Scoop being ... dumb?

I nominate Manny Ramirez as the man who spawned the most articles in 2008. Favre is second. The Mets and their "collapse" are third. But all this "Manny for MVP" talk is getting to the point where I think he's going to win the damn thing.

Which would be insane.

No, not him. Anybody but him.

You can already hear it. Welcome to late September. There it goes: "Manny Aristides Ramirez, the 2008 NL MVP." That's a hard one to absorb, ain't it? Maybe too big a blue pill to swallow. Especially if you live outside the 323 area code. "That dude being honored as the MVP? Over our dead bodies." Let the church say, Amen!

Well … ... The case should be closed.

There really should be no talk about anyone else. Guy who's played 48 games for a team in a league with Albert Pujols, Lance Berkman, Carlos Beltran, David Wright, Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and a ton of other dudes who played the whole season in their league is unquestionably the MVP?

Awesome.

But since it's not,

Oh, OK.

let's crunch some numbers of the players mentioned most often as MVP candidates:


• Ryan Howard: .245 BA/46 HR/141 RBI/.334 OBP/.529 SLG/.863 OPS

• Carlos Delgado: .273 BA/37 HR/110 RBI/.355 OBP/.521 SLG/.875 OPS

• Albert Pujols: .348 BA/34 HR/106 RBI/.453 OBP/.631 SLG/1.084 OPS

All seem like fine gentlemen, worthy of the MVP. And Pujols is a monster - no, a demon - and should win it going away.

All three front-running candidates for NL MVP have offensive numbers that extend over the entire season, not just the 48 games Ramirez has played since he slipped on Lasorda blue.

But without even getting caught up in the .399 batting average, the 16 home runs and 49 RBIs he's put up since his Red Sox divorce -- or the .493 on-base percentage, .751 slugging percentage and 1.243 OPS -- his season-long numbers provide a part of the story that most are missing (Fox's Mark Kriegel made a similar argument).

Before reading the rest of this I knew, that even combining his numbers from each league, he is nowhere close to Pujols.

Prove me wrong.

• Albert Pujols: .348 BA/34 HR/106 RBI/.453 OBP/.631 SLG/1.084 OPS
• Manny Ramirez: .331 BA/36 HR/117 RBI/.429 OBP/.600 SLG/1.030 OPS

Oh, so across the board worse (or very close) than Pujols? Cool. MVP. Done and done.

When compared to Pujols, it's like trying to tell the difference between Henry Paulsen and Arthur Slugworth.

What? Is that the dude from "Charlie and The Chocolate Factory?"

Then there's that small thing called "impact." Some call it "making the players around you better"; others say "making your team better." Of all the aforementioned MVP candidates listed, none has impacted their team the way Manny has the Dodgers. This is the one factor that sets him apart from all the other pretenders in this year's race.

I call it "bullshit," "bunk," "hooey," "poppycock," "hackitudinal writing" and "fucking wrong."

How about Ryan Ludwick (35) and former pitcher Rick Ankiel (25) bombing? Or Delgado coming into his own and being a threat to help out Reyes, Wright and Beltran?

True, it's only been 48 games of impact, but he's done more for one team in 48 games than any of the others have done (with possible the exception of Pujols) over the season.

So Manny's 48-game impact is more than Pujols 162-game impact? Manny is more than three times as valuable as Pujols? You're full of shit.

More numbers:

6: Number of games the Dodgers have played over .500 since Manny arrived.
.500: Dodgers winning percentage before Manny joined the team.
.519: Dodgers winning percentage today.

WHOA!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Six games over .500?! What a hero. How did they play .500 without him?

Oops. They did.

Could that .019% difference be that it's a smaller sample than the previous 100+ games?

Nooooo...

2: Number of games the Dodgers were out of first place when Manny got there.
2: Number of games they now lead the NL West.

All Manny's doing. Nothing to do with D-Backs playing like fecal matter.

.274: Andre Ethier's batting average July 31.
.361: Andre Ethier's batting average since Manny joined the lineup (of late, Ethier has been hitting second, Ramirez third).

"A number, after three months of the season."
"A higher number, during 1-1/2 months of the season."

Facts: absent.

16-5: Dodgers' record since Jeff Kent was injured Aug. 29.
25: The number Andruw Jones wears for the Dodgers that Manny has mercifully made you forget.

