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He looks horrible. Chasing bad pitches, missing fastballs in the middle of the plate, popping out, GIDP, dude does not look good at all.

Im much more worried about the 1/4/5 spots on this team.

Time to extinguish the paranoia. Seriously why are you such a negative nancy all the time?

He should've been traded during the offseason...

We're not contenders and his value was never going to be higher

UN-Owen wrote:He should've been traded during the offseason...

We're not contenders and his value was never going to be higher

Realistically this would have been the 'smart' move given the make-up/position of the team; but for obvious reasons it wasn't anything that could really even be entertained. I mean we could have potentially landed something like Heyward (who was having a down year at the time) plus more and potentially built a Heyward/Lawrie combo for a decade.

Kapono wrote:He looks horrible. Chasing bad pitches, missing fastballs in the middle of the plate, popping out, GIDP, dude does not look good at all.

I can't lie and say that I'm happy with what Jose's done so far, but he is tied for 2nd in the majors in walks. He's just missed pitches he usually crushes, but he's swinging at the same pitches he swung at last year.

his approach at the plate just looks totally backward. he's missing so many great pitches to hit. he needs to get back to hitting line drives, and stop trying to hit moonshots. same for E5.

Yeah, I think it's time to write off Pujols, too. He's doing even worse.

He's realizing that pitchers have him marked on their calenders now, he's no longer a sleeper, he's a huge threat and pitchers are stepping up against him, he hasn't been up to the challenge so far but he will adjust and come around, I am more worried about guys like Thames and as I hate to admit it, Lind.

Indiana Jones wrote:his approach at the plate just looks totally backward. he's missing so many great pitches to hit. he needs to get back to hitting line drives, and stop trying to hit moonshots. same for E5.

No, not at all. Bautista's entire game for the last two seasons has been taking massive hacks on pitches and hitting a ton of flyballs for 2Bs and HRs. The only difference right now is that his timing is off (which is nothing new for him).

Attonitus wrote:He's realizing that pitchers have him marked on their calenders now, he's no longer a sleeper, he's a huge threat and pitchers are stepping up against him, he hasn't been up to the challenge so far but he will adjust and come around, I am more worried about guys like Thames and as I hate to admit it, Lind.

It took them over 2 seasons of dominating offense to mark Bautista as a huge threat? Did you see his walk totals since 2010?

It's called a slump.

Randle McMurphy wrote:

Attonitus wrote:He's realizing that pitchers have him marked on their calenders now, he's no longer a sleeper, he's a huge threat and pitchers are stepping up against him, he hasn't been up to the challenge so far but he will adjust and come around, I am more worried about guys like Thames and as I hate to admit it, Lind.

It took them over 2 seasons of dominating offense to mark Bautista as a huge threat? Did you see his walk totals since 2010?

It's called a slump.

Pffff, "slump". It's obviously time to start worrying, Kapono said so! And if he's not hitting in mid-May, we might as well DFA him, because surely no one would even think of trading for a guy who's been struggling for an entire month and a half.

Randle McMurphy wrote:

Attonitus wrote:He's realizing that pitchers have him marked on their calenders now, he's no longer a sleeper, he's a huge threat and pitchers are stepping up against him, he hasn't been up to the challenge so far but he will adjust and come around, I am more worried about guys like Thames and as I hate to admit it, Lind.

It took them over 2 seasons of dominating offense to mark Bautista as a huge threat? Did you see his walk totals since 2010?

It's called a slump.

When it happens a few months in to the season, it's a "slump". When he starts off the season this behind at the plate it's more than that. I have no doubt he will turn it around but I think that teams are taking a harder look at him this season, out or walk type philosophy, he isn't going to see any good pitches.

Attonitus wrote:When it happens a few months in to the season, it's a "slump". When he starts off the season this behind at the plate it's more than that.

How so? Is a player not allowed to START the season in a slump or something?

Attonitus wrote:

Randle McMurphy wrote:

Attonitus wrote:He's realizing that pitchers have him marked on their calenders now, he's no longer a sleeper, he's a huge threat and pitchers are stepping up against him, he hasn't been up to the challenge so far but he will adjust and come around, I am more worried about guys like Thames and as I hate to admit it, Lind.

It took them over 2 seasons of dominating offense to mark Bautista as a huge threat? Did you see his walk totals since 2010?

It's called a slump.

When it happens a few months in to the season, it's a "slump". When he starts off the season this behind at the plate it's more than that. I have no doubt he will turn it around but I think that teams are taking a harder look at him this season, out or walk type philosophy, he isn't going to see any good pitches.

He's seeing the same pitches. He's been one of the best hitters in baseball for over 2 years and the walks have been consistently the same almost the entire time. Nobody is all of a sudden looking at him and thinking "hey, that guy up in Canada is pretty good, eh? How come it took us 30 months to realize it?".

-MetA4- wrote:

Attonitus wrote:When it happens a few months in to the season, it's a "slump". When he starts off the season this behind at the plate it's more than that.

How so? Is a player not allowed to START the season in a slump or something?

Sorry I just don't know how you can slump when you haven't done anything that season to be slumping from.

vaff87 wrote:

Randle McMurphy wrote:

Attonitus wrote:He's realizing that pitchers have him marked on their calenders now, he's no longer a sleeper, he's a huge threat and pitchers are stepping up against him, he hasn't been up to the challenge so far but he will adjust and come around, I am more worried about guys like Thames and as I hate to admit it, Lind.

It took them over 2 seasons of dominating offense to mark Bautista as a huge threat? Did you see his walk totals since 2010?

It's called a slump.

Pffff, "slump". It's obviously time to start worrying, Kapono said so! And if he's not hitting in mid-May, we might as well DFA him, because surely no one would even think of trading for a guy who's been struggling for an entire month and a half.

Yeah, I'm surprised the Cardinals didn't trade Pujols in late May last year. Could have gotten someone to help them with their WS run.

Attonitus wrote:When it happens a few months in to the season, it's a "slump". When he starts off the season this behind at the plate it's more than that.

There is no difference between a player's timing at the plate being off in April and a player's timing being off in July.

I have no doubt he will turn it around but I think that teams are taking a harder look at him this season, out or walk type philosophy, he isn't going to see any good pitches.

Pitchers have been careful to throw him good pitches for years now. There is nothing different in how they've approached him.

Skin Blues wrote:He's seeing the same pitches. He's been one of the best hitters in baseball for over 2 years and the walks have been consistently the same almost the entire time. Nobody is all of a sudden looking at him and thinking "hey, that guy up in Canada is pretty good, eh? How come it took us 30 months to realize it?".

...and I never said that was the case. When pitchers see a batter enough times they adapt and find a way to get around certain batters, Jose was nobody 3 years ago, pitchers are catching up with him and he needs to adjust, it's a constant evolution.

Randle McMurphy wrote:

Attonitus wrote:When it happens a few months in to the season, it's a "slump". When he starts off the season this behind at the plate it's more than that.

There is no difference between a player's timing at the plate being off in April and a player's timing being off in July.

I have no doubt he will turn it around but I think that teams are taking a harder look at him this season, out or walk type philosophy, he isn't going to see any good pitches.

Pitchers have been careful to throw him good pitches for years now. There is nothing different in how they've approached him.

I think at this point with Lind as weak as he is behind him most nights, they approach him quite differently.