Hey, at least Manny is healthy and ready to play.

Unlike certain unmentionable players who can't even pitch off a mound for another two weeks, and may not even be a factor this year.

Which would you prefer, baseball fans... A guy with a weird personality who hits a ton every single year, or a $40 million pitcher who was a huge disappointment in 2005 and who (last we heard from Baseball Musings back in August) was only going to be out for "six weeks," but remains questionable.

I love how people like to jump on the bash-Manny, bash Boston fans bandwagon without looking at the bottom line: unlike a lot of Cashman's high-priced picks, he delivers consistently.

(Yep, I'm gonna keep riding your pro-Yankee/anti-BoSox bias, David. Good luck with the pledge drive nonetheless.)

If only Manny would run more quickly down the 1B line on groundballs, he might finally live up to his offensive potential!

Give it up.

Tim, that was a pretty funny joke.

Say what you want the so called turmoil about trade demands, reporting dates, lack of hustle doesn't seem to affect his performance. The only thing that does is sliding into home plate head first.

Manny mashes. Give me Manny and his problems, and I'll see my team win more. So what if he's a fruitcake?

Is there a better entertainment value on the planet than Manny Ramirez? Plus he's a money-making machine.
Q. What do the two longest home sell-out streaks in the history of baseball have in common?

A. Manny Ramirez...with Cleveland, now with Boston

A2. The best overall offenses in the game?

I'm not sure Manny's the money-making machine you might think he is. He's certainly not even in the same stratosphere as Pedro was in Boston, and if you threw him on a below-average offense, I don't think too many fans would bat an eye. Solo shots are fun, but 3 run HR's or back-to-backs with Ortiz are a lot more fun.

And no one cares about Pavano. At 4 years, $40 million, he was a bit pricier than the likes of Matt Clement and Kris Benson. Which means he was expected to be a bit better than them. But to even speak of him in the same class as Manny is a pretty bad comparison.

And last time we heard of this on Baseball Musings, was the last however-many-times you've mentioned it :-)

RE: Pedro - agreed. He must have increased that value of the franchise about 250 million for the Yawkey/Harrington trust.

Of course Manny was the best hitter on two of the greatest offenses ever. I'm not sure who else has done that....
Whoever replaces him will be a lot less interesting....