Last night was, unimpressively, Manny's last night as a Boston Red Sox. If you had told me a month ago that the Sox would trade the slugger by the trade deadline, I would have undoubtedly been angry and horrified. But considering how ugly things have become over the past week, I find myself relieved and excited by the new guy, Jason Bay. I don't know a thing about him, other than this season's numbers are comparable to Manny's but I'm willing to go out on a limb and guess that he's probably easier to deal with than Manny. I mean, he looks like a guy that might even run down the first base line. I came across
this nice blog about the fellow. Apparently he's Canadian and he's getting to big for the Pirates who won't be able to afford him next year. I also came across this and freaked out a little because he looks like Canadian version of Manny. I wonder if he has hair? Will he grow dreads?
And then I came across a quote in which he's less than kind about the Pirates management and I started to freak out again. But then I saw this:
"Whether you're playing chess, checkers or major league baseball, no one likes to lose," Bay said. "When you lose over and over, it's very frustrating. You want to win, but there's a lot of ways that people can help you do that."
Aha!! The man wants to win. Halle-freaking-lujah! I like him already even if he isn't the polar opposite of Manny Ramirez, but then again, we already have JD Drew ;)
On a sad and surprising note, we do say goodbye to Craig Hansen and Brandon Moss. It sure did take a lot to trade Manny, huh? Both Moss and Hansen have had moments of bright promise. But I've never really seen an upcoming hole in the Sox lineup that would create room for Moss, and I never really thought poor Hansen would learn to deal with the pressure of the pen. I hope each find much more success elsewhere, just like Eric Hinske did.
