Ortiz out at least a month, maybe for the season

[ma11l]

http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/baseball/red_sox/view/2008_06_02_Source:_Ortiz_out_at_least_a_month:_Season-ending_wrist_surgery_a_possibility/srvc=home&position=0


Even as a Sox fan I still see this as karma for the Horford jersey signing incident.  Don't mess with the Celts, even if you are Big Papi.  Once the summer goes on and my world is a little less green than now, I guess I'll be hoping he doesn't need surgery and he'll be back for the playoff push.

[Redz]

On the bright side Okajima continues to shine

[cdif911]

Best of luck to big Papi, despite any attempts to befriend a young Tito Horford Jr., he has brought so much goodwill, competitive tenacity and winning mentality to this city.  I hope he recovers ahead of schedule, and I know he'll slide right back in the lineup when he's good to go. Imagine if he and Schilling hypothetically come back in late August, just in time to catch the D-Rays and bring home another division title, penant and world series?  That'd be almost as awesome as the Celts winning the title...I'd say about 3/5 as awesome, maybe 4/7....

[Roy Hobbs]

That's pretty crappy news in an otherwise promising season.  Let's hope that this heals naturally without surgery, and that Papi is back in time to make a meaningful contribution this season.

[Bahku]

Wow ... this is really rotten news ... any type of soft-tissue injury is very slow to heal, and this particular damage requires that the hand, wrist and forearm remain motionless as much as possible. But it also has a great deal to do with the health of the person injured, and it wouldn't surprise me if Papi responded to this a bit more quickly than the average Joe ... here's hoping. Man, this really is not what this team needed right now, (or anytime, for that matter). Hope we see the Big Guy back sooner than later ... gonna be a huge void in the lineup without him.

[nickagneta]

This is not an injury that people return to professional athletic activity to in a month or less. Just awful news for the Red Sox greatest clutch hitter ever.

It will definitely be interesting to see if the Sox decide to deal some of their starting pitching for a power hitter or if they will decide to go with a lineup that has Manny DHing and Coco in center and Jacoby in left.

If the Sox decide to stick with the latter option this just might become Francona's best managing year as he will have to go to a National League style with pitching, speed, moving the runners over and manufacturing runs quite a bit of the time.

This is not good news. This is terrible news for the defending champs. But it just might mean some very entertaining baseball will be able to be seen here in Boston.

[Chris]

This is not good news for the Sox, but they are built to be able to withstand something like this.  They need their pitchers to step up, and maybe they can make up some of the offense by taking advantage of their speed, and playing Coco and Ellsbury, and DHing Manny. 

I also wonder if they will bring up Chris Carter, who has been hitting very well in the minors (he did the same thing last year).  He could definitely add some pop to the lineup.

[bostonfan23]

Terrible news.

Hopefully Manny doesn't get pitched around; it's time for him to step up big time.

Does this make the Sox go after a hitter more? Ken Griffey Jr.?

[Sweet17]

Sox are in deep trouble now. It's same injury that ended Nomar's reign as an elite hitter isn't it? Yes he WAS once an elite hitter believe it or not.

Pete

[wdleehi]

If he is out, they are going to have to get a bat. 


Both Dunn and Griffy are available. 

[nickagneta]

If he is out, they are going to have to get a bat. 


Both Dunn and Griffy are available. 

That means giving up maybe Coco and young pitching. Maybe not Coco but defintely young starting pitching

[Redz]

Dunn reminds me too much of



Maybe I'm wrong, but that's the path I see him headed down.

[Nerf MVP]

I also wonder if they will bring up Chris Carter, who has been hitting very well in the minors (he did the same thing last year).

They did and he was indeed. I'm sure you're referring to the HUGE May he had at Pawtucket. 10 HR's after 0 in April, and a plus .300 Avg.

I'm really not that worried about Ortiz, for these reasons. They're basically a first place team in spite of his dismal April. He's hitting something like .250, 10 Hr's, right?

Let me offer some in depth analysis of most of our losses through statements I may have made during and after each game:

"Well, Timlin sucked again..."

