Jose Bautista quietly having a great season

After hitting 97 combined homers in 2010 and 2011, things got a little sleepy for Jose Bautista and the baseball world has sort of forgotten him. A severe wrist injury and surgery limited him the last two seasons and cut down his production...though few would probably guess he hit 55 homers combined in 2012 and 2013. But the big bat is back in Toronto and better than ever.

Here are some quick facts about Jose Bautista so far in 2014:

• His walk rate is the best of his career at an amazing 22.5%. His plate discipline is amazing as he is swinging at only 18% of pitches out of the strike zone and only at 34% of pitches overall. He is waiting for HIS pitch. His on-base percentage is an amazing .464.
• His strikeout rate is the best of his career. Despite being a big, potent bat, he does not strike out very much. He swings and misses at only 6.6% of the time. Walking a lot, not striking out much and hitting well equals wow.
• Jose Bautista is currently second behind Tulowitzki in all of baseball in wOBA and wRC+. The only thing knocking him down on the WAR leaderboard is his defense, which hasn't been one of his strong suits so far.
• Meanwhile, he is eighth in slugging percentage and sixth in ISO.
• Despite being a power hitter with a .595 slugging percentage, his walk to strikeout rate is fourth best in baseball.
• Despite a BABIP of only .293, he is batting .306.
• He is tied for third in all of baseball in runs scored. Hitting nine homers and getting on base that often will do that.
• Of his 34 walks, only one is intentional. In other words, he is protected well in the lineup and has earned his walks.

The best part for Blue Jays fans is that none of his numbers jump out as fluky. We don't have a guy here with an ultra-high BABIP or freakish home run to fly ball numbers that should dip as the season goes along.

All it appears is that Jose Bautista is now fully healed from his former wrist problems and is back to where he was in 2011. Thirty-five or more homers, 110 or more runs scored, 100 or more RBIs, 100 or more walks all seem very doable for Bautista, especially when you consider that Encarnacion hitting behind him has been off to a sluggish start. Jose Bautista is again among the elite offensive players in the game today.

Ellsbury over Bautista for AL MVP

Writing this post is like getting a splinter. It's painful when some of this writer's favorite writers and favorite Twitter follows are fans of the Toronto Blue Jays. Jose Bautista has certainly silenced the critics and the naysayers. Those who called his 2010 season a fluke were sadly mistaken. This writer wasn't one of them. In fact the prediction before the season that Bautista would hit between 40 and 45 homers this season is one of the few correct predictions made here in this spot. But in the end, after looking at everything closely, the MVP here has to go to Jacoby Ellsbury of the Boston Red Sox.

First to get the obvious out of the way. This pick is NOT because Bautista does not play on a contender. Such talk is rubbish from start to finish. If you define the "valuable" in Most Valuable Player, that's what we are talking about. We aren't talking about the Most Valuable Player on a contending team. Yesterday, this writer stated plainly that Matt Kemp is the MVP in the National League even though the Dodgers are going home after Wednesday's game. We are talking about value and which player is the most valuable.

And to get the second obvious thing out of the way, Justin Verlander was considered. And though it can be said that his season was phenomenal, there is disagreement between B-R and Fangraphs on just how valuable it was. The same can be said for Ellsbury whereas Bautista's value is calculated almost same on both sites. And though there is merit to a pitcher winning the MVP, since Verlander is not the leader in WAR on either of the two big WAR sites, then in the end, Verlander was dropped from this discussion.

Ellsbury leads Bautista in fWAR while Bautista leads Ellsbury in rWAR. Just to be totally fair here, Baseball Prospectus also gives Bautista a big edge on their WARP calculations. So two out of three point to Bautista. And indeed, Bautista leads the world in wOBA and wRC+ and also in slugging percentage. He also leads the majors in on base percentage. Ellsbury's big lead in fWAR seems to be all defense. And defense is a troublesome statistic as it is not as clear cut statistic as the offensive ones. Bautista is the leader in the majors for position players and WPA. Ellsbury has Bautista in the clutch statistic as calculated by Fangraphs.

