Leave My Manny Alone

I go to the West Coast and the "Manny wants to be traded" scuttlebutt surfaces again. Well guess what - I don't want Manny to be traded and I don't understand why any Red Sox fan would want to see him traded either.

First - let me get off my chest that Manny is no Terrell Owens. His actions may sometimes seem like distractions to us but not to his teammates. I dare anyone to find a single teammate saying anything but positive things about Manny (unless they are said in jest).

The fine folks over at Sons of Sam Horn are speculating on what Manny would get the Sox back in a trade and to me it seems like none of their scenarios would get the Sox back equal value for a great player (and Manny is a great player) or the scenario is not grounded in reality (for example the Mets are not trading David Wright in any three team package).

It pisses me off to no end that the Boston Globe would run a headline saying "Manny Being Traded!" so close to the time when they were running stories about "Epstein Re-Signs for 3-Year Deal." The only negative thing that Manny brings into the clubhouse is sometimes the negative publicity that surrounds him. And where does this negative publicity come from? Given the smear campaign that ran Nomar Garciaparra out of town and the smear campaign that kept Theo Epstein from coming back as GM - I think this is the real story here.

What has Manny done to be treat so by the Boston media? Seriously? Dog it to first base? If you watch the games he hustles to first more than Trot Nixon (who is loved by the media). Lapse of judgment mistakes in the field or on the basepaths? Kevin Millar makes more of those in a day than Manny makes in a month. What has Manny done to make Dan "Balls on Chinless" Shaughnessy and his ilk write such hateful and hurtful things? Seriously? Could it be that the Red Sox just don't want to pay a player $20 million a year and are undermining him via the media? Given that the Boston Globe's parent company owns 17% of the Red Sox - isn't this a question that deserves an answer?

What has Manny done in the field for the Sox? Well this year here's how he finished in some of the top statistical categories:

HR (3 - more than anyone but A-Rod and Ortiz in the AL), R (t7 - 4 more than Ichiro), TB (6 - 22 more than Paul Konerko who will end up getting Manny-like money when it is all said and done), RBI (t2 with Mark Teixeira who the Red Sox drafted but were too cheap to sign), SLG (4 ahead of Vlade Guerrero - but I'll get into that shortly), OBP (7 - his worst OBP since 1998), and in HR per AB Manny was 1st in the AL ahead of both A-Rod and Ortiz (and second only to Andruw Jones in all of MLB this year).

Since he's come to Boston - Manny has won a Silver Slugger award and been named to the All-Star team every year. Every year he has been in the top 10 for MVP voting (he's the only player who's been top 10 in the AL every year since 2001). Every year since coming to Boston - he's been top 4 in OPS in the AL - NOT TOP 10 BUT TOP 4!!! He was brought to Boston to hit and he's more than lived up to his end of the bargain.

Compare Manny to Vlade Guerrero in 2005:

Manny - 152 G/ .292 BA/ .388 OBP/ .594 SLG/ 45 HR/ 144 RBI
Vlade - 141 G/ .317 BA/ .394 OBP/ .565 SLG/ 32 HR/ 108 RBI

Since 2001 (the year Manny first played for the Red Sox) Manny has had 199 HR and 610 RBI. Since 2001 Vlade Guerrero has had 169 HR (30 fewer than Manny) and 532 RBI (78 fewer than Manny). And if you are going to use the excuse that Vlade has missed a number of games in that span because of injuries you should realize that emphasizing Manny's health just increases his value over Vlade (and that their HR per AB rate during this span is almost identical).

Keep in mind that we are also talking about the guy who was voted MVP of the only World Series the Red Sox have won in 86 years.

And speaking of World Series - didn't anyone learn from this year's where the White Sox pitched around the Astros' only great hitter (Lance Berkman) and were able to neutralize the Astros offense that way? That's what would be in store for the Red Sox if they traded Manny. Nodoby would be there to protect David Ortiz. The streaky, can't hit lefties Trot Nixon? Yeah right! Jason Varitek? You realize that his second half numbers were .256 / .365 / .446 - right? The only thing that allowed the Red Sox to make the playoffs this year was the Ortiz / Manny 1-2 punch. And people want to break that up?

We should be singing Ave Manny - not talking about trading him. When you think about it trading Manny makes no sense at all. And while I'm at it - Dan Shaughnessy can go fuck himself!