He’s a good hitter, but he wouldn’t have performed as well in Boston as he did in L.A. Reasons:
1) Manny was pissed at the FO. I’m not sure he would have settled down and started hitting well again.
2) The NL has worse pitching than the AL, and Manny feasted on it. There was no way he was going to hit .396 / .489 / .743 in 53 games with the Sox. We don’t play in the NL Worst division.

Moreover, Manny might’ve clobbered the Angels, like Bay did. But his numbers this season against the Rays show no such tendency: .200 / .308 / .311. Bay put up this line against them in the postseason: .292 / .469 / .458.

I think a bigger factor is the second one you mention – Jason Varitek’s poor hitting (1 for 20 in the ALCS). We also really missed Mike Lowell.

a) our starters generally weren’t very good in the ALCS
and
b) our 7-9 hitters were dreadful.

End of story.

The Twins would of been the Wild Card in the AL and the Sox would of been home with the Yankees.

Jason Bay’s numbers were excellent and along with Jon Lester got the Sox to the ALCS.

People really need to let Manny go. The Sox came out of that trade in such a better position.

The Sox would have won Game 2 of the ALCS, and would be hosting Philadelphia tonight.

for leaving all the guys on base that he did. Had Lowell been in the lineup instead and had those chances, Rays are not in the WS. Period. End of story. The Rays beat a team in the ALCS that had no business being there, and had seriously over-achieved.

I do agree with you on the Kotsay issue, and I wonder why more is not made around here on that subject. While Kotsay did not do terrible, I do not have confidence in his hittng potential of his overall power to want him around as a starter. I think the Sox took him in a bind because he was the best they could get in a pinch, but hopefully the future plans for the team do NOT include too much of him!

He delivered great D at first as a pleasant suprise. He also hit the snot out of some baseballs, but they were always hit in the wrong places. Lowell drives those guys in.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/glossary/

Clutch: A measurement of how much better or worse a player does in high leverage situations than he would have done in a context neutral environment.

In response to E5. The Red Sox function better without manny. If I had the opportunity to go back in time and be theo, I would’ve done the exact same thing. If Manny had stayed, we would not only have missed the world series, but we would probably have missed the playoffs all together. And then we would have picked up his option and he’d be pissed off all year long because he wouldn’t be getting any younger, and he’d have less of an opportunity to sign a big contract.

As for Varitek, you said it yourself, there are no other replacements. When our 1-8 hitters are Ells, Pedroia, Papi, Youk, Bay, Drew, Lowell, Lowrie, you can afford to have a C who hits ~.220 in the 9-hole. His bat sucks, we get it. So does every other catcher on the market. But we make up for it with other hitters that get on base and quality starting pitchers.

Stop worrying about an unimportant offensive position and start thinking about who will be at the back of our rotation next year, people! I for one am not ok with a 4/5 of Wakefield/Buccholz to start the year. Bring on Ben Sheets or someone of that caliber.

Come on, there are always replacements with potential. It is called youth! Get on with it by bringing in a young pitcher and show Varitek his reitirement benefits ASAP. As for getting better starting pitching, you know you can do more than one thing at a time in management! It is legal.