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?