Jose Bautista is the best player in baseball

[SPTO]

Re: Jose Bautista is the best player in baseball

Carlos Guillen?

D'OH talk about embarrassing brain cramp. I meant Miguel Cabrera

They might, Might get the chance. On july 24th the Blue Jays/Rangers game is currently the only game scheduled in the SNB time slot.

That would certainly be interesting. Let's hope that'll be the case.

[Dog]

Re: Jose Bautista is the best player in baseball

Eh, he is alright. Nothing special.

[theaub]

Re: Jose Bautista is the best player in baseball

The Jays/Rangers game is only there because no one in their right mind would play a day game in Texas in July. It'll be Philly/San Diego that week.

[BunnyHardaway]

Re: Jose Bautista is the best player in baseball

Dude is raking right now...crazy how he just came out of nowhere like this. I sure wish he'd done this when he was with the Orioles in '04.

[55]

Re: Jose Bautista is the best player in baseball

No matter how great he has played over the last 14 months, I am still taking Pujols over him in a heartbeat.

[24]

Re: Jose Bautista is the best player in baseball

i hate to be "that guy" but something just seems off with bautista. he was a scrub before a year ago and then all of a sudden he is putting up these monster numbers. no amount of practice, luck what ever the hell you wanna call it turns a guy who never hit more than 16 home runs into a power hitting machine that is belting out homers left and right

[Kearnzo]

Re: Jose Bautista is the best player in baseball

i hate to be "that guy" but something just seems off with bautista. he was a scrub before a year ago and then all of a sudden he is putting up these monster numbers. no amount of practice, luck what ever the hell you wanna call it turns a guy who never hit more than 16 home runs into a power hitting machine that is belting out homers left and right

I don't know how many times this has to be explained on this site. Take a look at his swing from a couple years back, then look at where it is now. Dude completely retooled his mechanics. He always had plus power potential, and now he has everything else figured out.

Videos of him hitting from early on in his career compared with ones from now are like night and day.

[Kobalt]

Re: Jose Bautista is the best player in baseball

I don't know how many times this has to be explained on this site. Take a look at his swing from a couple years back, then look at where it is now. Dude completely retooled his mechanics. He always had plus power potential, and now he has everything else figured out.

Videos of him hitting from early on in his career compared with ones from now are like night and day.

Well said, also he's also getting consistent playing time. He knows he's going to play everyday and that helps a player.

[12]

Re: Jose Bautista is the best player in baseball

I don't know how many times this has to be explained on this site. Take a look at his swing from a couple years back, then look at where it is now. Dude completely retooled his mechanics. He always had plus power potential, and now he has everything else figured out.

Videos of him hitting from early on in his career compared with ones from now are like night and day.

...and there's your answer, poopydude.

[lonewolf371]

Re: Jose Bautista is the best player in baseball

No matter how great he has played over the last 14 months, I am still taking Pujols over him in a heartbeat.

Pujols isn't even the best player on his team, right now, let alone trying to rank him as the best player in baseball today. He's fallen off a cliff so far this season. Even if he turns it around the rest of the season, what he's done so far will probably make this the worst season of his career.

[aukevin]

Re: Jose Bautista is the best player in baseball

I'm glad he's on my fantasy team, that's for sure

[55]

Re: Jose Bautista is the best player in baseball

Pujols isn't even the best player on his team, right now, let alone trying to rank him as the best player in baseball today. He's fallen off a cliff so far this season. Even if he turns it around the rest of the season, what he's done so far will probably make this the worst season of his career.

I was speaking in terms of "from here on out" as in the rest of their careers and not just right now.

[SPTO]

Re: Jose Bautista is the best player in baseball

I don't know how many times this has to be explained on this site. Take a look at his swing from a couple years back, then look at where it is now. Dude completely retooled his mechanics. He always had plus power potential, and now he has everything else figured out.

Videos of him hitting from early on in his career compared with ones from now are like night and day.

Bingo!

If you look at his swing from before a couple years ago you'd see it was a longer swng that took a long time to get into the zone. He also didn't have the timing mechanism down where he'd be able to get his body moving at the exact right time.

Nowadays he has a (not exaggerated) leg kick that sets everything up. He has moved his hand placement on the bat and where the bat sits before he swings. You'd think a guy holding the bat the way Bautista does wouldn't do nearly as well as he does but it actually looks to have sped up his swing quite a bit. He has developed a very violent looking tomahawk like swing that gets the ball quickly into the zone and covers a lot of the plate. It's amazing how the ball hits the sweet spot on that bat 90% of the time when he's hitting.

You should also pay close attention to his HRs compared to some other guys. I have not seen a single HR from Bautista where it shouldn't be out of the park. There's no broken bat HR or awkward positioning of the bat that somehow sees the ball flying out. Everything is solidly hit, right on the sweet spot and a no doubt about it HR.

He's completely retooled his swing with the help of Cito Gaston and Dwayne Murphy but really a lot of the credit should go to Bautista himself who has worked really hard at his craft. Even after this change in fortune for the better he remains a great teammate from everything i've heard and he's a real leader in the clubhouse. In a lot of ways he's the first vocal leader since the WS days.

[Vince]

Re: Jose Bautista is the best player in baseball

Well the thread is right now .

And yeah Bau is the best at getting the barrel of the bat out in front on any pitch. You have to watch every Jays game to appreciate just how amazing he has become.

[bad_philanthropy]

Re: Jose Bautista is the best player in baseball

Like others have said, he's finally worked out his swing. One thing he always had was tremendous bat speed, but his lack of production had to do with not marrying a decent swing with it.

Here's an article from last year about it.

http://www.sbnation.com/2010/9/9/1678997/jose-bautista-oakland-athletics-johan-santana-five-numbers