He might not have had the same start as last season, but Jose Bautista has been much better as of late and has been named as a starting outfielder for the American League in the 2012 All-Star Game in Kansas City next Tuesday.
Bautista leads the major leagues in home runs with 26 and is second, only to Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers, in runs batted in with 63, despite only recording an average of .239.
Remarkably, Bautista got off to such a bad start, the .239 average was the highest he has had since April 8, the third game of the season for Toronto.
From April 26-May 16, Bautista was in fact below the Mendoza line, with a season worst .172 average on May 3.
The Blue Jays meanwhile are still in the thick of things in the American League East and are now only 2.5 games back of the Baltimore Orioles for the American League Wildcard spot. The Jays have a big four game series this week against the Kansas City Royals at Toronto’s Rogers Centre.
At 21-18, the Toronto Blue Jays find themselves in a playoff spot in the American League East.
Last night at the Rogers Centre, rookie Drew Hutchison threw six brilliant innings as the Blue Jays beat the New York Yankees to pass the Bronx Bombers into a playoff spot in the American League.
It was a very good pitching performance by Hutchison, as five Yankees bats (including first baseman Mark Teixeira) went hitless. Third baseman Yan Gomes, who became the first ever Brazilian-born player to play in the Major Leagues, got two hits in three at bats in his Major League debut.
Team Canada will have a chance to build off of their tight 3-2 victory over Slovakia yesterday when they face their American archrival nemesis this morning at the World Hockey Championships in Helsinki (TSN, 10am).
The Americans are coming off a commanding opening victory over France yesterday where they won 7-2.
Even though, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Devan Dubnyk and Jordan Eberle missed the playoffs for the Edmonton Oilers, this tournament could be valuable experience for them.
An American Oilers fans would be familiar with is defenceman Jeff Petry, who is joined on the American blueline with Jack Johnson, Alex Goligoski and Cam Fowler.
Here are the other events I’ll be watching this weekend:
Saturday–NHL Eastern Conference Semi-Final Game 4–New York Rangers @ Washington Capitals–10:30am–NBC–After coming off the longest game of the playoffs Wednesday night (game went into triple overtime), the Capitals will try to tie the series at two games apiece. Brad Richards continues to produce in the playoffs. The former Conn Smythe Trophy winner leads the Rangers in playoff scoring with nine points. For the Rangers to get by Washington however, they will need more from Artem Anisimov and Ruslan Fedotenko. They combined for 25 regular season goals, but only have a combined total of one goal in the playoffs.
Saturday–MLB–Arizona Diamondacks @ New York Mets–1:30pm–FOX–Despite only hitting .254 last season, Mets third baseman David Wright has got off to a great start in 2012, batting .395 with eight extra base hits. Last night J.J. Putz recorded his sixth save of the season as Arizona defeated the New York Mets 5-4. Arizona is 14-13 while the NY Mets are 13-13.
The Toronto Blue Jays have acquired Sergio Santos from the Chicago White Sox to close for them this upcoming season.
Santos was 4-5, with 30 saves and an earned run average of 3.55 as Chicago’s primary closer in 2011. The Blue Jays traded from pitching prospect Nestor Molina to the White Sox for Santos.
Frank Francisco was the closer for the Blue Jays last season and recorded 17 saves in 21 opportunities with an earned run average of 3.55. But he seemed to be in manager John Farrell’s doghouse at times throughout the year. With the signing of Santos, and Francisco being a free agent, it appears Francisco’s days in Toronto are now over.
With the signing of Santos, Casey Janssen will likely move to the setup role and expect to see Joel Carreno to see some key innings as well. Carreno had an earned run average of 1.15 in 15 2/3 innings of work in 2011.
The other story with the Blue Jays is if they will make a serious run at Prince Fielder. The three-time all-star formerly with the Milwaukee Brewers, has hit as many as 50 home runs in a season and has expressed his interest in coming to Toronto. Now the question is if Blue Jays’ General Manager Alex Anthopoulos really wants Fielder and if he fits into the team’s long-term plans. My answer is go get him right now and figure out your budget later. Your league has no salary cap, and in order for the Jays to finally play with the big boys in the American League East, they could definitely use a power bet to compliment Jose Bautista.
The Toronto Blue Jays may have a pitching gem in their starting rotation for years to come.
