You probably don’t want him too close to Els. Batting Papi 9th would occasionally take away his greatest asset – his speed.

But there should be a Pawtucket / DL option for this poll.

Drew
Youk
Green
Pedroia
Bay
Lowell
Drew
Ortiz
Ellsbury

Green third? Yup. Is this is a sarcastic list? Yup.

Does Ortiz have options left?

I find the Papi thing interesting because it reminds me a bit of Travis Hafner. Hafner was unable to catch up to fastballs anymore, so he was cheating on them and leaving himself susceptible to offspeed stuff. His power, contact and usefullness all took a nosedive (evident by his 2008 stats).

Could Ortiz’s problems be some lingering health issues the team (or Ortiz) is hiding? Hoping it was something he could just work through as the season went along?

Hafner had his surgery last year (basically cleaning out his shoulder) and has shown a remarkable return to form. Not quite the monster he was in 2005-2006, but more in line with what an aging slugger’s stats should look like. Not a dramatic drop.

He fucking can’t stay at the 3rd spot. There’s no excuse.

because he the fifth batter is generlized as a free swinger that has more power than the fourth hitter. IF he doen’t pick up numbers after that, i say move him to 7th

According to the Globe:

The Red Sox have dropped David Ortiz to sixth in the batting order, with J.D. Drew moving up to the struggling Ortiz’s familiar third spot.

When asked by my Globe colleague Amalie Benjamin before the game if he was going to talk to the media before the game, Ortiz replied, “After I go deep tonight.”

Also, Mike Lowell is out of the lineup tonight, with Kevin Youkilis moving across the diamond to third base

Likely to keep the LRLR intact other than the Youk-Bay core.

DP – good OBP, and his slugging allows him to in scoring position often.
Drew – good OBP, could knock in a lot of runners.
Youk – power and OBP.
Bay – why the hell not?
Tek – follow me here: good power this season (.500 slugging)
Ells – just has to get the ball in play and move runners; steals to prevent DP’s after him.
Papi – he and Lowell could switch, depending if Papi can’t pick up or Lowell gets faster.
Lowell – not a lot of chances for GIDP after the big guys come up, but runners could be in scoring position.
Green – set the table for another go-round.

Ortiz was spending part of the pregame playing cards with Julio Lugo.

I know now the source of Big Papi’s struggles!!!!! He has been spending to much time with the wife beater!!!! DFA Lugo ’cause the virus is spreading.

Lugo and Ortiz are BFF’s

Any truth about Ortiz being shopped around by Theo?

Go Sox!

If this was 10 years ago, the worst hitter on the team would bat 9th

Corrected to read: If this was 10 years ago, the worst hitter in the starting lineup would bat 9th.

So, Papi, as much I adore what he did for us over the past several seasons, needs to either NOT be in the starting 9 OR not on the roster for the top club… if it’s a mechanics problem, sit down and talk him into a 15 day stint at Pawtucket, get him as many at bats as possible where he won’t be an out or worse, a DP, in a game that counts (sry PawSoxs fans, you know what I mean). OR, park him on the bench for a couple more series, use him as a pinch hitter on occasion and hope? But why are we wasting a DH slot on a guy hitting south of .200, and nearly a century under his own career avg? The point of the DH rule (ugh. but whatever) is to get more firepower in there and not use your pitcher who “can’t hit.” Rocco would probably be an improvement…But as it stands now, hell, we might as well play like we’re an NL team, because honest to God, we’d get better hitting from the pitching staff. Beckett hit over .400 a couple seasons back :P 5 out of 12 of the current staff have time in the NL (though Wakefield’s is AGES ago)… ah well…