Har har.

Jeff Kent's an ass.

Ramirez himself told the Los Angeles Times, "It's nice that some people think I deserve [the MVP]. I'd like to win it, but I have to be realistic. Someone who was only here for two months doesn't deserve it. It should go to someone who played the six months of the season."

Gotta love political correctness. But Manny himself is wrong in his episode of humility. He has played all six months; it just hasn't been with the same team or in the same league. He's produced. Plain and simp. He's put up the numbers over the course of the entire season (148 games played and counting) that are on par with if not superior to any player up for the honor.

Funny thing is it's not the MLB MVP, it's the NL or AL MVP, of which Manny does not deserve either.

Then he came. And all of a sudden everything changed. With an extremely heavy emphasis on the word "everything."

And here's one more number to think about:

Let me guess. It's going to be about that unquantifiable "it" - the thing that no one understands, but is integral is writing about good players. Jeter's got it. Big Papi's got it. A-Rod? No fuckin' way. Manny? Didn't, until now - that non-hustling jerkface.

But now, look the fuck out, Manny is awesome.

You can't see it, can you? It's there. It's that invisible, impossible-to-define-or-determine number that represents the intangible. That invisible number that changes the culture of a team inside a clubhouse and spreads itself over an entire city. It's that number that helps makes major league baseball better and so interesting.

If anything, this makes baseball annoying.

The idea that Manny's mojo -not his numbers - made the Dodgers better and makes him the MVP is idiotic. His numbers are very good, but they just are not better than Pujols. Plain and simple.

But he sold jerseys! People come to the games! He's got dreads! He's funny!

If Manny and CC win the MVP and Cy, I will quit following baseball. There would officially be no justice in this world.

That said, they both are probably going to win.

43 games doth not an MVP make

Or something like that.

Look, I love me the Manny Ramirez. I felt he was wrongfully run out of Boston and it's no surprise to me he is hitting .565 with 75 homers and 290 RBI.

But there is no fucking way he is the MVP of the National League. Most people know this from one simple stat:

43 games played.

That is not a full baseball season.

Jon Heyman says fuck you. There is no way Pujols, Wright, Howard, Berkman, Delgado or others are deserving. No way.

And surprise, he is not on this list of "best players of the year," which could be called MVPs.

Manny Ramirez has gone from savant to savior.

The world's most famous hitting savant has saved the storied Dodgers, lifting them from also-ran status to the cusp of the playoffs. By the true definition of the Most Valuable Player

That definition: no one knows because no one will define it.

award, Ramirez is the MVP.

Thanks to his short tenure in Los Angeles, he may not get the NL award. But he should. Manny has taken his new team and carried them to first place in the NL West. As long as they make it to October (and there's no reason now to think they won't), the award should be his.

The NL West is awful. Like, the worst division in baseball, by far. The Dodgers lead and are 79-72. The St. Louis Cardinals - led by the shitty Albert Pujols - are 78-72. And in fourth place. Toronto and the Yankees have a better record than the Dodgers (80-71) and have already wrote the moratoriums on their seasons. Even the Florida "$2.50 Payroll" Marlins are 78-72 and sit in third.

Manny's statistics are ridiculous by any measure. Nobody hits .401 on a new team in a new league in a pitcher-friendly park. Nobody has a 1.227 OPS over 43 games (not in the post-steroid era, anyway) to go with 14 home runs and 44 RBIs.

No one.

Berkman in March/April/May (56 games) - 1.219 OPS

So yeah, I guess that .008 points of OPS (over a longer game span) makes Hey-man right.

There are a handful of other candidates, most of them power-hitting first basemen:

Albert Pujols kept hitting while his team came back down to Earth.

Ryan Howard's going to lead the National League in home runs and RBIs, and he has led the Phillies into first for now.

Carlos Delgado has carried the Mets as they try to avoid a second straight collapse.

But no one can match Manny.

Really? No one can match him? Say Howward goes 39-39 with 20 homers and 65 RBI over the last dozen+ games.

Not good enough.

Pujols keeps OPSing over 1.100 and leads the Cards on a miracle playoff run?

No sir.

Ramirez's stats are otherworldly. But his impact is immeasurable.

Ifuckingmeasurable.

Far be it for me to blame/attribute wins to one player, but the Dodgers are 25-19 since Manny's first game on August 1. 25-19. Not like 35-9.