On Sunday, Canadian baseball fans had a glimpse of sinkerballer Luis Perez.
Perez, who has pitched in 29 games this season, all in relief with a 2-2 record, with 37 strikeouts and a 3.71 earned run average, combined with reliever Casey Janssen on a one hitter as the Toronto Blue Jays defeated the Oakland Athletics 1-0.
Perez only ran into significant issues in the sixth inning, when he walked shortstop Cliff Pennington and third baseman Scott Sizemore, before allowing second baseman Jemile Weeks to get a base hit, Oakland’s only of the day. With one out, Coco Crisp hit into a double play, right to John McDonald.
Wednesday night saw the coming out party for the rising Canadian baseball star Brett Lawrie of Langley, British Columbia. The 21 year-old third baseman hit his first career grand slam last night as the Toronto Blue Jays defeated the Oakland Athletics 8-4.
It should have been a great time for Lawrie, who has had a great start to his career since joining the Blue Jays last week. He is batting .389 in his first 18 Major League at bats.
Unfortunately, the majority of the talk in the Blue Jays’ locker room yesterday centered on an ESPN story where the the Blue Jays have been accused of sign stealing. According to four Major League Baseball relievers, who were later identified by Blue Jays’ outfielder Jose Bautista as playing for the Chicago White Sox, a man dressed in a white t-shirt in the Blue Jays’ outfield made signals to Toronto batters during games played in April, 2010.
Blue Jays’ General Manager Alex Anthopoulos called the report “stupid”. I don’t think there is any validity to it. Obviously, the man in white didn’t help the Blue Jays in the win column that much because they were still 11 games back of the Tampa Bay Rays for first place in the American League East. But two statistics show some validity to ESPN’s report. The Blue Jays had 257 home runs in 2010, the most in Major League Baseball, and the highest isolated power (slugging percentage minus batting average) of any team in Major League Baseball since 1954.
It was a little surprising yesterday that two rather significant trades happened in Major League Baseball.
Why? Well, it is supposed to be a relaxing and fun day on baseball’s calendar. But, when you get all the general managers together under one roof, as what happened yesterday in Phoenix, I guess it’s not all that surprising.
Earlier in the day, the Toronto Blue Jays traded Juan Rivera (.243, 6 HR, 27 RBIs) to the Los Angeles Dodgers for future considerations. Rivera had seemed to be lost in the Jays’ outfield mix, as Travis Snider, Eric Thames and Corey Patterson were higher on the depth chart. Rivera came to the Blue Jays in the Vernon Wells trade with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the offseason.
Then last night, the New York Mets traded Francisco Rodriguez (2-2, 23 SV, 3.16 ERA) to the Milwaukee Brewers for two players to be named and cash. The trade isn’t all that surprising. KRod fell out of favour a little bit in the Big Apple last year when he got into a fight outside the Mets’ dressing room with the father of his girlfriend. He will probably be the setup man to Canadian closer John Axford of Simcoe, Ontario in Milwaukee.
As for the game, Rodriguez’s new teammate Prince Fielder stole the show with a three run home run in the fourth inning as the National League defeated the American League 5-1. Blue Jays’ right fielder Jose Bautista went one for two and made a diving catch down the right field line early in the ball game.
The starters voted by the fans, and rosters named by the managers were announced late Sunday evening for the 2011 Major League Baseball All-Star Game a week from tonight in Arizona.
I always vote online, and select players who statistically should be there, based on their performance in the first half of the regular season.
For the most part, I agreed with the fans’ selections. Thumbs up to Major League Baseball fans worldwide for selecting Detroit Tiger catcher Alex Avila (.297, 10 HR, 46 RBIs), Milwaukee Brewer second baseman Rickie Weeks (.277, 15 HR, 34 RBIs) and Los Angeles Dodger outfielder Matt Kemp (.324, 22 HR, 64 RBIs, 22 SBs) for the first time.
But there was one areas where I found the fans made a mistake. At shortstop, the fans chose the bigger name–Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees (.256, 2 HR, 20 RBIs) over Asdrubal Cabrera of the Cleveland Indians (.293, 14 HR, 49 RBIs). Jeter is only six hits away from the magical 3,000, and the fact that he has a great history playing professional baseball in New York City, helped his stock. But the fans went with the player who has had a great career over the best season, something I felt was wrong. Cabrera will play. He was selected as a reserve by American League Manager Ron Washington of the Texas Rangers.
