Korean All-star pitcher Ryu Hyun-jin has successfully landed the Major League Baseball (MLB), signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers in a dramatic transaction just before the league-mandated deadline, according to MLB’s official Web site on Sunday.

MLB.com said Ryu has made a contract with the Dogers for a six-year deal worth $36 million. CBSSports.com also reported that Ryu will have a signing bonus of $5 million.

A 30-day window to sign a deal were given to Ryu and Dodgers after the LA-based club secured the exclusive rights to negotiate with Ryu in November, and the deadline was 2 p.m. Pacific Standard Time Sunday. The Dodgers submitted a bid of $25.7 million in a league-wide silent auction, which was the fourth highest bid by a major league club for a foreign player.

As Ryu’s South Korean club, the Hanwha Eagles of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO), accepted the Dodgers’ bid, the negotiation period started. The Korean club will take the $25.7 million bid as a transfer fee for Ryu.

The Eagles posted Ryu in November after he completed his seventh KBO season in 2012. Ryu will become the first South Korean baseball player to jump directly from the KBO to the majors when he is added to the major league roster.

This is not the first time for the Dodgers take in a South Korean player. Right-hander Park Chan-ho, who became the first Korean to play in the majors in 1994, used to play for the LA-based club.

Ryu, who was born in 1987, made his debut in 2006, becoming the first player to win both the Rookie of the Year honors and the MVP in the same season. He was 18-6 with a 2.23 ERA and a rookie-record 204 strikeouts. Since then, Ryu has been one of the KBO’s most dominant starters.

In his seven KBO seasons, Ryu went 98-52 with a 2.80 ERA and 1,238 strikeouts in 1,269 innings.

The lefty pitcher, who is 187 centimeters (about 6.1 ft) tall and 98 kilograms (about 217 lb), can reach up to 150 kilometers per hour (93 miles per hour) with his fastball, and can also throw a changeup and slider as his out pitches.

Ryu drew international attention when he participated in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, helping to secure gold for South Korea, and the 2009 World Baseball Classic (WBC) which South Korea finished runner-up behind Japan. However, it is expected that Ryu would miss the 2013 WBC in March next year as he takes part in the upcoming Dodgers’ spring training and tries to get ready for his first season in the United States.

Image Courtesy : Los Angeles Dodgers

The article LA Dodgers Welcomes New Pitcher, Ryu Hyun-jin appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Looks like Manny Ramirez’s playing days aren’t over just yet. The 39-year-old veteran outfielder, who immediately retired at the beginning of last season following his second known positive test for performance enhancing drugs over his career, signed a minor league deal worth $500,000 with the Oakland Athletics on Monday.

Ramirez had one hit in just seventeen at-bats and five games with the Tampa Bay Rays in 2011 before calling it quits. He was well aware that with this being his second violation of MLB’s drug policy that he would have been required to miss 100 games, and therefore, decided to apparently walk away from the game on April 8.

At MLB’s winter meetings this past December, word got out that Ramirez had applied for reinstatement back into the league. The Commissioner’s Office granted it to him and decided to cut the original suspension he faced in half, down to 50 games, after considering the fact that he essentially sat out the majority of last season anyway, which was a punishment in itself.

Not many teams showed interest in Ramirez, but the A’s figured there would be no harm in giving him a low-cost minor league contract and an opportunity to make the Major League club. Oakland expects Ramirez to join the team at their spring training facility in Arizona this Friday. Manager Bob Melvin certainly supported the signing.

“I watched some video of him and saw the swing. It didn’t look any different, and it looked like he was in good shape,” said Melvin on Tuesday. “He’ll be ready to go with the position players, and we’ll see what he has to offer.”

Ramirez is easily regarded as one of the greatest offensive players of both his generation and of the entire modern era. Since beginning his career with the Cleveland Indians in 1993, the 12-time All Star, 9-time Silver Slugger Award winner, and 2004 World Series MVP has hit .312, driven in 1,831 runs, and ranks 14^th on the all-time home run list with 555 long balls.

“He is one of the best right-handed hitters I’ve ever seen,” said A’s general manager Billy Beane. “This is a guy who combines power with on-base percentage along with a high batting average. He’s a unique player.”

Ramirez is best known for his time in Boston with the Red Sox from 2001 to part of 2008, where he played a key role in the team breaking its 86-year World Series drought with a sweep over the St. Louis Cardinals in 2004, along with its 2007 World Series sweep of the Colorado Rockies.

The Red Sox front office and Ramirez no longer saw eye-to-eye by 2008, and he was subsequently traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers. He remained in L.A. until he was traded to the Chicago White Sox in 2010. He would sign with the Rays the following year. Despite all of the bouncing around during the latter part of his career, Ramirez believes he can still be a productive Major League player.

“I’m feeling really good, mostly on a spiritual level. I’m very confident with the shape I’m in heading to spring training,” said Ramirez in an interview on a Dominican radio station. “There were three teams interested, but I left God to decide, and that’s why I signed with the Oakland A’s. I’m only coming back because I always loved baseball, ever since I was little kid. I have a passion for the sport, and I know I can still play.”

Image Courtesy of  JustASC / Shutterstock.com

The article Manny Returns to Baseball, Signs Minor League Deal with A’s appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Los Angeles Dodgers LLC has reported that it has filed a motion to disallow all claims (the “Stow Claim”) asserted by Bryan Stow, Tyler Stow and Tabitha Stow against the Los Angeles Dodgers with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.

On March 31, 2011, which was Opening Day for the Dodgers’ 2011 baseball season, Stow was injured during an altercation that occurred after the baseball game ended in Parking Lot 2, situated on the outer ring of the parking lots surrounding Dodger Stadium.  Stow subsequently filed a complaint in California state court against more than a dozen defendants, including LAD and other debtors.

