By: Zach Comtois, YawkeyTalkies Correspondent

We’ve all been thinking about this for a month. Some of us have given up wondering, some are angry, and some remain hopeful. It’s time for us to get it out into the open. What’s going on with Ortiz? I’d like to take a moment of your time and explain what I feel is going on with the former big slugger.

We all know his history with the Red Sox not only as a power home run hitter with a high batting average, but easily the most clutch hitter in Red Sox history. I’m not going to get into the steroid aspect of this debate, because the only solid proof we’ve had is that someone sprung said fact onto Ortiz before a ballgame, and he dealt with that by smacking out a few homers.

So let’s look at the current situation: Ortiz is currently batting a .156 with 7 hits per 45 at bats. He has walked five times, was caught stealing in his only attempt, snapped his homerless streak the other night with a big fly, and has three RBI’s. This puts him on pace to not do too much (if any) damage this season.

Don’t get me wrong I have always been an Ortiz fan. He’s Big Papi, he’s our cleanup man, he’s our big slugger. But, here are some of the problems that he’s facing right now. He doesn’t have any protection in the lineup. When you’ve got JD Drew hitting behind you, you’re not going to see a lot of fastballs. Even when he does, he’s not catching up to them. He no longer has the intimidation factor, and isn’t seeing a lot of mistakes from pitchers. Men on the mound are coming right after him with everything they’ve got, and 38 times out of 45, it’s worked.

Obviously, he has a full no trade clause, so there isn’t really anything the Red Sox can do about this situation until after the season, but when you’ve got Mikey Lowell on the bench (who in seven games is hitting a .250 with a homer) there needs to be a lot more versatility in the lineup.

I know that Theo’s dealing with injuries to Ellsbury and Cameron, and is improvising with his outfield, but we don’t have the one-two punch that used to be Ortiz and Manny. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Our offense would (will?) be so much better with Adrian Gonzalez batting cleanup, but at this point that is nothing more than a pipe dream.

Long story short, with the way the Sox are playing (starting pitching, bullpen, defense, and offense all struggling) we don’t have as much time as we did in ‘09 to wait for Papi to turn it around. I love the guy, as I do everyone who played for the ‘04 team, but we’ve gotta start winning ball games, and we’re already playing from behind by quite the margin.

Will Ortiz snap out of his slump, or is he just washed up at this point? You be the judge.

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