Looking at my recent purchases from the card show and my tagged items, i just realized i’ve never done a post about one of my favorite non Yankee baseball players, Hanley Ramirez!

I’m not really sure why i’m so drawn to him as a ballplayer as he hasn’t been that special the last couple of seasons mostly due to poor health.  He is without a doubt a phenomenal talent though.  A very good hitter (average wise), but he does tend to strike out a lot.  Good power and speed, stealing 102 bases in his first two full seasons.  To this point, his peak year was 2009 which was also the same season he got his huge contract…not saying the two had something to do with each other, but it’s not like it’s never happened before.  Young player works hard to get to a point in his career where he can get a big contract to take care of himself, his family and friends.  Then, the level of production tends to drop off…it’s not uncommon and sometimes it gets rectified.

I think the real reason i was drawn to him was through fantasy baseball, which i played religiously for quite a few years.  I was targeting him in the late rounds of one of our drafts in a keeper league as i had done my research on the one time Red Sox phenom (always know your enemy!)  Two picks before i was going to take him, he was snatched up by the guy sitting next to me.  His words as i recall went something like this “I have no idea who this Henley guy is, but he’s at the top of my guys left in the queue…” so there you go.  My guy was snatched away from me.  No worries though.  I traded for him, giving up a very talented and coveted at the time, Bobby Abreu.  Needless to say i won the player for player trade in the long term.  BUT the guy that got Abreu ended up winning the league that year…and i came in 9th of 16 teams.  I was blasted for a few months in the league for making the trade, but i knew what i was doing as it paid out a few years later when i flipped him for some good talent and came in second place, just a 1/2 point from the title.

Hanley is young enough that he has plenty of time to get his career back on track and be a perennial MVP candidate and put up big numbers…especially if he can get healthy and stay healthy.  I also love that he’s with the Dodgers, i can listen to his games on the At Bat app at night while i write up these wonderful posts.

Any Hanley fans out there?  Marlin Hanley fans, Dodger Hanley fans, or just Hanley fans like me?