Jose Bautista's season is puzzling to me. I barely heard too much about his personal exploits in the game this year, because I kept getting stuff from either the players who were tanking on the Jays, or Edwin Encarnacion. Like, I didn't see his stats doing any better than anybody else's, but lo and behold, he gets a starting nod for AS.
At this point, Bautista keeps getting these All Star nods due to muscle memory. People get used to him being on an All Star team, so naturally, they vote him on. Maybe, and this is a frightening prospect indeed, he's really perceived as one of the game's perennial stars. I'll admit, he proved he has staying power because he's still hitting like a god after his big seasons in 2010 and 2011. But maybe people voted him in because he's that good. Like, Mike Trout and Adam Jones got in because of their seasonal exploits (and because they're both excellent at their positions), but maybe Jose Bautista was simply that good, not just getting past Markakis on chance alone.
And that's a topic for discussion right there: is Jose Bautista one of today's elites? All the HUGE stars we have today (Derek Jeter, Albert Pujols, David Ortiz) are not huge stars because of what they're doing this season. It's not like every season begins with a clean slate, and star power is inconstant throughout the years, because that would be a dramatic change from what we're used to. No, Jeter, Pujols and Ortiz are big stars because of what they're done in the last decade, and are now sitting around, coasting, still big stars, but not having to do any work to be big stars.
Jose Bautista, on the other hand, is a big star due to more recent success, and he's still having the same amount of performance that he did during his big years. We might be looking at a new big star like the three names I mentioned, if this consistency keeps going.
Or not. I can't call anything.
Coming Tomorrow- Probably another All Star.
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