Are teams finally starting to respect Jose Bautista?
Why pitch to him? That’s what I’ve been thinking pretty much all of May. Bautista has been crushing everyone, yet teams seemed hesitant to give him a free pass. Things may finally be changing.
I sent out a tweet on this subject on May 17th
In the past week Jose has been given an additional three IBB (including one last night with a runner on 2nd & none out), bringing his season total to five.
2011 MLB Leaders IBB (May 24th)
| Player | IBB |
| Miguel Cabrera | 10 |
| Lance Berkman | 6 |
| Jose Reyes | 6 |
| Chipper Jones | 6 |
| Troy Tulowitzki | 6 |
| Jose Bautista | 5 |
| Joey Votto | 5 |
| Billy Butler | 5 |
| Gerardo Parra | 5 |
| Prince Fielder | 5 |
| Brian McCann | 5 |
Thinking back to last season, I couldn’t recall too many free passes coming Bautista’s way. The numbers backed this up
2010 MLB Hitters, 35+ HR & IBB Stats
| Name | HR | IBB |
| Jose Bautista | 54 | 2 |
| Albert Pujols | 42 | 38 |
| Paul Konerko | 39 | 7 |
| Miguel Cabrera | 38 | 32 |
| Adam Dunn | 38 | 10 |
| Joey Votto | 37 | 8 |
Only 2 IBB all season! Contrast this with 2011 HR leaders
2011 MLB Hitters, 11+ HR & IBB Stats
| Name | HR | IBB |
| Jose Bautista | 19 | 5 |
| Curtis Granderson | 16 | 0 |
| Ryan Braun | 12 | 2 |
| Jay Bruce | 12 | 2 |
| Mark Teixeira | 12 | 1 |
| Lance Berkman | 11 | 6 |
| Matt Kemp | 11 | 4 |
| Prince Fielder | 11 | 5 |
| Alfonso Soriano | 11 | 1 |
| Troy Tulowitzki | 11 | 6 |
With Lind out for about another week, will the IBB continue to rack up? Will/would the presence of Adam Lind push the number of free passes down to a reasonable level or is Jose just too dangerous to pitch to these days?
