The new era may feel oddly similar.

With the passing of the non-waiver trade deadline comes the passing of the guard. Manny Ramirez is now a Los Angeles Dodger, and there is no question that on paper, our line-up should suffer from it.

Manny brought a lot of things to this Red Sox line-up for 8 years, some consider Ramirez the best Right Handed hitter in all of Baseball, and that is exactly what he brought to this line-up. The feeling in the pit of a pitchers stomach that they had to face a living legend who’s made pitchers better than them look like scrubs. That is what this line-up will miss most from Ramirez. The fear.

But it isn’t like we gave Manny, Hansen, and Moss up for nothing (Hansen and Moss weren’t really going anywhere on this team anyways). We got a peaking, power hitting, dirt dog, left fielder in Jason Bay.

Now, Some of Red Sox nation just knows Bay as the best hitter in the Pirates line-up (And that doesn’t really count for much these days) but what you need to understand is that Bay will never be Manny Ramirez. But let us look to another Fenway icon of the past to give fans an idea of what they are getting from Bay. Trot Nixon.

Trot gave the Red Sox some great moments as a clutch hitter, dirt dog fielder, and all around good guy. Jason Bay still hasn’t proved that he can be clutch on a big stage, through no fault of his own, and has put up some great numbers this season that compare pretty well to Nixon in his prime (Big difference being Bay can actually hit a lefty). Let’s take a look at the two at the age of 29 (Bay’s current season, Nixon’s 03 season)

         G   AB    R   H   2B   HR   RBI BB  SO  BA   OBP  

Nixon   134 441   81  135 24   28   87  65  96  .306 .396 

Bay     106 393   72  111 23   22   64  59  86  .282 .375 

With 2 solid months of baseball left to play, it’s safe to say that Bay will strikeout more than Nixon, but in the process will put up some monster offensive totals in his new home. With a big wall out where the middle of left field would’ve been in PNC Park, one would assume bay will see his doubles and home runs will take a heavy step in the right direction. His RBI totals will also see a rise since he will be in a much better line-up with much better hitters surrounding him.

My hope is that in his first game Bay goes 2-4 with a nice catch that Manny wouldn’t have made in the outfield, if all that can happen in one of these games against the A’s Bay won’t feel the pressure as much and would be free to become the monster he’s been due to become.