Ortiz? Seriously? He is surrounded with garbage and you are surprised that his stats are off. I am surprised that he gets anything to hit.
The truth is that last year was a perfect season. Every time we needed something to happen, it happened with uncanny regularity. Buchholz and Lester came out of the chute on fire. By the time Ortiz made his debut in May, the team was well on its way. By the time Buch got injured he'd already put up a season of great stats and we won all of his 10-12 starts. His was the only serious injury sustained by the team, and he played a huge role in their success before he suffered his injury.
They were incredibly resilient and never lost 4 in a row and their confidence and belief in themselves continued to build all season long. The LF platoon of a journeyman and a career minor leaguer was the most potent offensive left field in baseball. That wasn't going to repeat. Nava's Joe Hardy deal with the devil has expired and he looks like the minor league hack that he is. They played well-above their heads last year. It was not a supremely talented group, but they were a determined bunch that played great. We lost one of our few stars and we are left with Pedroia and Papi as the remaining stars and Pedroia has been a shell of his former self. Other than the two remaining stars (Pedroia and Ortiz), the team is pretty much the same -- a bunch of mainly undistinguished role players that can't replicate last year's magic. We all misjudged this team's capability in light of last year's magic. We thought they could lose Ellsbury and not miss a beat. I am not laying this all off on Ellsbury by any means, nor am I justifying his contract so save your breath. I am just saying that we overestimated this team's capability. This is not a simple case of a championship hangover. This team is 14th out of 15 teams with a record worse than the Astros. Ask any casual baseball fan to name a single player on the Astros. We are firmly in suckland. This is the worst offense the team has had in decades. It is embarrassing to be this bad the year after winning a championship.