MLB: Mo Vaughn vs. Manny Ramirez pt.1

Not too long after the Boston Red Sox miraculously signed Manny Ramirez, I was having a discussion with one of my buddies about the offensive significance Ramirez would have on the Boston club.

As I stated in a previous article, for a team that couldn’t finish higher than double digits in ANY offensive category (remember, the American League only has 14 teams), they desperately needed to add a silver slugger.

Manny Ramirez is an offensive juggernaut and is heralded as, arguably, the best force in major league baseball.

However, many have claimed that Ramirez, while he brings a lethal bat to the plate, has his problems on the bases and in the outfield.

Ramirez, many have claimed, isn’t too graceful on the bases and pointed to an incident last season in which Manny began to trot to second, thinking the batter had just walked.

It was only ball three.

In the outfield, Manny hasn’t exactly been a Gold Glove candidate as he has had his occasional trouble snaring cans of corn.

Thus, people have said that the Sox have essentially paid $160 million dollars for a virtual designated hitter.

Peter Gammons, ESPN’s baseball guru, seemed stupefied that the Sox would bestow Ramirez with that much money when all he would basically bring to the lineup is his bat.

When talking to my buddy, he brought up the point that, if the Sox were paying so much money for a one-tool player, isn’t he basically giving the same offensive production Mo Vaughn brought to the table?

I was intrigued by his point, and while Manny has driven in a tremendous amount of RBI the past few seasons, I wanted to find out the differences between the rest of the offensive categories.

What I uncovered was a remarkable comparison of two of some of the games premier hitters in the league.

The first way to conduct a comparison was to check out their best seasons and compare their best statistical seasons thus far.

In 1995, Mo Vaughn narrowly edged out Albert Belle and won the AL MVP award. However, his best season statistically was 1996.

In 1996 for the Sox, Vaughn played in 161 out of 162 games, getting 207 hits and scoring 118 times. Vaughn hit 44 home runs (his career high), had 143 RBI (also a career high), and his batting average was .337. Vaughn’s on-base percentage was .420 (tying his career high) and his slugging percentage was .583. Vaughn also struck out 154 times at the plate.

Certainly, Vaughn had a remarkable year at the plate but lost out on the MVP award to Texas slugger Juan Gonzalez.

In comparison to Vaughn’s exceptional year, Manny’s career year was his 1999 season for the Indians when he played 147 games and got 174 hits. Ramirez scored 131 times and hit 44 home runs while driving in a massive amount of 165 RBI. Ramirez walked 96 times (his career high) while batting .333. That year, Ramirez’s on-base percentage was .442 and his slugging percentage was .663. That year, Manny struck out 131 times (his career high).

Both of those years were extremely exceptional with the largest disparities among their numbers were perhaps the slugging percentage, the RBI, and the strikeouts.

Other than that, these two batters don’t seem to have too many significant differences in their other offensive categories.

The slugging disparity seems to come in the form of Vaughn’s durability to last at the plate. While many have lauded his large, overweight frame, he has been pretty durable throughout the years he spent at Fenway with his only serious career injury coming in 1999, his first year with the Angels. As an every day starter, Mo has never missed more than 23 games in a season.

Ramirez meanwhile, had never missed more than 25 games in a season before this past 2000 season when he missed 44 games with a severely strained hamstring.

As far as the RBIs are concerned, Vaughn never had the luxury of having the superstar lineup Ramirez had in Cleveland. The Red Sox of recent years have never had the dynamic leadoff hitter Cleveland had in Kenny Lofton. Ramirez had 165 RBI for a team that was stuffed with all-stars such as Lofton, Dave Justice, Travis Fryman, and Jim Thome. The only real offensive all-star Vaughn had in the lineup with him was Nomar Garciaparra.

As far as strikeouts are concerned, Vaughn, while he has been known as a high average, high power hitter, has never been the most patient hitter in the game. From 1996-2000 seasons, Vaughn’s strikeout numbers were: 154 (96), 154 (97), 144 (98), 127 (99), and a career high 181 this past 2000 season.

Ramirez, this past season proved to be the most patient hitter at the plate. Manny averaged 4+ pitches a plate appearance for tops in the major leagues. Manny has a keen eye at the plate and this was proven by his strikeout numbers from the 1996-2000 seasons: 104 (96), 115 (97), 121 (98), his career high of 131 (99), and 117 this past 2000 season.

Beyond these numbers, there are many large variables between these two sluggers that I was previously unaware of…

Tune in tomorrow kids.

Same bat time, same bat channel.