Sunday, January 1, 2012

Joey Bats is only warming up

Years from now, when Jose Bautista is being discussed as one of the greatest hitters of his time, someone is going to analyze The Trade in the context of historically awful baseball deals. Pirates GM Neal Huntington, who traded Joey Bats for a PTBNL (Robinzon Diaz) in 2008, will be an easy target. At the time, the Jays got a 27-year-old utility-type player, and the Pirates picked up a 23-year-old catching prospect. We know how the story goes: Bautista finds his stroke and blossoms into a two-time homer champion while Diaz fades into oblivion.

Jose Bautista batted .280 with 97 homers the past two
 seasons. Kevin Littlefield Photo

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