What's Wrong With Ortiz at the Plate?

Something is not right with David Ortiz at the plate. His early numbers confirm that he is struggling. He's 3-26 so far this season. For those of you scoring at home, that's a .115 average.

If you caught the game on NESN last night, you saw a slow-mo replay of his swing and his stance during the past few games. Big Papi tried a little wider stance (not the Sen. Larry Craig kind) to make sure he wasn't getting under the ball as much. It didn't help much yesterday, but he did seem to look at least a little more comfortable at the plate.

Ortiz had off-season knee surgery. It always takes a while to come back from surgery, but he seemed like he was fully recovered coming in to Spring Training. It looks like it's going to take a little longer for Ortiz to get back in a groove. Normally that wouldn't be a problem, but with the Sox injuries and early season pitching woes, the team needs to put up some big offensive numbers for insurance to get them through the middle relief period.

Big Papi is such a good hitter that we should all be confident that he will work his way out of this slide in the short term.

Sports Writer Steven Krasner also gets into Ortiz's early season struggle at the plate in today's ProJo.