Well, THAT didn't take too long to turn into random, baseless witch-hunting!
To answer a fairly obvious question with the fairly obvious answer: Ortiz is sucking at the moment because he's getting older, not in great shape, and his skills may have begun to erode. Battling back from knee and wrist injuries, and appears to be in a bit of a funk.
You can TRY to make some sort of half-assed attempt to say it's all steroid-related, and maybe he's quit using, but firing up the old "brain" for a second would seem to destroy that argument. When did he start really hitting well? 2003. When did serious drug testing start? Anyone? 2003. His biggest power year? 2006, when testing was VERY prevalent. If he was hitting big BEFORE 2003, and THEN dropped off, you'd have the beginnings of a point, but since his whole power cycle was AFTER drug testing started, seems more like wishful thinking than reality. Short answer to why he was awesome in 2004, but not so awesome right now? It was 5 years ago. 2004 was his 2nd year as a star player, he was in his prime. Now, he's on the downside. Still will have flashes of the old Ortiz, but the big threat is on the way out.
I think what you'er seeing here is what USED to happen! Older players, or those not in great shape, with skills starting to erode. Look back at numbers for guys in his body type, it was pretty common before steroids, and it'll be back.
The biggest damning argument would be if people like Ortiz, Vlad, etc were NOT eroding in skills, but still tearing it up, or getting better. Roger Clemens-like. You're SUPPOSED to get slower as you age, that's how it works...
On the other hand, he was batting in the 100s last year at this time, and still managed to finish at about .275 with 30HRs, so maybe he'll snap out of it and make the adjustment again.
hell, Derek Jeter isn't the hitter he once was. He was awesome back in 2003, and could still play defense decently too. Steroids? Todd Helton was a monster, now not so much. John Smoltz was an all-star closer AND starter, and this year had to try and prove himself to get a contract.
