Shaun Payne: Manny Moves from Childish to Bondsish Evil | DugoutCentral.com's Blog

Manny Ramirez clearly has Hall of Fame numbers. The most similar players to Ramirez according to www.baseballreference.com???s similarity scores are Frank Thomas, Jim Thome, Jimmie Foxx, Jeff Bagwell and Alex Rodriguez. Through age 36, the most similar players are Ken Griffey Jr., Frank Robinson, Foxx, Bagwell and Barry Bonds. Interestingly a lot of the players on these lists played alongside Manny during the ???Juiced Era,??? so it will be interesting to see how Hall of Fame voters and baseball historians view not only Ramirez but some of his contemporaries. Ramirez is/was not quite as controversial a figure as Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez, but he has had his moments. In recent years he???s often seen as an aloof and fun-loving superstar who can help a team immensely if that team can get over his childish ways. In Boston there was the issue of him not always giving 100%. But again, this was seen as more of a childish move more than a despicable one. It???s as if Ramirez was seen as a zany character while Bonds and A-Rod have been seen as evil-doers who want to succeed at all cost, even risking alienation of fans, teammates and loved ones. Now Ramirez has tested positive for a banned substance and is claiming that a physician gave it to him - hardly a convincing explanation. Still, I get the sense that eventually Hall of Fame voters and baseball historians will view performance-enhancing drugs as part of the culture of 1990s and early 2000s baseball. They will do their best to attach the PED story to the era but will still acknowledge if a player was great. It is not clear how long it will take for them to come to this conclusion, but based on past scandals it seems we are headed there. What is clear is that Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez are/were great players who, like many other great players before, were/are flawed. The test case will come when Bonds is eligible for the Hall of Fame. Although Ramirez was never quite in Bonds??? class, both have sure-fire Hall of Fame numbers. Bonds is clearly the highest profile player strongly suspected of using PEDs. How the voters treat Bonds will tell us a lot about how they will treat guys like Manny Ramirez.

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