Russ Ortiz - How Bad is He?

Short answer - pretty bad.

Long answer - REALLY REALLY bad.

It's comforting to know that the Giants are now GUARANTEED a loss every fifth game. Over the past few years, Ortiz stunk up every game he even walked by. In Dec 2004, Ortiz signed a four-year, $33 million contract with Arizona. ($22 Million of which he got paid not to play... nice work if you can get it!)

Before the contract, he was an almost stellar 103-60 with a 4.01 ERA. After that, as a show of appreciation, Ortiz went 5-16 with an opponent BA of .324 and a 6.94 ERA!!!

It wasn't always quite so bad. For four games in April 2005, Ortiz made the Diamonbacks look only a little foolish with a 2-1 record. Then, on May 2, 2005, the fit hit the shan!. Still reeling from that weekend's midling box office returns of A Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Russ Ortiz put up three sevens (hits, runs, and ER). Things got only worse from there. Since May '05, Ortiz has started 28 Games with a record of 3-18! The Diamondbacks got a hard lesson on the price of winning, spending $6.6 Million per victory on Ortiz. Let's just hope the Giants get a similar return on investment.