And so the edge in a lot of categories goes to Bautista. But here is the swing vote for Jacoby Ellsbury: When two players are so close in the total value category with different sites disagreeing with the totals, the swing vote for this writer is the second half of the season. Jose Bautista had an amazing first half. But his statistics have sort of coasted since then. Jacoby Ellsbury outplayed him easily in the second half. Here are some numbers:

Second half slash line:  Bautista: .261/.420/.493   Ellsbury: .322/.370/.603.
Second half runs, homers, doubles, RBIs: Bautista: 32, 12, 9, 38.  Ellsbury: 52, 17, 19, 49

Certainly there are other things to take into consideration. Ellsbury's supporting cast is clearly superior to who Bautista has around him. Bautista's amazing first half does count for something. But in the end, the final decision for this writer came down to the old, "What have you done for me lately." And when their overall values are so close, that's what finally sways the vote for this observer. And there it is. Sorry about that Blue Jays' fans.

Steve Slowinski Blows Fan Out of the Water

Steve Slowinski sucks. And that's said in the nicest way possible. Not only does he front the great DRaysBay which makes it nearly impossible to hate a team this Fan is determined to hate, but now he writes a piece over on Fangraphs that wobbles the already shaky footing this writer has in the new world of sabermetric thinking. The topic is the Most Valuable Player and Mr. Slowinski (who truth be told, is one of the nicest smart guys in the world) writes a definitive piece on why the MVP should not go to a player on a losing team. Darned if the thing didn't make a lot of sense.

After years of slowly mucking his way out of the ooze of old world thinking, this writer came to the conclusion that players with the highest value of performance should win the MVP Award. It shouldn't matter that the players team loses more games than they win. Valuable means valuable so therefore, the MVP should go to the most valuable player. This year, that player in the American League has been Jose Bautista of the Toronto Blue Jays. But the Blue Jays this season have collected more draft picks and prospects than they have wins. The crux of Slowinski's cannonade:

The win curve essentially states that all wins aren’t created equal. It makes little difference to the Orioles this season if they finish with 74 wins or 76 wins*, while a two-game difference can have much more importance for a team on the cusp of making the playoffs. Teams keep this concept in mind when making personnel decisions, paying more for the players that will help put them over the top and into the playoffs. There’s lots of money to be made in the playoffs, so if you’re close, it makes sense to give up more for a chance at those elusive wins. 

*This reminds of the old anecdote about Ralph Kiner. After having an All-Star year with the Pirates, he went to GM Branch Rickey and asked for a raise on his salary. Rickey’s response was short and unequivocal: “We finished last with you, we can finish last without you. 

But can’t this same concept be applied toward the MVP Award? If a team fails to sniff the playoffs — or, similarly, makes the playoffs by a mile – doesn’t that make standout performances on their club “less valuable”, as little would have changed if that player hadn’t been on the club? And if a team is clawing tooth and nail for a playoff spot, wouldn’t performances by their stars take on an even greater significance?

Thanks, Steve. Now that makes sense but then how come the Cy Young Award can go to a guy who pitches on a bad team? Just when this writer thinks that he's on more solid intellectual footing, these guys throw marbles all over the floor. The problem, as Slowinski defines it is that the MVP does not define what the "Valuable" part is supposed to be. The Cy Young Award is easy because it's supposed to go for the best pitcher. And defining the best pitcher is easier since you can simply look at valuation statistics. But valuation statistics, in Slowinski's view does not a MVP candidate make. The great use of the Branch Rickey line makes a lot of sense here. 

But let's look at it another way. Let's say Justin Upton finishes with a WAR of 7.2 or something. And say the Diamondbacks finish ten games ahead of the Giants. Wouldn't they have won with or without Justin Upton? Isn't that the same argument? So now this writer is confused again. Without Upton's 7.2 wins above replacement, the Diamondbacks (in theory) would have still won the division by two and a half games? Does this thinking disallow Ryan Braun from any consideration if the Brewers finish ten or eleven games above the others?

The MVP's name is the quandary. If it was simply called, "The Player of the Year." then it would be simple. Well, the Sporting News does have a Player of the Year, but does anyone pay attention to that anymore? The MVP is the award sanctioned by Major League Baseball and thus it is the big deal. 

So after batting this around awhile, the Fan is going to come full circle and state that the MVP should go to the most valuable player with value being the defining emphasis. Sorry, Steve, going to disagree with you in the end because to make sense of your brilliant argument, only players on teams that just barely contend or barely win their divisions can qualify.

