Jose Bautista’s on Fire

By now you probably know about my borderline worrisome obsession with Blue Jays utility man, Jose Bautista. Although he’s not a flashy player who intimidates the opposition, Bautista has more than lived up to expectations (however small they might have been to start the season).

Now in the midst of a hot streak since being moved down in the lineup, Bautista has been killin’ it.

In a combined 15 games split between the six and seven spot in the lineup, Jose has collected 13 base hits, 9 of which have been for extra bases. Hell, he hasn’t been drawing many walks, but that really doesn’t matter when Bautista is doing a phenomenal job of driving in runs.


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I think more or less, the Bautista Leadoff Experiment ultimately accomplished what it was supposed to do: get Jose on base so Aaron Hill and Adam Lind could bring Bautista home. He was hitting .188 in the leadoff spot, but drew 11 walks which would ultimately lead to him crossing the plate 7 times.

The Jose Bautista issue has been a point of contention between myself and Drew at Ghostrunner on First. He is a firm believer that hot Aprils and Septembers are irrelevant, and that the stats between May and August are what really matter.

I on the other hand am happy with any sort of surge of offense, regardless of which horrible pitchers (ex. Jeremy Guthrie) or at what point in the season it happens.

In Bautista’s defense, we’re already a full four days into the month and he’s hit two home runs. Jose didn’t hit his second home run of the season until June 28th last year – now with six in total, Bautista is well on his way to surpassing last year’s totals.

Is Jose Bautista the real deal? Only time will tell. In the meantime, let’s enjoy his hot streak and hope that it continues through the season. Boom-shaka-laka!

Ian Hunter

Ian has been writing about the Toronto Blue Jays since 2007. He enjoyed the tail-end of the Roy Halladay era and vividly remembers the Alex Rodriguez "mine" incident. He'll also retell the story of Game 5 of the 2015 ALDS to his kids for the next 20 years.

5 thoughts on “Jose Bautista’s on Fire

  • May 5, 2010 at 5:06 pm
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    Last night's two-second Jays highlight on ESPN's SportsCenter was of Jo-Bau going yard. Even the Worldwide Leader is showing love.

  • May 5, 2010 at 10:34 pm
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    Bautista was on ESPN last night? Awesome! He's moving on up – last week he was on the Rogers Sportsnet promos, this week he's on ESPN, next week – who knows?

    Mattt, what a great series for the Jays! It was a sweep over the lowly Cleveland Indians, but still!

  • May 5, 2010 at 10:56 pm
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    I wouldn't expect this to last from Bautista. I've never liked this guy and you will see he will stop hitting very soon, no way he can keep this up. its nothing to keep up anyways if he's not hitting a home run he pretty much ain't doing anything else. Nothing to get excited about here.

  • May 6, 2010 at 1:17 am
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    Fair enough – nobody's expecting Bautista to club 30 HR's, but it would be nice to see him contribute some power down at the bottom of the lineup. If Snider ever moves up to the 7 spot, those two could be a lethal duo.

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