Joe Sheehan: Facts About Manny Ramirez

“Manny’s doing things that even Manny doesn’t do, [like] scoring on a double to right field from first base.”

I think this is a reference to Game Three of the NL Division Series, in which Manny Ramirez scored from first on a two-out double by James Loney. Is this play terribly unusual, something that Ramirez would not have done prior to the trade from Boston?

I think one of the beautiful things about the 21st century is that when people say silly things about baseball-or for that matter, politics-we’re going to be able to bring actual information out to counter the silly things. Smart people, talented people, like Bil Burke, will be able to go back through the record and prove or disprove statements like the one above.

In his two months as a Dodger prior to postseason play, Manny Ramirez scored from second base on a double to right field. Once. He had two chances to do so, and he did it once.

With the Red Sox this year, Manny Ramirez also scored from second base on a double to right field. Once. He had two chances to do so, and it did it once.

From this we can conclude that Manny Ramirez is doing things in Los Angeles he never did in Boston. Or something like that.

The samples are tiny, but basically, Ramirez didn’t score from second on doubles to right at any different frequency this year than he had of late. One-for-one last year, two-for-four in 2006, one-for-two in 2005. The idea that he hadn’t is just something Tim McCarver invented to sound smart, to make it seem like he knew something about Manny Ramirez that informed his position. And because the people who reported McCarver’s ramblings are dedicated journalists with laminated cards and everything, they fact-checked the claim and…no, wait…I did that. Bil Burke did that.

Not only does Manny Ramirez score from first on doubles more often than Tim McCarver thinks he does, and in no different proportion post-trade than he did pre-trade, but he scores from first on doubles more often than the average baseball player. The league gets home around 37% of the time, with some of the failures being very costly outs at the plate. As shown above, Ramirez gets home around half the time, and hasn’t been thrown out at the plate on that play since 1999. If the idea is to pick on Manny Ramirez, this is the wrong place to make a stand.