MLB: 5 Reasons Manny Ramirez Will Fail with the Oakland A's

Manny Ramirez might be one of the five greatest hitters of the last 20 years. In 19 seasons, he's a career .312 hitter with a .996 OPS, 555 home runs, 1831 RBI and 1544 runs scored. 

But he will be a resounding flop in Oakland, for some of the same reasons why he was a catastrophic failure in Tampa Bay, despite Joe Maddon filling spring training headlines with rumors of a "new, happy, Manny" and a change in attitude. 

At the end of the day, Manny Ramirez has become Brett Favre in the sense that he missed his exit. There was a time when Favre could have retired and sailed into the sunset, undisputed among the Mount Rushmore of quarterbacks. But after three retirements, football fans are fed up.

Ramirez could have retired after 2008 and done the same. Even after one suspension, when he came back and raked for Los Angeles, he could have gone out after 2009 with a mostly intact legend. Now, its just sad.

He Can't Do It Clean

Baseball fans thought after the first suspension that Ramirez would get to prove that he truly was an epic hitter, even without the drugs. He came back and hit .290 in 104 games for the Dodgers in 2009. 

He returned in 2010 with the Dodgers and White Sox and played fairly well in 90 games, hitting .298, but with drastically diminished power. It seemed like the tale would finally come to an end, when the Rays made headlines signing 39-year-old Ramirez, with Maddon talking about the "new Manny."

We know how that one ended. Ramirez preferred the risk of being busted a second time to the risk of showing the world a clean version of himself in the batter's box. What we learned is that Ramirez doesn't trust his own ability enough to play clean.

This year, he will either try to go at it clean and fall on his face, or he will cheat until he gets caught again.

Manny over the Team

Ramirez has never played on a team this bad before. His Indians and Red Sox teams were annually in contention. His 2009 Dodgers won the division title. And the 2011 Rays for which he played five games went on to win the wild card. 

The A's, on the other hand, will be bad in 2012. And it bears asking how long Ramirez can look around the clubhouse at 39 and 40 years old, see the lack of major league talent and not make a fuss. The A's are headed in the right direction—their farm system is fully stocked after trades of young pitching. But they won't win 70 games this season. 

You can be sure when Oakland is mathematically eliminated sometime in June that Ramirez will make headlines with his excuses for lack of production, blaming teammates. Boston had enough egos to endure his antics; Los Angeles was the same. Oakland, however, is a different ballgame, and Manny has never been one to march to someone else's beat. 

Old Man Manny

Manny Ramirez has 17 at bats since 2010 and only 95 games played in the last two seasons combined. He will turn 40 years old in May. 

Ramirez could show up to Oakland with a team-first mantra, a clean bloodstream and an inspired work ethic, get 50 games into the season and realize the aches and pains react differently than they did at 36—his age when he played his last full season. 

It will help to be a full-time designated hitter, but that comes with its own challenges. Many hitters have struggled to make the transition to full-time DH. Ramirez has previously filled the role mainly on planned days of rest, when the team still wanted his vaunted bat in the lineup. 

Oakland may have signed him with reasonable expectations, but Ramirez has shown in the past that his own expectations of himself weigh more heavily into his decision making than those of reasonable people around him. Sure, he can stay clean through spring training, but where does he go when its July and he's batting .245 with six home runs?

No Help for Manny

Last year, Oakland had one player hit over 15 home runs—and he's in Minnesota now. They had two guys reach 60 RBI, and both are gone. No one scored 70+ runs. The only returning player who played in more than 140 games finished with a .369 slugging percentage.

This offense is BAD! Oakland hit 114 home runs last year, 12th in the AL. Between Josh Willingham and Hideki Matsui, 41 of them are gone. Oakland had 612 RBI last year, also 12th in the AL. Between Willingham and Matsui, 170 are gone. 

Let's imagine for a moment Ramirez, at nearly 40 years old, gets to Oakland and starts mashing. What is the motivation to pitch to him at that point? If Ramirez suddenly starts looking like a 29-year-old MVP caliber version of himself, he may very well break Barry Bonds' intentional walk record and still fail to score 50 times.

Manny Doesn't Fit

The Oakland A's are subtly headed in the right direction as an organization. They have a long way to go, but the prospects acquired in off-season deals give this organization hope for the future.

The acquisition of Manny Ramirez makes no sense for Oakland in going forward. He's 40, useless in the field and will serve the solitary purpose of filling a lineup spot that could go to unknown commodity in the A's system who earns a right to prove himself. 

Oakland is an organization that needs to plug in their best performing prospects and see what they actually have going forward. With Ramirez taking up one of those spots, that's one less player who can gain valuable experience that will serve him well when Oakland is ready to contend. 

Ramirez will fail in Oakland even if he bats .290 and hits 20 home runs because he will slow the organization's progress, however minutely. And at this point in their rebuilding, that's a big-picture fail.