big papi is good - a rules to live by exclusive

so a buddy of mine whose opinion i value greatly has been reading the rules of late (at least someone is) and claims that i have a tendency to focus too much on the negative... this occurred to me as i sat down to write about david ortiz, his current slump and why it could irreparably harm the team if he doesn't get out of it soon... so instead of write what everyone who has watched a sox game in the last month or so already knows, i will instead take a different route...

i'll be an optimist instead... please forgive me if whatever follows is cut off abruptly at some point - it's just my head exploding...

watching the highlights of the fourth of july matinée against the devil rays with my dad and brother during the annual family cookout, an interesting point was made... after the clip of big papi's first inning strikeout, a K as ugly as it gets, given the end result (the bat flying into the 25th row, likely knocking out the teeth of a card-carrying, pink hat-wearing member of red sox nation) and the pitcher (the immortal edwin jackson, he of the 1-9 record and the 7.26 ERA), the old man said, "man does he look bad right now - he looks like lugo..." having been roughly 75 yards away from papi when this happened, i'm here to report that yes, he looks really bad right now, and no, he doesn't look like lugo (who, by the way, may be on the verge of actually doing something quasi-productive at the plate)...

but the metaphor is well taken... sure, papi is hitting .307 (as opposed to lugo's .192 - still 14 points higher than doug mirabelli, thank god)... but there are connections to be made... lugo was stuck in an 0-for-33 until tuesday and had gone an ungodly 19 days without a hit... big papi has not had an extra base hit in 55 at-bats, a stunning statistic which, relatively speaking, is somewhat similar to lugo's plight... ortiz also has not homered since june 20, a span of 12 games, and has not homered at fenway, his personal house of badass, since - deep breath now - april 21... april 21!!! that's 31 home games!!! having seen what ortiz has done for the past four years, such numbers are borderline incomprehensible...

now remember, this is the column where i officially offer my services as an optimist... bearing that in mind, i can state in all certainty that i'm not the least bit worried...

here's the thing - the guy very well may be hurt... when you are as good a hitter as big papi, you don't go as cold as he has in the power department because you miss your old hitting coach... something was wrong with his hamstring back in late may, he missed a couple of games and when he came back, with the exception of two games against the yankees at fenway and a huge night out in oakland, he became the world's biggest singles hitter... maybe he rushed back from the hamstring thing too soon... maybe he needed to go on the dl back then but would probably have to be in traction somewhere to agree to such a move... and maybe he hasn't been right since... a power hitter like papi gets much of what he needs to belt monster home runs from from his legs... you got bad hammys, quads, ankles, what have you, your power just isn't there like it is when you're 100 percent healthy...

so what's positive about this? the fact that the team can afford to let him rest a bit if for no other reason than to see if his health is indeed the issue... in case you've been asleep the past two and a half months, we're now halfway through the season, and the sox have a double digit lead in the AL east... this lead has been built while a) manny has been having the weakest statistical season he's had in a decade, b) curt schilling has been mostly ineffective/injured, c) julian tavarez has held down a regular spot in the rotation, d) no one in the bullpen not named okajima or papelbon has been consistently reliable, e) the team's two marquee free agent acquisitions have ranged from mediocre to atrocious and f) ortiz has, well, not been big papi...

are there any better reasons for optimism right now than those? the red sox are leading a charmed life and while the cynic in me has been bracing for all of these flaws to catch up with them, at the halfway mark of the year, it just doesn't look like its going to happen... schilling goes on the dl? team doesn't miss a beat... manny looks like any other guy? team doesn't miss a beat... lugo threatens to take futility to new highs/lows? team doesn't miss a beat... ortiz slumps as bad as we've ever seen him slump? so far, with a couple of minor hiccups, team doesn't miss a beat... so give him some rest then, perhaps? i'm not suggesting he get benched - far from it... as of right now, there are four games left before the all-star break... does he really need to play in all four of them? give him tonight and one of the games in detroit over the weekend off... ask/encourage him to not play in the all-star game next week (it's not like the sox won't be well represented without him)... maybe even squeeze him into an MRI machine over the break and get a true read on whether the legs are really the problem... the point is, that so much good fortune has shined on the red sox that they have the luxury of being cautious with big papi, as they've been with schilling and, to a slightly lesser degree, papelbon... they can afford to take a bit of time and see if they can get to the root of the problem... there's three months and 79 games left until the postseason, and as we all know, that's when papi kicks the most ass - when the games really mean something...

or maybe he'll see something while watching video before tonight's game, go out and go 4-for-5 with a homer and six rbi, not miss any time and wind up finishing .320-37-110 while leading the sox to the best record in baseball and their first AL east title since 1995... would you be surprised? i wouldn't...