Blue Jays need Bautista to be more aggressive at the plate
It’s a long season. I’m not worried about that at all
JOSE BAUTISTA
Jose Bautista has spoiled Toronto Blue Jays fans. So when he started the season in Cleveland with a home run, two singles, a sacrifice fly and two walks, it was business as usual. That’s what Bautista does. But he hasn’t been doing it since then.
Since Opening Day, the two-time home-run king has gone 4-for-35 in eight games. He’s found himself hitting with two strikes 30 times in 42 plate appearances this season, setting up some uncharacteristically defensive swings. In nine games, he’s taken 41 called strikes, many of them borderline, some of them causing him to shake his head in frustration.
It’s very early, of course, and Bautista says he’s not worried. In the past few games, both he and hitting coach Dwayne Murphy have seen encouraging signs that his timing and approach are improving. In Sunday’s win over Baltimore, Bautista drilled a double to the left-field wall to launch a sevenrun inning, and later, he practically undressed the third baseman with a line drive that turned into an out.
“I’m having good at-bats,” Bautista said before Sunday’s game. “I’m not going up there and looking like I’m totally lost or not competing. I feel like I’m giving myself a chance. I’m swinging at strikes, taking some balls, taking some borderline pitches. So that’s where I want to be.
“But when I am getting my pitch to hit, it’s just that I’m not taking advantage right now. Those things are going to change. It’s a long season. I’m not worried about that at all.”
Back in late 2010, Murphy and thenmanager Cito Gaston orchestrated the mechanical changes that helped transform Bautista from journeyman to superstar. Simply put, the key to his success was to “get started earlier,” timing his leg kick to coincide with the pitcher’s release.
After coaching him through two of the best seasons a batter has ever enjoyed, Murphy continues to work with Bautista every day. The adjustments are continuous and often subtle. Over the second half of 2011 and the early days of this season, Murphy said Bautista became less aggressive in his approach.
“In that second half, I really thought he went too defensive,” Murphy said.
“Things have changed a little bit. When he stays aggressive, and stays in control, he puts on great swings, he can hit the ball anywhere on the plate, he drives the ball. That’s what he’s got to get back to doing. That’s what he’s been working on the last couple days, and to me, his swing looks so much better.”
Pitchers, of course, are constantly looking for ways to slow down Bautista, and after his eye-popping first half last year — a .334 average with 31 homers and 65 RBIS —he admits he began to chase bad pitches too often.
After the all-star break, he batted .254 with 12 homers and 38 RBIS, but still finished with fabulous numbers, leading the majors in homers (43), walks (132) and on-base plus slugging percentage (1.056).
Bautista sees fewer good pitches than an ordinary hitter. When he’s hot, his batting eye is uncanny, forcing pitchers to wade perilously closer to his comfort zone. But in the early days of 2012, Murphy says pitchers have lured Bautista into bad hitting counts.
“I just think he was taking too much, getting behind in the counts, a lot of two-strike counts,” Murphy said. “He’s always been the aggressor up there and laid off those tough pitches. But it seemed like he was going after a lot of pitches off the plate. That’s not him. He usually waited for the pitcher to bring it to him and he was the aggressor.”
Murphy also agrees that it is unusual to see Bautista take as many defensive swings as he has in the early going. Part of the reason is that umpires have often called strikes on pitches he considered balls.
“Those swings are with two strikes,” Bautista said. “You’ve got to protect the plate. A lot of calls have been made on borderline pitches that make you expand the zone, and then I just have to protect the strike zone in any way that I can, and not take another chance of maybe going back to the dugout with my bat on my shoulder without giving it a shot.”
Bautista won’t openly admit to frustration with those calls — “Everybody has to deal with it,” he said — but Murphy believes he’s perhaps put too much pressure on himself to produce, given that so many of his teammates are also struggling at the plate.
“Maybe early in the season he’s been trying to do too much, feeling like, ‘I’ve got to carry the load,’” Murphy said. “But when he’s good, he’s getting his pitch and handling it. He never gets a whole bunch of pitches to hit in a series anyway, so when he gets them, he has to be ready to hit.”