Friday, August 1, 2008

He's Your Problem Now Joe


So Manny is gone, I was all pumped up that I was going to do a big post about it last night after it was finally announced who was going where. Then I started to think about it, I watched Baseball Tonight, and I read ESPN.com and Boston.com, and I listened to WEEI. Almost every writer and I have read said we were the losers in the trade, and on paper it really is hard to argue with that logic. We are not as good as we were a day ago but even if they don't win the World Series I think they won yesterday and here are my reasons why.

- Everyone talked about how we traded away a Hall of Fame hitter and we did not get one in return. I will agree that Manny will someday stumble his way into the Hall of Fame and probably make some kind of jackass speech, but he is not a Hall of Fame player anymore. He has not hit over .300 in two years, his home run total has dropped every year for the last three years, he is an adventure in Left Field, and they always said he had great baseball knowledge how is that true he never seemed to know how many outs there were or where he was supposed to throw it. He is a Hall of Famer but that does not mean he is still playing like one.

- This trade was about Chemistry, it was about 23 guys(1 guy apparently wanted him to say, all signs point to the human blackhole we overpay to play shortstop) who could not deal with his drama anymore, it is about a manager who has had to babysit a 36 year old man for the last 4 months, it is about the player who was so fed up with Manny's antics that he leaked the story about him pushing the traveling secretary, and it is about Big Papi who finally admitted he didn't like speaking for Manny anymore. You watch the Sox could pick it up now, Bay is a hustler just like Youk, and Lowell, and he will fit right in and will be a good replacement on the field and a great replacement in the dugout.

- Let's all be honest it was either now or October, Manny was not going to stay here, he couldn't deal with the stress anymore, he couldn't deal with management actually wanting him to play to earn his 20 million dollars.

- Everyone also says that we lost 2 first round draft picks because of Manny being traded. I would just like to point out that would have been only if we offered him salary arbitration and he rejected it. If Manny is a free agent and no one wanted him cause he is a head case then we would have been on the hook for him again anyways.

- This isn't a point about how they won, it is a fact Scott Boras is a horses ass and 98% this whole issue can probably be attributed solely to him.

So there are my reasons I think we won, Manny was a Cancer in the clubhouse just like Nomar was before him. This is for the best whether they win another world series or not. He is Joe Torre's problem now.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I've heard so much about this lately, and there's a lot to say, but I think you summed it up well with this statement:

"The Red Sox lineup is obviously better with Manny Ramirez than Jason Bay but the Red Sox team is probably better with Bay."

It seemed like the Red Sox were okay with "Manny being Manny" when he was producing and not affecting others, but he went too far, making accusations without proof and not playing hard. He can say the Red Sox don't deserve him, but he doesn't deserve $20M/year for what he's been doing this year.

I get fed up with these high-paid professional athletes who sign long-term contracts for all the money they want, yet still gripe and fuss and demand to be traded. I know there's little team loyalty anymore, but people should follow the contract that they signed -- it is their JOB after all. Imagine telling your boss that you're not gonna work hard until you get to do what you want or get a big raise...