David Ortiz was one of the best hitters in the game during his playing days.
It’s scary to think that the Hall of Famer who slugged 541 home runs while batting .286 in his career could be even better in today’s game.
Ortiz said he would’ve thrived in today’s game with the pitch clock and new mound visit rules while appearing on Audacy’s original podcast “Baseball Isn’t Boring” this week.
“You remember when I played, pitchers and catchers in one at-bat they used to have three meetings. At some point, it had to be like ‘You guys don’t know each other?’ because the catcher always wanted to go to the pitcher and tell him what to throw or this and that,” Ortiz said (5:30 in player above). “Nowadays, you’re not allowed to do that. You have to figure it out. I would make them pay. Simple as that.”
Ortiz was always feared when he stepped into the box. That led to opposing teams using everything they could to try to throw him off his game.
“Those meetings between pitchers and catchers, there was a lot when I played. That was disturbing. Somehow, someway it used to either make me mad or take my focus away,” he said.
“I think they used to do it on purpose.”
“So nowadays, you only can go to visit once. That would’ve been good for me because my concentration and my focus were part of not having any interruptions or distractions. I know a lot of those guys, they used to have those meetings to distract me.”
While Ortiz played well into the 2010s and saw a few new rules in his latter years, it wasn’t anything like what the league implemented this year. The mound visit and disengagement rules along with the pitch clock could’ve given Big Papi an even bigger advantage.
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