As the winter begins to wind down and a few superstars continue to wait for the right deal to open up (Ramirez anyone?), I started thinking about the motivational power of revenge.  If you're a premiere player in the major leagues, and you are overlooked by your old club (along with many others), how much motivation does that provide you to accept a lowball offer, come back with another outfit, and stuff your old teammates?

The best potential examples of this phenomenon could be Manny Ramirez and Ben Sheets.  Both are perceived as monster talents.  And yet, both could be forced to accept humbling, ridiculously low offers just to continue playing. 

I have two questions for the Cardinal community.  First, do players suck up low offers in order to shove it in their former team's faces?  Would Manny take a low offer from a team like the Giants (say, 1-year $10M) just to beat mercilessly on the Dodgers for a year?  Would Ben Sheets take an offer from say... the Cardinals... for 1-year at $5M to face his former mates six or seven times throughout the season and pay back the lack of contract love?

Second question, is there any historical evidence of players who have walked this line?  In other words, are there any players out there who decided that heck, the money was less important for one year or so, if it gave them a chance to maul the people who scorned them? 

Just curious what everyone thinks.  I don't think that Man-Ram or Sheets will find their way to the Cardinals in the end.  But I do wonder if they will come back with something to prove and a desire to beat their previous club.