David Ortiz

[Raider Ronnie]

Needs to go back on the juice !!!

[BigFish]

Change of scenery might be good for him......time to move him!

LA PERHAPS?

[Uncle Matt]

I think he's signed through 2010. Short money though. I'm getting tired of seeing "Mendoza" Ortiz strike out on four pitches. But who's available?

[BigFish]

WHO CARES?! If they can find a guy who can hit .250 and park 10 over the wall it will be a step up! Ortiz has not done much since the 07' season.....me thinks he is done?

[The Dad Fisherman]

Its getting pretty painful to watch......love the guy, but, man, that 0 for 7/ stranding 12 runners in anaheim was brutal.

[gf2020]

I was at the game last night. If I thought Ortiz has looked bad on television, it was even worse seeing him in person. He had 2 third strike swings that were just pathetic; flailing at the ball with no sense of purpose.

Maybe he needs his eyes checked? One of my twin sons wears glasses now and it turned his baseball game around. He's now leading his Little League team in making contact and OBP. That's what happens when you can see the ball!

[BigFish]

I love him too but this has gone on too long! This is more than a physical thing.....he came into spring training looking great! I thought he might beat the cover off the ball this season being in great shape, but the second half of last season was pretty bad so you chalk it up to recovering from the surgery......but this season he is just allergic to the baseball!!! I do think if nothing breaks in the next week or so you have to move him.

You also have to concede he was a better hitter with Manny right behind him! Seeing better pitches??

[JohnR]

Terry has lived and died and usually survived by standing by his players and working it out. If he listened to public sentiment a couple years ago D.P. would still be in Pawtucket...

[spinncognito]

Come on guys, it is only mid-May... It's Big Papi... he is probably just about to break out bigtime. The teams is still winning despite his lack of production. I say take the pressure off the guy and move him down to 6th in the BO, slip JD into the 3-hole where he responded so well in Ortiz' absence last season and all will be well in RS Nation...

the real problem with this team is lack of a SHORTSTOP who can play the position. perhaps that is another thread.

[slow eddie]

one of the underling factors is no one seems to know exactly how old ortiz really is. he could be in his late 30's or more.
lets not go the shortstop route just yet. maybe with a lb. or 2 of stickum. lugo might pan out.

[FishermanTim]

Originally Posted by slow eddie

... lets not go the shortstop route just yet. maybe with a lb. or 2 of stickum. lugo might pan out.

Maybe a 1st basemen's glove might help?

[The Dad Fisherman]

I think Papi's been on the site.....he read what we wrote

[Mike P]

Originally Posted by BigFish

Change of scenery might be good for him......time to move him!

LA PERHAPS?

You never cease to amaze me with trade nonsense Larry. You must be a regular Big Show caller.

Who's going to take his $13 million dollar contract on at this point?

LA---LMAO. Even Frank McCordt isn't dumb enough to trade for a fat old reformed juicer who can't bend over to field a grounder. If he plays a full season at first base he'll set a new NL record for errors.

No DH in the NL. Did you forget that little fact?

[Raider Ronnie]

Me thinks Ortiz went back to the Dominican for a few juice shots in his ass during the days he got benched !

[BigFish]

Then by all means Mike....leave him in the lineup until he slips below the .200 mark. Now everyone loves him because he hit a homerun! I however am not quite so fickle......he has seen his best days.

[Mike P]

Originally Posted by BigFish

Then by all means Mike....leave him in the lineup until he slips below the .200 mark. Now everyone loves him because he hit a homerun! I however am not quite so fickle......he has seen his best days.

No question, but you said "time to move him"---move him where? You can't trade a white elephant making $13 million and hitting under .200. No one's going to take him--especially an NL team since all he can do at this point is DH. The Mets aren't going to do a Mo Vaughn thing twice. You're stuck with him until 2010.

[rwilhelm]

I heard a Victor Martinez for Manny Declarmen was on the table but the Sox said no. I would do that trade in a heart beat. Their bullpen is plenty deep with the addition of Ramerez, who has been awesome.

[Nate]

Originally Posted by FishermanTim

Maybe a 1st basemen's glove might help?

Maybe SlimFast?

[fishbones]

