The Official Site of Hanley Ramirez

Fri, Sep 18th 2009, 10:12

Already great, Hanley is getting better

He has started back-to-back All-Star Games, put up early numbers comparable to some of the best ever at his position, is a popular No.1 pick in fantasy leagues and is having the season of his life.

But what may be unnerving to some of history’s greatest shortstops is this: Hanley Ramirez is still getting better.

“Every time I see him, he does something that’s very impressive,” Hall of Famer Hank Aaron said. “He’s got all the tools — everything.”

In one 6-foot-3, 225-pound body, Ramirez can hit for average like Derek Jeter, drive the ball out of the park like Ernie Banks, run like Honus Wagner and play above-average defense — perhaps not Ozzie Smith-like, but very respectable, after some major improvements.

There is a favorable chance that by the time Ramirez hangs it up — depending on many factors, one of them being how long he stays at his physically demanding position — he could go down as the best shortstop ever.

“When you start thinking about the body of work that he’s put together at this point, the fact that he’s 25, barring injury, he’s got a chance to really establish himself as one of the top guys ever to play the position,” Astros general manager Ed Wade said. “All indications are, at this point, that this kid’s got a chance to do something special for a long time.”

Yet Ramirez is still under the radar in some ways. His face isn’t all over commercials or gracing many magazine covers, and his name hasn’t reached the same level of fame as Albert Pujols, Manny Ramirez or Alex Rodriguez.

A lot of that has to do with where he plays.

Ramirez suits up for the smaller-market Marlins, a team that is rarely on national TV and hasn’t reached the postseason in six years — though their young, exciting crop of players keeps them in the running almost every August and September.

The Florida market just isn’t comparable to that of, say, the Boston Red Sox, the organization he came up with.

But Ramirez insists the lack of added attention doesn’t bother him in the slightest. He called the endorsements and commercials and other extracurricular activities of a high-paying professional sport “stupid,” rhetorically asking this question: “What do you get paid for? To help your team win ballgames. So that’s what you have to worry about.”

Besides, his colleagues are aware of how good he is.

“As baseball players, we know,” Rockies first baseman Todd Helton said. “It doesn’t take SportsCenter for us to know when a player is really good — he is.”

Banks, the former Cubs great, only met Ramirez once, but he had some high praise for the 25-year-old. He called him easily the greatest player in today’s game, said he expects him to go down as the best shortstop of all time and when asked how he compares Ramirez to himself, Banks replied: “Oh, he’s much better than me. When I look at him play, I sit up there in the stands and in the press box, and I say, ‘Boy, I wish that was me.’”

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