Friday, September 24, 2010

Three thoughts on 50

Thought #1

We needed this. For this team's fan base, which before the season seemed to begrudge their own allegiance, this outstanding, season-long ride with an unexpected hero has been enough to shine a little light into the darkness, and create a bit of optimism for the coming year.

And don't discount optimism: Sports franchises are multi-million dollar enterprises that somehow need to create, harness and catalyze those sanguine feelings into something more palpable. And if this team is to be a continued an long-term success in Toronto, they need to get the turnstiles turning again.

Thought #2

We seem to be spending an inordinate amount of time trying to remind ourselves what a big deal José Bautista's season has been. Maybe we've all become willfully more numb to giant power numbers, and maybe we're just inundated with constant questioning around any impressive offensive stat. But it seems as though you really have to try to block out the noise and think about this differently.

It's not easy to block out the noise of the McGwire-Sosa-Bonds years (nor the high moral dudgeon that continues to be aired over those days). This makes it especially difficult to focus back to what we think is probably "normal" power outputs, and where JoBau belongs in that continuum. (And believe us when we tell you that we could argue in our own head for days on end about "normal" and what it means, if anything).

To try to fake our way to some sort of comprehension, we've been using Cecil Fielder's 1990 season as a touchstone as of late. We remember that year clearly, as Big Daddy returned from Japan and put up power numbers sick enough that they would make your stomach churn when he stepped into the batters box against you. And when he did slam homer after homer through the late part of that season, there was a certain level of elation of seeing someone put on such a display.

We'd like to think that we'll look back on JoBau's 2010 campaign in a similar fashion.

Thought #3

We've been thinking a lot about comps, as we consider where the Jays go from here in terms of signing Bautista. (And also because if we here Brady Anderson's name invoked one more time, we're going to drown a bag of koala cubs.)

There are two names that seem to stand out in terms of players who had this sort of season at this age and point in their career: Greg Vaughn and George Foster. (And please understand that we're not calling those performances completely analogous, so please don't pick this comparison apart through the marginalia before we even get started.)

We'll go into more detail on Vaughn and Foster soon, but here's the basic message that we get from looking at the years that succeeded their 50 homer seasons: That they didn't fall off the face of the earth, but that they had about three more productive seasons (even if they were less so) in them.

So if you want to start the discussions with JoBau at three years and figure out the price from there, we'd be happy to buy into that strategy.

Friday (Bleep Bloop) Rock Out: The Postal Service - Such Great Heights

This seems appropriate, even if we have to get over the idea of Ben Gibbard stealing away with our Zooey. Nevertheless...we're all grown ups here, right?

Enjoy your Friday, and the last weekend homestand of the season.

16 comments:

GSJays said...

Frankly, if JoBau had put up these numbers pre-steroids era, he'd been celebrated by all baseball. That's no longer the case..JoBau has been tested 4 times this year and passed each time..Of course that doesn't rule out some exotic HGH compound, but all in all I think he's clean...Will he do it again, probably not, but I do think he's more than capable of 30-40 per year for the next 2-3 years..Combine that with his defensive flexibility and he is very valuable...

Tao of Stieb said...

Actually, there was a lot of JoBau coverage in the US yesterday, and it seems like the tone is that people are trying to take this on its surface.

Was one of the top items on PTI yesterday, anyways.

Gil Fisher said...

Well he's not exactly big. He doesn't look like he's put on an ounce of muscle over the passed four years. And he even shaved his beard for a while this summer so we could see his un-pocked complexion. I'd be convinced 100% that he wasn't on steroids if he dropped his pants in the battersbox and revealed his romero-sized pills.

GSJays said...

Ya, they gave him one day..But if you go to SI today the line is Jays edge Mariners and Icharo gets his 10th 200 hits..JoBau's already off the headlines...Again, I think if he'd hit this number pre-steroids, he'd been celebrated for much longer than 1 day and been the shoo in MVP candidate..Clearly, that's not the case now..

Ty said...

JBau's MVP candidacy is actually a really interesting question now that Hamilton has been out for so long and the Tigers suck at least as much as the Jays. Unless some Yankee jerkoffs want to seriously vote for Cano or Texiera or something because they're "winners", you've gotta believe Bau has about as good a chance as anybody at this point.

Silly awards notwithstanding, this has been an amazing season, incredibly fun to watch and enhanced by the fact that Bautista actually seems like a really likable person. It's easy to get behind him and I'd imagine that everyone who calls themselves a Blue Jays fan is now officially a BAS member, as well. Awesome.

kenobi_bass said...

Thanks for the Postal Service reminder - now listening to The Shins' cover of We Will Become Silhouettes from that EP

Navin Vaswani (@eyebleaf) said...

I'd bet the little money I have that he's clean. What a fucking season. The Summer of Bau.

PdcD said...

JoBau's ability to grow such an impervious beard in a matter of hours after shaving gets my vote for MVP...either that or his beard shavings glued to the Level of Excellence at the Rogers Center.

Jaysfan26 said...

Tao's note about this being the last weekend homestand reminded me that some kudos are due his way for another great season with the blog. Living in Southern California we don't get much in the way of Jays news (OK, who am I kidding, there's none unless they're in town) so it's very much appreciated.

Thanks again!

Tao of Stieb said...

Hey, no sweat. I aim to please.

Jaysfan26 said...

Realized I left out The Ack - thanks as well!

plain_g said...

can i just say...
http://espn.go.com/mlb/players/profile?playerId=5088

SP said...

If someone can show me how to differentiate between Zooey and Katy Perry, I'd really appreciate it.

tdotsports1 said...

I compared him to Delgado's 2000 season to see if Bautista's 2010 is the best season ever? Interesting results.

What a season overall.

Dewey said...

I've been saying since about the middle of the season, 3yrs, $18M. I don't think that's changed even with 50hr...

Anonymous said...

Ahh the Postal Service... memories of second year university encapsulated in one album.