Jose Bautista: Master of hitting in Major League Baseball – Part 2
Once he returned to Pirates, his Major League career kept improving in his four years stay with the club. He played his first full season for the Pirates in 2006 when he made 51 runs with .235 batting averages. He also struck 16 home-runs for the first time
in any form of the league. He kept his performance going in the next year when he improved his averages to .254 making 63 RBIs in 142 games that also include 15 home-run outings. Pirates moved his position as third baseman in place of the time batting champion
Freddy Sanchez, who was replaced to second base.
Bautista struggled throughout the 2008 year when he not only lost his starting job position to newly acquired Andy LaRoche but also moved back to Triple-A, Indianapolis Indians on August 13. Then after only 8 days, he was traded to Toronto Blue Jays in place
of lately announced player Robinson Diaz.
Bautista was not broken even a single percent with the Pirates heart-breaking decision instead he keep on improving his class out of the field because the Jays kept him on the bench most of the 2009 season. In the first, Jays designated him as a backup for
the third base Scott Rolen and outfielder Alex Rios and Adam Lind. However, his luck started working when Chicago White Sox waived off Rios and Adam Lind was limited to designated hitting role.
Then he got more time to show his class and proved all his critics wrong touching 10 home-runs in the month of the September. As a whole, he made 13 home runs in 2009. However, he has shown his level to the Major League opponents. He also made 40 RBIs, 79
hits with .235 averages in 113 games of 2009.
When he started the 2010 season as a right-fielder and leadoff hitter, no one was aware he can be the greatest hitter of 2010 season. He started showing his command over the game in the start of the season. He earned his first major reward of the season
on May 17 when he was declared as the Player of the Week because of his .444 averages and .565 OBP. He struck four home-runs, eight runs and 8 RBIs with 20 total bases in this week.
He ended the 2010 season getting the best ever awards of his career. He led the Major League with 54 homers, entering among the top 25 home-run maker for the club. In this season, he won his first All-Star selection at Majors’ level, American League Hank
Aaron Award, Silver Slugger Award, Player of the Week award, Player of the Month award. He also made many team records to his name including Toronto Blue Jays Most Valuable Player of 2010, Most Improved Player of 2010, John Cerutti Award and also became the
first player in the history of Toronto Blue Jays to score 50 home-runs in a single season.
Bautista has played 849 overall games, in which he had scored 440 runs on 690 hits of 2716 at-bats. He had made 145-second bases and 12 third bases. His home runs are now 148 with 414 RBIs and had out for 628 times in his entire career. His career average
.254 is still very low as compared to many other top batters of the Major League baseball.
No doubt it is hard to make a mark in the game that had produced Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, Willie Meyes in the past while currently has Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Matt Kemp, Albert Pujols and Curtis Granderson. However, despite all slumps Bautista faced,
the right-hand slugger has become successful in entering his name among baseball's top players. Now history will remeber him as the best ever hitter of the 2010 season.
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