Jason Bay in the Back Bay
Yes, yes, we all know he’s no Manny Ramirez. But all that means is that he’ll actually run to first, play when he can, and hit nearly as well. This deal is by far not a good deal for the Red Sox - clearly they are giving up the most to make this work. But that’s just Manny being Manny I guess. He got what he wanted, like a little kid throwing a fit in a candy store, just yelling I want it as loud as possible. It would have been much more beneficial to keep Manny through his option years, but since Manny is such a little whining @#*&% that wouldn’t work. Once it was decided that the Red Sox had to trade Manny, it was over and you knew they would. The question then was who are you going to get, and Bay is by far the best you can do. Just a couple days ago I was saying how there is no way the Sox could get Bay, but I’m glad they proved me wrong.
And just so you know, Jason Bay is Awesome! This guy was considered one of the top 10 outfielders in the National League up until last season when he had a horrible second half and only hit .247 on the year with only 21 home runs. But this year, he’s already past that point, with 22 HR already and an average right on par with his career at .281.
Some will argue that his numbers aren’t as good as Manny, and though that is probably true, its a lot closer than you realize. Bay comes with an OPS of .894 which is very comparable to Manny at .927. This is on base + slugging percentage, which is basically a measure of how often you get on base, and when you do get hits, how much power you have. He can probably make up for a lot of that just by playing hard (something we all know Manny didn’t do much).
Jason Bay was also the Rookie of the Year in 2004 and a 2-time All Star. Not that that really matters since it all happened years ago. He is under contract through next year, and is a lot cheaper at just $7.5 million compared to the $20m Manny would have gotten. Look for the Sox to make a run at Mark Teixera in the offseason with the extra Manny money combined with Schilling’s $8m coming off the books. Overall, the Sox are not as well off this year as they would have been with a motivated, healthy Manny, but since he basically quit on the team in these past couple weeks, I think they did the best they could. Good job Theo.
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