Tagged As: Mets, Dodgers, Manny Ramirez, MLB, Ben Sheets, Brewers

With just about a week until pitchers and catchers report, there is simply an incredible number of free agents still available. This is hardly a groundbreaking observation, but I find the parallels between the deep field of quality players still looking for a contract and the layman who is trying to find work after becoming yet another causality of the economy to be too great to ignore.

Many of these players have quality resumes and would easily give teams a solid third, fourth, or fifth starter, or would bolster the batting lineup and fill a position on the field without any problem. But they are facing the same problem as the modern laid-off worker. They are veterans who are too experienced and too expensive for teams to realistically afford.

Apart from Adam Dunn, these players are in the mid- to latter-stages of their career. Plenty of teams could use the help, but teams are so scared that the purchase of MLB tickets will be shed as a regrettable luxury that they do not want to add too their payroll.

Sound familiar, right? Some of these guys looking for work exhibit some of the same symptoms of workers who are shooting themselves after years of a certain lifestyle. Manny Ramirez has shunned a short term contract with an astronomical figure attached because he believes he is worth a long-term investment. He is the former stock broker of the league, overestimating his worth and quickly coming close to a season sitting at home.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are simply unwilling to hire a 37-year-old for four to five years. His skills are going to diminish and they do not want to be paying a 40-year-old who cannot field and is hitting .250 with 15 homeruns over $20 million a season.

Big spenders like the New York Mets are not even mentioned in rumors to sign him. Manager Jerry Manuel has said he would like to have him in right or left field. The front office has made it clear that the Mets may add another outfielder, but he will be a basement-bargain player.

Ramirez is the perfect example of greed or delusion, but Ben Sheets is a different employee. The 30-year-old free agent starting pitcher won 86 games for Milwaukee and earned a trip to four All Star Games. He is like the factory worker whose body has been worn down by living and providing. Now he needs elbow surgery, but his lack of a contract is making it unclear who will pay for the expensive operation.

Much like the blue collar guy who needs his benefits to pay for doctors visits and multiple corrective surgeries, Sheets own health (his very means for employment) is in limbo. While the factory worker has to suffer fruitless pleas with the insurance company, Sheets is lucky enough to have either the Milwaukee Brewers or MLB likely to foot the bill.

If there is any positive to come out of this difficult time it is that the fan and the player can finally find some common ground after years of exploding salaries created a undeniably divide between those who love the game and those who play the game.