Manny Ramirez: Food for thought

Mike, one of my readers, left this comment on an earlier post regarding Manny Ramirez:

Take a look at baseball-reference.com and see the most similar players by age (33) for Manny. Thome, Mays, Robby, Thome ... All of them began there decline after age 33. The only one who didn't was Barry - and we all know that story.

It was such a good idea, I thought I'd give it a shot. Let's look at what some of these guys did after age 33, with age and injuries taking their toll. I’m going to let the bare numbers speak for themselves.

Player	Age	AB	HR	RBI	AVG	SLG
Jim Thome	34	193	7	30	.207	.352
	Age	AB	HR	RBI	AVG	SLG
Willie Mays	34	558	52	112	.317	.645
	35	552	37	103	.288	.556
	36	486	22	70	.263	.453
	37	498	23	79	.289	.488
	Age	AB	HR	RBI	AVG	SLG
Jeff Bagwell	34	571	31	98	.291	.518
	35	605	39	100	.278	.524
	36	572	27	89	.266	.465
	37	100	3	19	.250	.380
	Age	AB	HR	RBI	AVG	SLG
Frank Robinson	34	471	25	78	.306	.520
	35	455	28	99	.281	.510
	36	342	19	59	.251	.442
	37	534	30	97	.266	.489
	Age	AB	HR	RBI	AVG	SLG
Frank Thomas	34	523	28	92	.252	.472
	35	546	42	105	.267	.562
	36	240	18	49	.271	.562
	37	105	12	26	.219	.590