Sorts of Sports

Time to Pay Attention to Jose Bautista

Jose Bautista is doing something for the Toronto Blue Jays that maybe we've never seen before, and it is about time we start paying attention to him. We know that he hit 54 homeruns last year, but with three more homeruns on Sunday, he already has 16 this year, and since the beginning of last year, Jose Bautista has 70 total, 21 more than the next player over that same span.

But what really stands out is that Bautista has missed eight games this year. He had just one homer to right field last year and he has two already this year. In fact, with 129 career homeruns, Bautista has only hit three total homers to right field and six others to center. It is not to be misunderstood that he is a dead fastball hitter who pulls everything, rather, he has incredible bat speed and his leg kick powers his hips through the zone with massive amounts of energy.

So where does he stand amongst some of the best single-season homerun hitters? Let's look at a few numbers. First, Jose has only played in 32 games and has 16 homeruns. To give one comparison, only two players in MLB history have had 10+ homers while playing less than 30 games in a season. Mike Jacobs did it in  2005, his rookie season, with 11 HR in 30 games while in 1998 Shane Spencer, also in his rookie year, had 10 HR in 27 games.

In what the media is claiming as another Year of the Pitcher, with hitting numbers down, not seen since 1992, seven players this year have eclipsed 10+ homers before their 40th game played this year. What also stands out on this list of hitters is that Bautista has already walked 35 times, 15 more times than the next player on this list, in eight fewer games.

Ted Williams hit 13 homers by his 37th game of the 1953 season. What is extraordinary about Williams, amongst other things, is that he did this in playing just 37 games for the Red Sox in during the 1953 season after he returned from the Korean War in August. He was hardly in baseball condition after practicing for just 10 days prior to joining the lineup, but still had the power and eye that he had throughout his entire career.

Obviously, this is not the record for most homeruns during a 40 game span. In 1927, Babe Ruth had 13 homeruns in his first 40 games. He closed the year with 22 dingers over his last 40 and would finish with 60. In 1998, Mark McGwire hit 17 bombs in his first 40 games, while driving out 23 in his last 40 games. He hit 70 that year. Similarly, Barry Bonds' first 40 games of the 2001 consisted of 22 homeruns. For his last 40 games of the season, Bonds belted 20 homeruns and ended with the MLB single-season record of  73 in the season.

Maybe more remarkable was watching Sammy Sosa hit 20 homeruns during a 27 game stretch in June of 1998, which was part of a stretch of 39 games in which Sosa hit 27 homeruns, the record for homeruns hit over a 40-game span. Sosa finished with 66, now third most in a single season.

Jose Bautista has some work ahead of him if he is going to surpass Bary Bonds hitting 73 homeruns, but in a game that is now 'clean', both from a hitters and pitchers perspective, it is something that we should take notice of this season.