The NL West: where a little more than .500 ball gets you the division!

Before Ramirez came to the Dodgers in the steal of the decade (all L.A. had to give up in the three-team trade was Class-A pitcher Bryan Morris and fading prospect Andy LaRoche)

"Steal of the decade." Wowzers.

Manny is a rent-a-hitter who is going to ask for a hundred cabillion dollars this off-season and will most likely leave LA - mainly because they have a ton of crappy players making way too much money.

Not Kazmir from the Mets to the Rays for Victor Zambrano or Aramis Ramirez from Pittsburgh to the Cubs for Jose Hernandez, Matt Bruback and Bobby Hill? Those were pretty awful.

Best trade of the decade? One that will almost surely end in a first round exit by the .500 Dodgers and have zero impact after the ~50 games Manny plays this season.

they were running second in the worst division in baseball,

Still in that division.

a .500 team and down in the dumps. Now they nearly are a playoff certainty.

Who are still pretty much .500.

Manny surely has been the key to the Dodgers' bottom line. They're filling up Dodger Stadium again. They're selling Manny jerseys in their clubhouse stores for $302, and folks are grabbing them like there's a shortage.

Jersey sales - the smart man's MVP criterion.

Manny has been the key to their season, too. Once manager Joe Torre inserted Ramirez into the batting order and settled on an everyday lineup that also include the emerging Andre Ethier, it was clear who was best in the West.

Playing Andre Ethier over Juan Pierre is something Torre should have done from day one - considering Pierre's OPS+ is 67 and Ethier's is almost double that at 126. But no, Manny being there made Torre smarter.

MVP.

But really, it's all Manny, who authored this Hollywood story.

*Puuuuuke*

I'd like to "overpay" at a Cafardo family yardsale

Then maybe I could get some Styx vinyl on the cheap.

You're all sick of the Manny deal, so let's put the nail in the coffin.

For years, the Red Sox have not been able to deal Manny Ramírez because they couldn't receive fair market value for him.

And you know something? They didn't get it this time.

I would say they received between 80-90 cents on the dollar for Manny - who is 36 and likely to make some major bank next season. Not bad.

But I'll give the Red Sox credit for this: They made an organizational determination - the players, the manager, the front office, the owners - that this Ramírez disturbance was different and far more volatile than the others and perhaps would linger.

You see, this trade wasn't about "value" or "economics" or "things are aren't mumbo jumbo."

Theo Epstein took a beating for it [trading Nomar/Manny] then and will likely take another now,

He's not, at least not from the media - who have a teensy bit of sway among the Boston fans.

but if you truly understand what had become an untenable situation with Ramírez, then you understand why Epstein overpaid to get rid of someone he felt was bringing down his team.

But of course, you can't understand for you are not a SPORTSWRITER! *thunderclap*

Obviously, the hope is that this is addition by subtraction, that the bad karma that had seeped into the Sox clubhouse has been exorcised and Jason Bay will bring a breath of fresh air.

Karma. Exorcism. Fresh air. Seepage. Are you sure the Red Sox clubhouse septic tank isn't busted?

There's no denying that the Red Sox gave up far more than they hoped to make this deal happen with the Dodgers and Pirates.

Allow me to deny.

Hansen (major league career): 72 IP/39BB:58K/6.15 ERA/1.67 WHIP/75 ERA+

Moss ('07 AAA): 493 AB/66 R/139 H/41 2B/16 HR/61 BB:148 K/.834 OPS

Summary: Hansen is a fairly below average reliever (at this stage) with few redeeming qualities other than he throws hard. Moss has a very solid OPS and 2B power but those strikeout to walk numbers are gross. He has power-hitter numbers without the HRs.

Here it comes...

Meh.

They gave up Brandon Moss, one of the most popular players among the brass and manager Terry Francona.

Ahhhhh, the important "popularity" stat. Moss leads Pawtucket in that.

They gave up Craig Hansen, one of their recent first-round draft picks,

And as well as know, first rounders always pan out.

who has all the potential in the world, but somehow couldn't get it done.

"Somehow couldn't get it done" is sportswriter code for "I don't want to/don't know how to look up stats."

"Somehow couldn't get it done"'s AAA numbers: 104 IP/56BB:91K/1.27 WHIP/36 ER.

