Pittsburgh Pirates vs Toronto Jays: Could Jose Bautista Be the Difference Maker?

I'm glad that Pittsburgh is not in the American League. Because most teams would not be happy to face a home run king named Jose Bautista on the other team. But National League teams don't have to do this most of the time. Except when there is a series of interleague games against Toronto, like now. Fortunately for the Bucs, there are only three of these games.

To make matters worse, having to face Bautista is a self-inflicted wound. Because he was once a PIRATE. That's right, he USED to wear Pittsburgh's black and gold, until management thought that he was expendable and traded him in 2008.

After all, Pedro Alvarez (who's he?) beckoned at third base in two to three years. And they could get an interim player named Andy LaRoche (brother of first baseman Adam) by trading their other star, Jason Bay, for him plus two other busted prospects and a pitcher still working his way through the minor leagues.

Somewhat to my surprise, Bautista turned out to be the greater loss. At least we got FOUR players ("draws," if you will), for Bay. And Bay was never quite the same after his 2007 injury. Whereas Bautista is coming into his own right now, yes, at age 30. And Pittsburgh basically "dumped" him for a replacement catcher.

I never suspected that Bautista would be a huge home run hitter when I protested his trade in a comment.

But even in 2008, he already had a valuable characteristic: good pitch selection, as reflected in a high on-base percentage, and a very large difference (what I call the "walk rate"), between this figure, and his (then-admittedly low) batting average. In this regard, he reminded me of Kevin Youkilis, the "Greek god of walks."

Youkilis was no mean home run hitter (29 in 2008), although he's no "Bautista."  More to the point, four of the top five on-base percentage players last year—Joey Votto (Cincinnati), Miguel Cabrera (Detroit), Albert Pujols (St. Louis) and Josh Hamilton (Texas)—hit at least 30 home runs last year. The sole exception in this group was Joe Mauer (Minnesota). That seems to support my theory that hitting home runs is as much about having "a good eye" as it is about power.

Pittsburgh's Achilles heel is its lack of hitting. The great strength of Bautista (and his teammates) is slugging, particularly of long balls. As it were, their pitching isn't quite up to snuff.

So in order to win, the Pirates will have to find a way to run up the score. The 3-1 and 4-2 victories (and defeats) that have characterized their recent play aren't going to cut it against Toronto. I expect the combined score of the two teams to exceed 10 points in at least two of the three games. In that kind of situation, I wish Bautista were on our side.

In 2008, the Pittsburgh Pirates never thought they could get back to .500 with Bautista on the team. So they traded him for a song. Now that they have finally exceeded that mark, the Pirates may find that Bautista is the person that pushes them back below .500.