More links for Monday, as Jose Bautista becomes the first major leaguer to hit 40 home runs this season…
- The Mets signed former big league reliever Yhency Brazoban out of the Mexican League, according to Matt Eddy of Baseball America. The 30-year-old right-hander enjoyed some success out of the Dodgers' 'pen in 2004-05, but hasn't pitched in the majors since 2008.
- Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune breaks down the choices the White Sox face this offseason. A.J. Pierzynski and Paul Konerko are among the White Sox who will hit free agency after the season.
- Dusty Baker told the AP (on ESPN) that he hasn't decided whether to accept the one-year extension the Reds offered last week.
I’ve always said this…Yhency Brozoban is just one Brian Bruney away from greatness.
“More links for Monday, as Jose Bautista becomes the first major leaguer to hit 40 home runs this season… “How dirty was the stare down and bat drop as soon as he launched #40, ridiculous. Too bad about the jays pen and just general losing games they should have won early on because this team could have got interesting down the stretch.
Haha you should read some of Yankees forums and they’re all freaking out and calling Bautista an a** while obviously accusing him of steroids.
So glad we didn’t trade him.
why on earth would you be reading anything in a yankees forum lol
Funny reading the reactions.
Great game tonight Moonraker and SniderLover. Go Jays! Going back home to NY tomorow morning and excited for the Yankees Jays series in NY! 3rd 4th 5th! Yeah!
As a baseball fan I watched what happened and enjoyed what Nova and Bautista did. Thats just good baseball.
Should make for an interesting story line the rest of the series.. It would be nice for the jays to get a sweep, knock the yanks out of first place.. not for anything else but in a war your destined to lose, its nice to win a few battles.
Not sure how you mean “dirty”, but some people may have missed the Yankees throwing at Bautista’s head after the first home run. Cleared the benches in the 6th.
Probably wasn’t intentional, but when you hit a homer, get a fastball at your head, and then hit another home run, you’re bound to be a little emotional!
i meant dirty as a slang word, obviously i am a biased jays fan and i loved the reaction.
The Sox HAVE to bring back Konerko next season at the very least. He is the face of the franchise, sorry Buehrle. And, he is still a very good hitter, and adequate defensive 1B.
Zynski I’m on the fence about, they have a good platoon situation going with him and Castro though. AJ still calls a great game behind the plate even though he is slipping on offense and defense.
I don’t see Flowers a MLB player, let alone a catcher. He isn’t quick enough behind the dish and I also don’t think his bat will play at 1B.
I have a hard time even thinking of a Konerko-less Sox team. He’s been quietly going about his business for them for a long time. A.J. has strangely been behind the plate for so many of their pitcher turn-around; you have to think at the very least the pitchers like working with him. Can they afford to keep him if his bat has done died? I would find him a suitable platoon partner for next year, and keep him.
How rediculous are the bombs that Bautista has hit this year. He is 6’0 190, not 6’6 270. He uses his hips as tourque and leg kick for leverage better than any power hitter since Darryl Strawberry.
He is also a well above average RF with a cannon for a arm, and is versatile enough to fill in at 3B.
He has been a VERY impressive player this season. I hope it isn’t a fluke season and that he can get his average into the .270 range…
I don’t think he will ever be much of an average guy but the fact he has like .370 OBP makes us for his sub .250 average. But if he can raise that to .270 by the end of season, he could become the MVP.
Hey, there are always stereotypical comments about Yankee fans being dumb, or just funny to see their reaction after they lose, lol. I’m a Yankee fan, and sure I’m a little upset but just because a guy hit a few bombs off you to help his team doesen’t mean he took steroids, and I certainly don’t blast other teams when they beat NY!
I’m a Yankee fan too, but i have to disagree. I don’t going around accusing players, but i mean seriously how can people say he’s not on steroids? He hit 40 home runs this season in a career where he’s never hit over 20! Hitting 30 for a season is one thing if he changed his swing or something but he has 40 with another month to go? Before this season very few people even knew who he was, his career average is 240 and now he’s leading the league in HRs. How can no one question that? I’d like to think that after this big steroids blow up that players would give up on it and not risk getting in trouble, but i don’t know anymore.
Bautista’s attitude was just not helping his cause, I mean calling out a first time starter for losing control of a ball that never really could have hit him and then celebrating after hitting a home run like he deserved it after such injustice against. I mean was all that necessary?
This is not because the Jays beat us, because they did, it was a good game. Morrow was great and so was Nova. I would think this about Bautista even if he didn’t hit those HRs
I still stand by my initial post about Yankees fans playing up being Yankee fans. But blaming PED use on a guy who is having a breakout year shows a distinct lack of knowledge about the the game of baseball. Obviously Bleacher you don’t watch Jose on a regular basis and don’t understand how his swing has changed, but, a look at his batted balls tell the story (fangraphs can be your friend.)
Jose spent the winter training with George Bell, who helped him change his swing to give his balls in play more natural lift. Why’s that you say ? because before this year Jose hit the ball on the ground more then 40% of the time (aka thats terrible) He found that by holding the bat over his head at a more pronounced angle the plane of his swing increased his fly ball rate by 11% from last year. More fly balls equals a higher percentage of homeruns, especially with a linedrive rate of almost %15 percent.
