Ortiz in 2009: A Season of Milestones

November 4th, 2009 | by Darryl Johnston |

David Ortiz

2009 started off pretty bad for David Ortiz.

The rumors, black clouds and steroid links haunted him as Red Sox Nation attempted to solve his problems at the plate. It ended up being a pretty decent second-half for Big Papi where he finished with 28 home runs and fell just an RBI short of 100 for the season.

When you think of a milestone year for him, you don’t really think of ‘09. There was a lot of underwhelming at-bats and boo birds to really categorize the season as anything except a nice, late season save. But in reality, Ortiz achieved a handful of personal accomplishments this past season.

On June 24th, when Boston was visiting the Nation’s Capitol, Big Papi notched his 1,000 career RBI on a three-run blast in the 4th inning that gave the Red Sox a 3-1 lead en route to a 6-4 Red Sox win. Ortiz raised his average to .219 that game and seemed to be gaining a little traction offensively.

Shortly thereafter, Ortiz hammered his 300th career home run. It came at Fenway Park on July 7th, against the Kansas City Royals, off Luke Hochevar in the first inning. The two-run shot gave the Red Sox a 3-0 lead at the time, but the combination of Brad Penny, Manny Delcarmen and Justin Masterson leaked away the lead and the Sox lost 8-6.

Finally, in early August, Ortiz recorded his 5,000th career at-bat against the Yankees. The Red Sox lost 5-0 and Big Papi went 0-3 with two K’s as Boston began its late season swoon versus the Bombers.

Certainly, Ortiz is not the imposing designated hitter of years past and looking at the 2010 season, one has to wonder what kind of production Red Sox fans can expect from the DH-slot. Boston has one more season with him and Theo Epstein has already said he needs Ortiz to be a force if he is going to be the team’s DH.

He’s right,” Ortiz said. “I’ve got to be a force. He’s right about that. It’s all good. Come out next year and do my thing. That’s it.”

Ortiz is being paid over $12 million dollars by the organization. In 2009, Fangraphs.com has him listed as a $3.2 million dollar player. Granted, it shouldn’t really matter to fans who gets paid what. There is no salary cap and although the Red Sox are not as rich as the New York Yankees when it comes to money, they still have deep pockets. But when a guy is making $12 million, you are hoping for a little bit better than a .340 wOBA. You are looking for something about 80 points higher.

Ortiz knows he can’t play forever but still feels he can swing the bat effectively.

“Everybody is used to seeing me hitting 40 homers with 140 RBI,” Ortiz said. “But I tell you, anybody will take 30 and 100. If I hit two more homers and get one more RBI next year than I did this year, what are people going to say?

I can tell what people are going to say if you hit .230…

Regardless, Big Papi thinks 2010 will be different than 2009.

“Just leave it up to Big Papi. We’ll be fine.”

Let’s hope his 2010 milestones end with another World Series ring and a graceful bow out from the game.

Darryl Johnston is the Red Sox correspondent for Fanball.com. He has many years of sports writing under his championship belts. Email him – redsoxdj@gmail.com