Stow’s lawsuit, as against the debtors, was automatically stayed under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code when the debtors filed for bankruptcy protection on June 27, 2011.  Stow filed the Stow claim with the bankruptcy court on July 11, 2011.  Also in July, the Los Angeles Police Department arrested two individuals, Marvin Norwood and Louis Sanchez, as suspects in the altercation with Stow.

These individuals also attended the Opening Day game and sat on the opposite side of the stadium from where Stow was seated. Neither individual is part of the Dodger organization.  Norwood and Sanchez are currently in criminal custody awaiting trial.

The Dodgers have moved that the Bankruptcy Court disallow the Stow claim in its entirety because, as a matter of law, Stow cannot prevail in his claims against the debtors.

The debtors’ motion makes clear, among other points:

• As a matter of law, Stow cannot prove any link between the additional security related steps that Stow contends the debtors should have taken and his injuries;
• Stow cannot show that anything about the security personal staffing on Opening Day caused his injuries and, furthermore, the security staffing at the game greatly exceeded all requirements ofCalifornia state law;
• The Dodgers had no knowledge of any inappropriate conduct by Stow’s assailants prior to the time that Stow sustained his injuries and, as a matter of law, are not liable for failure to anticipate criminal acts of third parties;
• The California Court of Appeals has recognized that allegedly inadequate lighting cannot support a finding that a property owner “caused” an attack by a third party on its premises.  Moreover, Stow cannot show that inadequate lighting caused his injuries and, in fact, the Stow complaint alleges that the altercation “took place over a prolonged period of time and drew the attention of various other patrons,” which if true demonstrates that the assailants were unconcerned with concealing themselves from others;
• Contrary to Stow’s lawyers’ contentions, there was no “half-off” beer promotion at Opening Day and, thus, could not have had anything to do with his injury;
• The Dodgers cannot be held liable for failing to escort Stow and his companions through the parking lot; and, furthermore, neither Stow, nor anyone else in his party, ever asked to be escorted or for any other assistance;
• The Dodgers are not liable for the presence of persons who might be gang members and, in any case, there is no evidence that Norwood or Sanchez are gang members, or that the Dodgers had any knowledge of gang membership or prior criminal conduct by either of Stow’s assailants.

In addition, the debtors’ motion makes clear that, based on the material facts that are not genuinely at issue, and, as a matter of law, no basis exists for Stow’s claim for punitive damages.  Accordingly, Los Angeles Dodgers have moved that the bankruptcy court should grant summary judgment disallowing all punitive damage claims against LAD.

Image Courtesy of   https://www.facebook.com/Dodgers

The article L.A. Dodgers File Motion to Forbid Stow Bankruptcy Court Claim appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

It is a shame to admit, but the Baseball Writers’ Association of America must revoke Ryan Braun’s MVP Award, following reports that he tested positive for performance enhancing drugs in October. The BBWAA’s awareness of that sentiment is exactly why they claimed just a few days later that they would not be taking such action. Voters are hoping that the situation will simply go away on its own – but this is not the case at all. Allowing Braun to maintain the award would first do a major disservice to Major League Baseball and the recent progression it has made in diminishing steroid use within the game.

A few years ago, when Commissioner Selig implemented extremely severe suspensions for policy violators, it was clearly a statement that cheating would not be tolerated even one bit. Well if it is that serious, then it would make no sense for the BBWAA to let Braun keep the game’s highest annual individual honor knowing that he was not 100 percent clean.

Even if Braun is being truthful and the synthetic testosterone found in his system did not come from an illegal performance enhancing drug, it should not make a difference. The fact would still remain that he took something that gave him an unfair competitive advantage. Doing so unknowingly really does not change much.

Another case to make against Braun involves the current struggles of former players like Rafael Palmeiro and Mark McGuire. These two have obviously not been inducted into the Hall of Fame for the last few years because of their connections to steroid use. Now, the NL MVP may not be as prestigious as a spot in Cooperstown, but there is still one undeniable similarity between the honors. Just like getting into the Hall of Fame, winning the MVP of the league means that a player will always have their own special place in baseball history that will allow their name to live on forever.

That whole idea is very powerful when looked at closely. The circumstances may differ immensely when it comes to McGuire and Palmeiro, but the focal point is still the same. If they are being punished for cheating, then there should be no exception made for Braun. The baseball writers need to set a strict precedent so players will be more aware of both their actions and the consequences that will ensue.

We also definitely cannot forget about Matt Kemp. The Dodgers center fielder had the year of his life in 2011 and finished a close second behind Braun in the voting. He hit 0.324, stole 40 bases, scored 115 runs, had 195 hits, smacked 39 homers, and drove in 115 runs. Now, although Braun only beat him out in one of those categories with a 0.332 average, the award was still considered well-deserved. After all, he did play an intricate role in the Brewers winning 96 games and their first ever National League Central title.

Kemp’s Dodgers, on the other hand, only won 82 games. Suddenly, however, Kemp appears to be much more deserving. As far as we know, he was able to eclipse all of those numbers without the aid of a performance enhancer.

Meanwhile, the baseball writers should ask themselves a few interesting questions after news of Braun testing positive. Would Braun’s numbers have come close enough to Kemp’s without the synthetic testosterone? Would Milwaukee still have won the division? Would that even be a determining factor if Kemp’s numbers were substantially higher in comparison?

The BBWAA has to take all of these morals and possibilities into consideration and take the award back. Major League Baseball and its fans will be thankful in the long run.

Image Courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/eytonz/

The article Why the BBWAA Should Revoke Braun’s MVP appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.