Still Confused By Fielding Stats

Wins Above Replacement or WAR is a pleasant taste on the palate from a batting perspective because it is understandable. Jose Bautista walks more, has a higher slugging percentage and strikes out less than Curtis Granderson. As such, when we are fed those statistics, the dominance of Bautista over Granderson in WAR makes solid sense. Base running is pretty easy to swallow too, though there are inherent questions such as what happens when a base runner doesn't take the extra base because the game is lopsided. But fielding metrics, an integral part of WAR, still taste bitter when rolled around the tongue.

Let's make it perfectly clear before moving forward that this writer doesn't know anything about how these numbers are compiled. Before this post gets roasted on some heady site about being the stupidest thing ever, this writer fully admits to his total lack of inherent knowledge on these things. The point of this post is that it's one thing to tell us novices what we should believe. When it comes to the fielding aspect of these statistics, tell us why we should believe them.

Okay, here's the crux of the question: The Fan understands why Bautista is having a better offensive year than Granderson. But how is he having a better defensive season? If you were to pick an outfield on the playground and offense was not the main picking criteria, which outfielder would you want out there? Okay, we must grant the obvious question that both men play different positions. And the positional aspect is played out in the computation of WAR with different values being assessed to each position. Granderson gets positive points for playing a more important position.

But all this Fan can see is that when you look at Fangraphs' Leaderboard,  you see a -1.0 next to Bautista for fielding and -8.0 next to Granderson. If you look at Granderson's page on Fangraphs, you see that there have been 237 plays in Granderson's "zone." Baseball-reference.com's page for Granderson says he's had 269 chances. The difference might be that B-R doesn't mention plays out of his zone and Fangraphs does separately. But this Fan doesn't know if that's the difference from the two sites. All this Fan knows is that both sites give Granderson -8 runs below average for his body of work this season.

Bautista, on the other hand--who has a few games at third base to muck things up a bit--has had 170 chances in the outfield or roughly 2.27 chances per game out there compared to Granderson's 2.40 chances per game. Both have made three outfield errors and Bautista has two more assists (8 to 6). But here is where it gets confusing. Granderson (according to Fangraphs) has made 52 plays out of his zone in 112 games this year compared to 55 plays out of his zone last year in 134 games. And yet, he is supposedly having a much worse year in the field this year than last. Huh? Jose Bautista has made 41 plays out of his zone in the outfield and 6 at third base but he has a better fielding rating.

And this is a dumb question probably but this Fan has asked it before and hasn't gotten an answer. And how can you learn anything if you don't ask questions, right? But say that the Fangraphs stats say that Granderson has had 237 balls in his zone and he's made 210 plays. That comes to .886 for his Revised Zone Rating, a figure lower than last year. According to that same site, Brett Gardner has made an incredible 91 plays outside of his zone as the left fielder. How many of those plays happened in Granderson's zone? Does that count against Granderson? Even if an out was made? Please, someone, let this Fan know the answer.

What this Fan does get is that according to the Fans Scouting Report, Gardner has much better instincts than Granderson and an off the chart first step. But if an out is made because Gardner gets there quicker and catches the ball in Granderson's zone, does that count negatively against Granderson?

The sheer ignorance of this writer is probably showing. A layman shouldn't be trying to write a doctoral thesis. But there is no crime in simply trying to understand. It's simple and easy to understand that Bautista is having a better offensive season than Granderson. It's easy to understand that Granderson is having a better year on the basepaths. But the fielding thing continues to boggle the mind. Give this Fan three Grandersons in the outfield over three Bautistas. But from what the numbers say, Bautista is having a better fielding season. It's darned confusing.

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.

Can We Just Enjoy Jose Bautista?

Let's face it: We have become a people of skepticism. And that's understandable. The steroid era filled us with cynicism and embarrassed us. We went all gaga with our admiration of McGwire and Sosa only to find out that they had a little help. The best pitcher and best hitter of our age both had perjury trials this year. We watched Rafael Palmeiro tell congress he didn't use and then he was suspended by baseball for using. We were bitten and now we don't want to believe anymore. But the backlash is ugly and it's ruining our pure joy for the game. Albert Pujols broke his arm and was back playing after sixteen days. A story on Yahoo Sports toyed with the idea that Pujols' early return was worthy of doubt. And for two years now, people have been saying that Jose Bautista couldn't be doing what he is doing now without some help.

