Bautista among Blue Jays batsmen off to slow start

[LittleOzzy]

The Toronto Blue Jays' bats have been relatively quiet so far.

Facing the Baltimore Orioles would normally give the Blue Jays a chance to turn things around, but that may not be the case this time.

Toronto looks to maintain its home-field edge over the Orioles on Friday (7:07 p.m. ET) when these American League East rivals meet for the first time in 2012.

Despite getting off to a 4-2 start after winning two of three over Boston earlier this week, the Blue Jays have struck out 54 times and are batting .202 following their three-hit effort in Wednesday's 3-1 victory.

Two-time reigning home run champion Jose Bautista has one of the team's four homers and is hitless in his last 12 at-bats.

"He's struggled to find his timing," manager John Farrell said. "… But there were times last year, and I'm sure the year before, where he goes through some stretches where his timing is off a little bit."

Bautista hit .219 (14-for-64) with two homers against Baltimore in 2011, when Toronto batted .280 with 29 home runs while winning 12 of 18 in the series.

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/baseball/mlb/s ... orrow.html

The whole team seems to be off to a slow start hitting wise, concerned or do you just consider it normal for the start of the season?

[Duffman100]

I'll start to be concerned at around the 25-30 game mark. Until then, I'm just happy we're 4-2 despite our crappy hitting.

[illy]

hes off the roids after the braun incident

[Hamyltowne]

I am concerned. I know I shouldn't be, but I am.

[cameo60]

Not concerned at all. Bautista is known to have 1-2 months per season. Look at his splits the last two years.

In 2011:

His ops only went down to .835 in June and .852 in sept/oct..

Still well above average, but slugging and ba went down in those months.
Nothing like his 6 games so far, (lol 6 games)...

However in 2010:

He had a .693 June, and a .741 april.

In between those months he was dominant.....

Nothing to worry about, swing has so much movement, slight movement or off-timing, you get a ton o pop-ups, foul-outs, strikeouts.... Talk to me mid-may.

[Hamyltowne]

My concern is with the team as a whole. I shouldn't be concerned, I know.

[The Duke]

Crappy hiting overall for the lineup and we're sitting 4-2.
I'd take that every time.

[Al_Oliver]

no reason for concern, especially with us winning both series so far

[flatjacket1]

His BABIP and is low, hasn't had an infield hit yet and his LD% is up and his GB% is down.

I'm not at all worried, his peripherals look great. It's the same situation that I've been saying with D'Arnaud. If you are making solid contact, squaring up the ball and putting it in play, you are going to eventually do well.

[Hendrix]

Our team has kind of sucked as a whole up to this point, so we are lucky to be 4-2. We could just as easily be 1-5. Some of this may have to do with the weather though, (which would equally affect the Indians equally). Though this would have probably affected a lot of other teams as well up to this point.

Currently our team has had 254 PA's, and combined for 0.0 WAR which ranks 29th in the league.

Our pitching staff has combined for 0.3 WAR over 63 innings, and ranks 25th in the league there. 6.14k/9, 4.43 bb/9, and .186babip, and 80.9%LOB arn't exactly good looking #'s.

We're going to improve from that surely. It's just to bad to be sustainable. But it isn't all that encouraging either.

[illy]

more reasons to prove that war and these other sabremetrics are useless

[flatjacket1]

more reasons to prove that war and these other sabremetrics are useless

WAR and saber metrics projected him for a .260ish average, .380ish OBP and .525ish slugging with only 1 projection system projecting 40+ HR's. If you think those are unobtainable... I don't even know what to say to you.

Of course WAR and saber metrics can't predict everything. Nobody projected Bautista's 2010 breakout season or Vernon Well's demise. They are only tools to help us understand the game we watch. For example, Jose is batting .174. Turn to saber metrics and they will tell you that he is squaring up the ball well and not hitting many ground balls, and his batting average based on balls in play in lower than the league average so we can expect some recovery there. Just like if you walk to lead off man every single inning and strand him every single time, LOB% will tell you that. They are tools.

[illy]

im just saying sabremetrics cant tell you everything. it was made so its easier to evaluate players rather than watching, the latter being tedious.

i think as fans we shouldnt look into these stats, its made only for the baseball management

[flatjacket1]

im just saying sabremetrics cant tell you everything. it was made so its easier to evaluate players rather than watching, the latter being tedious.

i think as fans we shouldnt look into these stats, its made only for the baseball management

You are completely right about them not telling you everything, they are used to see things that scouts can't possibly evaluate.

These stats being available to fans just makes it a heck of a lot easier to judge players. Remember when OBP what considered an advanced statistic? Or what about GB%?

People who can accurately read these metrics can help control expectations within a fanbase.

[illy]

i agree with opb, stats like rbi's and run's aren't stats you can judge soley on the indvidual. those are team stats. but are easily understood by the general fan.