Getting Adjusted

There are times I have considered renaming this blog. I like the current title, but sometimes I feel like I should name it I Disagree with Dustin Parkes. I enjoy Getting Blanked quite a bit, but I find myself posting long comments in response to his posts when frankly, I should be posting those opinions here. And then you all can read them. Here.

So, Parkes has been arguing against giving Jose Bautista a long-term deal and used colourful diagrams to illustrate his points. Which is fine. But here is my counterpoint. The rumoured numbers floating around are about 10-12 million per season for let's say 5 seasons. Bautista may never hit 54 homeruns again. But let's say he hits 10 less. Or even 20 less. That's still a pretty hefty contribution at a fairly reasonable price. This is not a Vernon Wells giant contract situation. Jose Bautista has none of the "Blissfully Oblivious Gazelle" (™ Tao of Stieb) attributes of an Alex Rios. He is a talented defensive player and well-liked by his team. But, of course, we have already established that that doesn't matter. There is no diagram to measure that.

This quote in The Sun from new manager and possessor of a manly cleft chin John Farrell, makes me feel positive about my opinion.

“We tried a number of different things and we still saw balls leaving the park,” said Farrell. “Those are indications that this is a special hitter that he’s able to make those types of adjustments when you try to counter-adjust in the game within the game. Most importantly, when he got his pitch in the zone, he didn’t miss it.”

Adjustments, friends. Adjustments. Baseball is a game of adjustments. A pitcher makes a pitch. A hitter adjusts to hit it. If he does, the pitcher adjusts so the hitter doesn't hit again. Bautista has figured out how to adjust.

Sorry, but I'm with Stoeten.