Well, at least half the time that's what you heard. The other half of the time was that Bautista's season last year was a fluke. That he couldn't do it again. But since that argument has been shattered by Bautista's 31 homers by the All Star break, we go back to the other whispers and innuendos. Can't we stop it already? Can't we just appreciate the beauty of what Bautista is doing? Can't we have any heroes anymore?

We've gotten to the point where we can't have players doing too well. They can do good things as long as they only hit around 30 homers. Hit any more for the season and we have to suspect it. Oh, it's okay if a pitcher does great things. Though pitchers probably used steroids and other PEDs as much as hitters did. It's okay if Roy Halladay is unbeatable or if Aroldis Chapman can throw a pitch 105 miles per hour or that Justin Verlander can throw 98 from the beginning of the game until the end. We don't question those. But hit too many homers, especially after a career of indifference and you get the scorn.

Stop it already. Just stop it. Let it go. Until there is proof otherwise of course. But look at Bautista. He isn't some kind of musclebound freak. He looks like a normally athletic guy just hitting the snot out of the ball on a regular basis. This Fan just wants to enjoy this ride. The child inside wants to have wonder again. The boy who grew up loving baseball doesn't want to be a cynical old man reading cynical writers around the country. This is a fabulous story that is too often clouded by doubt.

What we are seeing is incredible. And it's not just the homers. Bautista's slash line is .332/.468/.702. His OPS is 1.169 at the All Star break! He has already compiled 6.5 wins above replacement when his monster season last year only netted him 6.9. And he has half the season to go! His walk rate is 19.9 percent while his strikeout rate is only 18.3. For every ten times he comes to the plate, he's going to get on base (or more) five times! His homer to fly ball ratio is higher than last year. 46 of his 98 hits have been for extra bases. His wOBA is .486. His win probability added is already at 5.50. It's all amazing. Everywhere you look at his stats, it's amazing. He doesn't have a negative score against any pitch type. In other words, there isn't anything you can throw him that he doesn't have a chance to hit.

Can't we just enjoy that? Can't we sit back in awe and wonder and celebrate such a worthy season? This Fan is going to and you can't stop him from doing so. Earn your street cred by knocking it if you will. But not in this space. This is a Fan's space and perhaps it is naive, perhaps there are rose-colored glasses. This ride is so much fun right now that there is no way it's going to be derailed by naysayers. Jose Bautista is the bomb and his explosion is a magical carpet ride with seat belts.

Jose Bautista Is Early MVP

Can we put the "Jose Bautista's 2010 season was a fluke" stories to rest now? Yeah, you could say that. The season is early and the sample size small, but Jose Bautista is ruling the world. What offensive category do you want to look at? Jose Bautista is there. He's third in the majors in batting average. He's first in on base percentage. He's first in slugging. He's first in homers. He's first in wOBA. He's first in wRC+. And he's first in WAR. In many of those categories, nobody is even close.

Everyone focused on Bautista's homers last year. But even more of a surprise was his patience at the plate. If he didn't get his pitch, he wasn't going to swing. He walked one hundred times last year and only two of those walks were intentional. Which leads to the question of why teams pitch to him. He's only received one intentional pass this year. But the point is, Bautista has become a terrifically selective hitter. The only knock on his season last year was his batting average of .260. That fairly mundane batting average was almost directly related to his BABIP (batting average on balls in play). His BABIP last year was an amazingly low .238. This year, his balls in play are finding the ground and the batting average has responded accordingly. He is also hitting more line drives this year, which helps tremendously.

Jose Bautista has played 31 games so far and already has 13 homers. He's already walked 35 times and has struck out only 19 times. JoBau has also scored 39 runs and has driven in 23. His walk to strikeout ratio is double what it was last year. If you can believe this, his home runs to fly ball percentage is actually up from last year. Last year, 21.7 percent of his fly balls went over the fence. This year, that figure is up to 27.7 percent.

Bautista is in the perfect home ballpark for this blossoming of his career. His home/road splits last year showed his home OPS at 1.118 while his road OPS was still a respectable .879. There is still a disparity for the slugger at home. His OPS at home this year is an obscene 1.667. But his road OPS is still otherworldly at 1.091.

