MLB Dirt

We all know about Jose Bautista’s ridiculous career turnaround. The guy came out of nowhere and is again one of the top players in the league so far this year. Well the Blue Jays have another surprise story this year in Edwin Encarnacion and together the two have become one of the best one two punches in all of baseball.

Jose Bautista is simply being Jose Bautista this year. He is tied for Adam Dunn with the major league lead in homeruns with 23. He is also tied for third in RBI with 55. His triple slash isn’t quite what it has been in the past (.236/.358/.535) the homeruns are still there. He is also showing signs of bringing that triple slash up to as he is hitting .271/.422/.771 in the month of June. He has 11 homeruns this month and is one of the hottest players in baseball.

Edwin Encarnacion has been a personal favorite of mine in fantasy baseball over the past few years as he has always been a cheap source of power. Well this year he has become one of the top fantasy players. He is hitting .287.360/.581 this year which is the best line for him in his career. He has 21 homeruns which is tied for the third most in the league. He has 50 RBI and an impressive .295 ISO. He has a 2.2 WAR this year which is just short of Bautista’s 2.3 WAR. While Encarnacion has been pretty solid over the years, this year he has really developed into a scary hitter, creating quite the combo with Jose Bautista.

Bautista has been the Blue Jays number three hitter this year and Encarnacion has received a majority of his at bats as the number four hitter. Together the two of them have 44 homeruns. That’s the highest combination of homeruns between any two players in the league. The next highest one is Curtis Granderson and Robinson Cano with 36. Bautista and Encarnacion have more homeruns combined than the Padres who have only 36 homeruns. The are just one homerun short of having as many as the Giants and Dodgers who each have 45 homeruns. That is pretty impressive. They have been a huge part as to why the Blue Jays rank second in homeruns (104) fifth in RBI (329). The Blue Jays also have the third highest ISO (.175) and the sixth highest SLG (.426).

The AL East is really looking tough this year and if the Blue Jays want to continue to be in the hunt, Bautista and Encarnacion will need to continue doing what they are doing and I really think that they will keep things up. Going into Sundays games, the Blue Jays are currently tied for last in the division. I know that sounds bad but they are 37-34 and are only 5.5 games back from the Yankees. That shows just how tough the AL East has been this year. It should be an exciting race this year in that division and Bautista and Encarnacion will be a huge part of it.

Filed under: Digging Deep - Analysis Tagged: | Adam Dunn, AL East, Curtis Granderson, Edwin Encarnacion, Jose Bautista, Robinson Cano, Toronto Blue Jays