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…And we’re back

Alright. After a brief summer hiatus I’m starting up this blog business again ahead of the school year and what I think will be a really, really exciting volume for this paper. All kinds of craziness and excitement in store.

A couple notes today — one from the pros and two from close to home.

Jose Bautista

Well this has worked out well, now hasn’t it.

Acquired by former Blue Jays general manager JP Ricciardi in 2008 for a player to be named later — the player turned out to be switch-hitting catcher Robinson Diaz, who is now a minor leaguer treading water in the Detroit Tigers organization — Jose Bautista can’t be labeled as anything less than a smashing success.

Currently leading the league in home runs on Wednesday morning  with 30 — he’s probably smacking a couple more right now as I write this — Bautista has the most dingers of any professional baseball player since last September. More than Ryan Howard. More  than Mark Teixeira. More than Alex Rodriguez. You get the point.

That’s why the Blue Jays have to get rid of him. Soon.

If Jose Bautista is still on the Blue Jays roster after the July 31st non-waiver trade deadline, the Jays will have made a huge mistake.

Look, by all accounts Bautista is a really good guy and a fantastic comeback story, but everyone and their escaped boa constrictor knows that the guy is hitting way over his head. Eventually, his production will slow down and return to his career norms. Remember, he’s never hit more than 24 home runs — he did it in 2oo5 in double-A — in any season at any level in his career. The time to cash in on Bautista’s inflated value is now when his stock is through the roof — before it comes crashing back down to earth.

Bautista turns 30 this year, which is typically the age where power number decline. The exceptions to that rule come, of course,  during the steroids era when, well, you know how that story goes.

No matter what any of the mouth-breathers who phone radio call-in shows say, the Blue Jays are not going to contend this year or next. If Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos is savvy, he’ll trade Bautista now for quality young ball players who can help the team down the road when it’s ready to challenge for a playoff spot.

Noteworthy Mustangs

Aa always, your Western Mustangs are hard at work over the summer, training for their upcoming seasons and participating in events around the continent.

Unfortunately we only had one summer issue this year — sorry, I couldn’t stop the frisbee thing — so we weren’t able to shine as much light on their goings-on as we have in the past, but here’s a couple stories you should check out.

Jacqueline Rennebohm, a visually-impaired Mustangs track and field athlete, set a Canadian record in the 200m at a track meet in Windsor earlier this month with a time of 28.6 seconds, besting the previous record by more than two milliseconds.

The second-year social sciences major — whose eyes can only detect colour and motion from objects five feet away — works with a running guide and competed at the 2008 Beijing Olympics as a paralympic swimmer.

Taylor Stewart, a London native, won a bronze medal at the 2010 IAAF Track and Field World Junior Championships last week.

The 19-year-old, entering his first year at Western, lept 7.63 metres to secure the medal.

I’ve been hearing about Stewart around London for some time now and everyone who sees him compete thinks he’s going to be a star. He’s one to watch this year.

E-mail Arden at arden@westerngazette.ca . You can also follow him on twitter at @ArdenAtGazette

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