Interesting Jose Bautista Statistic

Another post on Jose Bautista may reveal just how fascinated this writer is with this slugger. On top of everything else already said here about the player from the Toronto Blue Jays, there is this: Jose Bautista's current WAR is more than the combined team batting WAR of seven teams. To state that a different way, Bautista's current WAR is higher than 23.3 percent of the combined efforts of Major League Baseball's teams.

The Atlanta Braves' batters have a combined WAR of 5.2. The Baltimore Orioles' batters have a combined WAR of 5.5. The Colorado Rockies' batters have a combined WAR of 3.5 (which absolutely blows this writer away--The Rockies?). The Minnesota Twins' batters have a combined WAR of 3.8. The Oakland Athletics' batters have a combined WAR of 0.2 (the lowest in baseball). The San Diego Padres have a combined WAR for all its batters of 3.4. The Seattle Mariners' batters have a combined WAR of 2.7. Jose Bautista's current WAR sits at 6.5 (or 6.6 depending on which site you look at).

The White Sox, Cubs and Marlins are just barely ahead of Bautista by himself. The White Sox batters are at 7.1 as are the Marlins. The Cubs are at 7.6. So one guy has produced more value in the field, with his bat and with base running than seven other complete teams' batting, fielding and base running. That's incredible. And what about Bautista's own team?

Take away Bautista's WAR and the Toronto batters have a combined WAR of 5.0. So Bautista has more WAR than the rest of his team's batters combined. His WAR makes up 56 percent of his team's total.

One point of consideration: Those National League teams mentioned includes the batting, fielding and base running of the pitchers who bat regularly in their team's games. And their general futility at the plate would be somewhat a drag of their team's WAR. But the seven teams mentioned included four American League teams.

If Jose Bautista has a good second half, then his season will end up among the elite of all time. Consider that the highest Albert Pujols ever reached was 10.9 and that season ranks 37th all time. A very good second half will stamp Bautista's season as one of the top twenty ever.