'04 Rookie of the Year follows up with stellar season
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The sun is still shining on Boston's Fenway Park, several hours before the Pirates and Red Sox are to take the field, and Jason Bay is getting a long lesson in the long shadow of the Green Monster.
For almost an hour, outfield instructor Rusty Kuntz bats balls off the 37-foot left-field wall, offering with each an instruction for Bay: Stay off the track if it is too high. Watch the difference in the caroms off the metal and plastic parts. Put your back to the fence on a popup.
Flash forward to the second inning that night. Boston's Bill Mueller lines a shot toward the Monster. Bay reads the ball off the bat, turns to the wall, halts before the track, handles the ball on one bounce, whirls and throws to second.
It was no big deal, in hindsight. Mueller still got a double, and the Red Sox went on to win. But it meant plenty to Kuntz.
Bay knew he would need the knowledge he acquired that afternoon for three days and probably never again, given that Boston plays in the American League. But he applied himself as if he would spend as much time in front of the wall as Carl Yazstremski.
"I'll tell you what: Those little things add up to a lot of big things," Kuntz said. "Jason Bay works harder off the field to improve himself than any player I've been around in 20 years in this business."
The episode is emblematic of Bay's sensational sophomore season: Everything he did to become the National League's rookie of the year in 2004, he is doing better. From hitting to fielding to running to behaving like the All-Star he has become.
"He's an amazing player," Pirates outfielder Rob Mackowiak said. "I think there are a lot of us who might not even realize how good he is. One day a little while back, I was looking up on a scoreboard -- I don't remember where -- and they were running some offensive leader charts. And there was his name, again and again. I'm like, man, this guy's having a great year."
At the plate
The sport's numbers crunchers devotedly subscribe to a statistic called VORP, or value over replacement player. Stripped down to essentials, it calculates the number of runs a player contributes to his team.
Using this method, the trade journal Baseball Prospectus gives Bay a rating of 61.3 that ranks fifth among all hitters in Major League Baseball. The only ones ahead of him are the best of the best: Derrek Lee, Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez and Miguel Cabrera.
Even in layman's statistics, Bay's offensive numbers stand out, especially at age 26: He has a .305 batting average (10th in the National League), 85 runs (third), 23 home runs (12th), 132 hits (seventh), 35 doubles (second), five triples (ninth), 69 RBIs (18th), 66 walks (seventh) and a .395 on-base percentage (10th).
Every one of those figures is an upgrade from last year or is on pace to be by season's end.
"This is what you would expect from Jason," general manager Dave Littlefield said. "He's an achiever. A serious young man. Above all, he's more talented than most. You put those ingredients together, and this is what you get."
"He's better in every way than he was," manager Lloyd McClendon said. "And that's a credit to this extraordinary young man."
What has been nearly as remarkable as Bay's productivity has been his consistency. Only twice has he has gone more than two games without a hit. He had one slump of three games, another of four. He will take a streak of reaching base in 29 consecutive games into the Pirates' series opener against the New York Mets tonight at Shea Stadium.
Bay credits continuity. In each of his first four professional seasons, he was either traded or promoted or demoted or missed stretches to injury. This year, he is the only member of the Pirates to play -- and start -- all 118 games.
"I've finally had an opportunity to come to the park and be able to play every day, to get into a routine, to be in one spot the entire year," he said. "I've always been pretty curious to see how I'd do with a full year like this. And I'm pretty happy with the way it's gone."
He is showing no signs of decline, either. Yesterday, he was named National League player of the week after going 11 for 25 with two home runs and eight RBIs Aug. 8-14.
Bay's prowess at the plate, the game's insiders say, begins with a natural gift.
At 6 feet 2 and a fairly slender 200 pounds, he does not have the bulk of most home-run hitters. And, as he showed by going 0 for 10 in the All-Star Game's Home Run Derby, his swing does not follow the prototype, either.
What he has are naturally quick hands, and that helps him in two ways:
First, he can be more patient, waiting until the last moment to decide whether to swing.
"You're seeing him put the ball in play with two strikes more than he did last year, staying on the breaking ball longer," hitting coach Gerald Perry said. "He's also studying the pitchers, learning what their out pitch is and anticipating it. But his ability to react with his hands is the key."
Second is his outstanding bat speed.
"He gets through the zone in a hurry, and that's where the power comes from," broadcaster and former player John Wehner said. "The most impressive to me is that his top hand is so strong that he can get loft on a pitch that's outside. There just aren't many guys who can do that, especially pull hitters like Jason. He can hit it a long way up in the air, and that all comes from that hand."
Wehner added that he believes Bay still has one shortcoming he should address.
"He has so much power the other way, and it's a shame he doesn't use it. If he keeps improving, and I expect he will, I think he'll get better at this."
Bay's primary focus at the plate has been to improve his walk-to-strikeout ratio. It was 41 to 129 last year and is 66 to 107 this season.
"By concentrating on walks, I think, I'm not chasing pitches if certain teams don't want to pitch to me," he said. "The strikeouts? That's different. If everything else is there, the strikeouts don't bother me. Hey, you've got to get out somehow. But the walks really have helped."
The main reason Bay has walked so often is that he stands out so prominently in the Pirates' order, which has been among the least productive in baseball. Opposing managers often decide they would rather pitch to anyone else.
