Sunday, April 19, 2009
THOUGHTS ON DAVID ORTIZ AND THE CELTICS
This past week two national writers commented on David Ortiz. First, Buster Olney of ESPN.com:
“Opposing talent evaluators are stunned by the regression in his bat speed, by how different a hitter he seems to be as compared to what he was in his prime.”
In the same spirit, Ken Rosenthal said:
“Teams are not pitching Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz as carefully as they did in the past, one American League coach notes, sensing that above-average velocity gives him trouble. Ortiz, 33, needs to get his bat going earlier against good fastballs, leaving him more vulnerable to breaking pitches.”
After finally watching a full series, Big Papi showed very little to make me think otherwise. Fortunately, PECOTA is projecting the Sox to lead the A.L. in runs scored with the 2008 version of David Ortiz a.k.a. 265/270/500 hitter. Ortiz doesn’t need to be Big Papi; maybe we should adjust our expectations.
***
The Game 1 loss to the Bulls was evidence that the Celtics coaches, which seem to be a 3-to-1 player-to-coach ratio, can be brain dead. Any reasonably intelligent person would conclude after the first half that the Celtics needed to stop Rose and that would likely necessitate a different strategy. But as far as I could tell, the C’s did stuck with the same thing. Why didn’t they double Rose after he cross half court making him give up the ball, and then deny him getting it back or something different than allowing him to abuse Rondo?
Perhaps that’s why KG spent the second half in the locker room. He disagreed with the defensive tactics (of course, this is pure speculation). Any team can only have one leader.
Regardless, Ray Allen has to show up and Paul Pierce can’t be missing game winning freebies. The Bulls are not a good team.
This past week two national writers commented on David Ortiz. First, Buster Olney of ESPN.com:
“Opposing talent evaluators are stunned by the regression in his bat speed, by how different a hitter he seems to be as compared to what he was in his prime.”
In the same spirit, Ken Rosenthal said:
“Teams are not pitching Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz as carefully as they did in the past, one American League coach notes, sensing that above-average velocity gives him trouble. Ortiz, 33, needs to get his bat going earlier against good fastballs, leaving him more vulnerable to breaking pitches.”
After finally watching a full series, Big Papi showed very little to make me think otherwise. Fortunately, PECOTA is projecting the Sox to lead the A.L. in runs scored with the 2008 version of David Ortiz a.k.a. 265/270/500 hitter. Ortiz doesn’t need to be Big Papi; maybe we should adjust our expectations.
***
The Game 1 loss to the Bulls was evidence that the Celtics coaches, which seem to be a 3-to-1 player-to-coach ratio, can be brain dead. Any reasonably intelligent person would conclude after the first half that the Celtics needed to stop Rose and that would likely necessitate a different strategy. But as far as I could tell, the C’s did stuck with the same thing. Why didn’t they double Rose after he cross half court making him give up the ball, and then deny him getting it back or something different than allowing him to abuse Rondo?
Perhaps that’s why KG spent the second half in the locker room. He disagreed with the defensive tactics (of course, this is pure speculation). Any team can only have one leader.
Regardless, Ray Allen has to show up and Paul Pierce can’t be missing game winning freebies. The Bulls are not a good team.
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Thank you - Red Sox!
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