Dominican baseball player Hanley Ramirez takes his first action at third base for the Marlins, Hanley Ramirez juega tercer base por Marlins

Spring training is getting under way, and apparently the thing to do down around the Marlins campl in Jupiter, Florida was to write about Hanley Ramirez and his move to third base.  Granted, it is by far the most intriguing story for the Miami Marlins thus far.

The Boston Harold put out an article (Marlins’ Hanley Ramirez gets going at third base), as did the the Sun Sentinel (Hanley Ramirez acquaints himself with third base), and even Sports Illustrated covered the story (Ramirez's move to third base may be smoother than expected).

Of course, the reason that this is a story is because the Marlins signed Jose Reyes this past off-season.  Jose Reyes is clearly the better fielding short stop, so Hanley has been tasked with moving to third.

At first, reports were that Ramirez was unhappy and wanted to stay at short stop.  But he has rebuked these claims and Hanley Ramirez says he is happy to play third base for the Miami Marlins.  He made this clear through his twitter account in the last few days too: http://twitter.com/hanleyramirez.

By all accounts he is happily making the transition, and just wants to win.  Manager Ozzie Guillen is probably making the move easier too, by downplaying the severity of such a move and deflecting any possible problems. He is basically coming up with all the reasons the move is great, and hoping that the media (and Hanley) will latch on to one of those positives motives/outcomes.

The Dominican Baseball Guy thinks the move will be great, and Hanley will return to MVP form after a slump and injuries last season.  Hanley is from Samana, Republica Dominicana.

Dominican baseball player Hanley Ramirez, by SD Dirk on Flick