BIG PAPI = BIG BABY

Poor David Ortiz…poor David Ortiz…

While most in baseball associate David Ortiz with the nickname “Big Papi”, I feel “Big Baby” is much more appropriate and will, thus, refer to him as such for the rest of this article.  In my opinion, big babies never take blame and always cry when others are “picking” on them.  They act as if they are 100% innocent and defensively point fingers at others whenever their perfect innocence is challenged.  Big babies intake “formulas” or other “things” to help them grow stronger.

Big Baby was on a list of 104 players that included A-Rod that failed a drug test that was given back in 2003.  Back then, MLB determined that they were not going to suspend anyone; that they were simply gathering an idea of the amount of drug usage within their organization.  Since that time and since suspensions were implemented, Big Baby has never been found guilty like other players from the George J. “Mitchell Report”: Barry Bonds, Mark McGuire, Manny Ramirez, and Rafael Palmeiro.  Nor was he found guilty in recent years from sporadic tests or from evidence involving the anti-aging clinic/Biogenesis lab findings that exposed players including A-Rod, Ryan Braun, Nelson Cruz, Jhonny Peralta, Everth Cabrera, Jesus Montero, Francisco Cervelli, Antonio Bastardo, and Jordany Valdespin.  So, Big Baby was never suspended like the others were (for at least 50 games).

Still, there are members of the press and some baseball players that feel skeptical about Big Baby’s innocence throughout the years.  Big Baby doesn’t understand that and points out that his name was not supposed to be divulged from that sealed/confidential list of players from the 2003 test.  He has stated that the drug was an over-the-counter drug that anyone could buy and use.  He doesn’t understand why anyone would question the fact that his offensive numbers (>30 homers/>100 RBIs) are very uncharacteristic for any player in their late 30s.  Big Baby, instead, implies that such great numbers should be praised beyond that of any average baseball player.  

This week (on Thursday, March 26), Big Baby decided that he wanted to try and rectify the misunderstandings of others and save face for himself before the 2015 season begins.  Apparently, he is not only concerned about his current reputation amongst the media, but also of his future standing with the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum committee.  Ironically, 2 former players from the Yankees who played during most of Big Baby’s years (Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera), never showed self-acclaim or any expectations towards being elected into the Hall of Fame.  They have instead lowered their tones humbly whenever the subject is mentioned.

Big Baby stomped his feet in a tantrum this past Thursday and decided to generate his own article on “The Players’ Tribune” which is a journalism outlet that Derek Jeter created for players.  Before I provide Thursday’s quotes from that, let me first provide some past quotes that Big Baby stated:

From “Boston.com” - “I will find out what I tested positive for…based on whatever I learn.  I will share this information with my club and the public. You know me - I will not hide and I will not make excuses.”  From ESPN - “The information regarding Ortiz and Ramirez became known through Times interviews with multiple lawyers and others connected to pending litigation regarding the test results between the baseball players union and the government. The lawyers spoke anonymously because the testing information is under seal by a court order, the newspaper reported, and the lawyers did not indicate which drugs were detected.”

Here are some of the things Big Baby vocalized for his article in The Players’ Tribune on March 26: 

Okay, sure, I’ll take that. I’m buying an over-the-f***ing-counter supplement in the United States of America. I’m buying this stuff in line next to doctors and lawyers. Now all of a sudden MLB comes out and says there’s some ingredient in GNC pills that have a form of steroid in them. I don’t know anything about it.

If you think I’m full of it, go to your kitchen cabinet right now and read the back of a supplement bottle and honestly tell me you know what all of that stuff is. I’m not driving across the border to Mexico buying some shady pills from a drug dealer. I’m in a strip mall across from the Dunkin’ Donuts, bro.

Hell yes I deserve to be in the Hall of Fame. I’ve won three World Series since MLB introduced comprehensive drug testing. I’ve performed year after year after year. But if a bunch of writers who have never swung a bat want to tell me it’s all for nothing, OK. Why do they write my legacy?