The boys from “15 Minutes of Fame” are back at it this week with another great sports-filled episode – this week we’re talking about Brendan Shanahan’s new job, the latest on “That Winnipeg NHL Team,” possible landing spots for upcoming free agent Brad Richards, a big rookie mistake at the Indy500 and FIFA corruption!
In the GABBYs: U2 shout outs, first time faceoffs, Jose Bautista, baseball death threats, a bargaining chip for players unions & more!
Over the last year and a half most Canadian baseball fans know who Jose Bautista is.
Now American baseball fans are starting to pay attention too.
This week it was announced Bautista is leading all American League players in all-star voting. Bautista, the right fielder for the Toronto Blue Jays, currently has 1,261,659 votes as of Wednesday, according to the Canadian Press, 75,707 more votes than New York Yankee second baseman Robinson Cano.
Bautista, the player of the month for May, leads the American League in home runs (20), slugging percentage (.773), on base percentage (.502), is second to Matt Joyce of the Tampa Bay Rays in batting average (.360), and is fifth in runs batted in (40).
From a team perspective, opposing pitchers are starting to throw to Bautista less, meaning he is being intentionally walked more and more.
The Toronto Blue Jays got back to the .500 mark Saturday thanks to a 9-8 victory over the Chicago White Sox in a game that lasted 14 innings.
Designated hitter Corey Patterson went five for seven Saturday and got the game winning home run off of White Sox starting pitcher Gavin Floyd, who was making his first relief appearance since 2007.
Jose Bautista also homered for the Blue Jays, his 20th of the year, back in the first inning.
The Blue Jays got an excellent relief appearance from rookie Luis Perez, who won his first game in the Major Leagues.
Perez, who was playing in his sixth career game, lowered his earned run average from 5.87 to 3.97 after throwing three and two third innings with no earned runs.
Toronto improved to 26-26 and are 3.5 games back of the American League East Division leading Boston Red Sox. The White Sox meanwhile dropped to 24-30.
The Vancouver Canucks are only six wins away from becoming the first Canadian based team since the 1993 Montreal Canadiens to win the Stanley Cup.
So far in the Western Conference Final against the San Jose Sharks, Henrik Sedin, the 2010 Hart Trophy Winner, has been the best Canuck, as he has scored one goal and four assists.
Henrik, is a +1 against San Jose, after going a combined -8 against the Chicago Blackhawks and Nashville Predators in the first two rounds.
Another Canuck that has stepped up in the Western Conference Final is Kevin Bieksa, who has two goals and an assist. In game two, he had the Gordie Howe hat trick, as he also surprisingly fought Patrick Marleau in the second period.
For the Sharks to get back in the series, they may have to get a little less physical. They took too many undisciplined penalties in game two that cost them. Game three is tonight at 7pm in San Jose (CBC) and game four is also in San Jose on Sunday at 1pm (NBC).
If you have read any of my baseball posts on www.anysportanytime.ca, I have been a little critical of Jose Bautista.
I have felt he has decent power, but doesn’t hit with the consistency of some of the other power hitters in Major League Baseball like Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez and Josh Hamilton.
Well, I am pleased to say the consistency is now here, and in a big way.
The starting right fielder of the Toronto Blue Jays currently leads all of Major League Baseball with an overpowering .360 batting average. He has gone 27 for 75 in the month of April so far, and is the favourite to be the American League Player of the Month. That would make Bautista the player of the month for three of the last four months, as he was also the American League Player of the Month for July and August last year.
One of the more interesting storylines so far in the 2010-11 Stanley Cup Playoffs has been the strategy of the Washington Capitals. The players have bought into head coach Bruce Boudreau’s defensive mindset and limited the quality of scoring opportunities by the New York Rangers considerably. One Capital defenceman that is receiving considerably high praise is defenceman Scott Hannan who was acquired from the Colorado Avalanche for Tomas Fleischmann on November 30. Hannan had four blocked shots and two hits in 28:39 in Game One Wednesday and was a +1 with a blocked shot in 21:34 last night. Offensively, two former Oilers have been producing for the Capitals. Jason Arnott and Jason Chimera found the puck past Henrik Lundqvist last night. Game three of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinal is set for Sunday at 1pm (NBC) at New York’s Madison Square Garden with the Capitals leading the series 2-0.
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