Manny, once more

I hope that this is my last Manny comment for a while (though I'm not optimistic). David Pinto made a point the other day, comparing Sammy Sosa to Manny Ramirez, and he's clarifying it today.

From reading the comments to this post on Manny Ramirez, I guess I didn't make my point clear. I'm not comparing Sammy and Manny as hitters. What I'm saying is that Sammy was a great hitter and everybody loved him despite his antics. When he stopped being a great hitter, suddenly the antics were a reason to strongly dislike him.

I believe the same thing is true of Manny. It doesn't matter that Manny is better than Sosa over his full career. What matters is that people are willing to excuse his actions because of his greatness. Once Manny's production falls to a level that's easily replaced, the fans won't be so forgiving. Rather than pleas to keep Manny when he wants to sit out a game, Red Sox fans will be calling for his head.

I agree almost entirely, but I think that it ought to be re-phrased. What David says here makes it sound like the fans are either fickle or hypocritical, and I don't think that's fair. Well, it's fair for some, I'm sure, but not for all. As I've been a big supporter of the Red Sox keeping Manny, I wanted to just address the tone of the comment.

It's not that people are "willing to excuse his actions", it's that they recognize that the team is better off putting up with those actions than trading a great player for less than full value. What I, and many others have said, is that the positive of Manny's production outweighs the (I think really minor) negatives of his occasional behavioral lapses. There is just no question that the time will come, as it does for every player, when the production declines, and that will no longer be the case. At which point in time, I won't want him on the team anymore. But there are always trade-offs to be made. Every player has strengths and weaknesses. The fact that I believe that Manny's strengths currently VASTLY outweigh his weaknesses doesn't mean I have to believe it forever. When the time comes that it's no longer true, it will be neither fickle nor hypocritical of me to call for them to trade or waive or release him.