Jose Bautista’s last day in Toronto as a Jay. I wrote about it at length. Sorry for the link, don’t wanna type it again. I’m sad. I could have written twice as much.
Bautista’s story is truly amazing. It’s a shame that the Jays couldn’t have gotten ahold of him at 20; his time with the Jays was fantastic and I just wish we could have gotten more of it. (Of course, there’s no guarantee the coaching staff at that time would have developed him in the same way.) It was a joy to be able to watch him, and it’s a shame he’ll join the long list of all-time Jays greats to never get a World Series ring here.
In honour of him, I tracked down a youtube video of all of his 54 2010 home runs and watched the whole thing today. Funny thing I noticed: in that season, Bautista had more inside the part home runs (2) than opposite field home runs (1).
Nice farewell. Do you think he’s done? Has he said anything about next year?
I think the thing I’ll remember most about Bautista is that cannon arm. Best of his generation? Maybe.
Didn’t look like it in the pictures I saw, but OK, it’s a spectrum.
So Yanks have 7 games left. Not going to win the division and not going to lose the 1st wild card slot. So what’s left?
Aaron judge is sitting at 48 homers. 49 is the rookie record. Will he hit 2 more in the next 7 games?
Also figuring out the 25 man roster for the playoffs. But that will be fairly minor.
He’s said nothing. I think it’s safe to say Toronto will want to move on. He may find work elsewhere, but I am not sure he’s the kind of guy willing to play part time or play badly, so he might just call it quits. It’s his decision, and if he does keep playing for someone else I hope he’s awesome and wins a World Series.
As to the latter, nah. He had a very good arm - he was a third baseman before, after all, and all third basemen have good arms. But almost all right fielders have great arms. That’s why they’re in right field. I think you’ll find most MLB fans are very impressed by the arms of their right fielders. Aaron Hicks has an amazing arm, as do Yoenis Cespedes, Yasiel Puig, and Jason Heyward.
Speaking of right field arms, I am reminded of Jesse Barfield, who of course absolutely did have the best arm of his generation; he was astounding. Like Bautista, Barfield won a home run title in Toronto, in 1986. He’d played very well in 1985, too. In 1985-1986 he was one of the better players in baseball, amassing 14.4 WAR; by comparison, Jose Bautista amassed 15.1 in 2010-2011, so Jesse Barfield was basically just as good a player, and he was much younger at that point than Bautista was in his peak. Just going by the numbers one would have every expectation that Barfield’s career after 1986 would be much more impressive than Bautista’s after 2011; he was younger, much more athletic, a far better defensive player.
Of course, Barfield never had a great season again. He was ood in 1987, not very good in 1988 and got traded, and puttered out the rest of his short career with a really bad Yankee squad, and by age 32, he was done.
Bautista, AFTER his age 32 season and two All Star years and an OK year. Almost all his career value was when he was older than Barfield was when Barfield was over the hill.
I don’t remember Jesse Barfield having any serious health problems (Bautista has struggled with injury) but the thing is that Barfield’s career path was relatively normal. Players usually do peak in their mid 20s and they’re usually gone before they’re 35. Barfield’s outfield mates, Lloyd Moseby and George Bell, were both first rate players… and they were gone by 31 (Moseby) and 33 (Bell.) Bautista, at 34 -
well, he turned 35 during the playoffs - played an entire season with a 93-win team, hit 40 home runs, walked more than he struck out (the only player in the AL with at least 20 homers to do that) and was one of the ten best hitters in the AL. And then hit 4 home runs with 11 RBI in 11 playoff games.
I’m not sure what to make of that except that he simply was driven to succeed until his reaction time just wasn’t good enough anymore.
But if anyone could come back and post another good year, I think it’s him.
1 down, 1 to go.
And Aaron Judge sets the rookie home run with number 50.
Hey What Exit?, remember a while back you mistakenly said that Judge had set the rookie home run record? At the time I thought there was zero chance, but there you go. He probably has the rookie strike out record too, but who cares?
So, Judge for MVP?
My knee jerk reaction was no way, it’s got to be Altuve. Coming in to today, though, Fangraphs has them both at 7.3 WAR (and Chris Sale at 8.2.)
WAR isn’t everything, of course. I really don’t know.
Different sources calculate WAR different ways. ESPN has Altuve well ahead, as doesBB-ref. I’m not sure why Fangraphs is an outlier. (Neither rates Sale that high, either.)
If I didn’t know what the WAR numbers were, and was just eyeballing all the stats, I’d vote for Jose Altuve.
Can’t believe he rallied back after the August dry spell. 4 in 2 days is a nice exclamation point.
I doubt it but will have to be top 5 at least. But hey; ROY should be unanimous.
If I had a vote, it would be Altuve. Just all around great. But…but…
Judge and Altuve both have an OPS+ of 164. Judge is ahead of Altuve in Runs, Home Runs, Walks, On Base Percentage, OPS, Total Bases, RBI, Runs Created, Extra Base Hits, Total Bases, and Offensive Win Percentage.
Had the Yankees caught the Red Sox with Judge’s offensive surge, then I could vote MVP. Otherwise, Altuve.
I’m a homer, so of course I’m for Altuve. My guess is he gets it because (1) division winner (2) he’s “due” (3) some voters will “split” their ballot by voting Judge RotY and Altuve MVP.
Cubs magic number is down to 1 with the Cards tonight. Brewers are playing the Reds. Interestingly, if they lock the Division tonight, but the Rockies win (playing Miami) the Cubs would still be a half game shy of locking at least a Wild Card berth (if my math is right). Gotta be a little odd, but the West has just been dominant this year.
Boy, if Judge hadn’t gone through that ungodly post-All Star slump this year, he would have had a shot at 60 homers. Still, to hit 50 as a rookie is just unreal.
Yanks clinch the home field for the wild card game vs probably Minnesota. I like the chances of teams that have to fight their way into the playoffs as opposed to teams that know for the last month (even before mathematically clinching) that they’re in. Once you take your foot off the gas, it’s hard to put it back on
On the first part if it was not for the post Homerun Derby slump of Judge, he would be the obvious choice for MVP. The kid is very good at making adjustments; this one though took longer than normal. Stll gives me great hopes of a great career for him.
I agree with your second statement but this year the Red Sox and Cleveland never took their foot of the pedal and it scares me. If we win the Wild Card game we win the chance to play Cleveland in a 5 game series. That will be a tough round.
I think you’re missing a “don’t” in there somewhere.
ESPN was trying to make an argument today for why Chris Sale should be the AL MVP.
Now that’s silly, he shouldn’t even be the Cy Young Award winner.