What Is Wrong With Big Papi (According To The Interwebs)

Well Big Papi is laying the Big Stinky so far this season and the whole internet is abuzz trying to figure out why. Some have maintained this could be PED withdrawal, but the only evidence to the fact is that he started surging when he played with Manny Ramirez (caught using a banned substance), has a sudden drop-off in numbers, a rash of injuries, and well...actually, that explanation sounds quite logical. But in the absence of outwardly calling him a steroids user (CHEATER!), let's look at some other reasons the World Wide Web has thought David Ortiz hasn't been Big Papi so far this season:

-Baseball Prospectus with the best of their experts takes a shot on ESPN.com, going through a performance analysis, scouting report and health report. The health report is interesting because it says that the lack of power probably doesn't come from the tendon issue. And in their performance analysis, they delve a little deeper into the problems that Ortiz has been having which look much worse when you break it down: "Ortiz was whiffing at pitches he previously had crushed, or he could not get the right timing on some mistakes out over the plate, hitting lazy fly balls instead of his typical bombs. He also was laying off many pitches, becoming passive in some at-bats as he attempted to get on base however he could. The problem was especially obvious in the two 2008 postseason series the Sox played, as Ortiz struggled to amass any kind of power. In 43 postseason at-bats, he had just four extra-base hits, only one of which was a homer. He also struck out in one-quarter of his plate appearances."

-I had previously linked to this, but it's worth noting that back on May 1st, Baseball-Reference started the "Is David Ortiz Finished?" talk. Here's a passage (BTW, they talk about "good" news being him still playing well and "bad" news being him finished...I'm not so inclined to agree with their wording) "The good news is that Ortiz has a long way to go before his current streak [of no homeruns] reaches to top. The bad news is that the four longer streaks all came when he was still with the Twins, before he became the power hitter he was at his height with the Red Sox. What surprises me is the degree to which Ortiz has dropped off. All players age and all players eventually retire. But few drop off so suddenly." Yeah...um...about that...

-Baseball Musings debates with Beyond The Boxscore on why Ortiz's power has fallen. Beyond the Boxscore says that Big Papi is chasing bad pitches. Baseball Musings agrees, but disagrees, and has a way to tell if he's really done: "I think that’s not the cause of his power drop, but a result of it. He’s less confident at the plate, so he’s chasing pitches trying to make something happen. His spray chart is quite interesting. He’s 2 for 12 pulling the ball, 3 for 13 hitting up the middle, but nine for nineteen going to left. Maybe it’s time to end the shift against David. If that does happen, you’ll know other teams think his ability to pull the ball hard is really gone."

-The Boston Globe says that there is truly a "Papi dilemma": the inclination is to resist giving up on him because he showed the Red Sox fans to believe...but the circumstances have become so dire that it may be useless for fans to believe he'll find a way out of it. The author also says, like all Red Sox fans, that they don't believe "David Ortiz's wonderful legacy in Boston was built fraudulently". But poll those same fans and ask them if they felt the same about Manny Ramirez...

-From a fantasy perspective, ESPN's Grand Theft Roto says "Forgive me, father (and I mean my actual dad), for I'm about to sin. After watching Big Papi go 0-for-7 on Thursday with three strikeouts and more men stranded than the first season of 'Lost,' I simply have to take off my Red Sox-colored glasses. There are only eight players in the majors who have hit more fly balls than Ortiz this year, and all of them have at least three homers. I'll love you forever, Papi, but I'm trading you for almost any player who I believe still has 20 homers in him. Excuse me while I go beat myself about the head and neck with a Red Sox commemorative mini-bat."

-Even Sox fans over at Over the Monster are very ready for Papi to sit for a while (I understand being upset...but isn't this a little harsh after how much Ortiz has done for the organization?)

-MannyBeingManny and other sluggers (Ryan Howard, Carlos Delgado and Alex Cora...though I doubt the latter would be considered a slugger) have reached out in support of Papi (LA Times on Manny and Boston Herald on the other sluggers). In the LA Times piece comes the best quote from Ortiz about his struggles after going 0-7, six of them with runners in scoring position: "I don't feel like talking right now," he said after the game. "Just put down, 'Papi stinks.' "

-River Ave. Blues looks at the decline and fall of David Ortiz and compares it to another former Red Sox slugger, Mo Vaughn. But River Ave Blues also says what a lot of Yankee fans are thinking: "For me, this decline has been bittersweet for a number of reasons. First of all, I basically predicted it back in January 2006 when I analyzed Ortiz’s contract situation for the now-defunct Talking Baseball blog. I’m also glad that the Yankees no longer have to face the David Ortiz of old who would refuse to make outs against New York.As a fan of the game though, I hate to see the competition go out this way. I’d see the Yanks face Ortiz and win that battle while he’s at his finest. We can watch A.J. Burnett or Joba Chamberlain strike out Ortiz now, but that’s hardly an accomplishment today. With 30 strike outs in 157 plate appearances, that’s all Ortiz does anymore."

-Deadspin suggests that maybe Big Papi needs a hug, using this ominous quote about Ortiz's personal life: "'People don't know,' Ortiz said. 'Sometimes they think we just come here to play baseball and that's it. We're human beings like everyone else. We have things to worry about. Sometimes that gets in the way. It's hard to have that free open mind you need to play this game. There's no way you can play this game with a busy mind. No way.'" Well...maybe Manny is on his mind? Or maybe he's just upset he can't rip out the heart of Yankees fans anymore (he has teammates for that now)? Or maybe his deal with the devil (read: PED) is over and Big Papi is finished. I doubt it.

But maybe he wishes his jersey was still buried underneath Yankee Stadium. Because since then, it seems he hasn't been the same. I loved the battles between Big Papi and the Yankees, but I can't say I'm sad to see him go. Edgar Martinez, Luis Gonzalez and Manny Ramirez have all had huge hits against the Yankees in my lifetime, but no hit stings quite like those off the bat of David Ortiz. I think, more than him being done, it's a player who hasn't been able to adjust to his declining skills. Some players are stubborn and continue to struggle doing what they had done before but can't physically do anymore, some adjust and continue to play well for the rest of their career. Time will tell which side Big Papi falls on.