Jose Bautista was One of the Worst Players Ever...Then he Became a Monster. 

@@comedychrises Gimme a break, there was ton worse players, most of them though didn't get to hang around the MLB level long enough! LOL

I think steroids played a role here. How could somebody improve that quickly?

Matt you barely talked about performance enhancement drugs. It was very likely Jose was taking drugs given how quickly he improved. Of course there is a chance he didn't and just improved because of coaching + changing his swing but we will never know if it's legit or not due to drug use at the time.

@@Flexb123 Well, the stat of course is the worst players* *that at least qualify So it's more like, you're the best of the worst; you aren't bad enough to wash out quickly… but you also aren't very good. Still making money though.

Couple more crazy facts: 1) the grand slam at 13:14 was his 1st career walk off 2) i heard it was Vernon wells that advised him to start his leg kick earlier, this changing his career forever!

Oh, hey.

Funny seeing you here.

you think so too?

Hell yeah we love aggression!

you come here often?

That 'Bat Flip' HR, when that happened, I swear I had an out-of-body experience at that moment. ;-) Also, I think the whole country of Canada literally felt the ground moving when it happened too. ;-)

I love Joey Bats, I was at the game when he flipped his bat, but I'm guessing you aren't old enough to remember the early 90s Jays if you think Canada's eyes on the Jays in 2015 was unique. It was just as awesome and crazy then. With a L-O-N-G drought in between those two times.

Joe Carter would like a word with you....

It was a big moment for modern blue jays fans for sure I loved e watching the 2015 play offs again

@@sethtate2079 don't ever mention that name again. Please. I beg you.

Childish Cheeto for real

I actually had to look it up...it was Robinson Diaz. So there's that. ;-)

@ckendall67 Yep! Smartest trade in the history of the Pittsburgh Pirates right there. Or maybe more like the most typical Pittsburgh Pirates trade of all time...

1997 Mtw he probably wouldn’t have done as good because it was the jays hitting coach taht helped him

@@ckendall67, wrong! It was Robinzon Diaz. (I'm a Pirates fan, so I actually remember the name.)

Best batflip ever. Hands down.

As a diehard Jays fans it's really hard to gauge how big it was outside of Canada. Is it close to the Kirk Gibson fist pump PH WS HR?

Morgan Burton it’s an absolutely legendary hit, from the home run that won the game to the announcing to the batflip to the fallout, everything about it is classic

nah lol

The best all time bat flip

Oof

ahhhh gotem

Im an Astro fan and thats FUNNY

AYEEE

This is the greatest comment of all time

Not!

Mechanics is the subject of your sentence so they WERE really insightful lol

Bautista says himself that the change in Toronto was mechanical. He added the high step to help him transition his weight forward and get better timing. You can actually see it in the side by side.. It's the most drastic change.

@@jameslourenco8404 weird comment, but actually i think the side-by-side graphic was the subject and therefore singular is correct. Grammar ain't my strong suit though 🙃

As someone who only casually consumes baseball these days (pirate fan, can’t afford to get invested these days) it was eye opening

Nothing wrong with that

I believe the first year he went off and hit something like 56 home runs, he didn't play the full season and apparently was playing hurt for some of it. Fully healthy he may have caught the Maris mark of 61.... The non juiced record.

69 likes

Wasnt there a scandal with the blue Jays having someone steal pitch signals while he was having these monster seasons?

@@justinr6439 It was an allegation but never actually proven as it the "Man in White" would have been unable to see the signs where he was sitting

And never tested positive, beast.

They hadn't been screwed; the call (which was in the top of the 7th, not a couple of innings earlier) was correct according to the rules. Choo's bat wasn't deliberately in the way of Martin's throw. The ball was in play, and Odor had every right to run. It was that weird play in the top of the inning that made the bottom half so beautiful. And of course...bat flip, the ultimate moment.

Ya dude... thats why the bat flip happened..... because of that moment in the game lol.

some pretty big factual errors in this statement...

@@MrSprigg except the umps called dead ball so the defence stopped moving which gave texas the run. Thats why they got screwed

@@jasonandrews1770 Whether the ump called it dead or not, there was absolutely zero chance of the defense getting that ball to home plate in time to get the runner out. It would have been like a surprise suicide squeeze play with the infield playing on the outfield grass. Regardless, it worked out in the end as Elvis Andrus forgot how to play shortstop for about ten minutes.

Still remember that play vs the Yankees where Bautista threw out the runner at 3rd, what a play that was!

I don’t think it was undeniable think it was properly rated cuz I thought it was a hell of an arm

He was still an ahole

I remember when Bautista threw out Billy Butler at 1st and robbed him of a base hit.... that was really cool haha.

@@SparklingHarmony And Encarnacion's reaction there. Pointing at the ump: hey, did you see that?

