Manny being Manipulated

[Redz]

Simmons is ridiculously off the mark trying to put the blame for what happened this year in Boston with Manny on Boras' shoulders. All he has to do is look back over the years when Jeff Moorad was Manny's agent and count the amount of times Manny quit on this team, came down with a bad hammy, had one of his twelve grandmothers die and so on.

Where was Boras when all that was happening?

Manny desperately wanted the last two option years added to the original contract so that he could brag that he got a $200 million contract. He was responsible for those last two years being there. Now Manny probably never figured baseball would get to the point where those two years would appear affordable and that anyone would pick them up. But it did and suddenly Manny realized he might be stuck here for two more years. So he quit again.

That is all on Manny and has nothing to do with Boras. Boras was hired to get Manny out of those last two years because Manny didn't want to be here. Boras was not hired and then said "We have to get you out of this contract so that I can make money off you, Manny". It didn't happen that way.

And all you have to know to know that this is all true is that Boras still has a good working relationship with the Sox and that the team and manager have publicly come forward and said how much better of a team they are without Manny being there. I think that tells you all you need to know about who the bad guy was in the whole Manny affair.

Simmons should know this being the "knowledgeable" Boston writer that he is.

Great post Nick

[jimmyt]

I understand why people hate manny for supposedly dogging it etc. etc.
that being said...

Everyone knew coming into the season that Manny could be a free agent at the end of this year. Since Manny has come to the Sox, he has been nothing short of amazing. He has been an integral part of two world series championships, hasent been injured for long periods of time, hits the hell out of the ball, and was underrated in the field.

When you have a player on your team for that long, and he has played that good, why not reward him with a contract? Sure the Sox had control (or so they thought), but how hard would it have been to give the guy a new contract? 4 year contract for like 85 mil?

Teams reward their players with contracts all the time, the sox clearly didnt want manny next season. They got off the hook by not having to decline to pick up his option after he carries them to the world series again. The sox management looks like the good guys and manny looks like the bad guy. its a shame, but its business.

[Roy Hobbs]

When you have a player on your team for that long, and he has played that good, why not reward him with a contract?

Wasn't he already rewarded enough with the other $160 million the team paid him? 

I liked Manny -- he was my favorite Red Sox player until this season -- but he forced himself off the team, and had absolutely no problem in derailing a playoff effort for his own selfish reasons.  He deserves any criticism and scorn that he gets.

[LB3533]

I'm always going to side with the Player when the Player is wronged.

I hate shady management and playing the smear campaign game.

[D Dub]

Simmons is ridiculously off the mark trying to put the blame for what happened this year in Boston with Manny on Boras' shoulders. All he has to do is look back over the years when Jeff Moorad was Manny's agent and count the amount of times Manny quit on this team, came down with a bad hammy, had one of his twelve grandmothers die and so on.

Where was Boras when all that was happening?

Manny desperately wanted the last two option years added to the original contract so that he could brag that he got a $200 million contract. He was responsible for those last two years being there. Now Manny probably never figured baseball would get to the point where those two years would appear affordable and that anyone would pick them up. But it did and suddenly Manny realized he might be stuck here for two more years. So he quit again.

That is all on Manny and has nothing to do with Boras. Boras was hired to get Manny out of those last two years because Manny didn't want to be here. Boras was not hired and then said "We have to get you out of this contract so that I can make money off you, Manny". It didn't happen that way.

And all you have to know to know that this is all true is that Boras still has a good working relationship with the Sox and that the team and manager have publicly come forward and said how much better of a team they are without Manny being there. I think that tells you all you need to know about who the bad guy was in the whole Manny affair.

Simmons should know this being the "knowledgeable" Boston writer that he is.

Great post Nick

C'mon now.  As if Boras signed on with Manny this spring and wanted to wait 2 years to get paid??  

If you weren't so peaved at Manny for his actions, you could see clearly that Boras played a large role in all of this too.  Don't think so?  Just check out Scotty's commision check from Manny, he doesn't get that check if Manny doesn't turn his back on the Sox.  Hmmm, I wonder what was in Boras's best interests...


