The Fall of David Ortiz

It's hard to imagine that David Ortiz no longer makes the knees of opposing pitchers knock together when he saunters up to the plate with runners on base. Watching the Mets/Red Sox game this weekend showed the pitchers are starting to buy into the hype that Ortiz has completed his fall from grace. They were not scared of Big Papi, which means that pitchers across the league are going to start gaining confidence. This is especially big for the young pitchers that Ortiz used to feed upon in pressure situations.

For the sake of conversation, let's take a look at Saturday's game against the Mets. The Red Sox dropped 16 hits and 12 runs on the Mets pitching staff. Everyone in the Red Sox starting lineup had a hit -- except Papi. Seven of them had 1 or more RBIs -- not Papi. In a day where the Red Sox let loose the fury against the Mets, Ortiz went 0 for 5. He struck out twice and left two runners in scoring position with two outs. Even though the 6 through 9 spot hitters went 12 for 20 with 7 RBIs against Mets pitching, at least they could be rest assured that there was a sure out sitting in the three spot.

Granted, now, the Red Sox are still a formidable team as yesterday's game moved them into sole position of first place in East. But, do they have the ability to survive an entire season and have any life in the post season? (This question actually goes for any of the teams in the East). But at what point do you give up on Ortiz? When does Francona sit David down and give him the "I think we need to change things up" speech? If I was him, I would do it now. He needs to either move down in the line up, or exit it completely. The last two seasons have shown some pretty marked reductions in power numbers and, if his form holds true, this season is definitely not going to be any better.

The Red Sox are an aging team and they don't have a great amount of talent in their farm system. I think, if I was Theo Epstein, if Papi has some sort of torrid turn around before the All-Star Break, I would trade him. If Papi survives the media and fan criticism of this year and finishes with his worst season to date and follows it up with another subpar season in 2010, there's no way he'll be a Red Sox any longer. Papi has one more year in the $12.5 million contract extension he signed in 2006, but I think that's the last full season we'll see Papi in Boston -- possibly, in the majors. If he has a bit of a turn around before the All-Star break hits, I might try and dangle him out there and see if any teams looking for a "power" (I use the term lightly here) bat to get them over the hump will bite.

It's a sad realization about the state of the game today when you peruse various comment boards on popular sports websites and see that many people are associating this decline with performance enhancing drugs. No one knows if this is the case or not, at this point can be nothing more than speculation from anyone. But the damage is done as soon as the first person asks, "Oh, well there steroids have worn off -- what else did you expect?" Once revered power hitters in the Majors will start to have this question thrust upon them more and more as they make their inevitable fall from grace. If any kids out there in school are studying McCarthyism need a modern day parallel, just look at the steroid rage in baseball. All someone has to do is throw the "s" word at somebody, at it can be enough to ruin their reputation. Or at least push it so close to ruin, that the athlete will be forced to make an impassioned speech about their non-use of PEDs, or the "mis-remembering" of their teammates (*ahem* Roger). Then, even once they've made their speech outlining their innocence, the television personalities and bloggers everywhere still question if the accused was genuine or not.

For Papi's sake, I hope it's just age and not anything steroid related. Even though I am a die hard Yankees fan, I'm a fan of the entire sport first. Papi was an extraordinary specimen of power and I, for one, will miss watching the pitcher's entire demeanor when stepped into the batters box.