No, that’s how you swing a bat lol, without that leg kick he wouldn’t have half the power in his swing.

a a there are plenty of players with very small leg kicks that have more power than him. Aaron judge, mike trout, Giancarlo Stanton. All have very small leg kicks. You don’t get power from a leg kick. You get power by being able to create rotational energy from the ground up. The big leg kick actually does very little to do that. It’s mainly about your back leg/hip. Not your front leg. The front leg is actually more of a post to swing around. Look at the front leg as a tether ball pole and the back leg/hip as the ball swinging around the pole, all the energy comes from the tether ball, the pole just gives it something to rotate around. Leg kicks are about timing as the OP stated.I suggest looking into some body mechanics. I went to college for kinesiology and have coached hitting for years. The way the human body works with itself is all you need to know to see you’re wrong.

You’re correct about the timing, the other person that commented doesn’t know much about baseball swings. Sounds like something a dad that knows nothing would tell his 5 year old. “The bigger the leg kick you have the farther you’ll hit it son! And squish that bug!” Please don’t “squish the bug” folks.

It didn't have anything to do with the pitch sign stealing while he was there?

Escanor Pride Please come work with me on my swing for fast pitch

Don't know if your reading this but he end up doing exactly that!

@nineg9963 howdy! I was lucky enough to be at the game they put him on the level of excellence! First game since 2019! May or may not have shed a tear or two ;)

The Jays got their revenge on Odor and the Rangers later on in October that year. :-)

@@ckendall67 'Would rather get punched in May than knocked out in October'

My favorite quote re: the Odor punch: "Odor is now two for five, today."

@@banditski The Jays still got knocked out in October :p, funny part is .... it was Bautista little 360 throw that cost them too LMFAO

@@idunno500 got a link for that clip?

no

If he figured it out a couple years earlier

He might not be a hall of gamer but I’m pretty sure he will be remembered more than half of those guys that got into the hall. Joey bats is a legend

@@JRDuran1994 It's not so far-fetched. He had the 2 biggest things they look for in a hall-of-famer (the peak and the signature moment). Any kind of counting stats too add on would have made it far closer than most people realize.

Yea and a .350 OBP approx.

Steroids..

@Hamish Tiltman I love Bautista and I'm a huge blue Jay's fan but you do have to wonder how he suddenly got so much better when he left philly

Was just going to say the same. He actually had an ok final season hr walk and rbi wise considering how many at bats he had

Chui Fong Tam I guess you didn’t watch the video you’re commenting on. Smh. The power was always there. He changed his approach, to be prepared to swing, sooner.

Hurt in 2013 as well. I'm a strong believer that if his 2012 and 2013 injuries did not happen, he couldve boosted his runs and RBIs to 100+

@@rowdybeast0809 Hell Bautista Would've Had 60 Homers And 58 Homers In 2012 And 2013

1768matthew yah

Where doe

@@andrewgj1134 7:10 Its a classic Vladdy Jr golf swing, and you can tell with the hair of the player

Nice catch.

I didn’t notice😂

Yeah was definitely over selling his worth at that point. At 35 as an athlete if you're getting an offer of 50 million over 3 years you take that. Very few sporting teams are willing to offer a senior statesman like that, that much money guaranteed as the chances you just plummet in performance at those ages go way up.

Bautista said he wanted "$150 over 5 years" and that the Blue Jays know this and there is no need to negotiate it as that was his final demand. Then he went on the open market and basically, nobody wanted him (although the Orioles considered signing him but feared the backlash in Baltimore would be too great so they declined)

Entire city in jays uniforms during home games. Was fun times.

Dwayne Murphy is the reason Rickey Henderson has the SB record. I remember watching the A’s back in the day

@@dudelebowski483 Is there a video on that?

Coincidence? This video probably was recommended to you because you watched that video. RU-vid algorithm.

@@BroadswordMedia I know but it was a coincidence that he made the video at the exact same moment.

@@jmac1851 Yeah. It's like your mind was in sync with the timing of his.

@@BroadswordMedia Yeah lmao.

right after watching this i just went on twitter for the first time in a year and i noticed that he follows me on twitter lol. idk what’s weirder, the fact that he follows me or the fact that i realized after watching this

ikr finally Jay's get some attention

Deep left field!

No doubt about it!!

You can only play with fire for so long...

He’s gonna burn ya

Sam Dyson still has nightmares in his sleep. ;-)

I don’t want to be some conspiracy nut, but probably because Ellsbury played in Boston and Bautista Toronto.

@@Mjkhh I'm a Jays fan from Buffalo and part of that means I always have to put up with my dad the Yankees fan saying Boston gets too much national love lol

Bautista was a better hitter that season for sure, but Ellsbury far surpassed him at baserunning and fielding.

@@randymartin1727 They both had an 8.3 war. So the edge ellisbury had in defense and baserunning was equaled with Bautista's historic offensive season. . But IMO Verlander shouldn't have gotten the MVP. I don't care, a guy who only plays in 20% of the teams games isn't as important as a guy that plays in 90-100% of the games.

Bautista was the better hitter, but Ellsbury was the better player. Defense is important. Ellsbury was much better on defense than Bautista.

Thank you so much!

As a Jay's fan I hope one day our two franchises can come together to marvel at that homerun and the punch which came after it

@@piersonthorburn830 I KNEW A RANGERS FAN WAS GONNA MENTION THAT PUNCH, THAT HAPPENED IN TEXAS! 😂😂

@@boblobdobhobrob8649 fan*

Mariners fan checking in.

