The graph below was from Boston.com, it breaks down all of Ortiz’s plate appearances this year:
Thought this was particularly interesting given yesterday’s blog post. You have to double click the picture to see he whole thing…
Punching Out (For Now)…
-Biff
I know… believe me I know, I was on cloud 9 watching Ortiz hit one clutch bomb after another.
2004-2007, Ortiz was one of the most feared hitters in baseball history. Nobody liked pitching to this guy. He not only hit moonshot home runs but he did it in the clutch, always…..
2006 was Ortiz’s best statistical season (stats from www.baseball-reference.com) , he led the American League in Home Runs with 54 and RBIs with 137. These amazing numbers continued and Ortiz was a Silver Slugger & All-Star from 2004-2007, he also hit 177 of his 289 career home runs during this period.
In other words, David Ortiz was the balls…
Today is May 15th, 2009 and the Red Sox are playing their 35th game of the 162 game season, a little less than 1/4 of the way in. Tito gave Ortiz the night off.
Through 34 games here is what Ortiz has in so far:
Home Runs: 0
RBI: 15
Outs Made: 108
At this pace Ortiz will have 72 RBIs and make 514 outs.
The fewest RBIs Ortiz has had since he joined the Sox was 101 in 2003, his first year with the Sox (He only hit 89 last year but only played in 109 games).
The most Outs he has made in his career (ever) was 430 in 2005 but he also slugged .604, this year he is on pace to make 514 outs (and is slugging .300).
I’m a Red Sox fan first and a HotFatGuy second so I’m not going to sit here and say he did steroids because I don’t know that.
I do know one thing though David Ortiz and his career in Boston is finished. There will be a DL stint followed by splitting time at the DH spot but by the All-Star break or in the off season he will traded or released.
I hope I’m wrong, I really do because I love Ortiz but 2 there are two factors here that will seal the deal for Ortiz in Boston:
1) The local media- From WEEI to NESN and everything in between Ortiz’s luster is fading fast. Nobody here will say it but Ortiz lost allot of his “street cred” in this town when Manny got popped for “banned substances”. You don’t have to be a Sox fan to know Manny & Ortiz were tight, real tight.
What you don’t know unless you live here is that this is a working class town with more unwritten rules than anywhere in the world…
Boston is the kind of place where you’re buddy Sully has been cheating on his wife for a year, can tell you that you have to “do the right thing” and go to your kid’s baseball game … and you listen to him.
The kind of town where someone will go to court to fight a speeding ticket (when they were speeding), get it knocked down $40 bucks then give the money to a kid selling raffle tickets in a bar that night.
Fair or not, once Manny got caught so did Ortiz… The legions of media supporters that Ortiz once had in this town will defend Ortiz, they will say the Sox should keep him. Not like they would have a month ago, I guarantee you that.
2) Boston is a town that’s about tradition (always has and always will be), but 21st century Boston is all about winning.
Something strange happened when the Sox won in 2004, everything changed.
The Patriots started it 2002 and it crescendoed through 3.5 Superbowl Wins (I hate you David Tyree), 2 World Series Titles, and a 17th NBA Championship for the Celtics. Hell, even the Bruins finished with the best record in the Eastern Conference and they haven’t won a Stanley Cup since the 1971-1972 season.
The new ownership groups of the 4 major franchises are all in tune, no one man is bigger than the team in Boston sports anymore. There are no more sacred cows.
It’s all about the present, a “what have you done for me lately” mentality. Just ask Mike Vrabel & Ellis Hobbs this year.
The Sox were ready to part ways with their Captain Jason Varitek this past offseason and we were strangly OK with it, until Tek took the hometown discount and got re-signed at the 11h hour.
Tek’s stats for last year .220 avg, 13 HR, 43 RBI & .359 slg %
Ortiz again this year .208 avg, 0 hr, 15 RBI & .300 slg%
Factor this in with the huge number of big name power guys that will be available from struggling small to mid market teams and guess what…
“David Ortiz has been released by the Red Sox”
I hope I’m wrong, I really do…
It’s been a great ride Big Papi & from one HotFatGuy to another, we’ll never forget you.
Punching Out (for now)…
-Biff
