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Very solid so far. Have a feeling he could be our main set up man by May/June. Kinda Hideki Okajima circa 2007 coming out of nowhere to be the man.

In other news, David Ortiz. What the f!ck.

Agreed on both counts. Ramon looks really good, but Ortiz looks completely lost. Will be interesting to see how Saito comes together.

Way too early to be excited or down on any player.

So far, so good. Hopefully he keeps it up.

sunshinekids99 wrote:Way too early to be excited or down on any player.

Sorry for the optimism. Maybe I should create a David Ortiz sucks thread to get things goin in 2009

Might have to after a week or so. Worked wonders for Pedroia.

Re: David Ortiz...

How much of the issue is related to Ortiz himself as opposed to Manny's absence?

Orlando Hudson is posting a nice stat line thus far for the Dodgers batting in front of Manny.

If you look at a site like baseballprospectus.com, it amazes me how much seemingly complicated statistical work is done out there yet I have yet to come across anything on the subject of measuring the affect of who a player bats in front of (maybe it does exist, I haven't searched long and hard).

In any event, if our starting rotation is in peak form by the end of the season, we won't have to be anything special at the plate to be one of the league's best teams.

To be honest, losing Manny has had no effect on Ortiz this year. Certainly it has hurt the team offensively, but that is because Manny was one of the best hitters of this generation and simply can't be replaced by Jason Bay. Nobody in their right mind this year has been pitching around Ortiz to get to a red-hot Youk. This year he's just been late on everything. It is April though, and Big Papi could pull a Varitek and still be the man in my book (which I don't think will happen). I think May will be a better month to judge him, assuming he remains healthy and all that good stuff.