This whole story’s at sanjosemercurynews.com…

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In Giants news involving another slugger, a report in Thursday’s Denver Post said that the team is “quietly making an aggressive play for free agent Manny Ramirez, according to a major-league source.”

Giants officials did not return messages for comment Thursday night, but General Manager Brian Sabean has downplayed any interest in Ramirez all winter. Sabean reiterated last week that the Giants had no intention of pursuing another outfielder, which would rule out Ramirez.

During a conference call last week after the Giants’ signing of free-agent left-hander Randy Johnson, Sabean was asked if the slow-moving free-agent market might cause the team to reconsider Ramirez.

“We’ve flushed most everything out by this point,” he said.

Before last month’s winter meetings, Sabean told the Mercury News that he didn’t “see us acquiring an outfielder” and that the organization probably would not be “proactive” in pursuing players seeking contracts in the $100 million range. According to the Los Angeles Times, Ramirez’s agent, Scott Boras, told Los Angeles G.M. Ned Colletti that he was seeking a deal similar to the $90 million, five-year contract the Giants gave Bonds in 2002 when Colletti was the Giants assistant G.M. Boras turned down the Dodgers’ $45 million, two-year offer last month.

“We’re not out there swimming with the sharks,” Sabean told the Mercury News last month. “There are too many teams with more seemingly to offer financially than where we’re at right now.”

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Since the Mercury News spoke to Sabean fewer teams “with more” to “offer financially” than what the Giants want to offer are in the Ramirez picture…so…add it all up and…I’d think they are trying to get Ramirez…on their terms…

Oh…I believe Scott Boras is Barry Zito’s agent and there’s probably some relationship (maybe not a good one) between the Giants and the agent other teams have trouble dealing with. Boras might figure he can get a Zito-like deal out of the Giants for Manny.

Check out Henry Schulman’s blog tonight (1/1/09) at the SF Chronicle Web site…

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/indexn?blogid=22

He’s a good beat guy, but he’s just saying…”Yeah…maybe the Giants are interested, but they aren’t throwing money at Manny…”

My only beef with Schulman’s blog is his mention of Rowand struggling defensively at AT&T Park … Rowand was banged up all year…including some nasty rib injuries … if he could play centerfield in Philly and Chicago, he can play healthy in SF.

All we can do is follow the facts. A “Report” has surfaced…
we know the Giants have spoken with Manny in early November….
and Manny has to be getting desperate……

It is very possible that this is just a fake story created “by the Boras camp” to drive up the price for the Dodgers…it does actually make sense. The Denver Post obviously has established credibility and hopefully this wasn’t just a stupid statement made by a reporter who wanted to start a stir.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/99474-giants-making-a-run-at-manny-ramirez-boras-is-getting-desperate

It has been reported that the Giants spoke with Ramirez in November—

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/15/SPE51451NV.DTL&feed=rss.giants

Oh?

There are reasons the Giants would pursue Ramirez and reasons they wouldn’t, but…nobody’s paid enough attention to the Giants (understandably) to understand things. The Bay Area media hasn’t anything about the rumor…but there’s a lot of background stuff I’ve heard and read that shines light on the veracity of the rumor.

http://focusonnorthcoast.blogspot.com/