I for one was not bothered by the nomar trade (though I felt sad at the time) because he was not playing well, he was incredibly sullen and more miserable even than manny appeared to be, and he had turned down a generous contract offer from the RS. Mostly, he just didn't seem to be playing up to his previous levels. Some theorized it was because he was so unhappy with management -- others that the RS org was correctly assessing his breakdown physically. The FO ended up being right and pretty prescient, as Nomar, as great a player as he was for the RS, has been breaking down ever since. I was also not that bothered (though again, as a RS fan, not happy) to see Pedro go. It just seemed like the right time (and again, the FO had brilliant prescience, or maybe just inside knowledge, as Pedro has been declining ever since). But this situation with Manny seems to be very different, and to my eyes, seems like a strangely wrongheaded and emotional trade (he dissed us! he dissed baseball! who cares about his numbers! get rid of him!)

That all said, I'm SO happy to see Bay playing so well and displaying none of the discomfort some show when first faced with the intensity of playing in Boston (like JD Drew).