National League West:

Some interesting things have happened. Another Ramirez is now in LA LA Land. A Magic Wand-y (Wandy Rodriguez has been traded from the Astros the Pirates) has gone to the city of the underarms. And someone wont be getting Cole in their stalking this off season (Cole Hamels has just signed a 6 year 144 million dollar deal with the Phillies)

Lets start off with by far the most important move in the NL West so far this season. Hanley Ramirez is now a Dodger…Huh? Thats not the most amazing thing about, the even more amazing thing is that who the Dodgers gave up to get one of the top 5 shortstops in the league. Granted he has been a pain to deal with in the locker room and he has a decent sized contract, he is still something that the Dodgers haven’t had a lot of in their history, offense. Granted the last 2 years he hasnt been Hanley-esque but that what people said about Lance Berkman last year before the start of the season and all he did was post the 6th best WAR rating last year in all of the NL along with being 3rd in the NL with on base percentage. He also made the 2011 All Star team just a year after with the Yankees he posted a -0.3 WAR rating (which jumped to 6.6 with the Cardinals in 2011).

The Dodgers gave up only Nathan Eovaldi and Minor League pitcher Scott McGough. Even if he doesnt make a lot of noise the next year or two, people still remember him as an MVP type player with the Florida Marlins and his jerseys and memorabilia will sell, and he wont be the first person that if he doesnt produce that his memorabilia sales will make up for that COUGH COUGH Jeremy Lin COUGH COUGH.

I hope this was karma for Jeffrey Loria. The one year when one of the most money tight men in basebal goes on a shopping spree he is just as bad i hope that is revenge for destroying the Montreal Expos. He was the gentleman that owned the Expos and had a firesale with all of its best players and was never able to recover which caused them to become the Washington Nationals (wanna have a weird thought? Think of Bryce Harper of Stephen Strasburg in those blue Expo’s jerseys). He spent all that money on Heath Bell (who has an ERA of 6.05 this year as a closer) and Jose Reyes (who is posting a .270 BA after last year winning the NL Batting Title with a 0.337 BA. Those 2 players alone are getting payed a combined 16 millions dollars this year which for some Marlins teams in the years past, that would almost half the payroll for their entire team!

Now who is going to play 3rd base for the Marlins? They traded away their prized 3rd base prospect Matt Dominguez for a 18.5 million dollar Carlos Lee who is hitting 8 home runs this year total. In 2008 their whole payroll was 36 million dollars, With the contracts of Bell, Reyes, and Lee added up on that 2008 team, those 3 players would make up 34.5 of the 36 million dollars of the payroll.