David Ortiz – Suddenly Gone Quiet?

What in the world is wrong with David “Big Papi” Ortiz? Boston’s leading man who’s single handily kept the Boston Red Sox afloat and ahead of the competition with his heavy bat the last few years.  Has suddenly gone quiet, so quiet in fact it’s almost like he’s been nonexistentall season at the plate.  Ortiz is in the midst of his longest homer-less streak of his career as he’s now gone 130 at bats without knocking one deep.

Big Papi’s season stat’s:

Making matters worse would be his performance vs the Los Angeles Angels in the Sox 5-4 lost in extra innings on Thursday, as he left 12 runners on base.  Which is just unheard of coming from Big Papi, especially since he’s been producing and powering the Sox offense ever since the team traded for him back in 2003.  Something is definitely missing with Ortiz this year, could it be the wrist injury he suffered last season coming back?  I’m stumped as all the reports in regards to the wrist have been positive, but I can say that it’s not because Manny Ramirez isn’t batting behind him.

Here’s the solution I have for the moment which would be removing the pressure for Ortiz by sliding him down to the 5th or 6th spots in the order.  Since you have Jason Bay, J.D. Drew, Kevin Youkilis plus Mike Lowell who have all have been consistently hitting the ball.  Why not move them up and lower Ortiz and see if that helps, Big Papi has always been the prefecture in the Boston line-up over the last few years.  It’s time Terry Francona started protecting him and helping him out.  

Bump up Youkilis (when he returns from the DL) to the 3rd spot, move Bay into the cleanup spot and slide Ortiz into the 5th.  We’d still have Drew and Lowell batting in the 6th and 7th spots to protect Ortiz and drive him in with their bats.  We need to allow Ortiz time to get comfortable with hitting again, see if he adjusts to the five hole and starts producing the way fans in Boston have become accustomed too.  What could possibly go wrong with this?  It’s not his production will decline any worse than it is now!