Perhaps in Pittsburgh, a low-key market, Hansen will flourish,

Or rot.

and we expect Moss will do what David Murphy has done in Texas - play well and get his career off the ground.

Murphy is batting in a lineup with an All-Star at literally every position, including like three MVP candidates, and he isn't even doing all that well.

His 55 runs created is tied with players like Luke Scott, Lyle Overbay and Aaron Rowand. His cool 100 OPS+ means he is an exactly average MLB player. Even his traditional line (.263/14/67) is pretty yawn-worthy.

A year from now, we may all be saying: How on earth could they have given up on Manny and a good player like Moss and a good young reliever like Hansen for Jason Bay?

I can make a bold-faced promise that a year from now - assuming Manny doesn't go Carlos Beltran circa Houston in '06 and the Sox miss the playoffs - they won't be bemoaning the loss of ~5.00 ERA/sub-2:1 K:BB/1.40 WHIP Hansen and .260/14/70/150 K Moss.

But that just goes to show you how dire the situation with Ramírez had become before the Sox shipped him to the Dodgers at the trade deadline yesterday.

So dire, so so dire.

Manny = 36 years old, wants 20 million each year for the next two and then some absurd $900 million deal over four years in 2010.

Bay = 30, cost-controlled at ~$14 million over the next two years.

Economics? Getting oldonomics? Thuganomics?

No, direness.

Not hustling negates everything great you do

You guessed it, this is about Manny.

I await the torrent of bird-brained articles in the coming hours with baited breath, but the Dugout Central has given me this little nugget:

What is so bad now that has Manny not hustling? This lack of hustle and work ethic, regardless of his career numbers, is inexcusable. For those who think that it doesn’t matter, you are DEAD WRONG.

All of the positives that Manny brings to the field are negated by any single instance of non-hustle or possible self sabotage that he might have had for the Red Sox.

No matter how well he hits, you cannot take the chance that Manny, in an instance of “defiance”, will not run hard down the first baseline possibly costing you a game. Or the playoffs. Or the World Series.

Line breaks and color mine. That fuscia part is grade A certified, FDA approved bullshit.

Here's a theortical choice, one in which Mr. Thomas Wayne must pick player B.

Player A's absurd line: .412 average/97 homers/240 RBI with a 2.012 OPS. Doesn't RUN OUT GROUNDERS SOMETIMES.

Player B's line: .012 average in 600+ PA/0 homers/21 RBI (all sac hits) with a 0.300 OPS. Runs out every grounder and hugs his teammates.

Bring it Wayne's Groundout Runners. Me and my Hall of Fame Hitters Who Are Kinda Sorta Lazy During Inconsequential Plays will kick your ass!

Also, let me paint a situation in which not running out a grounder at first will cost a team the World Series:

It's game seven of the World Series between the Manny-energized Dodgers and upstart Tampa Bay Rays (ratings a go-go!). It's the bottom of the ninth, tied 5-5. Manny comes to the plate with runners on first and third and one out. Johnathan Broxton looks in to deliver the pitch, praying for a double play. He knows Manny won't hustle, so it's not out the realm of possibility. He goes to the set, and lets one fly. Manny eyes it and swings mightily...

It's a home run! The Dodgers win! All thanks to Manny "Everyday I'm Hustlin'" Ramirez!

See. It'll never fucking happen. Ever.

This is the last Manny response, I swear

This week, at least.

Pretty much every Boston sports writer is straining their hack muscles writing about Manny Ramirez.

"He's quit on the team!" "He's not a great hitter anymore!" "He is too fucking weird!"

That last one is probably true. The others, not so much.

But now, the truth: Manny is just not a "gamer."

In the series opener, the Sox simply could not put their best team on the field.

Oh, to be sure, there were gamers out there.

Odds that ... is mentioned

Dustin Pedroia - 1:5

Kevin Youkilis - 1:2

JD Drew - 100:1

Jon Lester (didn't pitch) - 5:1

Take, for instance, Dustin Pedroia.

Bam!

The kid lacks the size and the speed to be a big-time big leaguer,

Also, skin pigment.

yet he is an All-Star and in pursuit of a batting title because he is a tough, determined sparkplug of a baseball player.

Jesus H. Christ.

Determined, sparkplug, balding, short tough-guy: .317/.363/.455 with 30 doubles, nine homers and a 28 BB/37 K rate.

