Big Papi Continues to Hammer Twins Pitching

I realize hindsight is 20/20 and Twins General Manager Terry Ryan probably cringes every time David Ortiz comes to town with the Boston Red Sox.  After watching Ortiz smack two home runs for the second straight game against his former club I couldn't resist going down memory lane and remembering when he was a young Twin.  The Twins picked him up in a trade with Seattle, so Minnesota isn't the only team to feel the pain.  This was long before he would become Big Papi.  Ortiz spent all or part of six seasons with the big league club after six years in the minors.  He was not in Tom Kelly's lineup every day because Kelly thought defense should come first.  Everybody knew Ortiz could hit and Kelly had a few guys to share the DH duties with Ortiz.  The most games he played in a season for Minnesota was 130 in 2000 where he had 478 plate appearances.  117 hits, 36 doubles, 10 homers and a .282 batting average while knocking in 63 runs.  His last season with the Twins Ortiz played in 125 games, had 466 plate appearances, 112 hits, 32 doubles, 20 homers and 75 RBI.  Ryan decided to let Ortiz go instead of going to arbitration with him because Kelly preferred Doug Mientkiewicz at first base and had Marty Cordova, and others to DH.  In Boston his lowest home run total was 23 in injury plagued seasons in 2012 and 2008.  Wouldn't the Twins love to have that consistency out of a player.  Four times he's been in the top five in MVP voting and last season was tenth.  Twice he's led the American league in RBI and led the league in homers in 2006 with 54.  Ortiz has had over 40 homers two other seasons.  Like all great hitters he simply needed more at bats.  In 2003 with 509 plate appearances he crunched 31 homers and tallied 101 RBI for the Red Sox and has really never looked back.  Big Papi is fast approaching 450 career homers with 36 of them in limited action in Minnesota.  Maybe as important though is his leadership.  Twins that played with him said he was a fun guy in the clubhouse and the Red Sox players have echoed that over the years.  I'm not a fan of his standing and admiring his home runs, but then I wouldn't know that feeling at all.  How many different designated hitters have the Twins had over the past 12 years Ortiz has been in Boston ?  I tried and couldn't count them all.  Maybe you can.  In March Boston signed last season's World Series MVP to a one year contract extension worth just over 15 million dollars, He's led Boston to three World Series wins over the last decade.  He continues to torch Twins pitching.  Since leaving Minnesota he's hit .370 against the Twins and counting last night's two homers now has 17 homers and 47 RBI in 55 games.  Last season Joe Mauer carried his 23 million dollar a season contract to the plate in 113 games and had 11 homers and 47 RBI. That's for the season!  I know, hindsight is 20/20.