Farewell, Manny by Jared Carrabis
Red Sox trade Manny Delcarmen to Colorado Rockies


He was the hometown kid turned Red Sox reliever.

Not quite the same legacy as Tony Conigliaro, but Manny Delcarmen leaves behind a positive legacy nonetheless. The Pride of Hyde Park, and a graduate of West Roxbury High School, Delcarmen has called Boston his home for his entire life.

Taken by the Red Sox in the second round of the 2000 amateur baseball draft, Delcarmen pitched his way to a respectable 3.89 ERA in 284.1 innings over six seasons with the team he grew up watching.

Over the years, Delcarmen has grown to be an ambassador of sorts to the Red Sox organization. The right-hander resides in Boston in the off-season, and after the Red Sox' 2007 World Series championship, Delcarmen would often travel with the World Series trophies throughout New England.

As Red Sox Nation Governor of Massachusetts, I have the privilege of attending fan friendly events such as Christmas at Fenway among others, and more often than not, Delcarmen was in attendance.

On Tuesday, the Red Sox announced that Delcarmen was headed for the team that he helped defeat in the 2007 World Series, the Colorado Rockies.

It was apparent that the right-handed reliever had slipped down the chart on Terry Francona's list of trustworthy arms out of the bullpen, and it was never more obvious when Francona opted to go to Scott Atchison in the bottom of the tenth in the middle game of the Tampa series over Delcarmen.

Delcarmen showed flashes of brilliance in his Red Sox tenure, including a stretch this season from April 18 to June 22 in which the right-hander had a 1.91 ERA, holding opposing hitters to an average of .163.

Even with large sample sizes of great pitching such as this, Delcarmen never really put it all together into an entire season of great pitching.

Delcarmen heads for Colorado with a 4.70 ERA in 48 appearances.

In return, the Red Sox received right-handed pitcher Chris Balcom-Miller, who had a 6-7 record and 3.31 ERA while pitching for Colorado's single-A affiliate, the Asheville Tourists. Balcom-Miller will be assigned to the Greenville Drive.

Always a class act and never a problem like the "other Manny," we wish you well, Mr. Delcarmen. May you resurrect your pitching career in the National League just like everybody else.

Oh, and I hope that just because he's not on the team anymore that it doesn't mean we have to scratch the "Blame It On the Rain" video, because that's just too good to be thrown away like that.

-Jared Carrabis



Published on August 31, 2010

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