Jays acquire Jose Bautista from Pirates

[J.Kim]

This thread is mildly interesting, but I really wanna see the off-season thread where guys expressed disappointment that AA signed him for 65/5.

viewtopic.php?f=123&t=1092719

It's a fairly big thread so I expect almost every regular (and some non-regulars) on this board to have chimed in at one point or another.

Sorry guys, full disclosure (at the risk of making myself sound like an idiot as well, lol)

The main point of contention was the years and not really the per year amount for the contract. Most people were pretty much agreed that even if his play did dip off a bit to 30 HRs, he'd still be worth the per year amount.

[Michael Bradley]

Keep in mind Jose Bautista is probably the biggest anomaly in baseball, and possibly sports history. He had a .750-ish OPS until age 29 and now is essentially Babe Ruth and Barry Bonds rolled into one. Not exactly a predictable career path even for the biggest stathead. Even people supporting the contract when it happened expected a performance drop-off. My biggest fear, like many, was the years in addition to performance dipping. The odds were far more likely for Bautista to slide downwards than actually improve. Somehow, maybe it was the power of the beard, he has actually improved. It was a risk that paid off beautifully.

Although if there is a thread from March proclaiming that Bautista would possibly have the single greatest season in baseball history in 2011, I'd love to read it.

[The Flying Gent]

this whole thing is just amazing.. such an unprecedented feat. And to think Bautista could have been doing this on a number of teams. I think we all owe JP Ricciardi a big thanks!!

I'm pretty sure i remember reading in some article or other it was actually AA's idea to go after Bautista. Anyone know if that's true?

[Skin Blues]

This trade looks very Tractor Traylor (RIP) for Dirk-ish.

Robert Traylor died?! wow. That's the second relatively high late-90s draft pick to have died, after Jason Collier.

So, back to our regularly scheduled programming... this Bautista guy is pretty good.

[J.Kim]

Here's some excerpts from Pittsburgh's local paper (the more interesting parts are how Jose Bautista came to be available):

Bautista had the audacity to express to management after Andy LaRoche was acquired that he still saw himself as an everyday player. That's what every bench player worth his salt says. But the Pirates took that as insubordination and impetuously demoted him to the minor leagues just before trading him.

Moreover, the Pirates were concerned about the money Bautista could make as a bench guy in arbitration that fall. I'm not guessing at that. I know that. In that context -- and that context alone -- the team decided it was not worth, say, $2 million or so, to pay for someone who could be a starter and, at worse, would be a superutility guy. That's about what they're paying Matt Diaz for a whole lot less right now.

Another aspect of this trade that few seem to mention: The Pirates felt LaRoche had better potential than Bautista. Good job there, too.

http://plus.sites.post-gazette.com/inde ... d-bautista

Good ole Pirates.

[evilRyu]

this whole thing is just amazing.. such an unprecedented feat. And to think Bautista could have been doing this on a number of teams. I think we all owe JP Ricciardi a big thanks!!

I'm pretty sure i remember reading in some article or other it was actually AA's idea to go after Bautista. Anyone know if that's true?

It might be true, I'm not sure. However, I did hear an interview with AA recently where he credited JP Ricciardi for acquiring Bautista.

[tecumseh18]

ESPN has a mini-round table today with Schilling and Larkin. Schilling's impressed that Bautista took the time to actually improve after his great season. They address "the question", without really attempting
to rebut it beyond the weak argument that he is getting tested and is passing the test.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/baseballtonight

Apart from the technical improvements to his hitting style that hopefully explain everything, Bautista physically looks much more like the wiry, lanky early 90's pre-'roids Bonds than the later version. He's just hitting like the later version.

[RapsFanInVA]

Bautista is now our HR leader with 12. Now that's pathetic.

Wow we must have really sucked back then. Who knew that this was a sign of things to come and he'd continue being our HR leader. I was completely underwhelmed when we acquired him.

[savierdcglobe]

Man puts his heart out and gets rewarded.