David Ortiz

Dear Readers (all five of you):

I've been active on my other blog at www.fannation.com, under the username JFro, but I continually forget to publish those posts here. That said, the next five posts should be considered my belated MLB preseason predictions -- a preview, of sorts. There's the top five infields, outfields, bullpens, and starting rotations, and of course The Big Kahuna:

Continue reading "Note about forthcoming posts"

homers and 83 ribbies.  Especially considering Manny Ramirez’s departure and injuries to David Ortiz and Mike Lowell, Youkilis and Pedroia carried the Red Sox offensively, all the way to a Wild Card berth.  Youkilis and Pedroia had a better supporting cast than Morneau, even by virtue of having one another—so Morneau is more deserving of the MVP but the two Sox are numbers two and three in my book.

Continue reading "MVP Award Picks"

cked as the AL-favorites before the season, and have disappointed to some extent.  Injuries to David Ortiz and Mike Lowell have crippled the once-potent offense at times, and Manny Ramirez became a distraction before his departure.  If the Rays falter and Boston's rotation regains consistency once Josh Beckett returns, the Red Sox may have a shot at winning the division, but either way they should be in a dog fight for the Wild Card down the stretch.

Continue reading "Seven Runs: Too Little, Too Early"

  I picked up on this one late; like into the 7th inning, and the Boston Red Sox were down 15-14. 15-14!???!!!. What the heck had I missed? Well, for one thing, a 10-run first inning for the Sox that included two homeruns by Ortiz, an 8-run 5th inning for Texas, followed by a 5-run 6th inning that put them ahead and set the stage for what could easily have been the most embarrasing Red Sox loss of the year. As it turned out, thanks to Kevin Youkilis, it was a 19-16 win that temporarily inched them one-half game closer to the Rays, who were in the process of a minor struggle versus Oakland when the Sox concluded their 4-hour marathon.

Continue reading "Boston Red Sox in an (almost embarrassing) ..."

As I expected, Richie Sexson was signed by the one team in major league baseball who signs every single castoff, just in case he might turn it around in pinstripes: the Yankees. The temptation of that short porch in Yankee Stadium right field, combined with Sexson’s power potential, was too tempting to the team that claimed Jose Canseco off waivers in 2000, just to be sure he didn’t go to a division rival.

Continue reading "Sexson a Yankee; LaHair a Mariner"

           Hey, Sox Fans, how’s it been goin’? Been a while. . .

            I’ll be honest with you, following the Red Sox on a daily basis can turn into a full-time job, and this doesn’t even include the other teams you tend to watch as they jockey with the Sox for position. Just got out of the habit of writing about them.

Continue reading "The Boston Red Sox at mid-season ..."

So David Ortiz is going onto the 15 day Disabled List. The team expects him to be out for about a month. It doesn’t look like surgery will be necessary. This isn’t going to be that big of deal for the Red Sox. Sure it hurts to lose Big Papi, the Major League leader in RBI over that past 5 seasons, but Boston can manage for a month. Afterall, Ortiz played so poorly for the first month of this season that he may as well have not been in the lineup and the team did okay. Sure it hurts not to have his leadership around, but the Red Sox still have enough offense that they’ll be able to get by. Everything will be just fine.

Continue reading "Injury to Ortiz is Bad News for Boston"

s and being more (intelligently) aggressive on the basepaths, Boston is providing Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz with more and more opportunities to do what is expected of them. 2008 and could b

Continue reading "The Go Go . . . Red Sox?"

d the field with more authority and sooner or later Mike Lowell will come off the disabled list and David Ortiz will snap out of his funk and the offense will be back to hitting on all cylinders.

Continue reading "Red Sox Should Feel Good About The Season So Far"

You'd lose all that good will.

Johnny Pesky, with an assist from David Ortiz, ran the Championship flag up its pole and it was time to play baseball.

And the Sox evened their record at 4-4. Eight games in the book; .049382716049382716049382716049383 % of the season (isn't it odd how those middle numbers 93827 & 1604 repeat?).

Continue reading "The Boston Red Sox; faltering in ..."

aying against a team even more anemic offensively or else they could be 1 and 3 instead of 3 and 1. David Ortiz, the biggest bat of them all, went 0 for 11 before coming alive in the fourth game. Take heart Sox fans, Ortiz (who is hitting .188) and Mike Lowell (.133), last season’s leading run producers, will not finish the season batting below .200.

Continue reading "Red Sox Hitters Just Need to Find Their Rhythm"

           If you’re a baseball fan (any team), you know better than to get excited about the results of any single series of games. If you’ve been a Boston Red Sox fan for longer than (say) 10 years, you know better than to get excited about almost anything until (say) mid-September (and even then. . ).

Continue reading "Don't get too excited. . .but the ..."

z or Miguel CaberaSS Carlos GuillenC Joe MauerOF Tori HunterOF Grady SizemoreOF Magglio OrdonezUTIL David OrtizSP Josh BeckettSP John LackeySP Justin VerlanderCLOSER Jonathon Papelbon

AL BATTING CHAMP

Continue reading "2008 Major League Baseball Preview: ..."

nst the A’s in Oakland and then a three game series in Toronto before the home opener.

Will David Ortiz Still be Feeling the Effects of Off-Season Knee Surgery?

Ortiz played all of last season on a balky right knee that clearly affected his power numbers, though he still managed to post a career high batting average. Last November he had arthroscopic surgery on the knee to clean it out and is expected to fully participate in Spring Training. Certainly the Boston medical staff will keep and eye on him and make sure he doesn’t reaggravate the knee. The is little doubt Ortiz will be ready for opening day, but will it take some time before the power returns to the level to which we have become accustomed?

Continue reading "Boston Red Sox Spring Training Stories To Follow"

With all indications that the Boston Red Sox will hit the field in 2008 with the exact same lineup as they did last October, I thought I'd take a look at that 2007 team and see just what the package consisted of.

Continue reading "If the Boston Red Sox were a 'single' ..."

He only stole two bases (one less than David Ortiz, for heaven's sake), so it doesn't seem likely that we'll be seeing him tearing up the base paths, any time soon.

His average of .296 is tied with Manny's and a notch above Kevin Youkilis (.288); not bad company at all. On-base percentage (.353) is right between Varitek and Coco; again, not bad company. Can't say much for his slugging percentage, though (.393), which puts him in the company of Alex Cora and Eric Hinske.

Continue reading "Casey at the Bat"