Jose Bautista is the best hitter in baseball right now. What many people thought was a one year fluke, Bautista bounced back in July to have one of his best months of the season. His off July had him with a .835 OPS. In July, it was 1.068. It’s still trending down after the first couple of months, but those were just unreal.
In July, he belted seven home runs but he drove in 19 runs, which is his second best month. That puts him at 31 on the season. 60 is going be stretch, but he’s on pace to hit around 45. Still, it’s his rate numbers that are awesome. He sits with a .324/.459/.655 line and that’s just crazy, Barry Bonds early 2000s numbers.
I know his OBP is down from the .500 mark he had earlier in the season but it’s hard to expect him to keep up that kind of pace. Still, to put it in perspective, if he finished with a .650 or higher slugging, it would be some pretty select company. Albert Pujols did it in 2009 and he’d be the 24th player to do it since 2000. If he finishes with a .675 mark, he’d be the first person to do it since Barry Bonds in 2004 when he had an awesome .812 mark.
