Aramis Ramirez (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)
(WSCR) Aramis Ramirez has been one of the better hitters in baseball during the second half. Since late June, he is batting .288 with 16 home runs and 38 RBIs.
But despite the numbers, Comcast Sports Net Chicago’s Cubs studio analyst, Todd Hollandsworth, is still not happy with the third baseman.
“I really don’t see how in the world or why in the world you would want to potentially bring [Ramirez] back,” Hollandsworth said Friday on the McNeil and Spiegel Show on 670 The Score. ” Yeah, it’s great that he’s swinging the bat. I think a lot of things are factoring into that. It’s kind of a sore spot with me.”
LISTEN: Todd Hollandsworth on the McNeil and Spiegel Show
Hollandsworth doesn’t think Ramirez helps out other players around him and questions his effort.
“He’s your best hitter — we’ve watched it for years now — and you can’t seem to have a positive effect on the guys around you, in your clubhouse, getting them to step up and play at a different level,” Hollandworth said. “It’s just hard for me to swallow especially when you are being paid to be that guy.
“Then you bring into question effort. And that’s one thing in the game of baseball that really is inexcusable. 100 percent effort all the time. There’s really no reason for you not to have 100 percent effort. He’s got impressionable kids around him — Darwin Barney, Starlin Castro — these kids are growing up. They are watching it right next to him.”
Hollandsworth also brought up the point that even though Ramirez is hitting better, the Cubs aren’t winning any more games.
“[The team] is not getting any better,” he said. “Somebody once told me, ‘We can be 20-games below .500 with you or without you.’”
