JOSE BAUTISTA
10/19/80; '00 20th; Chipola (FL) JC
R/R; 6-0, 190
| Level |
BA |
OBP |
SA |
AB |
2B |
3B |
HR |
BB |
K |
SB |
CS |
| 2001 A- |
.286 |
.364 |
.427 |
220 |
10 |
3 |
5 |
21 |
41 |
8 |
1 |
| 2002
A |
.301 |
.402 |
.470 |
438 |
26 |
3 |
14 |
67 |
104 |
3 |
2 |
| 2003 A+ |
.242 |
.359 |
.424 |
165 |
14 |
2 |
4 |
27 |
48 |
1 |
5 |
| 2003
R |
.348 |
.429 |
.522 |
23 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
4 |
7 |
0 |
0 |
| 2004 AL (Balt) |
.273 |
.333 |
.273 |
11 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
| 2004
AL (TB) |
.167 |
.333 |
.167 |
12 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
7 |
0 |
1 |
| 2004 AL (KC) |
.200 |
.231 |
.240 |
25 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
12 |
0 |
0 |
| 2004
NL |
.200 |
.238 |
.250 |
40 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
18 |
0 |
0 |
| 2005 NL |
.143 |
.226 |
.179 |
28 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
7 |
1 |
0 |
| 2005 AAA |
.255 |
.309 |
.373 |
51 |
3 |
0 |
1 |
4 |
10 |
1 |
1 |
| 2005 AA |
.283 |
.364 |
.503 |
445 |
27 |
1 |
23 |
48 |
101 |
7 |
3 |
| 2006
NL |
.235 |
.335 |
.420 |
400 |
20 |
3 |
16 |
46 |
110 |
2 |
4 |
| 2006 AAA |
.277 |
.370 |
.426 |
101 |
9 |
0 |
2 |
14 |
19 |
2 |
1 |
| 2007
NL |
.254 |
.339 |
.414 |
532 |
36 |
2 |
15 |
68 |
101 |
6 |
3 |
Bautista went through a strange odyssey on his way to
the majors. He was a draft-and-follow who had a breakout year in
2001, in which he was named Florida's JC player of the year. This prompted
the Pirates to shell out early-round money to sign him. After an excellent
2002 season for Hickory, a broken hand ended up costing him most of the 2003
season at Lynchburg. In both years he was extremely streaky and, at least
in 2002, he had a huge platoon split. Although he was their only 3B
prospect, the Pirates left him off the 40-man roster in fall 2003 in favor of a handful of easily replaceable, marginal relievers. The Orioles selected him in the Rule 5 draft. He made their ballclub due in part to injuries to veteran IFs, but when some of them returned the team put Bautista on waivers. Tampa Bay claimed and then released him, then Kansas City claimed him. The Pirates got him back in the Kris Benson trade, with the Royals getting Justin Huber from the Mets. Bautista had to stay in the majors the rest of the year and played sparingly. The Pirates sent him to AA to start 2005. He had a horrible first month, which is understandable considering that he'd wasted most of the two previous years. He ultimately had a strong year, however, earning a late-season promotion to AAA and a September callup.
In
AAA in 2006, Bautista again started slowly, but was starting to hit when
the Pirates called him up. He played sporadically at first, but after
Chris Duffy walked out on the team, he shared CF with Nate McLouth. After
Duffy returned, he rotated between all the OF spots (including LF when Jason Bay
was hurt briefly) and 3B, with a couple starts at 2B. During that time,
the Pirates essentially alternated Bautista, Ryan Doumit and Jose Castillo, with
Bautista, Xavier Nady and Freddy Sanchez moving around as needed. For
a while after he came up, Bautista hit for a low average, but drew a lot of
walks and hit for enough power to maintain a good OBP and slugging
average. On July 16, he was hitting 279/367/518, but it was downhill from
there, as he increasingly fell victim to Pirate Disease, i.e., the tendency to
flail away whenever the pitcher twitches his arm. He posted an OPS of .639
in August and .624 in September. He again showed a huge platoon
split, with an OPS of .944 against LHPs and .679 against RHPs.
During spring training in 2007, Bautista battled Jose Castillo for the 3B job and won despite a very poor spring. He had an up-and-down season, with good months in April, June and August, and poor ones in May and September. He missed much of July with an injury that resulted from a collision at 3B. This time, he showed almost no lefty/righty split. He also had no meaningful home/road split, which is surprising given the way PNC Park drains away right-handed power. Bautista hit only three HRs in the season's first two months, as he said he'd altered his batting style to make better contact. He hit for more power in June and August, but his final slugging percentage was last in the NL at his position and 17th among 21 qualifiers in the majors. Unlike most Pirate hitters, he'll draw a walk, but he needs to hit for more power to be more than a utility player long-term. Since he'll open 2008 at age 27, it's possible he could have a peak year.
Bautista has generally been considered a good defender with a very strong arm, but he's also tended to be erratic. He had serious problems with errors initially in 2005, but as with his hitting, he settled down after about a month. He has average speed. It was hard to draw a lot of conclusions about his defense in 2006 given that he played all over the field, although one thing that was clear was that he has no business in CF, where he was prone to misjudging flyballs and didn't show much range. (Oddly, Bill Virdon has said Bautista got the best jumps of any Pirates' outfielder.) In 2007 he finally got to stay in one place in the majors and made a lot of tough plays, but also made errors at an above-average rate. His range is probably somewhere around average. With Neil Walker moving to 3B, it's still likely he could end up as a utility player unless his offensive game picks up.
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