Im not going to do all your homework for you, but look up who leads the league in “just enough homeruns” and how that works for the Rogers center and you will begin to understand a little bit more about why Jose’s skill set, while not changing, has resulted in more homeruns. He is not crushing the balls out of the park but rather is producing more linedrive like flyballs which fly out just over the short walls in the Rogers center.
And by the way, stop giving Yankees fans a bad name by not doing your homework before you accuse hard working ball players of cheating. And, “his career average is 240 and now he’s leading the league in HRs. How can no one question that?” Hey his average on the year .255. Was Carlos Pena on the juice last year when he hit .227 and 39 homeruns ? Batting average has nothing to do with homerun rates. If you want to understand homeruns more look at linedrive and flyball rates coupled with home and away splits coupled with park dimensions (Pena and Jose don’t hit in Petco park fyi)
you bad mouth yankee fans but then come here like you’re talking down to an idiot, I don’t appreciate that. I wasn’t trying to be an angry fan, I’m just stating what a lot of people are thinking. I’m sorry I don’t buy the change of swing as the only reason, perhaps its part of the reason for sure but that doesn’t explain a 16-40+ jump i’m sorry. I know avg has nothing to do with HRs, i’m saying that the power has never been there. If I need to show you stats then fine:from 06-10 his SLG has been in the low 400s, while this year it’s 600and it’s not because of games played because he hasn’t jumped in games played in that time periodhis OPS+ has gone up 50 points from last year and he’s only played 10 games more this year so how can you say the Rogers Centre is helping him that much? (i’m sure it is but the HRs i’ve seen him hit against the yankees have been bombs)Also his OBP hasn’t gone up much so the only thing this change of swing has done for him is get him to hit more home runs, it’s not like he’s getting on base more.his GBs are up from last year and the increase in his LDs is hardly enough for you to say that he’s driving the ball more or line drive home runs. His FB is the only thing thats gone up substantially and thats not even his career high of FBs! I still think its safe to say that he’s using something, I’m sure his new swing has helped him a lot because I’ve seen players do that all the time, but he’s not hitting better, he’s hitting more home runs, very far
Also thank you for motivating me to check out fangraph, very cool, very useful
Fangraphs is honestly the best baseball stat site. Every pointless stat a nerd like me can love.
No one has ever changed their swing and their approach and gotten more success.. Its simply impossible, your first few years in the majors on average should be exactly where you peak and eventually decline. . It only makes sense, I mean improvement? Different Mechanics? all highly overrated
Pena, Scutaro, Ibanez, Bautista, SWISHER, yep all on juice, because in baseball there is no improvements, just your first few years, then steroids.
you’re leaking sarcasm. Yes I completely understand that that stuff can improve your stats but none of those players have jumped so dramatically in the course of one year. Swisher is not that big and while Scutaro has been a surprising pain in the ass, I don’t think he’s on steroids
Ok but you do know that steroids aren’t some magical potion that makes you a good baseball player right? ? I mean if you or I take steroids it won’t make us good baseball players, maybe stronger, but strength is only a small percentage of what makes a good baseball player.. or else we would see strongest men competitors in the middle of every lineup..
Steroids made rogers clemens, barry bonds, Mark Mcguire, BETTER, but they were all already pretty good, Arod came up a prodigy, steroids took him from 46 HR’s to 57, not 15 to 50. People have this belief that steroids ans steroids alone makes players THAT much better. Its simply inaccurate and ignorant. .
haha yes of course i know. Jeez if that were true there’d be nothing interesting about the sport anymore. I’m sure Bautista’s a good enough player by himself i mean he’s been in the majors for years now so he must be doing something right
Baseball simply has these outlier statistics that can’t be explained. Davey Johnson goes from 5 homers to over 40 in 1973 and never hits that many again. And Ben Zobrist was one of THE most valuable guy in baseball last year statistically (8.3 WAR) and went from 4 homeruns to 27. Moonraker has it right, their is no statistical proof that steroids can turn a 10 homerun hitter into a 40 homerun hitter, its just bunk science and a smear campaign on a hard working baseball player.
(Sorry for my previous post, in Toronto there is a lot of anger directed at the reporter who suggested Bautista is on the Juice. Keith Law even came on to the Radio and ripped people who were saying he was on the juice a new one.)
Good point on Swisher. He quited down his swing and he is hitting for average and power from both sides. Mechanics change the swing and the swing is the one thing players spend years on perfecting. Hitting is the art of maintaining and reproducing the same swing over and over / same as pitching is all about the delivery.
Or, maybe he’s just on the juice !
You left out that Bautista also leads the league in no doubters
I think if he were taking PED’s, the league would have found out by now.
By the way, didn’t you see Teixeira roid rage to the 1B umpire last night? I’m just pulling your chain.
haha that was some serious roid rage indeed, very similar to Wiggington’s roid rage a month or two ago
I think a lot of Yankees fans like to play into the stereotype of being a Yankees fan. Hey, when your teams number 1, why not strut a little, its probably also funny to chirp people who think your serious. I think thats one reason Jose got the curtain call, because for one day we were better then the best.
Your Headline notes the White Sox, but nothing in the tag line at the end. Why?