Last night began as a tough night for Bautista. Playing in the spacious Twins' home park, he had gone hitless in  five plate appearances with a walk. The game was still tied going into the top of the eleventh inning. Corey Patterson hit a single to start off the inning. The Twins immediately pulled Glen Perkins and replaced him with Jim Hoey. That ended up haunting Gardenhire as Bautista then hit a mammoth shot to the opposite field, only his second opposite field homer in the last two years. Both have been in Minnesota. Hoey was obviously rattled by the homer and walked the next two batters. That led to a six-run rally, all started by Bautista, and sunk the Twins. It was a typical reminder of just what Bautista can do to destroy a team in any given game.

There were debates before the season started if Bautista should play third base. The Blue Jays have struggled at that position. The Blue Jays finally decided to leave their best player in right field. It was the right decision. And not only is Bautista delivering at the plate, he's turned himself into a really good right fielder and his defensive metrics are fantastic this year. Not only is his UZR impressive, but his arm and arm accuracy rate at the top of the charts in the Fans Scouting Report. Bautista is the complete package for the Blue Jays.

This Fan doesn't blame the skeptics who believed Bautista's season last year was a fluke. The guy came out of nowhere to put together a monster season. Watching him play last year, you could just see that Bautista had figured something out and that he was as confident as any player could be. His performance when watched put to rest any kind of doubt about how good this guy was. He is even better this year. There is a lot of season left to go, but judging from what Bautista has done so far, last year looks more like the new norm than any kind of fluke. And it sure is fun to watch.

Back to Back to Back Plays Cost the Bay Rays A Game

Jose Bautista had a legendary game. Bautista hit a triple, a double and a homer and went three for three with two walks and four runs scored. The Blue Jays' best player certainly helped win the game for the Blue Jays. Those last two walks cost him the cycle as all he needed was a single. But it was that first walk and his luck that followed that cost the Bay Rays the game and turned things around for the Blue Jays.

The Toronto crowd was on their feet when Bautista came up in the eighth inning. Not only was the hometown crowd hoping Bautista would do something about the 4-3 deficit that Blue Jays faced, but they knew he just needed a single. But as @TaoofStieb said on Twitter, they would have gladly traded the single for a patented JoBau homer. They got neither. Joel Peralta came in to pitch the eighth for the Bay Rays and he'd been very effective so far this season. He pitches almost exactly like a pudgier Francisco Rodriguez, the Mets' closer.

Peralta didn't want anything to do with Bautista and walked him. The crowd booed lustily. Adam Lind came up next and appeared to have like a ninety pitch at bat. Peralta got behind and then Lind fouled pitch after pitch. Finally, Peralta got Lind to ground hard to first baseman, Dan Johnson. There are two things you need to know about Dan Johnson. The first of which is that in part time duty, he has batted under .200 for three straight seasons and is currently batting .121. The second is that, though his numbers aren't bad over at first defensively, he's never played there full time. Johnson fielded the ball close to first and stepped on the bag and then threw to second to try to get Bautista. Johnson had plenty of time, but the ball sailed a little bit and ended up hitting Bautista in the back. JoBau was safe.

The announcers in the game went on and on about how Johnson should have gone to second right away and not stepped on first to begin the play. The Fan doesn't agree with that at all. Johnson was two feet from the bag when he caught the grounder. Big league first basemen have been making that play for a hundred years. All Johnson had to do was throw the ball on the shortstop side of second and Bautista would have been out by a mile. Johnson didn't and Bautista was safe. For those of you wondering, Bautista was not out of the base line while running to second. It was simply a bad throw from Johnson.

So now the tying run was on second with only one out in a one run game. There should have been two outs with nobody on base. What happened next proved that this was Bautista's day and cost the Bay Rays the game. JoBau was trying to get a good lead so he could score on a single. The Bay Rays knew that and Sean Rodriguez sneaked in behind Bautista, opened his glove to give the signal and Peralta whirled and delivered a perfect pickoff throw. Bautista was a dead duck except Sean Rodriguez failed to catch the ball. It hit the webbing of his glove and bounced a few feet behind him. Seriously, Bautista would have been dead in the water, hung out to dry or any other cliche you feel like coming up with. But there he was still on second twice after he should have been out.

