Jose Bautista's June Swoon

The Blue Jays' Jose Bautista has not had too many bad months over the last couple of seasons, but he's scuffling this month. As reported by Mark Rutsey of the Toronto Sun, Jays manager John Farrell was asked if he thinks it’s a sign of frustration over the fact that he often gets pitched around?

“No, I wouldn’t say it’s from frustration,” Farrell said. “The one thing that Jose is very clear on is that when he’s gotten loaded with the proper swing mechanics it allows him to get ready earlier, which enables him to see the ball earlier in the flight to home plate. When he’s a little bit late, he doesn’t have the same clarity and I think that’s why we’re seeing some of the swings that you’re referring to.”

When you take a look at his overall swing rate this month, you can see he's swinging at pitches all over the zone:

Bautista is hitting .214 this monthBut it is against righties that Bautista is really reaching to the outer portion of the plate and not producing well:

Bautista is only hitting .129 versus righties this monthin 24 at bats against righties this month, Bautista only has four singles and no extra-base hits. For the season, Bautista is 53-for-163 against righties for a .325 avaerage and 16 homers.

Jose Bautista: Selective Endpoints

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Jose Bautista's power numbers have come down a bunch over the last couple weeks.  Through May 22nd, he had an .816 slugging percentage; since then, .491.  It was unreasonable to expect him to maintain such a high SLG, so the recent regression isn't much of a surprise.  However, through his first 176 plate appearances, Bautista had a wOBA of .534, and it still sits at .509 today.  In fact, over his last 73 plate appearances, he's hit only 2 doubles and 2 home runs, yet still produced a .450 wOBA.  This is partially due to the fact that he's consistently maintained an OBP over .500 for the majority of the season. 

While opposing pitchers haven't changed their location against Bautista, he has seen more off-speed stuff recently.  Since May 23, pitchers have thrown him 7.4% fewer fastballs and 12.1% more sliders.  Lastly, his line drive rate is up from 18.6% through May 22 to 23.9% since, while his fly ball rate dropped from 39.8% to 17.4%.

InDepth Spotlight: Wade Davis vs. Jose Bautista

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Tomorrow, Wade Davis will toe the rubber for the Tampa Bay Rays as they square off against the Toronto Blue Jays at home.  Davis has handled Jose Bautista (TOR) fairly well.  Last year, he held the righty slugger to one hit in 10 plate appearances, striking him out once.

As you can see from the above graphic, Davis has some trouble coming in on righties, while Bautista has been nearly impossible to pitch to for RHP.  Last year, Davis kept the ball away for the most part when throwing to Bautista, and it served him well.

Wade Davis vs. Jose Bautista (Click to enlarge)

The one hit Bautista managed was off a curveball that got a bit too much of the plate. Expect Davis to continue to keep the ball away from Bautista in tomorrow's matchup.