No before you think this is another 'Ortiz is starting slow, bench the bum!' columns, it is not. I think Big Papi will be fine. Against righthanders. But the says he's not a good play against lefties any more.
From 07-09, Papi's line against lefties is 253/338/439. That's not good, and it was much worse than that last season (212/298/414). Now, Ortiz has had bad years against lefties before, and good ones. In most of his elite years, he hit lefties at a high level. But he has not been an elite player in several years. And while hitting him against a pitcher like Andy Pettite (who he's hit well in the past) is one thing, starting him against more traditional lefties is silly, especially with a very good option on the bench.
Over that same time period, Mike Lowell has hit 314/381/500 against southpaws. Why is this even a discussion?
Now, part of this may be not hurting Ortiz's ego and getting him reps against LHPs because the plan is to trade Lowell in the next couple of weeks. At this point, unless he brings something of value, I think keeping Lowell is the best option, playing him 2-3 times a week at 1B, 3B and DH.
So Lowell is an easy option at DH, especially since Adrian Beltre and Kevin Youkilis both bar righthanded. So please, Terry, Theo, make the right choice and get Lowell some more ABs.
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