But that also is part of what makes his output exceptional. Unlike the four players Baseball Prospectus ranks ahead of him offensively, Bay has had little protection batting third in the lineup. Cleanup man Craig Wilson has been out almost all year. His replacement, Daryle Ward, has not homered in more than two months. The current occupier is rookie Brad Eldred.
"If you look at what we had at the top of the order last year, with Jason Kendall, Jack Wilson and Craig Wilson all having career years right around me, I'm sure I saw more pitches than I have this season," Bay said. "So, yeah, that makes this a little more satisfying. There are a lot of situations where the best I'm getting are those nibble pitches. That's part of learning in this game, being able to recognize those situations."
In the field
Bay's rookie honors did not come about because of his defense. He often took poor routes to fly balls, let line drives play him rather than the reverse and made rainbow throws.
All of that has changed, according to the man who watches his work in left field most closely.
"Vastly improved," Kuntz said. "There's nothing about his game that's like last year."
That starts, Kuntz said, with the arm. Bay missed the first five weeks of last season because of surgery to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder. That procedure has little effect on hitting, but it can take a year to 18 months for a full recovery in throwing strength.
"Before that surgery, Jason was considered to have an above-average arm, and he's getting back to that," Kuntz said. "Especially in the past month, he's making plays he couldn't make last year. If the ball is down the line or off the wall, we're seeing runners stopping at first. The third base coach is stopping guys, too. Last year, that was an automatic wave home."
The fielding, too, has been better, Kuntz added.
"His routes to the ball, his jumps in and back, are solid. He's probably one of the better left fielders in the game as far as going to get the ball. The one thing he understands now is that you don't catch it with your glove. You catch it by moving your feet. Last year, you would see him lunging."
Bay's fielding statistics tell a mixed story. He has only two assists, a sign he still is not displaying a strong arm. But he also has made only three errors while logging 1,028 innings, more playing time than any outfielder in the league.
What makes Bay's job most challenging is navigating PNC Park's spacious and strange-angled left field. It took Brian Giles, his predecessor there, almost two years to become a standout there.
"I think he's better than Giles right now because he's more consistent," Kuntz said. "Jason Bay has that long, slender body you're looking for in that position. He has that long stride, which can make his plays look easier than they really are, where Giles was a shorter guy whose legs would go crazy trying to get to the same spot."
On the paths
Bay has stolen 14 bases in 14 attempts, more than double any teammate. His streak of 15, including one near the end of last season, is the longest active in the game.
That proficiency prompted McClendon two weeks ago to give Bay the team's lone green light.
"I can still put up a sign that tells him when he can't go," McClendon said. "But when a guy's showing you the kind of judgment he is, he earns the right."
The steals are the most obvious sign of Bay's work on the bases, but regular observers praise his work in the most routine situations.
Thursday in Denver, he was on second when Eldred hit a fly to left-center. Generally, tagging for third is discouraged on hits to that side of the outfield. Bay noticed the Colorado defense not setting up for a tag, took off and went into third standing up.
"I was in the dugout, and I just shook my head," Mackowiak said. "He seems to do the right thing all the time."
Bay would score on a Ryan Doumit single.
Off the diamond
In one way, Bay's personality away from the action can be summarized sweetly by outfielder Tike Redman's playful shrug.
"He's just J-Bay, man," Redman said. "He's low-key. Doesn't bother anybody. Fun to be around."
Bay is easy to smile, rarely rattled, seemingly always in control. A native of Trail, British Columbia, he also displays a competitive fire that long has been a stereotype of hockey players from his part of the world.
He has told McClendon he would like to play every game this season, and McClendon appears willing to oblige.
"I'm telling you, he's out there every night and I know I've seen him get tired sometimes," Redman said. "But you don't see it when he's out on the field. He's still going after everything. He doesn't want anyone to see. He plays hard. He respects the game."
"He's a great teammate in that you see him working to make himself better," Mackowiak said. "Look how he didn't sit on what he did last year. He wants to succeed. And what helps him is that he's mature enough to know how to make that happen. He's only 26, but he acts like he's 30. He kind of makes it easy for people in here to look up to him."
The coaches rave on this topic even more.
"Those generic, B.S. answers you sometimes can give to questions, those don't fly with him," Kuntz said of Bay. "You'd better be specific. He wants to be able to take your information, know everything behind it and use it down the road. I've got a blue book I keep back in Pittsburgh, probably about 5 inches thick by now, where I write down everything I come across in this game. He sends me to that book more than anybody else."
Kuntz paused and shook his head.
"He is so far advanced as far as a baseball intelligence level, and he wants to learn more. This is the kind of guy you just dream about having on your team."
"You've got to love everything about him," Perry said. "You've got to love a player who wants to get better."
Bay makes it clear that is his goal.
"Obviously, there's going to come a point where it will level off. Otherwise, you're talking about ridiculous numbers," he said, laughing. "But I'm pleased that it's gone so well so fast. Rookie of the year. All-Star Game. It's been gratifying, knowing you can do it when maybe some people didn't think you could do it. It's been gratifying for me to show that my rookie year wasn't just one great year. I hope there are even better ones to come."
(Dejan Kovacevic can be reached at dkovacevic@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1938.)
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