Here's some thoughts from Peter Gammons during a Wednesday morning session with WEEI's Dale and Holley. Among the highlights: Gammons says that one of Manny's old agents at Legacy Sports has already made promises that the Dreadlocked One will leave Boras before he signs any free agent deals this off-season. Gammons also furthers the notion that Ramirez couldn't get $100 millon out of his head once Boras had mentioned it to Manny as a free agency possibility.

It should be mentioned that Gammons was on the air with Michael and Dale to promote his Hot Stove, Cool Music summer benefit concert with Buddy Guy and George Thorogood among others set for the Bank of America Pavillion on Sunday, Aug. 17. The concert was moved to a bigger venue this season, and will once again benefit Paul and Theo Epstein's Foundation to be named later. 

 

What did you think of that wild game on [Tuesday] night?
PG: It kind of reminded me of the famous 23-22 Phillies/Cubs game back in the 80’s when the Cubs had a 21-9 lead, but the Phillies came back and won 23-22. It was so insane. But in this one I really felt so badly for Charlie Zink because the knuckleball takes such a resolute personality. One of the things I admire most about Tim Wakefield is that he really never gives in and he never panics, and you really feel like Zink maybe let that game get away from him a little bit.

He fascinated me because – and I remember when Tim Wakefield really made his great quantum leap with the Red Sox back in 1995 when I think he was about 15-1 at one point – but I was doing this piece on the history of knuckleballers and most of them made it between the ages of 28 and 32. Hoyt Willhelm didn’t even make it to the big leagues until he was 30, Phil Niekro’s breakout year was 28 and Charlie Hough really broke out at 28. So you’ve got to thinking that this was the year it was going to all happen for Charlie Zink. And Kevin Cash is a big believer, but that thing really started getting wild and the Rangers have proven they can score a little bit.

I don’t think it was a game that Terry Francona enjoyed managing that much.

We actually looked that up the other day, and one thing we did notice is that most of the old knuckleballers couldn’t get a fastball going up into the 80-mph range like Zink can.
PG: Charlie [Hough] did when he originally signed, and I think he could throw 80-82 early in his career. Joe Niekro, of course, was a below average sinker/slider pitcher for the Cubs and the Tigers until he really turned his career around with the knuckleball, but there haven’t been a lot of knuckleballers that could really throw hard and it’s unusual.

I think one of the fascinating things about Wakefield is how when he loses it – as he does for an inning in every game – he can get creative and go to his curveball and go to his fastball and he’ll end up finding the knuckleball off throwing his curveball.

That’s p art of his experience and part of the history of Wakefield being such a tough guy and never giving in. It’s a fascinating pitch. The Charlie Haeger kid from Chicago throws 85 or 86, but he just can’t maintain his knuckler when things go wrong and he starts speeding things up.

Should we assume that Paul Byrd was part of a big glut of pitchers that got through the waiver wire period at the beginning of the month, and that’s why the Yankees didn’t put a claim in on him.
PG: Yeah, that’s actually something I wanted to talk to the Indians on Sunday about is why I hadn’t heard Paul Byrd’s name and they said that ‘yeah we haven’t really had any calls on him’ and this is a guy that beat the Yankees and Red Sox in the playoffs last year. They told me yesterday about 24 hours later that they got three or four frantic calls and that I’m thinking the White Sox were one of them.

But the Yankees have gone into a position that they’re going to wait and see what they have when Phil Hughes comes back and wait and see what happens with Ian Kennedy. They’re going to develop their young pitchers, and it was my understanding that they were going to take a pass on Jarrod Washburn when he cleared through waivers as well. The Yankees are kind of in the position of the 2006 Red Sox where they’re looking forward and trying to build for the next year instead of frantically making moves for this one.

I thought that Hank Steinbrenner’s recent comments were really interesting when he was continually talking about next year and of course he had to get an insult in toward Beckett, Matsuzaka and Lester, but that’s Hank.

Thinking about the AL East, now that they all have injury concerns who do you think will come out of winning the division?
PG: I still think it will be the Red Sox winning the division. I thought the Rays had a great chance, but trying to make up for the loss of both Crawford and Longoria is going to be really tough. Beckett has really turned things around and slammed the door and gone back to the way he was, and as well as Matsuzaka has pitched their front three is very good.

I don’t know if they’re going to be the offensive dynamo they were a couple of years ago, but even without Mike Lowell they’ve started showing some signs that they’re turning things around. I think they’re going to win the division, but beating the Angels is going to be a very different story.

Just to make the playoffs would be a pretty remarkable feat.