How about he is an awesome fucking hitter? Why oh why can't 3'7" slow white guys be good hitters? There is no reason, because Pedroia is. Spare me all this anecdotal bullshit.

How about David Ortiz? He was so stressed out when the Red Sox were falling apart during the last days of the 2006 season that the club had to yank him out of the lineup and send him home to Boston for medical tests.

What the hell are you talking about? And who cares?

Kevin Youkilis? We now pretty much know Yankees pitcher Joba Chamberlain is going to aim a fastball at Youkilis’ head the next 100 times he faces him, just as we also know that Youk will be knocking people over to get to the plate for at-bat No. 101.

Because we all know non-gamers (let's call them "players") - players - just lay there after getting HBP, demanding to be taken out of the game and then sulking in the dugout instead of cheering on their team.

But the real fun did not begin until the Red Sox returned home to face the Yankees on Friday, at which time Manny took a look at Francona’s lineup card, saw his name there, and told bench coach Brad Mills, “Um, no.”

The enraged Red Sox called Manny’s bluff and sent him out for MRIs on both knees. Surprise, surprise: The tests came back negative. That’s when the Sox whispered the D word - discipline - and that’s when Manny caved.

Alas, it was too late for the suckers, er, fans, who paid top dollar for Friday’s game.

Those suckers - getting to see an exciting 1-0 contest between bitter rivals.

Sucker #1: "I paid to see MANNY! Not a great baseball game featuring a team I love!"

Sucker #2: "Manny's not playing?" *ties noose to hang self*

The Sox came up empty in seven innings against the hard-throwing Chamberlain, losing 1-0, and we’ll never know if Ramirez, hitting .487 during an 11-game hitting streak, might have made a difference.

He sucks at hitting, so who cares? He probably would have let three strikes go by in the ninth, just to make a point. And .487 during 11 games? Take that shit elsewhere, there's no room for facts here.

You were ripped off, Red Sox fans. And you have a right to ask for your money back.

If you paid for this Herald, that is.

And the Manny hate train keeps on chugging

This time, Tony Massarotti of the Boston Herald is the culprit. Channeling the spirit of Shaughnessy, Massarotti is the latest writer to run a first ballot Hall of Fame hitter out of Boston.

Until now, Manny Ramirez had the talent to offset the attitude. But the simple truth today is that he is overplaying his hand.

I was under the impression that the term "overplaying his hand" meant giving away too much information. But here, it's used instead of the phrase "living off his reputation" or something like that. It's also not really true.

Entering this weekend’s series with the New York Yankees, despite having played as many games as any Sox player but Dustin Pedroia, Ramirez did not lead the team in runs scored, walks or, most importantly, RBI.

RBIs are dumb. That would be like if I measured your writing performance by ABI (articles batted in). You get an ABI if your article is published after one by Steve Buckley or Jeff Horrigan. Your pay is based on the amount of ABIs you get and when you do bad, Manny Ramirez will write an article about trading you.

Sound good?

Manny is also second on the team in walks (50 to 59, behind the now loved JD Drew), third in runs and second in RBI. What a piece of trash. I think Massorotti read this recently.

He did not rank in the top 20 in the major leagues in homers (19, 23rd), RBI (62, 24th) or slugging percentage (.530, 27th), all of which supports an interesting paradox.

Wow. He doesn't rank (by a super slim margin) in a random number you picked? And since you love team ranks, he's tied for first on the team in homers and third on the team in slugging - which I am surprised you know about, it being a nerd stat and all.

As a player, Ramirez is aging.

A wild fact approaches!

It means Ramirez’ skills are deteriorating and his attitude is as rotten as ever, and it means the Red Sox don’t need to find a Hall of Fame-caliber player to replace him anymore because Ramirez no longer is a Hall of Fame-caliber player.

This argument is idiotic. Did the Giants look for a HOF-caliber player to replace Bonds? Did Greg Maddux command a HOF-type player in return for his services? 99 percent of the time, when HOF bound players are past their prime, it would be completely foolish to expect a "Hall of Fame-caliber" player in return.

Hey Cardinals, how about Manny for Pujols straight up? They're both Hall of Fame bound. Huh? Huh?

Truth be told, none of that is news. What is news is this: MARz [this is the HILARIOUS acronym Massorotti gave to Manny. Get it? It's almost Mars! The red planet?! Aliens are from there!!] isn’t one of the truly elite hitters in the game anymore.

