Jose Bautista - he could have been ours

by cmkeller on May 16, 2011 5:28 PM EDT

So, it's taken me a while to realize that the guy in Toronto who's been tearing the cover off the ball for the last two seasons is the same Jose Bautista to whom the Royals gave a cup of coffee seven years ago.

Of course, the Royals were hardly alone in not knowing what a gem they had. He also passed through the hands of the Orioled and (Devil) Rays and spent a few years with the Pirates before breaking out in the Land of Maple Leaf.

So...assuming that he's not taking some new, undetectable form of PEDs, what has happened to the guy? How does a man add 250 points to his OPS after six years of MLB play? Do the Blue Jays have a miraculous hitting coach? How did we - and the other teams - fail to discover and tap into this wellspring of talent that could have made Emil Brown and Reggie Sanders and Jose Guillen never wear Royals blue?

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Apparently, all that he changed was starting his swing earlier

by Royal Tiger on May 16, 2011 5:49 PM EDT reply actions

As some one pointed out in a game thread while back

Jose is basically just knocking all his HR’s into the edge of the left field corner. Something that Frenchy is actually doing this year.
My guess is that he probably realized at some point a couple years ago that he had good enough bat control to put pitches he was looking for in a general area.
So now whenever he gets the pitch he was looking for, he turns on it and slaps it into the left field corner, which in Rogers center is only 328 Ft. and takes a while to get to 375. Just by eyeballing it, Bautista would have lost at least 3 HR’s if his home stadium was Kauffman.
In any case it’s lead to an increase in HR’s despite actually losing distance on average on his fly balls.

"We don’t have guys with a long history of being effective in the seventh and eighth innings."
~Trey Hillman, master of understatements.

by RoyalPug on May 16, 2011 5:50 PM EDT reply actions

I've heard of a few other hitters trying this approach

Although Bautista is the most successful. I think the Jays teach that approach to many of their hitters. I saw a blurb that something like half of all the balls Bautista hits to left are home runs.

Relive Royals History at royalsretro.blogspot.com

by RoyalsRetro on May 16, 2011 6:23 PM EDT up reply actions

Here was my take on it last year

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/examining-iso-changes-from-2009-to-2010/

Not much has changed in 2011. He started turning on them in 2009.

- .-. ..- … – / – …. . / .—. .-. - .. . … …

by Jeff Zimmerman on May 16, 2011 6:25 PM EDT up reply actions

I watched him make right field at Target Field his bitch this past weekend.

made it look like a little league field

I'm trying hard but some of this sabermetrics stuff sounds madeup.

by stram#1 on May 16, 2011 10:47 PM EDT up reply actions

lol, so only 51 HRs then?

by xrayxtals on May 17, 2011 1:28 PM EDT up reply actions

Thats 3 home runs this year.

Eyeballing last year, just at Rogers Center, it looks like about 7-8 HR’s might have fallen short at Kauffman.

Not to take away from his great hitting, just saying he’s taking advantage of his enviroment.

"We don’t have guys with a long history of being effective in the seventh and eighth innings."
~Trey Hillman, master of understatements.

by RoyalPug on May 17, 2011 6:29 PM EDT up reply actions

He was a Rule V draft pick.

We took him from the Pirates. When the Mets were trading away all of their prospects for crappy players (Kazmir for Victor Zambrano), Pittsburgh wanted a third baseman throw-in for somebody and the Mets got him from us for Justin Huber. So, basically, we got Justin Huber for drafting a guy in the Rule V and letting him go back to his old team. Of course, we got nothing out of Huber or Bautista, in classic Royals style, but it looked like a steal at the time because Bautista wasn’t going to make it the whole season.

by BrRoyal on May 16, 2011 9:44 PM EDT reply actions

woohoo...boras in kc tonight to watch bubba

Fire Everyone

by billybeingbilly on May 16, 2011 11:31 PM EDT reply actions

He's 30 - we don't want him

Because all baseball players over 30 suck and they never get better
/Sarcasm font

by XBic on May 17, 2011 11:50 AM EDT reply actions

Sure, he could have been ours

But then we never would have had the pleasure of getting see Justin Huber pinch run for us

batter nine you sucky

by marbotty on May 17, 2011 12:36 PM EDT reply actions

Hey, that bench wasn't going to hold itself down

Chaim Mattis Keller New York City's # 1 Royals fan!

by cmkeller on May 17, 2011 1:24 PM EDT up reply actions

Even 4 years later

Toronto acquired him for a PTBNL, so I don’t think any other teams saw this coming.

"Trying is the first step to sucking" -Jimmy Chance

by KHAZAD on May 18, 2011 4:34 PM EDT reply actions

He's OURS! Muahahahahahaha

So…assuming that he’s not taking some new, undetectable form of PEDs, what has happened to the guy

The big reason for the blowup was 2-fold. Cito Gaston (Despite his many flaws as a manager) is a remarkable pitching coach and the Jays waived Alex Rios, simply giving Bautista a chance to play everyday, something he hadn’t been able to do.

Regards to “Rogers Centre is a small park”, that is true, but here is a graphic of his 54 2010 HR’s.
I don’t think it would have mattered what park that was:

I saw a funny stat that based on Bautistas last 5 swings, he’d be tied for the Twins lead in HR’s this year….and since Target Field has opened, he has hit more home runs than Mauer and Morneau combined (532 combined appearances to 29). Good times in the AL Central :)

He’s sure fun to watch every night.

by craig in calgary on May 18, 2011 6:52 PM EDT reply actions