Jose Bautista's recent tear at the plate should now place him in some select company.
With his first career three home run game on Sunday in Minneapolis, Jose Bautista is now officially "ridiculous."
Those of us, including you seam-heads, that watch the Blue Jays on a regular basis already know what Bautista has become since his home run prowess was first revealed on September 7, 2009: the most dangerous hitter in the game today.
And this opinion is not based upon a small sample size.
In 219 games played since that date, Jose has blasted 80 home runs, a rate of one every 9.8 at bats. The next closest sluggers are Paul Konerko of the White Sox and Cardinals’ legend Albert Pujols, both with 28 fewer bombs and at a rate no better than one per 14.8 plate appearances.
But a closer examination of Bautista’s gaudy stats during this period reveals some of the most eye popping numbers in recent memory:
* His 1.053 OPS is better than both reigning league MVP’s (Joey Votto – 1.047, Josh Hamilton – 1.024).
* Over his past two seasons, Bautista is the MLB leader in every significant power category, and his 513 total bases is 41 more than any other player.
* This season, he’s batting .409 vs. left-handers, .375 with runners on, has 12 home runs vs right-handers, and is a .345 hitter with nine home runs and 15 RBI after the pitcher starts him off with a strike.
* He’s also a .313 hitter with two strikes.
What was most amazing to me this past weekend at Target Field, where he went 7-for-14 with five home runs, seven RBI and a mind-boggling 2.206 OPS, is that the opposition continues to throw the ball anywhere near the plate.
With Adam Lind, the Jays only other real offensive threat not available for duty due to a bad back, Jays manager John Farrell has been forced to employ Edwin Encarnacion (.246) and Juan Rivera (.208) behind Jose in the four-hole. Why not pitch around Bautista and force these two inferior hitters to beat you instead?
I guess the chemically-altered (allegedly, of course) Barry Bonds is still the only hitter in recent years to warrant that much respect. It says here that Jose Bautista now falls into that category as well.
I don’t mean to come off with a tone of having an old-fashioned case of Canadian inferiority complex, but if Bautista was playing in a major American market (New York, Los Angeles, Boston or Chicago) he would be the poster boy for all that is good in this game. Instead, he plies his trade north of the border and exploits such as his three-home run game Sunday gets buried deep in the sports highlights shows.
With all that he has accomplished over parts of the past three seasons, that is a real shame.
TIME TO REALIGN
I’m sure you have all heard me argue this many times over the years, but I’ll revisit it anyway. Can someone please explain to me why the Blue Jays play 18 games against the Tampa Bay Rays, hosting and visiting three times, while they only play the Detroit Tigers six times in total?
Commissioner Bud Selig and his deep thinkers might believe that an unbalanced schedule, which guarantees marquee matchups between the Yankees and Red Sox, Cardinals and Cubs, Dodgers and Giants, is good for the television side of things, but it is inherently unfair. The Tigers are the Jays closest geographical rival, separated by a mere 3.5 hours by car, yet the only play each other, home-and-home, once.
And while on the subject of what is fair and what isn’t, the time has come for a completely balanced schedule with no inter-league play. I say this because with teams having varying degrees of schedule strengths, the wild card race is completely unfair. The only way for this to work is for every team to play each other the same amount of time. And why the majority of teams allow this to continue to happen is an even bigger question.
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
It was kind of laughable watching the soap opera that is the New York Yankees add another chapter on this past weekend when Jorge Posada begged out of the lineup after it was posted with him batting ninth. The veteran’s pride was tweaked and he asked for a day off to "clear his head."
Boo-hoo! Posada was hitting .165, the lowest average of any regular in the majors, and with his defensive skills now deteriorating to the point where he can no longer play in the field, he’s lucky that he hasn’t been flat out released.
At 39, it’s time for Posada to hang ‘em up and not become one of those sad characters in the game that hung on well past their best-before date.
Also keep this in mind: if you think that this was a sorry chapter for the Yankees, I wonder what it will be like when Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez have outlived their effectiveness?
