When Manny Ramirez was traded from the Boston Red Sox, everyone outside of the New England area exalted a giant sigh of relief, including the man behind this sports blog. Yeah, I figured that Boston could keep winning games without Ramirez, but the odds were against them now, big time. If nothing else, the Rays path along the Yellow Brick road was now devoid of all obstacles.
It was as if two heads were cut off in one fowl swoop. Not only did the Sox trade away one of the greatest right handed hitters of all time in Ramirez, he was no longer there to protect Ortiz. Which meant that he would now be stripped of the protection once afforded to him, and as a result, everyone figured his production would now falter.
I know it may seem like it, but I don’t hate Boston. I just tend to migrate towards the underdog if my team isn’t in it. I was a Yankee basher during their reign of terror, the same goes for the Lakers at the beginning of the decade. So, if you’re at all like me, you didn’t have to be a Yankees’ fan to revel in the glory of Boston’s demise. Sure, Bay is a solid major league player, but he is not Manny Ramirez, not even by a long shot. Their inevitable demise was forthcoming.
In a short period of time, Boston went from being this endearing loser, a city that everyone could empathize with, to being this ugly, egocentric, in your face, sore winner. Sure, it’s nice and all. We understand they’ve lived through a long period of oppression, but over night the city transformed into the sporting worlds Goliath. That’s wonderful and all, but be classy about it.
What the Ramirez trade symbolized was the end of this reign of terror. At least until football season started, we’d have a break from Boston, and for everyone outside of the New England region, this was a good thing. The sporting world deserves a better class of fan, or, if nothing else, a shift of focus on the 24/7 Boston Sports Network, better known as ESPN.
But, low and behold, as fate would have it, the Rays are starring the perils of failure in the face after losing Evan Longoria and Carl Crawford for an undetermined amount of time. The best case scenario has Longoria back in three weeks, which is exactly when the Rays will need him if they want to win the AL East, but it may be too late by then. The Sox are on a roll right now.
Since moving Ramirez on July 31, Boston has went 8-3, their best 11 game stretch since going 10-1 from April 12 to April 22. Not only that, they’re now only 2 games back of the Rays, and are currently sitting on their highest monthly totals for average, OBP, and OPS this season. Their 73 RBI and 76 runs also put them on pace to exceed the work of all previous months. Only the Red Sox could get stronger after trading away one of the best players in baseball.
Can keep this up, though? They won without Ortiz earlier this year because Manny and JD Drew really stepped up, now Ortiz needs to do the same. He had a huge game last night against Texas, hitting two three-run homers in the first inning, but other than that his bat has been silent. The sample size is far too small to make a fair judgment on the effect Ramirez had on Ortiz in the line-up, but the early results aren’t promising. In his first six games back from a wrist injury, with Ramirez protecting him, he hit .391/.423/.609 with one homer and four RBI. In the 11-games since then, without Ramirez, he’s hit .225/.354/.425 with two homers and 12 RBI. Now, it could be any number of things effecting his production, but the Red Sox will certainly need more if they hope to surpass the Rays.
Bay has been as productive as anyone could have hoped, as he’s hit .319 since coming over from Pittsburgh, but the real X-factor in all of this is JD Drew. When Ortiz went out earlier this year it allowed him to move up in the order. Not surprisingly, with the extra protection behind him, his production soared. He hit .300/.429/.700 with 14 homers and 35 RBI in Ortiz’s absence, so naturally, I assumed with Ramirez gone, Drew would be allowed to move back up in the order. I was right about one thing, he moved back up in the order, I just didn’t never considered how high he’d go.
JD Drew: leadoff man. Doesn’t make much sense to me. Yet, for some reason, eight of the last ten games he’s taken his reps there, despite hitting .188/.458/.250 during that span. He’s getting on base, which is what really matters, but it seems to me he could be a lot more effective if he was swinging the bat more. Which has been the case in the four games Drew was allowed to move down in the order since Ramirez departure, where he’s hit .461.
The rest of the team has been stellar. The pitching has been as good as it’s been all year, and as noted, outside of Drew and Ortiz, the sticks are on fire. The question is now whether or not they can remain that way. The rest of the country is hoping not, but Boston has a weird way of coming back from the dead in a big way.
At least there’s still the Wild Card.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Doug 08.14.08 at 2:19 pm
The Sox have played well since Manny left, however it has come against lower-tier teams like Oakland (3-0), Kansas City (2-1), and Texas (2-0); they also earned a 2-2 split with the only team of quality (White Sox) they have played since Manny was railroaded out of town (granted since that series was played in Chicago it was a bit of a victory for Boston, considering their road woes). Yes, the Sox were playing poorly when the Man-Ram left but they were also going up against the Angels and the Yankees (who can still, at times, look like a very good team). I knew all the Manny bashers (not you necessarily but most writers/pundits) would trot out this record as a sign that the ship has been righted with that “evil” slugger gone but when you look at their competition it’s pretty clear why they are winning. Very well-written and thought out article though, really like the site.
Jesus 08.15.08 at 1:33 am
As a Sox fan…I had literally DOZENS of people asking me what I thought about Manny being shipped out of town. My response to them was “they unloaded Nomar at the trade deadline in 2004…and that worked out alright”.
Isn’t it time to give Epstein some credit and realize that the kid knows what he’s doing?