More in a little bit, but haven't seen this mentioned anywhere except for running across it on Peter Gammons' consistently blogtastic ESPN blog...David Ortiz mentioned to Gammons at the All-Star festivities in San Fran that he may need some kind of medical procedure on his troublesome right leg (quad) when the season is over...This goes a long way in explaining why Ortiz has struggled to hit home runs this year, and once again proves why Gammons is a Hall of Fame sportswriter that manages to get information out of people when nobody else can. From Gammons:

• David Ortiz still cannot get down in his crouch and corkscrew up to generate his normal power because of hamstring and quad problems. "I think it's something they'll have to go in and fix at the end of the season," says Ortiz. "I'm trying to fight through it, but some days it isn't easy." Hence, the 14 homers. In the last calendar year, Manny Ramirez's OPS is .921 with 22 homers and 82 RBI. This year he's on a 21-homer pace and his OPS is .851, which would be the lowest OPS of any full season for Ramirez, who averaged 40 homers a season from 1995 through 2006. Ramirez is 21st in the AL in OPS, one point higher than Dustin Pedroia, and 33 points lower than Curtis Granderson.

 

"Coco has more Win Shares than me? It don't matter."

Another piece of revealing evidence that Ramirez is going through an unparalleld struggle in his baseball career: the just-released half-season Win Shares produced and calculated by The Hardball Times. Ramirez falls behind Boston centerfielder Coco Crisp in the outfield Win Shares category (mostly by virtue of Coco's superior defensive rating) and stands at a total of 8 Win Shares which ties him with such baseball luminaries as Geoff Jenkins, Willie Harris and Wily Tavares...Yikes. If his season continues to form, it will be the first time in ten years that Manny doesn't hit 30 home runs and the first time in his career that he registers a slugging percentage under .500.

Since it's important to study history lest we repeat our mistakes (and because RBI Baseball is the best baseball video game of all-time), here is the Daily Dose of Red Sox Nation...with this one being a little difficult to swallow for Sox fans I'm sure.

 

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