Edwin Encarnacion was up next and hit the ball over Zobrist's head in right field. It appeared that Zobrist had broken in first before trying to retreat to catch the ball. He couldn't catch up to it. Perhaps if Fuld had been back there, it would have been an out (#LegendofSamFuld). but the double scored the charmed Jose Bautista and that tied the game at four. The Blue Jays eventually won the game when John McDonald, who was only in the game because Nix was injured earlier in the game, hit a walk-off homer scoring Woodward, who was running for Juan Rivera, who finally got a hit while batting .089. Talk about an unwieldy sentence that described an improbable event!

But the game turned on those two plays on Bautista at second. No errors are recorded in the score book. You never assume a double play, so Dan Johnson didn't receive an error for hitting Bautista in the back. And Sean Rodriguez didn't get an error for dropping that pickoff throw. Zobrist didn't get an error for breaking in on a ball over his head and yet all of those things were plays the Bay Rays could have made to make the outcome turn out differently than they did. But that's the way it goes in baseball sometimes.

One other note about this game. Felipe Lopez, who has worn out his welcome in several cities before making his way to Tampa, went 0-5 in the game with two strikeouts. But it was his last at bat that will be his last for the Bay Rays. We are talking about a tie game here that both teams wanted to win. In the top of the eleventh inning, Lopez hit a routine grounder to second and loafed toward first. It turns out that McDonald booted the ball. But Lopez didn't hustle and that gave McDonald time to recover and throw him out. Joe Maddon pulled Lopez from the game after that. Look for Lopez on the waiver wire today.

If Jose Bautista Can Get More Than One Hit a Game...

JoBau, as he is known by Toronto bloggers, had a great season in 2010 by anyone's standards. His season was one of the top five stories of the entire season. It was such an astounding season that conspiracy theorists came out of the woodwork to try to tear it down. But Bautista's season was no fluke, and we shall see that in 2011. But as good as 2010 was for Bautista, it could have been better. Here's why.

Jose Bautista was in the top 30 in games in the majors with games where he only got one hit. That happened 65 times. The leaders were Prince Fielder and Alex Gonzalez (also spent time with Toronto in 2010, Vernon Wells was right behind JoBau with 64) with 77. But nobody in baseball had a higher OPS with just one hit than Bautista. In those 65 games, he hit 22 homers, 2 triples, 18 doubles, drove in 45 runs and added 46 walks. That builds up to an OPS of 1.051 when he only got one hit. The only one close is Fielder who had a .954 OPS when only getting only one hit in a game. But he had less homers, walks, doubles, triples and RBIs than JoBau.

To recap, in the 65 games where Bautista only got one hit, 42 of the were for extra bases. That's pretty incredible. Bautista had 29 games where he had two hits. Of all players with two hit games in 2010, only Jim Thome had a higher OPS (2.023 versus 1.933 for Bautista). And Thome had two hits fourteen less times. Bautista got three hits seven times and hit eight homers. He had one four-hit game and hit two homers in that game.

If you do the math (the Fan HATES saying that because criticism always follows), Bautista got at least one hit in 102 games, leaving 59 games where he got no hits. If Bautista can simply get more than one hit just a few more times this season and have a few less games without a hit, he can have an even bigger season if all else remains the same.

One other interesting note, The Brewers and the Blue Jays both posted three players in the top 30 in one-hit games. That speaks a little bit to both teams' all or nothing offense where they can be monsters or teddy bears depending on the game.

Journalism At Its Worst

A year ago a blogger by the name of Jerod Morris suggested that there was something fishy about Raul Ibanez and the big first half he had for the Philadelphia Phillies. Morris made a huge splash and was invited by many media outlets to attend interviews. Morris, no doubt, figured that this was the kind of exposure all bloggers dream about. What Morris didn't figure on was the roasting he took from major media journalists and rightly so. The episode was the supposed dividing line between professional journalists and the rest of us bloggers. But now, a year later, a journalist...a writer for a major newspaper has done the very same thing.

Damien Cox writes for the Toronto Star. That's a newspaper. Therefore, he is a journalist...a professional. The blogging revolution has turned bloggers into stars and supposed journalists into bloggers. But the trouble with the latter is that the simple reader can't tell the difference between a news story and a "blog." The Fan asks you to click on this link for Damien Cox's "post" concerning Jose Bautista's sudden rise to power king of the majors. Right click here and open the thing in a new tab. Go ahead, the Fan will wait.