SOMEWHERE ALONG I-65—Best buddies Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz, both of whom find themselves at professional crossroads and both desperately wanting to rekindle their friendship, decided on Sunday that a soul-searching road trip was the key to resolving their personal problems.
"I called David and I said, 'David! Hey, David! It's Manny. Road trip, man! Let's do this!' And he said, 'Okay,' and now he is with me in the car here," Ramirez told reporters in a cell phone interview while driving on the interstate. "Papi isn't hitting so good, and I'm not even playing, and we miss each other and love each other, and because we play on different baseball teams now, I play on the Los Angeles Dodgers, and he plays for the Boston Red Sox, I think, and we don't get to spend quality time with each other like we did when we played on the same team, you know?"
"Uh-oh, it says Corvette Museum next right. I got to go, man," Ramirez added. "Hey, Papi, do we have any more Slim Jims?"
According to sources, Ramirez pulled up to Ortiz's Weston, MA home last Sunday, a selection of Tom Petty hits blaring from the stereo of his faded red 1966 Ford Galaxie 500 convertible. After embracing each other, a visibly somber Ortiz told Ramirez, "I don't know what's going on with me, man. I'm not hitting the baseball." Ortiz then threw his battered duffel bag in the car's backseat and asked Ramirez where they were headed.
Ramirez responded, "Just get in."
Several seconds after pulling out of Ortiz's driveway, the car's rear bumper fell off and the overstuffed trunk sprung open, sending a food-laden cooler, several bags, and a shoe box marked "fireworks" out onto the road.
According to eyewitness accounts, the former teammates have been crisscrossing the country with no apparent final destination. They have taken pictures of each another in front of the world's biggest hockey stick in Eveleth, MN; the world's tallest thermometer in Baker, CA; the giant fiberglass muskellunge at the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame in Hayward, WI; and while dressed in Lazer Tag uniforms at the Fun Fest Entertainment Center in Harmarville, PA.
While both Ortiz and Ramirez have spent the majority of their trip laughing and reminiscing about when they were the most feared hitting tandem in baseball, their journey has not been without its serious moments. Ortiz reportedly made Ramirez spit out human growth hormone pills in a Motel 6 bathroom in Columbia, MS, and then forced him to flush the rest of his steroid-filled syringes down the toilet.
Ramirez and Ortiz also got into a shouting match in Abilene, TX, when in an attempt to reinvigorate Ortiz's passion for baseball, Ramirez tried to make his best friend watch a Little League ball game.
"You said there would be no baseball," said Ortiz, refusing to leave the car. "I hate baseball. I can't hit the baseball. You know that. If you care so much about me and baseball, why you leave me? Why you leave me by myself in Boston, Manny? Why you do that? Why you act so bad? Boston's a good place."
"You need to deal with that, man. You need to come to terms," Ramirez said. "I never going back to Boston. But, man, look at these kids. This is baseball, man. Little kids having fun and not injecting themselves with steroids and women pills and just stepping up there and hitting the ball. You gotta face it, man. We gotta face it together."
"Everybody's left me, you know?" Ortiz responded, tears streaming down his face. "You left me, Pedro left me. The only one who doesn't leave is Jason [Varitek], and he don't talk to me. He don't talk to anyone."
Witnesses at the scene said that, as the two sluggers cried in each other's arms, Ramirez and Ortiz's attention focused on the Little League diamond, where a player had just hit a walk-off home run. Ramirez whispered to Ortiz, "That is like you in the playoffs, man, but bigger. Remember that? You just go up there and hit the ball. You don't need to think. You're Big Papi. You go up there and be Big Papi."
Ramirez and Ortiz were subsequently sighted exiting a Terre Haute, IN 7-Eleven store wearing Indianapolis 500 baseball caps and brand new neon-orange sunglasses.
"The bigger one kept asking if he should get the hat, and the other one said he would buy one if [Ortiz] did," 7-Eleven cashier Kip Petrun told reporters. "They must have tried on sunglasses for 30 minutes."
"Before they left the parking lot they argued over whose turn it was to pick the music," Petrun added. "I'm pretty sure they settled on that song 'Life Is A Highway,' because they both started singing it at the top of their lungs. I think they said they were going to Nebraska to pick up their friend Pedro something."
The trip reportedly culminated with Ramirez taking Ortiz to a batting cage in St. George, UT. Though Ortiz missed the first several balls, Ramirez told Ortiz that he knew he could do it, and that even if they were no longer teammates, they would always be best friends. Ortiz then began hitting ball after ball, the last five of which hit the "home run" net.
"I can do it. I can hit the baseball again!" Ortiz yelled as he and Manny pointed at each other. "And you can hit the baseball without taking steroids, Manny. I know you can. Hopefully I can, too."
During a tender moment at the Grand Canyon later that night, tourists said that while seated on the hood of their car, Ortiz placed a blanket around a shivering Ramirez and told him, "You're my best friend, man. You're my best friend."
The car's hood then caved in, sending both players into a fit of hysterical laughter.

[BigFish]

Willie Mo Pena never looked so good! I think he is available??

Bet we could get him for an empty case of Coke bottles and a few Arby's coupons!

[striperman36]

Send him to assignment. He cannot catch the ball anymore. It's just too painful to watch

[Dad 818]

Ortiz says he will have eyes checked

DETROIT -- David Ortiz doesn't think that his season-long slump has anything to do with his eyes. At this point, though, he's willing to try just about anything.


Ortiz, who didn't play in Boston's 6-3 win over Detroit Thursday, is hitting .187 with just one home run this season.

"I've been thinking about getting my eyes checked -- for real," he said. "My vision has always been 20-20, and I'm not feeling anything crazy, but I'm going to get it checked out."

Ortiz's struggles have been obvious enough that Tigers manager Jim Leyland said that he and his coaching staff discussed abandoning the radical shift they have customarily used against him. While they eventually chose to continue using it, they did alter how far they played Ortiz to pull, moving shortstop Adam Everett back to the third-base side of second and putting centerfielder Curtis Granderson closer to straightaway.

Ortiz went 1-for-5 in the series opener, hitting into a double play and striking out three times, but had better success on Wednesday. He flew out to the wall in the deepest part of Comerica Park, then hit a two-run, bases-loaded double.

Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press

Maybe they should look at the hole in his bat too.

[Dad 818]

Originally Posted by BigFish

Willie Mo Pena never looked so good! I think he is available??

Bet we could get him for an empty case of Coke bottles and a few Arby's coupons!

Hell, someone look up Rob Deer.

[EarnedStripes44]

is that 2 hrs in one week.... maybe there was something special in those eye drops.