Ortiz hits on a few subjects

OAKLAND, Calif. - David Ortiz sat at his locker at McAfee Coliseum yesterday, one eye on the TV, intrigued by Tigers third baseman Miguel Cabrera's at-bat.

After all, this might be one of the American League's newest and brightest sluggers, who along with Gary Sheffield might challenge the Ortiz-Manny Ramírez duo as the top boppers in the league. Ortiz kept watching as he rubbed lotion on his surgically repaired right knee, talking at will about all sorts of subjects the day before what he considers "the real Opening Day."

"I just keep working on my knee, man, you know?" Ortiz said. "The surgery is kind of weird. It feels good one day and some other day it feels like [expletive]. I just have to fight through it. That's why I'm putting so much of this lotion on it."

There's no reason to be alarmed if you're a Red Sox fan; Ortiz didn't want it to sound as if there were something else wrong with the knee, which pained him quite often during the 2007 season.

"Hopefully not, but you know how it is," he said. "Nothing goes away that easy."

Ortiz, who went 0 for 7 in Tokyo, concedes he has been sluggish from the travel and the time changes, but he's finally starting to feel more like himself. Barring more lights-out pitching by A's starters Joe Blanton or Rich Harden, he expects to resume his role as the biggest, baddest hitter in the AL when the Red Sox get back in action tonight.

Ortiz understands the giant he's become in the industry and that he is the centerpiece of a lineup that is as good as any in baseball. He has been more than pleased to allow the normally quiet Ramírez to take the limelight in spring training and early in the season. A burden has been lifted off Ortiz, who often has had to speak for Ramírez.

Yet whether Ramírez is chatty isn't as important as whether Ramírez can stay hot behind him. Not that Ortiz feels he'll see meatball fastballs, but when the game is on the line, he understands that he must produce, much as he has the last six seasons.

"That's what they pay me for," Ortiz said. "It's not easy. Every year there's something new to figure out. Every year they find a new way to pitch me and I've got to make adjustments. Every year they put that shift on, and they change the shift, and you've got to try to beat that.

"It never ends, man and so I have to keep ahead of it."

He also reached the point where he had to make peace with umpires. He was overreacting when they'd call a strike that Ortiz didn't think was a strike. He always knew speaking ill of umpires was not a good thing, and now he's learned to deal with it in a quieter way.

Ortiz said he was not a big fan of the Tokyo trip because of the grind.

"With the time differences and all the travel, you could tell everybody was just worn out," he said. "We just wanted to get it over with, come down here, and do what we got to do."

What team could be the best in the league?

"Detroit," said Ortiz. "I'll tell you why, and I think one of the broadcasters said it during the game. He said that the lineup is going to be able to wear out a pitching staff. He's right.

"Look at the hitters in that lineup. By the third inning, the pitcher is going to be exhausted pitching to those guys. One right after another. The pitcher is going to have 50-55 pitches in the third inning. You're not going to make it through the fifth and then you go to the bullpen.

"I think they have more power than we do. They've got scary guys out there."

He said of the Blue Jays, "Pitching-wise, Toronto has some unbelievable talent. [A.J.] Burnett can be better than what he is. When he's on, bro . . . I don't think he's even come close to the top of what he can be.

"But he's got [Josh] Beckett kind of stuff. And he could be that good if he got it together. He's got ambitious stuff."

And there's that never-ending search among Sox opponents to find that one lefty out of the pen who can handle Ortiz.

Forget about it, said Big Papi.

"It's been happening too many years," he said. "It's hard to find that one lefty just to get me out. Like the Yankees got [Mike] Myers a few years ago from us. But you're not going to get me out throwing the same crap all the time. I'm going to get you at one point.

"If I'm on my game, I don't care if it's a lefty or a righty. Doesn't matter to me. And I think the league knows that now. You can try to do percentages against me, and that's what most of them try to do, but it doesn't matter. If I'm not swinging that bat well, I'll fight through it. But lefties don't bother me."

Who will be the best hitter in the AL this year?

"Alex Rodriguez," said Ortiz. "He knows what it takes to hit.

"People take time to become great hitters. It took me a long time to get the opportunity and to get my swing the way I wanted it, to learn the pitchers and how they face me and to make the adjustments.

"From Day One, that dude was a superstar. Day One. What was he, 19 years old? And it's never changed. He's been great year after year after year.

"For me, it was someone showing the confidence in me. I learned a lot from the hitting coaches I had, like Papa Jack [Ron Jackson]. They taught me the best way to be a hitter I am now. But Alex . . . forget it. He's just great."

Papi Time was over. He went outside to take a few hacks of live batting practice.

"Opening Day tomorrow," he said. "This is the real bell. I've got to be ready to answer."

Nick Cafardo can be reached at cafardo@globe.com