"What happened to DelCarmen? He sucks now. He was good last year..."

"Who's this Aardsma? He sucks. He just walked two guys in a row on 9 pitches."

" Well, Timlin still sucks."

"OMG, Lopez sucks so bad. How is ERA that low? I swear it's 10.5 in games I'm watching."

"Even Okajima sucks now. We might be in trouble..."

We won the most games in the A.L last season despite Manny, Drew, Coco, and Lugo having down years. Our bullpen is a far greater priority in my eyes than who DH's.

[nickagneta]

I also wonder if they will bring up Chris Carter, who has been hitting very well in the minors (he did the same thing last year).

They did and he was indeed. I'm sure you're referring to the HUGE May he had at Pawtucket. 10 HR's after 0 in April, and a plus .300 Avg.

I'm really not that worried about Ortiz, for these reasons. They're basically a first place team in spite of his dismal April. He's hitting something like .250, 10 Hr's, right?

Let me offer some in depth analysis of most of our losses through statements I may have made during and after each game:

"Well, Timlin sucked again..."

"What happened to DelCarmen? He sucks now. He was good last year..."

"Who's this Aardsma? He sucks. He just walked two guys in a row on 9 pitches."

" Well, Timlin still sucks."

"OMG, Lopez sucks so bad. How is ERA that low? I swear it's 10.5 in games I'm watching."

"Even Okajima sucks now. We might be in trouble..."

We won the most games in the A.L last season despite Manny, Drew, Coco, and Lugo having down years. Our bullpen is a far greater priority in my eyes than who DH's.

Being friendly with the Delcarmen family I thought I'd throw out that Manny has gotten his stuff back together and over his last 10 games has allowed only 2 earned runs in 10.2 innings for an ERA of 1.69, a BBA of .219 with 5 Ks. In that time he's lowered his ERA from 6.14 to 4.50.

Manny's problem was that he was throwing his heat right down the middle and couldn't control his curve. Now that he's painting some corners with the fastball and has control of his curve again it's making his change up much more effective and we're starting to see the Manny Delcarmen we thought we were going to get this year.

[Nerf MVP]

I also wonder if they will bring up Chris Carter, who has been hitting very well in the minors (he did the same thing last year).

They did and he was indeed. I'm sure you're referring to the HUGE May he had at Pawtucket. 10 HR's after 0 in April, and a plus .300 Avg.

I'm really not that worried about Ortiz, for these reasons. They're basically a first place team in spite of his dismal April. He's hitting something like .250, 10 Hr's, right?

Let me offer some in depth analysis of most of our losses through statements I may have made during and after each game:

"Well, Timlin sucked again..."

"What happened to DelCarmen? He sucks now. He was good last year..."

"Who's this Aardsma? He sucks. He just walked two guys in a row on 9 pitches."

" Well, Timlin still sucks."

"OMG, Lopez sucks so bad. How is ERA that low? I swear it's 10.5 in games I'm watching."

"Even Okajima sucks now. We might be in trouble..."

We won the most games in the A.L last season despite Manny, Drew, Coco, and Lugo having down years. Our bullpen is a far greater priority in my eyes than who DH's.

Being friendly with the Delcarmen family I thought I'd throw out that Manny has gotten his stuff back together and over his last 10 games has allowed only 2 earned runs in 10.2 innings for an ERA of 1.69, a BBA of .219 with 5 Ks. In that time he's lowered his ERA from 6.14 to 4.50.

Manny's problem was that he was throwing his heat right down the middle and couldn't control his curve. Now that he's painting some corners with the fastball and has control of his curve again it's making his change up much more effective and we're starting to see the Manny Delcarmen we thought we were going to get this year.

I hope the MDC of '07 is back very much so, and have been encouraged by his recent stint. I'm an optimist, and so believe that Delcarmen, Hansen, and eventually Masterson can join Oki and Paps in our second half return to BP dominance.

Carter may never be a perennial Silver Slugger, but even minus Ortiz our lineup is pretty solid top to bottom.