(Photo by Jim Rogash/Getty Images)
The baseball season has finally kicked into high gear as we’ve officially entered the summer months.
There are still no clear favorites in either league, with the exception of the Dodgers who have opened up an eight-game lead in the NL west. Certain players who have dominated MVP voting in the past have failed to live up to expectations this season.
Is Papi Back?
Sox fans have longed to hear it, David “Big Papi” Ortiz looks like he’s finally back.
Papi homered again on Father’s Day, raising his season total to six. Ortiz is starting to look more comfortable at the plate and took both of his home runs to left field, something we saw him do a lot in 2005 and 2006, the two best seasons of his career.
The last 16 months have been tough on Boston’s folk hero. Ortiz, who heroically carried Boston to the 2004 World Championship, the Red Sox first title in 86 years.
He labored through his worst season as a Red Sox in 2008. Ortiz missed 60 games with a wrist injury and despite cranking 23 home runs, he struggled offensively, hitting just .264.
This season did not start any better. Ortiz hit just .230 in April with just 12 RBI. May did not go any better. Papi hit only .143 with 1 home run and six RBI.
June has been much better to Ortiz. Papi is hitting .308 with five home runs and 12 RBI, helping the Red Sox extend their lead in the AL East to four games.
Much like it’s been in the past, the Red Sox win when Ortiz performs. Ortiz is hitting a respectable .270 with six HRs and 25 RBI in games the Red Sox have won. When the Sox lose, Ortiz is hitting a measly .124 (11 for 89), with no home runs and only five RBI.
A-Rod Struggling
Like Big Papi, Alex Rodriguez has endured a rough 10-month stretch.
The highest paid player, and arguably the best player in the game, failed to take the Yankees to the playoffs for the first time since 1993.
For all the reasons that the tabloids and newspapers gave for the Yankees failures, no one seemed to point the figure at Rodriguez, a rarity for the New York papers.
After enjoying a great first half in which he hit .312 with 19 home runs and 53 RBI, Rodriguez put up pretty average numbers in the second half.The Yankees third baseman hit .290 with 16 home runs and 50 RBI, and struck out 59 times in 231 at-bats.
In August and September, crunch time in the Pennant race, Rodriguez grounded into 12 double plays, and hit just .258 with 12 home runs and 38 RBI, not numbers you would expect for someone who is routinely in the MVP conversation.
This season obviously did not start any better. First came the admission of steroid use, then the hip surgery that kept him out for five weeks, then the pitch tipping scandal.
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