Okay? Got it? Now tell the Fan how this is any different from what Morris did last year with Ibanez? There is no difference. And the thing is, this is a Toronto writer bringing up this crap with a guy who is thrilling the hometown fans!? Correct the Fan if he is wrong, but the idea of a journalist speculating on something so arcane without a hint of evidence or backing information (other than the obvious stats), reeks of everything against what they teach at university. The problem for Cox is that he thinks he can play both sides. He feels (obviously) that he can be a journalist sometimes and a blogger sometimes. As a blogger, he is free to speculate...to shoot the breeze...to scat-write. He feels this is different than his "serious" reporting when he has to get his facts right and check everything twice.

The thing is, journalism doesn't work that way. And again, the difference is how people read newspapers or what newspapers post on-line. They expect to get the news from writers they trust. They expect sourced materials and accurate sources. They expect the utmost professionalism from the writers in newspapers. If Cox wants to blog and shoot the breeze, he should get a separate site where he can talk about anything he wants. But if he wants to raise the specter of steroids on a player who, as far as we know, is tested regularly and has never failed a test, he can't do that in his professional capacity.

Putting aside the lack of professionalism of a paid journalist, how irresponsible is it for anyone to hang an accusation on a player? Would it be any different if his column speculated that Vernon Wells was gay or that Kevin Gregg was a communist because of their actions on the field? Right. It's the same thing and it's irresponsible. Now multiply that by putting this label on a player for his hometown team. Jose Bautista is one of the best stories to hit the Blue Jays for a very long time. And this guy is going to tear it down?

Guys like Rosenthal did their best to paint Jerod Morris as the reason why bloggers will never be journalists. Where are those guys with this story? Who among his peers is going to call out Cox? Bloggers have won folks. We have taken over the world. Because of what we do, respected journalists have become bloggers and the lines have become blurred. But if that's going to be the case, wouldn't you at least expect journalists to take the higher ground? Cox should go back to the school he graduated from and let the dean there spank him until he bleeds.

Jose Bautista is on Top of the World

Watched a lot of the Blue Jays - Yankees game that included two homers by Jose Bautista and there is no denying that Bautista is the supreme power hitter in baseball this year. His pitch recognition is lightning quick, his approach is simple and he is just crushing the ball. Bautista accounted for all three Blue Jays' runs in a game the Blue Jays won 3-2.

The Fan has chronicled Bautista in the past, so there is really no need to go into the player's history. Suffice it to say that this is a combination of a player who was willing to break down his approach and listen to his batting coach and everything has really clicked. Bautista had never before hit over 16 homers and he now has 40. But that's not his only relevant number. He's also set a career high for walks and has a healthy On Base Percentage near .370 despite a weak .257 batting average. 51% of his hits this season have been for extra bases. He now has 95 runs batted in and his slugging percentage, as you could guess is approaching .600.

Right now, Jose Bautista is not a guy you want to throw a mistake to or he's going to make you pay. Against the Yankees' rookie starter, Ivan Nova, he got a rolling curve ball that stayed in the middle of the plate and punished it. That homer gave the Blue Jays a 2-1 lead. Except it should have been 1-1 if not for a horrible call at first base on the previous batter. Nunez, the Yankees' rookie shotstop ranged deep in the hole to fetch a grounder and used the carpet at the dome to get the throw to Teixeira. The throw was a bit wide and Teixeira had to stretch as far as he could and did. The replay clearly showed the the Yankees' first baseman kept his foot on the bag. But MLB hasn't yet smartened up to replay and the incorrect play stood. That run made all the difference in the final outcome of the game.

Before we get back to Bautista, let the Fan make a quick point here about umpires in the majors. The Fan has watched a lot of baseball over the years and the umpiring this year is the worst ever. EVER. The home plate umpire was simply awful on balls and strikes for both sides. The Blue Jays' shortstop got himself thrown out of the game because of the lousy calls and then in the ninth, Gregg got a big out after a base hit by Swisher on a hugely terrible third strike call on Granderson. The pitch had to be a foot outside if it was an inch. Look, just because the pitcher hits the target, which Gregg did on a pinpoint, that doesn't mean it is a strike. Come on! Terrible. Simply terrible.

