Jose Bautista

Last season, journeyman Jose Bautista took home the major league home run title with 54 balls mashed.

This came as something of a surprise to everyone in fantasy baseball. Nowhere did he appear on a list of fantasy sleepers, nor was he ranked on very many draft boards heading into last season’s draft.

Even Nostradamus missed out on this guy. So after a monster career 2010 campaign, where do we rank him in 2011?

By Mike Harris, Senior Writer for 4thandHome.com

Our first entry in this series looked at the September Star phenomenon and how an astute eye could have forecasted a Jose Bautista 2010 breakout. This week, we take a look at our first nominee, Drew Stubbs, to determine if he's destined for 2011 stardom.

Enrique Rojas (ESPN Deportes baseball newsbreaker extraordinaire) has reported that Jose Bautista and the Toronto Blue Jays are closing in on a 5 year, $65 million extension that will keep the Major League Baseball home run champ in Toronto through 2015.

It's more than worth it.

As I posted almost a month ago, even if Bautista undergoes a Brady Anderson-like decline, he'd still be worth $13 million a season.

With all the hype and hope the Blue Jays injected into their fans with their play of last year, there is one thing everyone is forgetting when looking forward to this year. The simple way of putting it: they are going to fail this year.

Generally, I'm one to stick to the team and players and project big years from all involved. However, it seems like the doom and gloom media and fans have all either had a change of heart with Anthopoulos' steady hand at the helm, or they have all finally given up.

I know that it is way to early to be thinking about the 2012 season, as the 2011 season has not even started yet, or is it? Some teams as of right now know that they will not have a chance for the World Series, and some of those teams are probably already eying players who are due to hit the free agent market after the conclusion of the current season. It is wise for all teams to look at this point in time at the holes that may be left in their current roster after this season and see who will fit into that hole.

Alex Anthopoulos had stated pretty clearly in multiple radio interviews that he's perfectly happy to go to arbitration with Jose Bautista.

But I believe that extension time is now, and with the newfound cash following the Vernon Wells trade (although I don't think it all needs to be spent at once), the opportunity has presented itself for the Blue Jays to follow through on extending the MLB home run king. 

I propose a 4 year, $45 million contract.

With only one real big signing remaining on Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopolous' agenda before the season starts—Jose Bautista, the Jays roster looks to be almost set heading into spring training.

Pitchers and catchers report in a few weeks, but there are still some big stories simmering on the MLB Hot Stove as we get closer and closer to the start of the 2011 regular season.

There are still some high-profile free agents, such as Vladimir Guerrero to name just one, out there looking for work. As spring training approaches, the time to find a new team is dwindling for some of the key guys left on the open market, so I'll cover all the possibilities for unsigned players expected to latch on somewhere they can make an impact in 2011.

A few weeks ago, it became publicly known that the Toronto Blue Jays and home run king Jose Bautista were almost $3 million apart in contract negotiations.

The Jays were reportedly offering the slugger $7.6 million to stay north of the border for another year, where Bautista was seeking a $10.5 million contract.

The massive gap between the two side's arbitration figures didn't bode well for their hopes of reaching a one-year agreement.

The list of candidates for the 2010 American League Most Valuable Player was a rather different bunch than in previous years.  Which, perhaps, made the voters default to the old thinking of “pick the best player on a playoff team”. But, taking another look, was 2010 a season where that didn’t apply?