Official Jose Bautista Home Run watch (54!)

[SharoneWright]

Bautista on pace to break Bell's single season record of 47 HR's. Dude just keeps mashing!

Just figured I'd create a thread to document the amazification/ the contract implications/ the / etc...

BTW, when's ESPN going to do a front page story on this guy?

[OldNo7]

Buster Olney, who in my opinion is the best baseball writer I read, has featured a few pieces on Bombtista's revamped swing this year in his blogs. But since it's Insider-only, not enough people have gotten to read about it. While people do notice, it would be nice to see more front page exposure, even if it's just on the MLB page. I'm sure once he gets to the cusp of #50 there will be more publicity.

[zilby]

Would be exciting to see him crack 48 this season. More than likely to.

And then it's going to be disappointing when we find out he used steroids in a couple of years

[evilRyu]

yup, we do need an official Bautista HR watch, so this is great..

Keep it up Jose

[Hummus]

Buster Olney, who in my opinion is the best baseball writer I read, has featured a few pieces on Bombtista's revamped swing this year in his blogs. But since it's Insider-only, not enough people have gotten to read about it. While people do notice, it would be nice to see more front page exposure, even if it's just on the MLB page. I'm sure once he gets to the cusp of #50 there will be more publicity.

Watched the Detroit broadcast yesterday - they sure seemed to know about it. They were talking all about his revamped mechanics in detail, and were going over his home run swing a few times and deconstructing it to show the viewers where his adjustments were made and how it was helping him get the ball out - though one thing mechanics didn't change that help him, and it was noted, was his very fast bat speed. I also read a blog somebody here posted yesterday about his mechanics changing - everything from his step to how he holds the bat, and his crouch. It seems like everybody is looking for the magical change.

To me, it is all kind of humorous. I can imagine these exact types of articles being written about Sosa and McGwire; "Sammy Sosa has changed his foot tap this year, and is on pace to hit 80 home runs!" that will make the experts and analysts look foolish if it ever does come out that this huge surge is 90% drug fueled. Not that I'm saying it is, but you have to take these "mechanics tweak = huge success" stories with a grain of salt. It almost makes them more enjoyable, because you feel that they are hiding some dark and unspoken truth.

[Geddy]

He has 34 games to hit 6 more, or about 1 every 5.6 games. Assuming he plays every game, and has 4 at bats per game then that's about 1 every 22 at bats. I think he should be able to get to 50 barring any injuries.

[wicked_crossova]

I <3 Bautista

[SharoneWright]

Bautista has benefited from Bell's tutelage

If Bautista does break Toronto's single-season homer record, he will have done so after receiving hitting advice from Bell.

Bell and Bautista speak each year, and Bell made a point this past offseason to find Bautista during his winter-ball season with Tigres del Licey in the Dominican. Bell had seen something in Bautista's swing, and he wanted to work with the Jays outfielder on making an adjustment.

Good stuff!

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd ... p&c_id=tor

[RockTHECasbah]

very impressive stuff by Bautista; his swing looks very good

[S-centz]

(yeah the spelling of the name is different, but this still applies)

[evilRyu]

Bautista has benefited from Bell's tutelage

If Bautista does break Toronto's single-season homer record, he will have done so after receiving hitting advice from Bell.

Bell and Bautista speak each year, and Bell made a point this past offseason to find Bautista during his winter-ball season with Tigres del Licey in the Dominican. Bell had seen something in Bautista's swing, and he wanted to work with the Jays outfielder on making an adjustment.

Good stuff!

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd ... p&c_id=tor

pretty awesome.. I love it when the alumni gives help to our players

[Geddy]

On an unrelated note, John McDonald continued his quest to George Bell's mark by adding his 4th dinger of the year.

[LittleOzzy]

I'm going to sticky this, it's always nice to have something exciting to talk about late in the season.

[baulderdash77]

He's on pace right now to hit just over 50. If he doesn't beat the record, I'll be dissapointed.

On a side note, where in the AL MVP voting do you think he'll end up? I think he'll be in 3rd place.

[SharoneWright]

ESPN makes an appearance - painting with a broad brush - predictable.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/ ... ortCat=mlb

[Geddy]

Yet again - painting with a broad brush - predictable.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/ ... ortCat=mlb

If he played for the Yankees or Red Sox I'm sure they would be praising him as the feel good story of the year.

[Randle McMurphy]

ESPN makes an appearance - painting with a broad brush - predictable.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/ ... ortCat=mlb

He has pretty much the same misconceptions about PEDs as Cox did.

Does anyone really think Thome did the PED deed? I don't. Since 1995, his season home run totals as a full-time player have never fluctuated more than 13 from one year to the next.

The same goes for Pujols, whose numbers have fluctuated an average of 7½ home runs between 2001 and 2009.

Meanwhile, Sosa had a 30-homer difference between 1997 and 1998, from 36 to 66. Bonds' homers bobbed from 49 in 2000 to 73 in 2001 back to 46 in 2002. I'm just saying. (And by the way, what is it about the jersey No. 25 and PED users? Bonds wore it. Palmeiro wore it. McGwire wore it. Sosa wore it earlier in his career. I'm pulling for Thome, who also wears it, to be the trend-breaker.)

This part doesn't even make any sense. You can only be suspected of PED use if you had a large single-season HR increase at some point in your career?

[Randle McMurphy]

Yet again - painting with a broad brush - predictable.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/ ... ortCat=mlb

If he played for the Yankees or Red Sox I'm sure they would be praising him as the feel good story of the year.

There's not a doubt in my mind that this is true, too.

[CapeCrusader]

Good call on the thread...how many games we do have left?

[OldNo7]

43!