This is probably true. But no one with a brain thinks he's "truly elite" anymore. But he makes a sick L/R combo with Ortiz and I'd rather "overpay" him than Carlos Delgado or Gary Sheffield.

Take away the first 19 games of this season

No. Those games happened during the season.

(after that feel-good, deeply philosophical spring) and MARz entered yesterday batting .290 with 13 home runs and 42 RBI in his past 76 games, the equivalent of about a half-season.

~.300/26-30/85-100 sucks!

During that same period of time, he had been outproduced by such luminaries as Adam LaRoche, Hunter Pence, James Loney, Cody Ross, David DeJesus, Bengie Molina, Jorge Cantu and even David Murphy.

Now I don't know what measures Massorotti used to define "outperforming" (I am going to assume "running out ground outs" and "sac bunts" were high on the list) but I am going to use OPS, OPS+ and WARP3.

I am going to include those 19 games - mainly because I am not a dick and those games still count in the stat books.

Manny: .922/140/7.5
Pence: .735/92/4.3
LaRoche: .814/114/5.1
Loney: .823/112/5.3
Ross: .810/112/5.6
DeJesus: .819/116/5.9
Molina: .734/92/5.3
Cantu: .832/120/6.8
Murphy: .780/107/5.2

So yeah, he has like 100 points of OPS (which I think even Massarotti can understand is good), is actually fairly an above average MLB player (which is a 100 OPS+) - unlike nearly every one of these players - and is almost two wins more valuable than all but Cantu.

Proof is fun!

The obvious issue now is that Ramirez no longer is a historic run producer, though clearly, nobody has told him. He continues to act as if he invented the RBI.

I like to picture Manny sitting in his mansion on an old leather chair, wearing a smoking jacket, partaking in a particularly fine brandy and looking over his BABIP and LD%, laughing as people still hold RBI on a pedestal.

Again: RBIs are stupid, they are nearly 100 percent teammate/position in the line up reliant. Stop it. Please.

The decision doesn’t look like much of a decision at all.

And here’s the astonishing thing:

It might have as much to do with baseball as anything else.

I have no problem with the Red Sox cutting ties with Manny. If they can get an Adam Dunn or a Jason Bay or a Matt Holliday, I would be thrilled (although, at least in the case of Holliday, they will cost just as much).

But this will not be a baseball decision. This will be the front office caving to a suffocating amount of media pressure and witch hunting.

"He may have pushed an old man! Get him!"

"He fumbled around in the outfield once! Burn him alive!"

"He doesn't run out ground outs every once and a while! Heretic!"

The dude is one of 15 outfielders in MLB with a .900 OPS. With Ortiz back, his numbers will go up.

Step the fuck off.

Speculation, bunk, hooey, tomfoolery and shenanigans: just another Shaughnessy offering

What in God's name would Dan Shaughnessy (and every Boston sports writer) do without Manny Ramirez? Cry? Cower under their desks? Actually write thoughtful pieces? The horror!

Curly Headed Boyfriend now apparently knows - for an iron-clad fact - that Ramirez is done with the Red Sox. This is not an opinion. This appears in the sports section. Of a newspaper.

NOW HE'S A GUARANTEED OUT

Pretty brash title. I hope he can back it up with multiple quotes, sources and preferably the man (or his agent) himself.

***Spoiler alert***

He can't.

The Red Sox have had it with Manny Ramírez.

Manny has punched his ticket out of town. It's over. O-VA. Adios, amigo. Good night, Irene. Turn out the lights. Last night's 1-0 loss to the Yankees (think they could have used Manny?) was the proverbial last worthless evening.

Take your worthless .301/.402/.530 with 19 homers (one shy of last year's total, when everything was cool because they won the World Series) and 62 RBI. I don't want 'em!

Ramírez sealed his fate with the club yesterday afternoon. After longtime enabler Terry Francona filled out a lineup card with Manny batting fourth, the Sox made an announcement that Manny could not play in the biggest game of the season.

A July game against the Yankees. Who are in third.

Former state treasurer Bob Crane happened by the EMC Club, pregame, and spoke for many fans when he said, "Manny's got to go. Enough's enough. Fans are finally sick of this guy."

You know who is sick of this guy? Morons. Morons are. The WEEI crowd. Ye olde timey media.

