While I have a Manny bat, I really do not love Manny. I do admire Coco greatly (and have the t-shirt) because of the heroic diving catches he makes from time to time. But I suppose even the usefulness of that is a question some may go over. Likely there is a little more to go into than when one questions Manny:
All of today's best P.B.P. systems agree that Ramirez is the worst defensive left fielder in baseball, and by a comfortable margin. This holds true even after accounting for the effect of the Green Monster wall in left field. "Manny is at the far end of the as-bad-as-you-can-get-in-the-field spectrum, said Mitchel Lichtman, who designed one highly regarded P.B.P. defensive statistic called ultimate zone rating, and who consulted for the St. Louis Cardinals from 2004 to 2006. But the experts differ vastly on just how much a single bad left fielder can hurt a team.Is he that bad? I like the NYT as much as the next guy but I think this is just a hatchet piece. Consider the description of Ortiz: "Ortiz is even less mobile than Ramirez, and given his corpulence, the demands of playing the field may substantially increase his risk of injury." His corpulence! That is just mean. Worries? No way - it's just baseball season when you get to pray your favorite fat slobs beat the heartless but trim Yankees.
Comments
portland - March 20, 2007 10:28 AM
one of the beautiful things about baseball is that you really have to see a guy play to know his value to a team. there will always be some guy in a far of city saying "trade him" but if you know and love a team, you know things beyond the numbers. does manny hurt us in left? sometimes. his mind clearly wanders from time to time. he's seems to be thinking about lunch tomorrow. but that's not most of the time and any sox fan can tell you that he's actually quite adept in the short left field at fenway (leads the league (or nearly) every year in outfield assists). he can throw (well enough that he could still play right field (although at fenway i don't recommend that (see wily mo pena)) and runs okay. he even makes his fair share of highlight reel catches, although, admittedly, some of them he turns into circus catches. so does manny hurt us in the field. well, not every team can put a gold glove in left field and, yeah, i'd love it if he would watch the game more but, at the end of the season, you can always count on one hand the number of times that manny nearly lost us a game (nearly because all of them don't turn into losses) but you need fingers and toes to count the games he singlehandedly wins for us.
and two final words about about statistics for all you expo fans: rodney scott.
Alan - March 20, 2007 10:41 AM
That is why I like him. I think of tomorrow's lunch on the job, too. All the time. He is a left fielder who speaks for me.