Gee, what a sweetheart of a guy and a “teddy bear” (a nickname his followers sometimes call him); such charismatic language to choose in his first self-written, publicized words; but remember, he is a Big Baby.  He said, "I'm not driving across the border to Mexico", so how could we fathom that he could have obtained drugs?  Wow, how ignorant does he think average baseball fans are?  Are we to believe that drugs are only attainable across the border, and only in Mexico?  He “will not make excuses”?  That’s all he’s been doing for 10 years!  Maybe there’s something in his Dunkin’ Donuts’ coffee that has either jumbled his brain or, on the other hand, made him stronger than most players in their late 30s - including the majority of players who are actually in better toned condition!!

Big Baby blames either the whole state of New York or presumably the Yankees as the culprits that have provided embellished stories aimed at him just to distort their own players.  Has he ever read the New York newspapers?  Has he ever listened to the New Yorkers or even just the segmented Yankees’ fans over the airwaves?  Wow!

Besides the aforementioned quotes and stories from “Boston.com” or “ESPN” who, along with MLB, typically wear Red Sox cheerleading outfits when they write or talk about the Red Sox, even the “Boston Globe” has offered some unsupportive rhetoric about the Big Baby:  http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2015/03/27/dear-david-ortiz-since-you-brought/soyNO1ICkfvv5THbW98O0K/story.html.

Additionally, NBC Sports pointed out a very good point via their http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/03/27/did-david-ortiz-admit-to-more-than-he-realized-with-his-players-tribune-editorial/ link, which basically emphasizes that while Big Baby cried about being tested more than any other player in baseball, MLB typically only executes extra tests to players that were previously found with positive tests - including players that were never suspended, but were found to be cheaters before the suspensions were implemented.  Hmm!

MLB and especially Boston fans:  It’s time for you to finally widen your eyes and realize you have a cheater that you idolize.  Most New York baseball fans and press have expressed their grave disappointment in A-Rod, even before he was suspended!  Please take the blindfolds off and focus!

As far as the Hall of Fame is concerned, it’s a good thing that there’s at least 6 years before the votes will be casted for Big Baby because that will allow more time for the truth to make its way to the forefront.  Additionally, Big Baby has mostly been a Designate Hitter during his “legacy” career.  As a result, he certainly hasn’t contributed much defense to help his team (only about 15%) - something that the voters have considered ever since the DH was implemented.  So, since that is already disregarded by Big Baby, based on his “Vote for Me” attitude, he should also review his own team’s greatest Hall of Famers, such as Ted Williams or Carl Yastrzemski.  They certainly provided the other half of the game a typical hitter contributes…defense!  What a self-proclaimed “legacy” he is!

THE PROMISE OF SPRING

Spring is less than 2 weeks away, but on the east coast it will certainly be more welcome than almost any other prior year, with the ridiculous amounts and relentless occurrences of snow!  The arrival of spring training baseball is a key sign to such promising, improved weather.  In fact, just a few days after the games began, the weather jointly “began” improving immensely.

So, as we move forward with promising weather, our baseball teams also move forward with their own promise.   No matter what team you root for, each new season offers promise.  The Yankees are no different, although most of the NYY fans I’ve spoken to are not as excited as I am.  That’s because the Yankees only signed one well-known free agent, reliever Andrew Miller.

This past offseason, the Yankees’ main and continuing goal was to focus on getting younger, including avoiding the loss of their top draft-pick selection, which they achieved.  They began their youth movement last year when they dove into the international free agent pool and signed most of the top-tier players that were each approximately 18 years old.  Recently, they signed 8 of the 11 key MLB roster players (as of today) that are 22-30 years old.  Here are their 11 key signings thus far:

SP Nathan Eovaldi (25 years old)

RP Justin Wilson (27 years old)

RP David Carpenter (29 years old)

RP Chris Martin (28 years old)

RP Andrew Miller (29 years old)

RP Domingo German (22 years old)

SS Didi Gregorius (25 years old)

1B Garrett Jones (33 years old)

2B Stephen Drew (31 years old)

3B Chase Headley (30 years old)

OF Chris Young (31 years old)

These 5 additional players from the same expected 25-man roster are in their 20s:

Adam Warren (27 years old)

John Ryan Murphy (23 years old)

Michael Pineda (26 years old)

Masahiro Tanaka (26 years old)

Dellin Betances (26 years old)

Their potential starting pitchers consist of 5 out of 7 starters that are in their 20s - Adam Warren, Ivan Nova (28 years old/expected back in June from surgery), Eovaldi, Pineda, and Tanaka.  Only CC Sabathia and Chris Capuano are over 30.

