Jeff Passan obviously sees it that way, too, that the Dodgers and Ramirez were at war over the contract, and there's obviously a winner and a loser between the two.

That's hard to say, and it's not really what negotiating is about. I remember early on in my career, when negotiating my work contracts, I was told the best deal resulted in both sides feeling like they could've done better, meaning each gave a little to get closer to what they wanted. What someone wants vs. what they get is not necessarily winning and losing. It's what's attainable vs. what isn't attainable at the time. The Dodgers, in a bad economy, decided they could only spend so much. Manny Ramirez found he couldn't get more money elsewhere and took the best offer he could get from Los Angeles.

There's no winner or loser here. Ramirez got a ton of money ($45M over 2 years). The Dodgers got one of the top offense outfielders in baseball. If anyone lost, it is the National League West, and perhaps whoever else offered up Ramirez a contract.

Pre-mature Manny?

The LA Times published a report titled "Manny Ramirez is back with the Dodgers," which was removed from the Times website several minutes later.

Could this mean that something's changed again in the Manny saga? Just saying...

Manny being money

Dodgers GM Ned Colletti offered Manny Ramirez a contract worth somewhere in the $22.9 to $27.5 million range per year. While that's a ton of money, especially for a player who turns 37 in May and was unceremoniously run out of Boston in the middle of a pennant race, in this case it is worth it.

"If you saw the bid, it's nothing that we're embarrassed by," Colletti said at the GM meetings. "Manny was close to that number, anyway — closer to that area than the last place he's been."

Most likely, the Dodgers offered Ramirez a two-year contract worth just over $50 million. Colletti said the Dodgers also offered an option year, but declined to specify the exact length of contract.

"We said, 'Think about it for a while. It's not going to be there forever,"' Colletti said. "Things are always subject to change, and it depends on what else we do, to some extent. I've been asked a few times here if we're going to wait to see what happens with this before we do anything else. But I'm not sure we're going to have the luxury to do that. If there's something else that comes about that we feel we need to do, and the timeliness is there to do it, we'll have to do it."

The Dodgers would be smart to tie up a slugger for the next two seasons. Ramirez is something they haven't had in a long time (he hit .520 in the playoffs!), and even if he does decline the Dodgers would only be on the hook for a couple of seasons. That's nothing.