Yes, Manny is still "being Manny," but you can't fault a man for lightness of character when the effort is there.  He's started running out grounders this season -- granted, it's abhorrent that it took him this long, but at least he's doing it.   He still looks like he dogs it in left field, but he gets to the ball and still has one of the best and most effortless-looking arms in the game.  I won't say that he's the be-all-end-all of left fielders, but he does a pretty damn nice job out there given his size and aerodynamic catastrophe of a hairstyle.  Think of his fielding as a less flashy version of the Bernie Williams phenomenon -- Bernie knew exactly how hard/lazily to run to guarantee a diving catch.  Manny knows exactly how hard/lazily to run to

Continue reading "Manny: Portrait of a Porkchop"

Just want to throw this statistical breakdown out there:

Youk's been complaining/slamming/throwing things a lot this year, largely in response to a perception of an inflated strike zone.  His frustration does have some potential statistical backing, ignoring the possibility that his eyes just aren't what they were in 2006.  With no further ado, some numbers --

 26 walks in 239 AB so far in '08 -- that's a hair under 11% of his at-bats, certainly lower than his career average of walks in about 15% of his at-bats.  On the other hand, he's hitting the crap out of the baseball.  His OBP has barely suffered (5 pts below career average), and he's slugging a cool .520 as of mid-June, a full .070 over his career average.  He's on pace to outdo himself in all offensive categories, and believe it or not, he's striking out less often than he has in the past -- granted we're talking 19% vs. 20% of at-bats, but still -- for a man whose numbers are if anything better than in the past, he sure carries a lot of negativity into his clubhouse after a poor AB, and the last thing this city needs is a baby Paul O'Neill slamming bats while batting .300 in the middle of a stacked lineup.  While tantrums are funny, no doubt, there's no excuse for bringing your teammates down every time you don't succeed in an at-bat, which in the case of even the best players, is about 60% of the time. 

Continue reading "Youkilis: Portrait of a man who's ignoring his own statistics"