David Ortiz Will Not Start Thursday's Game

by Randy Booth on Apr 14, 2010 10:21 PM EDT in News

It looks like David Ortiz will sit to start Thursday's game:

#mlb #redsox Red Sox DH David Ortiz, who is hitting .154 and struck out twice more Wednesday, was told that he will not be in lineup Thu

The Red Sox are facing a historically tough lefty in Francisco Liriano. Still, Liriano hasn't been himself since surgery and it's not like Ortiz has a bad history against him -- 1 for 3 with two-run double.

Terry Francona might come out and say it's a "matchup" thing, but I'm not too sold on that. Are the Red Sox benching him? Of course not. It's a day off for Ortiz and that's it. Tito will tell us all that tomorrow.

Is this news? Not really, but it's worth talking about.

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Comments

Like you said, Tito won't call it a "benching",

but if he was hitting .350 with 4 HRs I don’t think he’d be taking a day off tomorrow.

by dsharp on Apr 14, 2010 10:27 PM EDT reply actions

You mean

if he hit like Pedroia?

by AGuinness on Apr 14, 2010 10:51 PM EDT up reply actions

That's the thing

A miniscule second baseman should not be outhitting your DH by such a ridiculous margin. (Thank God he IS, of course.) I think Tito will be as good as his word, and just sit Papi a day. But the day of reckoning has to come, this just postpones it. You just can’t have a DH striking out every other at-bat, and getting thrown out over argued strike calls, to boot.

by Mister Snitch on Apr 14, 2010 10:56 PM EDT up reply actions

Well, Pedroia is outhitting what most DHs manage year-long by a considerable margin.

So much for his slow starts.

USG

by Ben Buchanan on Apr 15, 2010 12:03 AM EDT up reply actions

Or maybe this is still a slow start for him

and he’s going to hit .400 with 50 homers?……

Surgeon General's Warning: K-State-Mizzou basketball may increase the risk of high blood pressure. Please consult your doctor prior to watching any of these games.

by mystman995 on Apr 15, 2010 9:45 AM EDT up reply actions

Pace

Pedroia’s on a pace to hit around 80 homers. I’m thinking its more than probably that he gets there… O/U of 85 HR for him, right?

by AGuinness on Apr 15, 2010 11:15 AM EDT up reply actions

under 25 times

80 is about right, 85 too high

by Mick Lowe on Apr 15, 2010 11:36 AM EDT up reply actions

This is a match-up, pure and simple

Let’s not read too much into this. Ortiz has played in 7 of the Sox’ 8 games this year. He didn’t play the game Grienke pitched. VMart was the DH. The Sox will give Ortiz more than 7 games.

Liriano is tougher on lefties. Lowell hits lefties well. I also expect Bill Hall to be in the line-up for either Drew or Hermida.

I gotta go 'cause I'm probably definitely gonna nod out again.

by Drugs Delaney on Apr 14, 2010 10:53 PM EDT reply actions

Totally agree. It is a matchup.

After Liriano, the ’Sox will face 3 right-handed pitchers on the Rays – so Ortiz will play all 3 of those. The Liriano game makes perfect sense to give Ortiz a day off.

by mmmmm on Apr 14, 2010 11:05 PM EDT up reply actions

drew is the next on the "struggling list"

will drew sit when stealsbury comes back?

by Mick Lowe on Apr 15, 2010 11:38 AM EDT up reply actions

Part of the problem

Is we’ve faced a good amount of LHPs so far. So slow starts for Drew, Ortiz and Ellsbury aren’t a shock… but Ortiz still looks bad beyond that. A pitching machine could strike him out on three pitches right now.

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by alskor on Apr 15, 2010 12:11 PM EDT up reply actions

Except Ortiz isn't striking out on 3 pitches

His P/PA is pretty high.

I gotta go 'cause I'm probably definitely gonna nod out again.

by Drugs Delaney on Apr 15, 2010 12:49 PM EDT up reply actions

yes but

that’s because he’s fouling off all the good pitches he’s getting, swinging on the bad one’s inside, and watching anything on the outside part of the plate go by.

by wolf9309 on Apr 15, 2010 12:50 PM EDT up reply actions

I understand.

But a week’s worth of games is too soon to tell anything. Incidentally, over the same period, Mark Teixeira is hitting .097 AVG/.263 OBP/.129 SLG (.392 OPS).

I gotta go 'cause I'm probably definitely gonna nod out again.

by Drugs Delaney on Apr 15, 2010 12:55 PM EDT up reply actions

small number statistics are killer

I can distinctly recall at least 3 of Papi’s strikeouts on called strikes clearly well off the outside of the plate. That probably washes out over the course of the year, but against just 29 PAs / 26 ABs so far, those three miscalls kill his batting avg by at least 20 pts and his OBP by at least 28 pts (depending on alternative outcomes if they weren’t called strikes).

Over time, he might probably get just as many miscalls in his favor.

Texiera, on the other hand is clearly going to hit a .392 OPS all year – why would you think different? :-D

by mmmmm on Apr 15, 2010 2:29 PM EDT up reply actions

Exactly

Sample size matters.

I gotta go 'cause I'm probably definitely gonna nod out again.

by Drugs Delaney on Apr 15, 2010 2:59 PM EDT up reply actions

yes most definitely

I don’t like the way he’s swinging and I don’t like the balls he’s swinging at, but he needs at bats to make adjustments for that. I’m all for keeping him in full-time for at least another couple of weeks to figure out what his issue is and work around it. The media just gets everyone ridiculously bent out of shape about these things because it makes a good story.

I’m just saying the P/PA isn’t necessarily good. I’m not sure there’s much good about what he’s doing at the moment, but I definitely don’t think it means he’s done. It just means he’s off to a bad start. But that’s not abnormal.

by wolf9309 on Apr 15, 2010 10:55 PM EDT up reply actions

personally

deep down, whenever Lowell comes up to bat, I’m hoping he doesn’t get a hit because then people will shut up about Papi.

by wolf9309 on Apr 15, 2010 10:56 PM EDT up reply actions

Its a good point.

Obviously I was being facetious, but still… he looks bad. Scouting wise, he would be grading really badly right now.

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twitter: @alskor

by alskor on Apr 16, 2010 1:29 AM EDT up reply actions

Bill Hall in against Liriano?

I guest he needs playing time too but career at bats against Liriano: 1 for 8 with 6 strike outs. But he is a righty.

" Play Ball "

by went9 on Apr 14, 2010 11:15 PM EDT reply actions

8 AB is an extremely small sample

Hall is a career .270 AVG/.339 OBP/.471 SLG (.810 OPS) hitter against lefties. Hermida has never faced Liriano. But he is a career .239 AVG/.323 OBP/.379 SLG (.702 OPS) hitter v. left-handed pitching. Drew is 1 for 4—also a small sample. And he is playing with a neck injury. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Hall tomorrow.

I gotta go 'cause I'm probably definitely gonna nod out again.

by Drugs Delaney on Apr 14, 2010 11:31 PM EDT up reply actions

It is SSS.

But it’s the six strike outs and he never went deeper than 5 pitches any at bat. The one time Hall made contact it was a ground ball that made it into left field. Not saying he won’t be in but I would take my chances with Hermida.

" Play Ball "

by went9 on Apr 14, 2010 11:40 PM EDT up reply actions