Russ Ortiz Is Afraid of Treadmills

Why does it seem to be such a trend in baseball these days that a guy signs a big contract, goes on to totally blow, gets released, and then produces for the team that picks him up? OK, maybe it's not a HUGE trend -- maybe it's just my disdain for Jeff Weaver seeping through. But anyways, such is the case to describe Russ Ortiz.

Ortiz signed a four-year $33 million deal in December '04 to pitch for Arizona. He was so disgraceful last year that the Diamondbacks cut him in June, electing to eat around $22 million on his contract. Russ wasn't just bad, he was Anthony Young terrible, going 0-5 with a 7.54 ERA for Arizona. Breaking this down in simple chat room form -- the Diamondbacks are now paying him to pitch against them (the Giants signed Ortiz to a one-year deal in January).

Obviously the Giants are hoping Ortiz can return to his form of a few years ago, when he was a 21 game winner with the Braves, and 63-40 over a previous four-year span with the Giants. Meanwhile, the Diamondbacks are still pissed at Ortiz and took pleasure beating the Giants 9-0 Monday, with two of the runs charged to Ortiz over two and a third innings. Funny thing is, it's not the beating on the field that Ortiz took which was the worst thing to happen to him.

In Sunday's Arizona Republic, Dan Bickley wrote about Ortiz

"It's further proof that, no matter how many donuts you consume, it's hard to completely destroy talent."

More questions about his physique came rolling from the reporters

Ortiz said he eliminated as much sugar as possible from his diet and wound up losing 12 or 13 pounds. "I was getting at a point where I realized I don't know how much longer I have left to play and all that stuff. I don't like working out, but I do it. I was like, you know what, I better start figuring out ways to eat better because I always used to just eat what I want and work out as hard as I could, and it would even out."

After Monday's performance it looks like Ortiz better mix in a couple of laps around the track if he wants to make the Giants rotation.