Has it surprised you at all what we’ve seen out of Clay Buchholz, who may be headed back down to the minor leagues?
PG: Not really because he had lost his delivery. He is so inconsistent with his release point. I don’t think he was going to win where he was and it’s surprising to me that he struggled as much as he has.

It’s surprising because he’s such a phenomenal athlete and he was one of the most highly recruited cornerbacks out of high school and supposedly he can outrun Ellsbury. But yet he can’t maintain his delivery, but I think we sometimes forget that the light goes on for some athletes at a lot different than it goes on for other athletes. And comparing anyone to Jon Lester is probably a little unfair when it comes to makeup.

What’s going on with Joe Torre and do you think he’ll be able to handle Manny Ramirez?
PG: I think so. One thing I think is that Manny now sees he’s out of the contract and he’s going to be a free agent now. There’s no concern in having to finish out his obligation like there was here. He’ll play for that contract.

There are other issues for the Dodgers and I think Manny Ramirez really helps out some of those issues. One of the funny things about the Dodgers is how much the veteran players trash young guys like Matt Kemp and [James] Loney. Are they a little bit cocky? Yes they are, but Matt Kemp is already a very good player and there’s some backbiting going on there that’s very unseemly.

I think Joe has struggled dealing with it at times, but Manny getting his hair cut is really secondary and I think Manny becoming the issue really takes a lot of pressure off guys like Loney and Kemp.

We still get the calls from the Manny apologists. Do you feel like the Sox had to trade him?
PG: Yes, because he wanted out of that contract and didn’t want the options and he wanted to become a free agent. He is convinced he’s getting $100 million for four years after this year. That’s a promise that players tells me Scott Boras made to him, and he wanted out of the option.

Frankly I have a problem with that. It’s like with John Lackey who has a $9.5 million team option for next year. John Lackey would go out and be one of the top half dozen pitchers out on the open market and he could go out and get $15 million a year for at least five years.

He could sit down and say he’s hurt or he’s not going to pitch and say he won’t pitch until the team says ‘okay, we’ll give it to you and let you be a free agent.’ That would be the same thing that Manny did. I think it got to the point where it was impossible. Let’s face it. And people ask ‘what is David Ortiz going to do.’

Well, in 2006 Manny Ramirez played in 6 games in September and David Ortiz was second in the AL in OPS. Last year Manny played in six games in September and in one he hit behind Ortiz and Ortiz led the Major Leagues in OPS, so 12 games during the month of September the last two years told the Sox that maybe Ramirez might very well sit down and then try to collect his $100 million. That’s a chance the Red Sox weren’t willing to take.

Is Scott Boras good enough to convince a National League team to fork over that kind of money for Manny Ramirez playing in the outfield at 40 or 41 years-old?
PG: I don’t know. I doubt it and I think the other thing that’s interesting here is will Scott Boras be representing him come November? Because Gene Mato, who you’ll remember was his guy when he was represented by Jeff Moorad and later by Legacy Sports, got permission two weeks ago to leave Legacy – which was the post-Moorad company that Manny was represented by – to go to the Beverly Hills Sports Council.

According to the people at Legacy, he made the promise to the Beverly Hills Sports Council that ‘if you hire me I’ll deliver Manny Ramirez at the end of the year and you’ll get the fee at the end of the year.’ I can’t really remember the number of agents that [Indians GM] Mark Shapiro told me that Manny had gone through over the years, but it would not surprise me if he went through three agents in one year.

I have a lot of respect for Scott Boras. Do you think he’s misunderstood, and instead is simply a very prepared and smart agent.
PG: Very smart agent and I think in a lot of ways…one of the things he does really well is try to help his clients and get them aware of not only their conditioning – but also all of the other obligations.

Now in Manny’s case I think once he planted the idea of $100 million it was really impossible for Manny to go back. But I think he’s a tremendous agent. Some of the contracts that he’s gotten for people, if he can get a 10-year contract for Mark Teixeira then he is truly a genius and if he can get Manny Ramirez four years and $100 million then he’s truly a genius. I don’t see either happening, but Scott has shocked me many times and then given me that call to say ‘I told you so.’

I find him fascinating to talk to and deal with because as much as I think he dislikes management in a lot of ways he really loves the game. And the people that work for him like Jeff Musselman, the former Harvard pitcher who also pitched for the Blue Jays and Mets, who is really the economic brain in that company. They really do love the game. I wish that sometimes people could get to know them a little better in how they operate because that’s their job. And if I were an agent I’d probably be the exact same way.