Jose Bautista: batting powerhouse of Major League Baseball
The Player who is commanding the 2011 season with the most home-runs, in the most batting averages, has taken the most ever votes by fans in the Major League Baseball history, has been named two times in All-star, has won American League’s Home Run Champion
record in 2010, is the Toronto Blue Jays’ current right-fielder Jose Antonio Bautista.
His records and awards also include American League Hank Aaron Award in 2010, four times AL Player of the month Award, Silver Slugger Awards in 2010 and five times Honda Player of the Month Award besides several other small distinctions and honours.
Bautista was born on October 19, 1980 in Santo Domino. His parents looking after his interest in baseball sent him to Colegio San Juan Bautista De La Salle high school that was popular at that time in extracurricular activities. Here Bautista left no stone
unturned to make his batting technique perfect.
His work bore fruit when the Pittsburgh Pirates first drafted him in the 20th round of the 2000 amateur draft. Bautista spent his first professional year with the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Triple-A “Williamsport” in 2001 when he ended third in the team
in home-runs and tied for four in RBIs. He made his first professional home-run on July 3, against the New Jersey.
Pirates sent him to their other Triple-A Hickory in 2002 when he made an RBI in each of his first five games and ended fourth in on-base percentage and got his name called in the South Atlantic League’ All-Star team. However, he again played for another
Triple-A of Pirates, Lynchburg in 2003 before finally getting a chance to play at the Major League level.
However, he did not make a debut from the Pirates as the Baltimore Orioles acquired him with rule five draft before the start of the season. He made his debut on April 4, 2004 against the Boston Red Sox where he made one run and faced just seven pitches.
His jump from team to team still did not end as the Tampa Bay Rays declared him off waiver on June 3, then Kansas City Royals grabbed him just after 25 days on June 28. The New York Mets got him from the Royals but his final stay was with his original employer
the Pittsburgh Pirates.
However, once he joined the Pirates in 2004, he remained with the team for four valuable years in which he not only got his final third base position but also kept on improving his class in the Majors. However, 2008 was tough year for Bautista in which he
lost his starting job at third base and was sent back to Triple-A.
This heart breaking decision of the Pirates did not bother him and he kept improving his performance in Triple-A. His performance gave him a chance to be a part of the Toronto Blue Jays but he still did not get plentiful chances and remained seated on the
bench in the start of 2009. However, once he got the chance he cashed it with his dazzling hitting. He made 13 home-runs in 2009 and ten out of these were in the month of the September.
His real fame came in the 2010 when he played not only for his career high 54-home run season but also led the Majors with his extra base hits. He also got T-1st in total bases that counted to 351. This year he won three Player of the Week Awards, two Player
of the Month Awards, Silver Slugger Award, AL Hank Aaron Award and All-Star nominee.
He is leading the Majors with 27 home-runs in this season and has already been nominated Player of the Month two times and All-star nominee. He is now leading in AL, NL and Majors not only in batting averages but also in slugging averages. Until July 4,
2011, he has made 67 runs on 91 hits including 27 homers in 277 at-bats of 78 games.
Overall, he has played 814 games in which he has made 417 runs on 657 hits including 140 home-runs on exact 2600 at-bats. According to experts, the level of skill and talent in his batting that he has maintained for the last two years can make him one of
the best players in MLB.
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