Tim Brown: Who is Manny Ramirez now?

Torre was manager of the Yankees, of course, when Jason Giambi came off his BALCO grand jury testimony and humiliatingly public apologies to discover he had neither the stroke nor the stomach to be a middle-of-the-order hitter anymore, an affliction that lasted more than a year.

Teammates of Giambi’s swear he was spent emotionally, that he lost his nerve before losing his swing. With help from hitting coach Don Mattingly, Giambi reinvented himself, but a process that began early in 2004 wasn’t complete until halfway through the 2005 season, ending a very long, very trying period in which Giambi qualified as a big league player in salary and uniform only.

Manny, they’re sure, is different. He is far more confident than Giambi ever was and a more complete hitter. Then, so is Alex Rodriguez, and between his ailing hip and a spring in which he copped to years of steroid use, Rodriguez has been slow to rediscover his stroke. Manny’s agent contends Manny was not seeking performance enhancement (not baseball performance, anyway) when all this began and received none of those benefits and was not covering for any past steroid use, which the Dodgers would be only too happy to believe. Manny, you may have heard, has denied nothing, confirmed nothing.

“I think everybody is a separate case and we’re going to have to wait and see,” Torre said. “The only thing I do know is Manny is a legitimately good hitter. While Jason was more a power guy, Manny is probably a little more adept at using the whole field. He has his whole career.”