Manny has better numbers when he isn't even playing hard. All I am saying is player wise, Manny is much better, but for the Red Sox, this had to happen. It could even improve them by team chemistry.
Manny is a better hitter, definitely, but Bay is a better fielder, and much younger. more importantly he's signed for next year. so manny for 0.3 of a season vs Bay for 1.3 seasons?
clearly not a great year for Manny...hes still better then Bay by a good margin. This trade bodes well for the Yanks this season. In the future it may cause some problems since Bay is still young.
Lets not forget Bay has played against mostly NL pitchers. And has played with basically no pressure playing in Pittsburgh.
The last time I was this angry at the trading deadline was 2004. I was actually with Kurt at Jets camp, and got back to the hotel to hear the news and was furious. The team got hot and that was lucky, but they still got inferior talent. Since that day I've disliked Epstein, and this doesn't make it better.
I agree that the Red Sox came out on the shorter end, I just don't know how this team could have finished out this season with Manny Ramirez on the roster. The guy decided that he was going to be a destructive influence on this team until he got his way. That LA would trade anything for Manny just goes to prove his recent knee "injury" and request to be DL'ed were manufactured - something we all knew. If he wasn't going to play, and everyone around the league knew that, I don't see any other option. I'll miss the Manny of pre-6/08.
I was pissed that day, too. That was the day the Dodgers dismantled their team that was in first place and on a roll. They limped to the finish, got KOd from the playoffs and fouled up Eric Gagne's career for good. The next year they went 71-91 and fired everybody. I don't even remember what the Red Sox did, besides get Dave Roberts from us for nothing.
Bye bye Sox and THANK YOU!!!! Manny meant so much more to Boston than just his #s, I am not worried at all about the Sox now. They still have a good team but they do not have a Championship team. Maybe this move finally had to be made but they put up w/ him for years and thrived so why not keep going?
I love that there are all these fans saying the red sox got raped, and every baseball person i've seen comment on it is talking about what a good deal they got. Craig hansen and Brandon Moss are scrubs, neither of them is ever going to be above average never mind a star, and certainly neither of them was ever going to have a role on the Red Sox. BAy is very very good, he gets underrated because he plays on the terrible Pirates. i mean as a comparison teixiera got the braves casey kotchman and a C+ prospect for 2 months, the red sox get Jason Bay. I'd say that's above market value right there. Jason Bay is without doubt one of the top 6 LFs in MLB, try and name 5 gusy better than him in LF. Braun, Holliday, manny, then there he is.. maybe carlos lee sneaks ahead at #4, but Bay is a better fielder than either manny or lee. Soriano? who else?
He wouldn't be there in the future anyway so this can only help NY. The real question now will be who Boston spends all those free dollars on this winter. They have more and the Yankees have close to 100 million freed up. This should be a wild winter.