@@rodprops pierson thorburn is a Jays fan...

Why is being a Leafs fan relevant?

Same

Yeah, that big 54 HR season, I believe he wasn't even invited to the HRD

Should've won over Verlander and Ellsbury. Verlander could've settled for a Cy Young, and Bautista was leading in home runs and sabermetrics I consider more important than what Ellsbury had in terms of WAR. For example, WOBA and wrc+, two overlooked stats that are very reliable and accurate.

@@thecaynuck4694 but Ellsbury make a birthday cake go shitted in my pants

J Blauv he eventually captained the American league team multiple times

Wrong. He won the A**hole of the Year award several seasons in a row.

That would be the 63rd most shocking thing this year

Airtime Thrills What are you doing here?! Lmao

@@SunshineStateCoasters baseball is life

Yup lol

Wait a minute...aren't Pirates supposed to steal gold, not give it away?

Where did they get the name bucs from?

@@kellyhryniuk1869 Buccaneer is a word for pirate

Yea I’m with you man. That’d be awesome.

I wish dude

Means nothing. Look at a-roid

And Dee Gordon got bigger?

If Bautista was juicing he would have been caught

Wise and Free I’ve not seen a PED that increases reflexes. Accept for maybe adderall

When you career takes such a dramatic turn like his you can't help but he suspicious. He went from less than a nobody to a god in Canada in about enough time to drink a cup of coffee. It's a certainty he was tested multiple times. Bautista either found an undetectable drug or sold his soul to the devil. I'm Canadian and a Jays fan so I will give him the benefit of the doubt and say he sold his soul.

Funny story, the one who made the throwing error that cost the Rangers their 2016 season against the Jays was Odor.

They got both lmao

​@@robertkruse6035 At least the Jays won the World Series (twice)...can't say the same for the Rangers.

@@aidanstewart408 Poetic justice from the baseball gods.

@@robertkruse6035 Getting eliminated still doesn't take away the successes they've had... Struggling all season to get home field advantage in the Wildcard, Walk-off HR in the Wildcard and getting sweet, sweet justice in the DS. It still doesn't take away the Texas Rangers' AL West Division Championships, but it amplified the inner cultural problems that team actually had, and made the Rangers an unlikable team. In the teams that have defeated the Jays (and, this goes for the other Toronto teams in the other sports), there was never anyone that didn't deserve respect. For instance, with the Philadelphia Phillies of 1993, who the Jays defeated to win the title, Mitch Williams gives up the only come-from-behind, World Series clinching walk-off HR, and the first WS walk-off clincher since Mazeroski, and Williams took full responsibility, acknowledged he let his teammates down, but wasn't gonna curl up and die just because he gave up a home run in the World Series. And as much as it was awkward between he and Joe Carter over the years, they always had a respect for each other, and would appear together in special events and TV shows. In the 2015 series, when the Rangers lost Game 5, they don't take ownership that Elvis Andrus, Mitch Moreland, and Rougned Odor had played poor defense when the game was handed to them on a silver platter. They didn't acknowledge that Cole Hamels was kept in too long. They didn't take responsibility that Sam Dyson served up a fastball on the inside of the strike zone which Jose eats for breakfast, lunch, brunc and dinner. Then Dyson goes to Edwin Encarnacion to explain the unwritten rules, when Edwin doesn't speak English as well as Jose. Then tries to be buddy-buddy with Tulowitzki and gives him an unwarranted back slap. Dyson didn't take any responsibility that not only did he fail at his job, but he unnecessarily escalated a moment that wouldn't have turned into anything had focused on the game and not his hurt ego. Then they continued it in the regular season with that one series they had, only to be humbled in the DS by dropping the first two games at home by a huge margin, and Odor making the errant throw that allowed Donaldson to score the winning run. Dyson didn't even get a chance to pitch in the DS. That's not positive clubhouse culture, and though they had respectable players, their clubhouse culture was toxic. The drama of the Jays vs the Rangers gave baseball a rivalry that created widespread interest, but also showed how petty baseball players can be. Epilogue: Besides, if the Jays went on the WS, we wouldn't have been able to get to see Cleveland vs the Chicago Cubs. That was an epic series that was a good consolation prize for the Jays losing the CS. I thought I'd never see either one of those championship droughts end.

I thought I was the only one who remembered...he hit 9 or 10 bombs that month.

@@AllDayBlueJays but then i got the poo-poo in the bum-bum dahahaha

Been going through all his highlights after seeing that news

@@nicholasgignac7065 same

Cool

miintyy Wow, he could've hit 20 whole homers that season? That's unheard of.

Ethan McKinley-Radder Rogned Odor breaks hand punching Jose Bautista.

As an Orioles fan, I agree that Bautista on the Orioles is weird

Probably he hated being there, which made him enjoy playing well against them.

He just found his swing too late and faded out too early.

@Kd 78orangerangerpete As much as I love Jose...his 36.7 WAR won't be enough to get him in. His peak years just didn't last long enough, and there are better players who haven't been inducted yet.