Baseball Musings: Rounding up the Manny News

August 01, 2008

Rounding up the Manny News

Steve Silva at Extra Bases does an excellent job of rounding up the reaction to the Manny Ramirez trade. There will be a news conference on the field at Dodger Stadium tonight.

I'd like to add one thing to this story. Manny, to a certain extent, has moved criticism from his playing ability to his personality. Remember the story of the off season? Manny was working out and was going to be in the best shape of his life. Despite the intense training, Ramirez put up numbers very similar to last year, with a little more power. The Red Sox had to look at that and say to themselves, "He worked his butt off this winter and he didn't improve much. The decline is real. Let's wait this out."

Manny probably thought he would come out like gangbusters, reaching 500 home runs quickly and wowing the front office with his return to dominance. Age, however, is eroding Manny's skills. He's so good that he can still be the best player on many teams playing at a lower level, but teams will pause before committing to an expensive, long term deal.

I suspect that was the big cause of the breakdown. Manny didn't meet his own expectations, but couldn't blame himself. He worked hard, said the right things to the press, even showed up to spring training on time. The Red Sox front office, however, saw the numbers, and the numbers said wait. Ramirez wouldn't accept that, so he acted in such a way that the Red Sox had to trade him, and received his wish.

It's too bad. Terry Francona, the front office, the players, and a good deal of Red Sox Nation cut Manny a lot of slack for a number of years. They respected Manny's ability to perform on the field. Ramirez should have more respect for their generosity.

Posted by David Pinto at 12:36 PM | Trades | TrackBack (0)

Comments

I think there's a good amount of truth to this, but in a lot of ways it just seems like the same old schtick he did every year, ratcheted up to 11 b/c of the contract/option issue. It was probably the most predictable storyline of the sports year, aside from more arrests for Cincinnati Bengals.

Posted by: gurk at August 1, 2008 01:35 PM

really good point Dave. I don't think the fact that his production has noticeably dropped off and his bat seems slower has been brought up as much as it should be.

Posted by: Tom at August 1, 2008 03:59 PM

This was the first year I remember where he went thru prolonged bad spells where he really looked out of sync. His power was down and I think there was no way the Sox were picking up his option for next year. They figured it wasn't going to get better so it had to get over. Boston Herald today really down on Ramirez but I think Boston made the right move pulling the plug now.

Posted by: bandit at August 1, 2008 04:52 PM

I have an issue with everyone cutting Manny all the slack they did before, and then now acting like what he's doing is terrible. That is absolutely two faced, and there's no other way to describe it. Manny has acted the same way always, and you know who he is. It wasn't Manny that suddenly changed and fooled everyone. Everyone knew what they had with Manny, and to be bothered by him now simply shows the lack of character in those people. No one has a right to get on Manny's case that hasn't spoken up the past seven years.

Posted by: Nick at August 1, 2008 06:50 PM

I AM A DIE HARD YANKEE FAN. I HAVE NEVER LIKED RAMIREZ. HE IS TO ARROGANT FOR MY TASTE. HE WOULD OF NEVER SURVIVED IN NEW YORK.

Posted by: rafael at August 1, 2008 07:12 PM

I agree, Nick. He has always been a spoiled, lazy douche.

Posted by: abe at August 2, 2008 06:47 PM

I kind of have a conspiracy theory about the last couple weeks. The engagement by Manny of Boras raised some eyebrows because if everything worked out for him, the Sox would pick up the 2 $20M options and Boras wouldn't earn a dime. On the day of the trade, Manny agreed to waive his 10/5 rights in exchange for the Sox agreeing to drop their 2 option years. The last couple weeks weren't about Manny clamoring for his extension to get picked up, they were about Manny acting out so badly, the Sox would have to trade him. I think Boras had finally convinced him that Boras could get him a 4 years at $100M, but it wasn't going to happen in Boston. Manny had to do something to guarantee the options wouldn't get picked up. He achieved this by forcing the Sox to trade him. In the end, I don't even care Manny "won". He wasn't hitting up to his career standards, and thus wasn't worth the headaches anymore.

Posted by: AC at August 3, 2008 06:20 PM