“Bautista has struggled, do you see him breaking out of his slump anytime soon?” – @_andrewmurphy
Jose Bautista has fantasy owners ripping their hair out after a sluggish start to his 2012 season. Toronto’s right fielder is currently batting .187 on the young season, and has struggled to lift the ball out of the yard or find the gaps for extra bases. In most fantasy baseball formats Bautista was drafted in the first round, and for good reason. He is the reigning two time homerun champion, last year he blasted 43 homeruns, just one year after posted a career high 54 jacks in 2010. Although Bautista had 43 homers last season he seemed to struggle big time in the month of September and it has begun to carry over to the first month of this season. Pitchers have learned to stay away from the Blue Jay big bat and pitch him away. Bautista is hitting more balls to the right side of the infield this year than he has in his entire career. I received a question via twitter from a concerned Jose Bautista fantasy baseball owner asking if I “see him (Bautista) breaking out of his slump anytime soon?” And my question to that is yes. Baseball lovers are comparing Jose Bautista’s slump to the same thing Albert Pujols is going through this season. Pujols is off to a horrid start and has career low statistics in every category. However, these two players are going through much different slumps, Pujols’ is much worse. Bautista still has one of the best walk rates (16.1%) and owns a career low strikeout rate (12.1%), which shows that his plate discipline is still outstanding. On the other hand Pujols is striking out at a high rate and not walking often. Bautista is struggling big time and still has a .318 on base percentage, .132 higher than his average. At the beginning of the month I wrote a piece in my article called “Mark My Words” where I predicted a big month from Bautista. Joey Bats is too good to struggle for a long time. He is the type of guy that you should buy low on. Try and make a trade attempt for the guy while his fantasy owner is frustrated. My message to fantasy owners is, don’t panic on Bautista it is only a matter of time until he starts raking. DO NOT give up on the guy.
Conner “Country Breakfast” Patch @connerpatch68
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