At this point, the Yankees’ 25-man roster has approximately half of its players 30 years old or younger.  Moreover, in baseball terms, they only have 4 contracted players who are considered “old” in baseball standards.  Out of those 4 players (CC Sabathia (3 years remaining), A-Rod (3 years remaining), Beltran (2 years remaining), and Capuano (1 year remaining)), both CC and A-Rod have health issues that may lead to insurance payouts in place of the Yankees having to wait for their contract terms to end.  That’s not too shabby!  Furthermore, I am very hopeful and excited as they have even more potential young stars that may soon join their team this year or next year including Aaron Judge (OF), Luis Severino (SP), Greg Bird (1B), Rob Refsnyder (2B), Jose Pirela (2B), Jacob Lindgren (RP) - along with the pool of international players that will offer at least a few more youthful options within the next 5 years.

Clearly, their current team is now younger and they have so many promising, young players that are expected to make their roster by the end of this year or next.  To further my final point, even Baseball America (BA) and some other renowned professional baseball experts are now acknowledging the Yankees as having a much better farm system then they’ve had in years.  Here are such future potential stars, as ranked by BA, with the first 2 players qualifying within BA’s Top 100:

SP Luis Severino

OF Aaron Judge

SS Jorge Mateos

1B Greg Bird

C Gary Sanchez

RP Ian Clarkin

2B Rob Refsnyder

RP Jacob Lindgren

C Luis Torrens
3B Miguel Andujar

A-ROD’S BACK

Well, as the Yankees are about to (finally) begin their first spring training game, I feel obligated to at least wrap up the latest saga regarding A-Rod.  Almost all Yankees’ fans (and almost all baseball fans, for that matter) are sick and tired of hearing or reading about A-Rod.  For that reason, I’ve been limiting my articles about him and even hesitated to write this one!

We all know by now that on February 17, 2015, A-Rod presented his own handwritten apology which was just another apology on top of another apology.  Whether he handwrote it, skywrote it, or personally hung from the rungs of a helicopter’s ladder shouting it out with a megaphone, there would be no dignity nor any honesty believed by most.  His reputation is so damaged after he magnified his supposed false accusations, which all later proved to be true by his own admission!!

As a Yankees’ fan, I wish we didn’t have to deal with all of this.  I still blame Hank Steinbrenner for overreacting and re-signing A-Rod back in December, 2007.  Yes, we won a championship 2 years later, but A-Rod (who had a very good series) was still unwanted by the NYY fans prior to the re-signing and after the re-signing.  He just acts so cocky with his expressed perked lips during negative results (such as when he strikes out) that his character is very unacceptable to any experienced baseball fan!  Of course the press loves him because his magnitude is even larger than Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, Madonna, or Justin Bieber.

Now, in the 2015 season, we may have to watch him on the field or in the dugout game-after-game.  It’s mean and selfish, but I think we all (except mainly the media) hope he just goes away!  That can happen if:

- His physical condition is deemed too poor to physically play (perhaps because of his failing recovering hips from the surgeries he had) - the Yankees would then get to claim insurance and only pay 15% of the remaining $61 million/3 years

- He is found, once again, to be cheating with some form of enhancements

- The Yankees just outright release him because his hitting is too ineffective or they find him to be a virus on the team

- The Yankees negotiate a buyout and then remove him from their roster

(In the last 2 scenarios, another team, such as one that is hungry for publicity, could always sign A-Rod, while the Yankees continue to pay his enormous remaining contract or A-Rod can just hang out and enjoy a very well-paid vacation.)

If any of the aforementioned conditions happen to terminate A-Rod’s presence in a Yankees’ uniform in the very near future, many Yankees’ fans (including me) would rejoice.  If he, instead, contributes decently then we’ll have to tolerate him, as we each wonder what he’s on that is undetectable to the tests MLB has implemented.