Inside Baseball
Big Papi seeks more big flies in immediate future
David Ortiz finally hit his first home run Wednesday. Good thing Red Sox Nation can celebrate its sweep of the first-place Blue Jays because the What’s-Wrong-With-Big-Papi question is far from answered. One of the game’s most prodigious sluggers the last six years looks done and no one has a good answer why.
Bisons first baseman/outfielder Wily Mo Pena played 157 games with the Sox over two seasons (2006-2007) before being traded to the Nationals less than two months before Boston’s second World Series title. So he’s been following Ortiz’s struggles.
“I watched some swings they’ve been showing [on highlight shows] and he doesn’t look different,” Pena said last week before a game in Coca-Cola Field. “Every player goes through a slump. That was just a big slump, especially for that guy because you know he’ll hit. He’s a good hitter.”
Maybe he was a good hitter. Not now. Ortiz entered the weekend batting .211 and with a putrid .324 slugging percentage that is nearly 200 points lower than any of his previous six seasons in Beantown. He’s averaged 38.5 home runs in those six years
“Finally he got a home run and I think that will help his mind go away from everything he was thinking about, whatever it was,” Pena said. “I don’t even know what he was thinking but that first home run was important to him.”
Ortiz has been bothered by wrist trouble for nearly a year but insists he’s not injured.
“It’s all mental. I don’t think he’s hurt,” Pena said. “He would let the team know if he was. He’s been swinging. He’s just not been finding the spots. He’s been swinging at a lot of bad pitches and I’ve never seen that from him. He’s be chasing hard stuff in the dirt.
“You just start swinging at everything because what’s going through your mind is that you’re desperate to start hitting.
Ortiz is 33 but there’s plenty of scouts and such who will tell you they think he’s older. Assuming he is 33, the Boston Globe came out with a stunning study of sluggers last week that showed many of them drop off precipitously around that age.
Cecil Fielder went from 39 homers at age 32 to 13 at 33. Jim Rice went from 20 to 13 between 33-34, and Mo Vaughn’s drop was 26 to 3 from 34-35. There’s more: George Scott (33-12 from 33-34), Boog Powell (27-9 from 33-34), Greg Luzinski (32-13 from 32-33), George Bell (25-13 from 32-33).
If he’s not hurt, not 43 and not coming down from years of steroid use—something he denies but is certainly a question given his quick drop—maybe Ortiz is just washed up?
Kevin Youkilis was on rehab in Pawtucket last week and played two games against the Bisons. Pena talked to Youkilis about Ortiz and was told Big Papi was simply thinking too much. Many Boston pundits felt Youkilis’ absence was a big problem for Ortiz. Youkilis got pretty agitated by that line of thinking.
“If everyone stops asking questions about David Ortiz and leaves him alone, maybe that will help him out,” Youkilis said. “It would bother me if everyone was talking negative about me every day. David Ortiz wants to get out of the slump as much as anybody.”
Pena agreed.
“I haven’t talked to him yet because when he’s like that in that kind of situation, I know he’s got too many different people telling him stuff,” Pena said. “So I don’t want to jump in. I know he’s got 200 people telling him little things about this, this, this and this. But I knew he’d hit one sooner or later.”
The real question, of course, is how many more Ortiz can muster this season.
Yanks hold court
When you play for the Yankees, it’s tough to be loose. There’s an aura of tension around every move and 40 reporters there to chronicle and dissect every statement. But things are suddenly more relaxed in the Bronx than they’ve been in a long time and the results are clear on the field now that Alex Rodriguez is back in the lineup.
A. J. Burnett is hitting each postgame TV interview guest with whipped cream pies, a toy championship wrestling belt is being awarded to star players after victories, outfielder Nick Swisher is a notorious clubhouse cut-up, Johnny Damon is the key alum from Boston’s 2004 “idiots” and the music is now blaring in the swanky new digs.
The Yanks took it one step further Wednesday by holding their first clubhouse Kangaroo Court since 1995. Mariano Rivera served as judge, playfully airing grievances and levying fines as Burnett, Damon and Derek Jeter were jurors.
Word in the New York media was that CC Sabathia was among the biggest offenders who got fined. That $161 million contract probably cost him a few bucks.
“Mo was tough on some people,” manager Joe Girardi said of Rivera.
Sabathia, by the way, is lined up to be on the Progressive Field mound in Cleveland to face his former mates for the first time Saturday night.
Kazmir, Percival to DL
Rays lefty Scott Kazmir, the team’s ace the last few years, was going to lose his spot in the rotation anyway if he blew up Monday night in Cleveland. Instead, the Rays put Kazmir (4-4, 7.69) on the disabled list Friday with a left quad strain and finally called up ALCS hero David Price.
Price is hardly lighting it up at Durham (1-4, 3.93 in eight starts) but the Rays rotation has simply been too thin.
Kazmir should be back in a couple weeks but the Rays also put Troy Percival on the DL with shoulder tendinitis and the 39-year-old may retire.
“His arm was really bothering him,“ said manager Joe Maddon. “He was distraught, and he went home to think about things for a little bit. I wouldn’t be surprised if he chooses not to come back.”
The Rays bullpen was lights-out last year and has not been nearly as sharp this year. The same can be said about Kazmir and Andy Sonnanstine (2-4, 7.36). The Rays look like the fourth-best team in the AL East.
Around the horn
Always-loquacious second baseman Brandon Phillips, still ready with the quips like he was with the Bisons, says this edition of the Reds is the best team he’s played on.
“Our pitching is gorgeous,” Phillips said. “Our pitching makes us pick it up on defense. They don’t waste time. They’re not walking nobody. We’re just having fun. Our swag is real nice right now. We’re picking each other up. Our team chemistry is gorgeous.”
• After getting shunned by Jake Peavy, the White Sox hope Jose Contreras can keep fixing himself in Charlotte. He’s thrown 15 scoreless innings since being demoted and carried a no-hitter for 7 2/3 innings in Monday’s win over Toledo. Contreras goes again today against Indianapolis.
• Mets third baseman David Wright had a stat-filling series last weekend in San Francisco, collecting nine hits, nine RBIs and five stolen bases over the first three games. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Wright became the first player in history to have nine more more hits, nine or more RBIs and five or more steals in any three-game span. Wow.
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