It's May 28, 2024, 09:13:13 AM
"He's very reminiscent of Barry Bonds in 2002," said Maddon of Bautista. "In the World Series [against the Angels when Maddon was the Angels bench coach] where every time he swings the bat it looks like it's going over the wall."Tremendous plate discipline, very aggressive swing, it's an understatement to say he's locked in right now. He's just on a different planet."
Test him. [/quoteHe really doesn't look like he's using. He's not a big guy. It's not like bonds who grew eight headsizes.
Be very afraid of Jose BautistaBy David SchoenfieldWe know more about baseball than we could dissect in a thousand lifetimes. Every pitch is tracked, every ball in play analyzed, every number computerized. Every player is rated, projected and graded.We know everything.Except we don’t. Which brings us to the amazing Jose Bautista ... the most feared hitter in baseball. There, I said it. Yes, more feared than Albert Pujols or Joey Votto or Josh Hamilton.After going 1-for-3 with a double and two more walks in Toronto’s 10-3 victory over Texas on Tuesday, Bautista has an insane .362/.522/.783 (BA/OBP/SLG) line, including an AL-leading eight home runs. If that seems Barry Bonds-esque, it’s because it is. Bautista has 23 walks in 20 games, something I’ll call the fear factor ratio. When pitchers are afraid to pitch to you, they walk you. Only seven hitters have played 100 games and had more walks than games played -- including Bonds five times (others are Ted Williams, Babe Ruth, Mark McGwire, Mickey Mantle, Jack Clark and Eddie Joost).Tuesday’s game was a good example of how carefully pitchers are working Bautista. In the top of the first against Matt Harrison, Bautista came up with runners at first and second and no outs. (A rare occurrence for Bautista this season, considering Toronto’s black hole in the leadoff spot so far.) Yet Harrison worked Bautista carefully, walking him on five pitches, setting up an Adam Lind RBI single and a five-run inning.In the second, Bautista came up with two outs and nobody on base and popped out. In the fourth, he came up against Brett Tomko with Corey Patterson on second and one out. Tomko walked him on five pitches, and Lind followed with a three-run blast. In the sixth, he came up again with two outs and nobody on. So Tomko challenged him, and Bautista drilled a double to deep left on the first pitch. In the eighth, he struck out swinging.Sure, you can argue that it’s easier to pitch around Bautista since nobody else in the Toronto lineup is hitting much right now. Or that pitchers have to challenge Pujols with the likes of Matt Holliday and Lance Berkman tearing it up behind him. FanGraphs lists data via Baseball Info Solutions on how many pitches in the strike zone each batter sees. Here are the 2010 and 2011 numbers (through Monday) for Bautista, Votto and Pujols:Bautista: 45.3 percent in 2010, 34.7 percent in 2011.Votto: 41.8 percent in 2010, 42.6 percent in 2011.Pujols: 44.2 percent in 2010, 48.7 percent in 2011.Now, I told you we had data for everything. Bautista’s percentage does lead the majors in 2011. But it’s just a data point, and you can analyze it any number of ways.In the end, this is really a feel thing. And right now -- April 2011 -- Bautista feels like the most feared, most dominating hitter in the majors.
Another two bombs so far today. Up to 15 now. He's already missed 7 games or so and he still might break 60. haha
Home
Help
Login
Register
Print
