Nomar Garciaparra, off to a very slow start, volunteered to hit lower in the order and was dropped to sixth today by Dusty Baker.

No one is quite sure what is causing Nomar's slump. He had a great spring. My theory is the great spring was the cause. This was Nomar's first camp in Arizona. Although not a mile high, Arizona is pretty high above sea level, causing the ball to jump. Garciaparra found it easier to hit in this situation, and may have gotten into a bad habit. Someone's going to need to go back to his Boston batting tapes and see what the shortstop was doing differently.