Magglio Ordonez Situation Tough on Tigers and Fans: Stop the Insanity!

(Photo by Jeff Gross/Getty Images)

I have had it with Magglio Ordonez.

Okay, I should preface this by saying how much I appreciate what Ordonez has meant to my beloved Detroit Tigers and the fans in general. 

Maggs signed with us when we were still a losing franchise without a lot of promise.  Sure, we may have overpaid for the then injured slugger, but he still had to sign the contract and we all were grateful.

After an early injury scare (sports hernia) kept him sidelined from the outset of his Tigers tenure, he eventually hit the field and tore the league apart in the process.

Over the next three seasons, Ordonez averaged over 24 home runs and 115 runs batted in and failed to hit above .300 only once (.298 being the only time he didn't reach that mark), including his high water season of 2007 in which he had 28 homers, 139 RBI, and led the league in average with an astonishing .363 average.

Furthermore, Ordonez left perhaps the most lasting image of the World Series team of 2006 when he hit the walk-off home run against Oakland that sent the motor city kitties to the Series.

Ordonez was great.  But something happened on the way to the happy ending in Detroit: Ordonez stopped producing.

Last year Ordonez still had a good season, but his power numbers dropped off a bit, with the Venezuelan power hitter slugging a pedestrian 21 homers.  This may seem like nit picking, but this was the lowest full season home run total since his rookie season.

Additionally, Ordonez was playing in a lineup that featured the home run champ Miguel Cabrera acting as a secret service-like protector. 

Manager Jim Leyland moved Ordonez into the No. 3 spot in the lineup for just that reason, and Ordonez responded by hitting only nine homers over the last three months of the season.

Ordonez's power outage continued but at a drastic decline to only three homers over the first three months of this season.

If this were only about home runs, that would be one thing.  However, Ordonez is hitting a paltry .265 and only has 24 RBI through 60 plus games.  Add to that the fact that Ordonez is a below average fielder at best, and you have a real dead spot in the lineup.

If Ordonez were just an average player with an average salary, this could be overlooked. But Ordonez is making nearly $19 million this season, with a player option for $18 million for 2010.  More on that later.

Obviously, some players are hot starters and some are cold.  I have heard countless prognosticators and "experts" in the blogosphere claiming that Ordonez is just a notoriously slow starter. 

This logic is patently false.  Not only is Ordonez not a slow starter, but he is actually a pretty hot starter.  Consider this: Since 2001, Ordonez has only failed to hit .300 once through the first three months of the season, and that was in 2003 while with Chicago, when he hit a respectable .285. (This does not include 2005 when he only had 10 at-bats in the first three months.)

So, are we looking at a drastic decline in what could be the end of a stellar career? 

Who knows?  A month ago, I would have said that this is the case.  But at that time, both the Yankees' Alex Rodriguez and Boston's David Ortiz were in similar slumps. 

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