Most fans still love him, goofiness and all. It doesn't bother me at all that he took off a meaningless game against Seattle (and the frightening Felix Hernandez). Yeah losing 1-0 without him sucked, but who the hell am I to question a 36-year-old's injured knee?

I'll take his .932 OPS, 36.9 VORP (best on the team and top 15 in MLB) if it means he takes some games off and is kind of a weirdo.

Call me a cynic. Call me a nitwit.

Done and done.

Whatever. I'm comfortable with the theory that Manny is using his alleged knee injury to send a message to the ball club. We don't know why. We never know why. Manny shut it down in 2006 and he's toying with the Red Sox again. In the middle of a pennant race. It is despicable. And the front office and his teammates are burning. Off the record, of course.

Off the record, of course, so I have no way of proving any of this. By the way, aliens exist, 9-11 was an inside job and Bigfoot is in my living room.

Ramírez had an MRI yesterday and it was clean. This time, the Sox plan to do something about this situation. Soon.

According to whom, exactly? And the MRI was after the game, not before. Might wanna include that.

Ramírez was in the throes of an 11-game hitting streak (.487, 11 for 39) when he showed up at Safeco Field in Seattle Wednesday and told Francona he could not play and could not pinch hit. It was odd.

Felix Hernandez? The alignment of the planets? His fortune telling dog told him to? A routine day off is my guess though.

Something's got to give. The owners are mad. The manager is frustrated. The GM is frustrated. Teammates are angry.

This is all baseless editorializing. Where are the quotes from Lowell saying, "I just don't like the way he carries himself." Or Youkilis saying, "He punched me, that guy is a dick."

Even with sycophants who excuse everything, Manny may have finally exhausted his reservoir of goodwill. He quit on the team in 2006 and now it looks like he's quitting again. Is that OK with you, Red Sox Nation?

"Quitting" in 2006: .321/35/102 with a 1.058 OPS.

Seems to be trying to me.

Manny's snit comes after he flattened 64-year-old traveling secretary Jack McCormick over a ticket allotment in Houston.

Killed him, actually. In fact they needed dental records to I.D. the poor old man.

It comes after he ripped ownership for allegedly lying to him in contract negotiations.

Seems OK to get mad about something concerning your upcoming $20 million dollars.

It comes after he was rebuked by Henry. It comes after his giggle-fest when he played a popup into a triple while the Sox were being swept in Anaheim.

Ramirez took a bad route on a ball? NO. WAY. Outfielders make shitty plays every once and while. Deal with it.

This might be a poor read of the tea leaves by Manny. He is not as valuable as he was. For $20 million (club option for 2009 and again in 2010) the ball club can expect to do better than .301 with 19 homers and 61 RBIs after 104 games.

And that top 15 VORP. That's pretty good. Ahead of guys like Braun, Wright and Uggla.

And that shitty .301/19/61 after 104 games? He'd still end with like ~.300/30/100. Which is pretty damn good, even for lame stats like those.

Stat geeks, take note: Manny's OPS is down the last two years. By a lot.

Don't tempt the "stat geeks" CHB. I don't know where you're looking, but here's his OPS from '06-'08: 1.058, .881, .932

So way up, down, and back up again.

His career OPS is .999, which is awesome. He'll be below that, but not by that much. And he's 36. If he can OPS in .900s into 38 - which I think he can - that's pretty valuable. There are currently 14 OFers in MLB (six in the AL) with an OPS above .900.

Sox management is at the end of its long rope. This has been an interesting and rewarding eight years, but Manny is acting out in a decidedly unflattering fashion. Red Sox owners have had enough. There will be meetings with the slugger in the next few days. Something has to happen.

The Yankees beat the Red Sox, 1-0, last night to close within one game of Boston in the loss column. It was supposed to be the magical night of the return of David Ortiz. Instead, it was another ridiculous night in Mannyland.

Stay tuned. The manager and the owners have had enough.

They've had it. Enough. Enough of it, they've had. Had it? Yup, enough, thanks.

This is all from CHB's brain, nothingmore. Other than a few "no comment" quotes. But CHB can intuit what Sox brass is thinking, feeling. This ability gives him the power to write fact-free columns that are essentially opinons and get away with it.

For all our sake let's hope Manny sticks around, just to piss off Shaughnessy.