[ls7plus]

Hi, Steve B. Did you know that Cecil Fielder hit 31 homeruns in just 506 at bats playing for Toronto over 4 seasons before his 51 homer season with the Tigers in 1990? Fielder's problem was getting playing time then, not any lack of demonstrated ability. A fellow named Fred McGriff held down the regular first sacker's job when Cecil was with Toronto, and Fred was pretty good. The old crime dog hit 20 homers in just 295 at bats with the Blue Jays in 1987; 34 in 1988, and 36 in 1989. I really don't think Cecil falls into the Bautista mold, or even comes close.

I will give you Darrell Evans as a sporadic homerun hitter, consistently hitting in double figures in homers, though only twice with 40 or more, and twice in the 30's. I hardly think that equates to mimicking Bonds on his best juiced days, however. And Ted Kluzewski (Big Klu) did indeed have a power surge, but was never a marginal player like Bautista prior thereto, as he had seasons of batting .309 four years before his first 40 homer season; 25 homers, 111 RBI and .307 three years before; 16 homeruns, 86 RBI, .320 one year before. He is like Bautista in the limited respect that his first really big year came at age 29, but that's all.

Jack Clark demonstrated pretty consistent power from the time he was in his second season, at 22 years of age, when he hit 25 homeruns and drove in 98 runs. His main problem was staying healthy, as he had only three seasons in which he played 150 games or more in his entire career. No, no Jose Bautista there either. Try as you might, you will find that the Bautista career progression is not one that occurs in nature. As I said earlier, there were only seven guys who had hit 54 homeruns or more prior to 1990, and none of them stumbled around looking like Ron Swoboda's twin brother for years and years before they achieved that status.

Larry