 

[nickagneta]

When you have a player on your team for that long, and he has played that good, why not reward him with a contract?

Wasn't he already rewarded enough with the other $160 million the team paid him? 

I liked Manny -- he was my favorite Red Sox player until this season -- but he forced himself off the team, and had absolutely no problem in derailing a playoff effort for his own selfish reasons.  He deserves any criticism and scorn that he gets.

I'm with you on that one Roy. I loved Manny. He was an unreal hitter, the likes of which I hadn't seen since Jim Rice's heyday. But this year he wanted out of his contract and out of Boston. We can speculate all we want about tearing up that contract and "rewarding" Manny with another contract but that all presupposes that Manny would have signed one. He didn't want to stay here.

And it is inexcusable what he did to force his way out of town and out of his contract. I lost a lot of respect for Manny and he definitely moved way down my list of all-time favorite Red Sox players because of what happened here.

[nickagneta]

Simmons is ridiculously off the mark trying to put the blame for what happened this year in Boston with Manny on Boras' shoulders. All he has to do is look back over the years when Jeff Moorad was Manny's agent and count the amount of times Manny quit on this team, came down with a bad hammy, had one of his twelve grandmothers die and so on.

Where was Boras when all that was happening?

Manny desperately wanted the last two option years added to the original contract so that he could brag that he got a $200 million contract. He was responsible for those last two years being there. Now Manny probably never figured baseball would get to the point where those two years would appear affordable and that anyone would pick them up. But it did and suddenly Manny realized he might be stuck here for two more years. So he quit again.

That is all on Manny and has nothing to do with Boras. Boras was hired to get Manny out of those last two years because Manny didn't want to be here. Boras was not hired and then said "We have to get you out of this contract so that I can make money off you, Manny". It didn't happen that way.

And all you have to know to know that this is all true is that Boras still has a good working relationship with the Sox and that the team and manager have publicly come forward and said how much better of a team they are without Manny being there. I think that tells you all you need to know about who the bad guy was in the whole Manny affair.

Simmons should know this being the "knowledgeable" Boston writer that he is.

Great post Nick

C'mon now.  As if Boras signed on with Manny this spring and wanted to wait 2 years to get paid??  

If you weren't so peaved at Manny for his actions, you could see clearly that Boras played a large role in all of this too.  Don't think so?  Just check out Scotty's commision check from Manny, he doesn't get that check if Manny doesn't turn his back on the Sox.  Hmmm, I wonder what was in Boras's best interests...


 

I have very good info that how I laid out what happened, is how it happened. Let's just leave it at that. Boras was brought on board to get Manny out of town. He was not hired and then came up with the idea to get Manny out of town to make money. He was hired to get Manny out of town so then he could earn commission checks. Manny's desire to get out of Boston has not exactly been a secret.

Boras is no angel in all that transpired by any means. But he still hasn't made a dime yet. Manny wanted out and Manny felt Boras would do a better job of getting him out of here than his former agent. Moorad had every reason to advise Manny to stay and be good. About 4 million reasons. Manny didn't like the advice. Bye bye Jeff. Hello, Scott.

[LB3533]

I can't believe we actually traded away prospects and Manny for Jason Bay.

That still disturbs me as a former Red Sox fan.

How can a front office that put up with Manny's shiznit for over 5 years make this kind of tunnel vision move?

How can you hurt your franchise like that?

[jimmyt]

When you have a player on your team for that long, and he has played that good, why not reward him with a contract?

Wasn't he already rewarded enough with the other $160 million the team paid him? 

I liked Manny -- he was my favorite Red Sox player until this season -- but he forced himself off the team, and had absolutely no problem in derailing a playoff effort for his own selfish reasons.  He deserves any criticism and scorn that he gets.

Did he not earn that 160 million over the course of time that he played here? I think he did and I'd be pretty shocked if people said otherwise. He put in his time here, his guaranteed contract was up, and he wanted a new contract... the Red Sox were stubburn and went on a power trip and decided that they were going to make him sweat it out.

