What’s wrong with Manny?

Since September 1st coming down the stretch, including these last two playoff games Manny Ramirez has played 27 games. In those games he’s had 82 at-bats. In crunch time here Many is 18 for 82, a .219 batting average! In this last crucial 27 games he’s has only 4 HR’s and 13 RBI and he has 21 strikeouts!

It’s been widely reported that pitchers have been challenging and even overpowering Manny over the last month. This is something I can’t remember ever hearing other than if he’s been hurt.

Joe Torre has been asked about this repeatedly over the past month or so and Torre’s explanation has been simply that he’s out of sync. Torre has stated that he has no physical ailments and that he’s age is a non factor. Torre contends that he’s still Manny and at any moment and time, the real Manny will appear.

After game #1 Torre admitted, "He was still missing some fastballs."

For his part, Ramirez mumbled his way through a postgame interview Wednesday night. When asked if he felt he was finding his rhythm, he responded, "The picture in this post is from Game #1 against the Cardinals on Wednesday night. It’s Manny missing a Chris Carpenter fastball. It’s hard enough to hit Carpenter when everything is in your favor. How can you hit the ball with hair in your eyes? I’m just saying…….

"The playoffs, everything's different."

"I feel much better at the plate. I took advantage of a couple of pitches they gave me."

Manny is one of the great clutch hitters of our generation; of all time for that matter.  This is true for both in post season as well as the regular season, so it’s hard to count him out until you have seen him actually not perform an dthat can't be determined untill the playoffs are over. But to say that everyone in Dodgers camp is concerned is an understatement.

Stay tuned and we’ll all find out together if Manny is still Manny. - Keith A. Baker

Keith A. Baker is a sports agent in Stamford, Connecticut. His goal is to offer a unique insight to the world of sports and Major League Baseball in particular. Comments in his columns are for entertainment purposes only and do not reflect the views and opinions of his firm or his clients.

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