Quote:
Originally Posted by ls7plus
I think virtually all of you have missed the point. We're talking about a player whose performance for SIX YEARS was barely good enough to stay in the major leagues, who then catapulted out of nowhere into THE 99th PERCENTILE of current hitters, and should his production continue at current levels, certainly above the 95th percentile of all time, at age 29! I repeat once more for clarity: IT DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY IN NATURE--IT NEVER HAS, AND IT NEVER WILL! None of your examples fit that mold at all. More tonight, when I have more time, but let me end with this for now: the homers hit by Bonds and McGwire are certainly entitled to just as much respect as those by Bautista, and everybody knows what they did not for, but to, the game.
Nice lively discussion. Hope you don't take it personally
Larry
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Simple, he shouldn't have been in the majors for most of those years. Dude simply wasn't ready yet. The only reason he was up in the bigs is because the Pirates for the last 15-20 years or so have been fielding a minor league team.. I'm not trying to put down the Pirates or the city of Pittsburgh, but the facts are the facts. Even as an Clevelander, I've always liked the Pirates(not as much as the Indians though), and my father would take the family on a trip to Pittsburgh once a year when I was a kid to catch a Pirates game. Obviously I hate the Steelers. I do respect the hell out of them though...The Pirates, not so much, but I've always wanted to see them be a better team than they have been.
Jeromy Burnitz for on comes to mind as a late bloomer. He really didn't get much of a chance in the majors until he was 28 and showed some pretty good power once he was ready to be an everyday player.
Henry Rodriguez was another late bloomer. Didn't get much of a break into the majors until he was 28. Another solid power hitter in his prime.
Anyways, after looking around at a few other players. The closest I would compare Bautista up to this point in his career would probably be Kevin Mitchell. Mitchell put up some inconsistent averages and showed minimal to average power until he was 27 and then hit 47 home runs. Followed by 35, 27,9,19,30 and then pretty much fell completely off the map.