To be honest, I'm pretty sure Theo and co. had decided that Manny wasnt going to come back here, but they knew the public would be outraged by it. So what do they do? They portray Manny in a negative light, make him out to be the bad guy, and get away with it.

You guys do realize that we are paying Mannys salary this year. Thats right, the Dodgers are getting Manny Ramirez this season absolutely free. It will be quite ironic if Manny and the Dodgers end up in the World Series against the Sox, and God forbid, win.

The Sox will have essentially paid their way out of the world series.


The positive things that Manny has done for this club outweigh the negative things tenfold. How soon we forget that we most likely don't have a world series championship, nevermind two, if we didn't bring Manny in.

[steve]

The front office didn't want Manny because Manny didn't want Boston.  Every year he proved it. 

Bottom line is Manny wanted the money.  He got it.  He came here.  He didn't like the city.  He wanted out. 

The front office put up with his act because it was simply more beneficial to winning. 

This year was the year that his act outweighed his production and future production.  So they got what they could in order to compete for this year and in the future. 

[johnnyrondo]

Wisest play might have been to trade for Bay AND keep Manny. Sure we'd have to have added a couple prospects to the Bay package, but we'd get them back when Manny left as a type A free agent. The mistake was essentially giving Manny to LA for free (paying his salary). If your not going to get even 25 cents on the dollar, keep Manny, suspend him if you need him, but don't just give him away and help another team for nothing. People might wonder, well what would he have done with both Manny and Bay. Bay could play right and some first I'd think. There would have been no need to try and get Giles or trade for Kotsay. Manny would have eventually straightened out (he wants a big contract). If he didn't, you have Bay there to step up. Also if we make it to the WS, I'd rather have Manny on our team or the suspended list, then in the opposing team's dugout.

[ThreadCrasher]

Not paying Pedro was the right thing, not paying Damon was the right thing.  The Sox front office has a history of turning the page...and this will end up the correct move in hindsight.  Last night we had three home grown pitchers in Lester, Masterson and Paps win a playoff game.  Great contribution from Ellsbury as well.  We have two home grown MVP candidates in Pedi and Youks.  The front office is doing it the right way...

[johnnyrondo]

Not paying Pedro was the right thing, not paying Damon was the right thing.  The Sox front office has a history of turning the page...and this will end up the correct move in hindsight.

But we are paying Manny! We're paying his Dodger salary. No one's saying we should have extended him for big bucks and several years this off season. We're talking about this August, September, and October. Would you rather pay for Manny to be on the Sox or pay for him to be on the Dodgers?

[Roy Hobbs]

Not paying Pedro was the right thing, not paying Damon was the right thing.  The Sox front office has a history of turning the page...and this will end up the correct move in hindsight.

But we are paying Manny! We're paying his Dodger salary. No one's saying we should have extended him for big bucks and several years this off season. We're talking about this August, September, and October. Would you rather pay for Manny to be on the Sox or pay for him to be on the Dodgers?

The way he was acting?  I'd rather have Jason Bay, rather than Manny + $9 million.

[johnnyrondo]

Not paying Pedro was the right thing, not paying Damon was the right thing.  The Sox front office has a history of turning the page...and this will end up the correct move in hindsight.

But we are paying Manny! We're paying his Dodger salary. No one's saying we should have extended him for big bucks and several years this off season. We're talking about this August, September, and October. Would you rather pay for Manny to be on the Sox or pay for him to be on the Dodgers?

The way he was acting?  I'd rather have Jason Bay, rather than Manny + $9 million.

I'd rather have Bay AND Manny than just Bay and paying Manny to be on the Dodgers. I'd have no problem suspending Manny until he wanted to be a good teammate. Manny suspended is also better than Manny on the Dodgers. But reality is that it was in Manny's benefit to play well this Fall, so i think he would have come around. If he didn't then he could have stayed at home.