Anyway, back to Bautista. The game was tied 2-2 after a Posada double plated Cano. Roberston, the Yankees' ace set-up guy, struck out the first guy he faced and then had to pitch to Bautista. The first pitch was a perfect fastball on the outside corner which is where you have to pitch to Bautista. Cervelli called for the same pitch. But Robertson's pitch missed badly and drifted over the plate. Bautista crushed it. Ballgame.

One little side not about the homer. Bautista got brushed back on a previous at bat and he wasn't happy about it. Well, that's part of the game and if he doesn't want that to happen, he's got to stop hitting homers. That's the deal. You hit a lot of homers, you're going to get brushed back. Baseball. Well, anyway, Bautista wasn't happy about it and a fracas was narrowly avoided. When Bautista hit his eigth inning homer, he was ver demonstrative and stared at the pitcher and then made an "in your face" kind of display at the plate. Hey, no problem. The Fan happens to think there should be more demonstrative stuff in baseball, not less. But stay tuned. Bautista is going to get drilled some time later in this series. Expect it. And there will probably be a fight because if Bautista gets mad at a brushback, what's he going to do when he is actually drilled? It will happen and then let the fun begin.

But in the meanwhile, Jose Bautista, who has persevered through a less than adequate career, has at the age of 30, arrived and he has arrived in a big way. He is approaching the league lead in RBIs and he's the major league champ at the big ding dong. He has found himself in Toronto and he is on top of the world.

Jose Bautista is Rocking

Jose Bautista extended his major league lead in homers on Friday night with a pair off of A. J. Burnett. Bautista now has 18 homers and has driven in 45 runs. His slugging percentage before the game was sitting at .584, so he has to be over .600 now. Bautista has hit homers fairly regularly in his career, but nothing ever like this. The Fan was watching the game and the second homer he hit was on a high and inside 94 MPH heater. Bautista was lightning quick as he turn on it and sent it high into the third deck in left field at the SkyDome (nope, sorry...not going to call it the Rogers Centre). The thing about all of this is that it doesn't feel like a fluke and the stats don't look like a fluke. He's within his career norms in every other way (except his OBP is up). Some guys are late bloomers and at 30 years of age, Bautista just might be one of them.

Bautista was drafted by the Pirates ten years ago in the 20th round. So he's beaten a lot of odds in his life. First, his talent got him out of Santo Domingo. Then he was a low draft pick who rose quickly through the minors. Then he played for four different teams in 2004 (Baltimore, Tampa Bay, Pittsburgh and Kansas City - the four worst teams in the majors that year). It was one of those Rule V situations where the Orioles claimed him, didn't keep him on the roster, the Bay Rays (then the Devil Rays [shiver]) picked him up, sold him to the Royals who traded him to the Mets who traded him to the Pirates, his original team. Whew! That must have been a lot of fun for a 24 year old guy.

His first real playing time was 2006 for the Pirates when he got 400 at bats and hit 16 homers. He only hit .235 though. The one thing weird about 2006 was that he was hit by 16 pitches. Ouch! In 2007, he hit 15 homers in 532 at bats but his average went up to .254. He hit 15 more homers in 2008 combined for the Pirates and the Blue Jays to which he was traded in August of that year. But his averaged dipped again to .238. He only got into 117 games with the Blue Jays last year and managed only a .235 batting average. But his 13 homers and 40 walks in that short amount of time gave him an OBP of .349, easily the best of his career. It also pushed him over 100 in OPS+ for the first time ever too.

Then this year, he has exploded. He still doesn't hit for average (.254 entering Friday), but his OBP is a solid .370. Before this year, Bautista averaged a homer every 29 at bats. This year, he homers once every 10.7 at bats. Obviously that is Mark McGwire, Babe Ruth territory and he isn't going to keep that up. But it wouldn't be surprising for him to hit 35. The Fan seems to remember a story about him where his hitting coach simplified his approach and took a lot of the movement out of his set up and swing. It's very possible that a long time flaw was detected and this is the real Bautista.

What is obvious is that Jose Bautista has become a lot of fun to watch and it will be very interesting to see how he does the rest of the year. This Fan hopes he keeps raking.