Torre eyes Thursday for Manny

BasX · Mar 7, 2009

Manny Ramirez, who missed more than two weeks of spring training as his agent sought a buyer for his services, wasted no time getting started in his first full workouts.

On Friday, Ramirez was seen at about 6 a.m. at Camelback Ranch, the Dodgers' spring complex in Arizona, running sprints and sweating through conditioning drills.

Later that day, manager Joe Torre revealed Ramirez is tentatively scheduled to play Thursday in his first exhibition game of the spring, when the Dodgers play the World Baseball Classic Asian bracket's second-place team.

"His position in the game of baseball, he's not taking it for granted," Torre said. "It's a good message for the young players."

The Dodgers will be facing either Korea or China, and with Ramirez possibly in the lineup, there should be a large media contingent present.

For Ramirez, he was as loose and comfortable as ever, teasing teammates as if he had been there the entire time.

Upon seeing outfielder Matt Kemp appear in the clubhouse at 8:30 a.m., according to MLB.com, Ramirez called out, "You're late. I was here at 6:30."

"I was here three weeks ago," Kemp retorted, according to MLB.com.

Ramirez, who agreed to a two-year, $45 million deal with the Dodgers on Wednesday, had a short workout Thursday, after his news conference.

On Friday, he was back in the batting cage, managing just one home run in several rounds of practice, and according to a Los Angeles Times report, mocked himself by shouting, "No pop!"

Andre Ethier, shagging balls in right field, yelled, "Singles hitter!"
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http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/spring2009/news/story?id=3960012

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Torre eyes Thursday for Manny

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