Aramis Ramirez: Savior or Just Awesome?

Last night was Ramirez first game back from the DL.  Since he went down back in May, the offense has struggled mightily, so does his return mean the return of the Cubs tremendous 2008 offense or does it simple mean that Ramirez can’t change the fact that everybody else on the team sucks (except for D-Lee, Jake Fox, etc…)

Kevin: So I went to the game last night and the thing that everybody wanted to see was an Aramis Ramirez home run.  That didn’t happen.  In fact, he didn’t even get a hit.  But nobody there cared because we were all just excited to see him play.  Derrek Lee provided enough offense for the Cubs to win and Randy Wells took care of the rest and that’s exactly why Ramirez’s return could not come at a more perfect time.  With Lee playing like a man possessed by Babe Ruth, Ramirez doesn’t have any pressure on him to come back into the lineup and produce immediately.  He can just chill out, take a day off every once in a while and relax.  Eventually, he will hit.  Then again I have said that about Soriano and Milton Bradley so who knows?   Oh!  By the way, if you watched the game last night you saw the disgusting lineup the Cubs had(theoretically).  Fukudome and Theriot lead off and then the middle of the order went Lee, Bradley, Ramirez, Soriano.  Could you imagine how fantastic that order could be if Bradley could hit from the left side of the plate, Ramirez was healthy and Soriano could simply hit?!?!?!?!  The starting pitching on this team is great.  The bullpen is solid with Guzman back and Marshall being a big throwing lefty and now with Ramirez back, there’s even less pressure on our “big stars” to hit because we just added another huge bat to the lineup.  This team is very dangerous and even though I don’t think the offense will all of a sudden become amazing, the return of Ramirez makes it that much more dangerous.  So I guess he’s not the ’saviour’ of this season but he certainly is awesome.

Kyle: Aramis Ramirez is Jesus. All bow before him and worship the ground he walks on. Watch him perform miracles as he turns doubles into home runs. Yes, he is all powerful. FEAR HIM.

Seriously though, this team doesn’t NEED A-Ram if everyone else would play to at least their career averages. So he is not the savior, but he is awesome. The best thing about having Ramirez back is that we now only have to play Mike Fontenot or Henry Blanco (instead of Fonty AND Blanco). While LBR did a solid job filling in at a position he doesn’t normally play, an average Ramirez is better than anything the Cubs were rolling out there on a daily basis. Yes, A-Ram will take at-bats away from big boy Jake Fox, but Fox will find his place and get some starts here and there to spell Ramirez. Plus if Lou had any sense he would bench Soriano or send him to the DL with an “injury” and allow Fox to start in LF everyday. So where was I going with this? Oh yeah, Ramirez is awesome (currently my favorite player) but I don’t think he is at the Messiah-like level that everyone thinks he is at. Go Cubs.