Credit Where Credit is Due

OK, OK. Normally the Boston Red Sox are not on my list of teams to praise, because they receive so much praise from ESPN as it is, but in some cases they do deserve to be acknowledged for making great baseball moves. Previously, I mentioned Jon Pappelbon, the man who turns out more lights in Boston than any one individual in recent memory. They deserve credit for another big-time ballplayer. This one is not even close to under-the-radar (as Pappelbon still is). He is David Ortiz, and is one of the top five sluggers in the game today.

Why does Boston deserve credit? Because they took a chance on a guy whom nobody else wanted. If you are a fan of any of the other 29 teams in baseball, you can boggle your mind with huge dreams about what could have been, and if you are a general manager of one of those 29 teams, you can kick yourself square in the behind (if you can bend that way). Ortiz was a guy nobody wanted. In this week’s Sports Illustrated (in which Ortiz’s mug graces the cover) Tom Verducci tells the tale of a man who was cast-off by the Minnesota Twins (because they felt he had injury problems) and who, when placed on the “trading block,” received zero interest from other teams. Eventually the Twins cut him and the Red Sox gave him a shot with a $1 million plus contract (a bargain basement value for the kind of numbers Ortiz put up; he has now received a hefty raise to the tune of 4 years and $52 million), and the rest is home runs and a World Series ring.

How can a guy who was not wanted turn into one of the most feared hitters in baseball? I don’t know. The article mentions the Twins philosophy of small-ball, that could have hampered Ortiz, but really it is unknown. In Boston he was given the right opportunity and he passed the test as an everyday player with flying colors. By adding Ortiz, the Red Sox created the most fearsome 1-2 punch in all of baseball (RBI-machine Manny Ramirez hits 4th to David Ortiz’s 3rd). Yes, other teams boast some pretty formidable power: Alex Rodriguez and Jason Giambi (not to mention Gary Sheffield and Hideki Matsui) of the Yankees, David Wright and Carlos Delgado of the Mets (plus Carlos Beltran), Jim Thome and Paul Konerko of the White Sox (throw in Jermaine Dye too), even Ken Griffey, Jr. and Adam Dun of the Reds or Vernon Wells and Troy Glaus of the Blue Jays, but none of those twosomes have both players putting up 40-plus homers and 140-plus RBI. Last year Ortiz had 47 HR and 148 RBI on his way to a second-place in the MVP voting (and I thought he should have won instead of Alex Rodriguez), and Ramirez had 45 HR and 144 RBI. Nobody else has a duo like that. Many say the reason Boston won the World Series two years ago was because of the 1-2 punch of Pedro Martinez and Curt Schilling; I think it was the 1-2 of Ortiz and Ramirez. Nobody wants to face one of those guys, let along both back-to-back. Red Sox fans shouldn’t be grateful to God or some other higher power for their World Series ring. They should thank the Minnesota Twins for cutting David Ortiz loose in the winter of 2002.