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Countless personnel moves by the Pittsburgh Pirates were immediately ridiculed by fans. Trading Jose Bautista to the Toronto Blue Jays was not one of them.
The man never hot more than 16 homers, played OK defense and averaged about 100 strikeouts per season with the Buccos. No one looked at him and said, "Man, he is right on the cusp of breaking out." They joked about having him start at third base.
Fast forward to this season. Bautista is leading the league with 47 homers. 47! As of tonight he also had 111 RBIs and a career high .260 average. The average isn't spectacular, but the power numbers more than make up for it. No one complains about Adam Dunn's average when he belts 40 home runs a year, and they shouldn't.
So what the hell got into Bautista? Steroids is a popular answer in this age of cheats. If someone as good as A-Rod is using, it's not much of a stretch to imagine lesser players doing so. It's unfair to Bautista that roids are the first thing people think of, but it's just the way things are now.
Another explanation is he is getting his front foot down quicker, which helps his timing. He is also setting up a little closer to the plate with his back foot, taking away former problem zones. If you want to read more on this, it's in this Fanhouse story. You don't think I came up with that leg kick stuff by myself, did you?
Either way, it's a frustrating story for Buccos fans. Bautista has as many home runs as the Pirates top three boppers. Seriously. That shouldn't happen!
Weezer - Trainwrecks
I read that he was simply swinging earlier. His quote was something like, "Who knows? Maybe if I had received the proper coaching earlier I could have been doing this my whole career."
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Not a surprising quote. What athlete is going to tell people he's having a lucky year that he will probably never replicate?
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