Hello everyone.

I was reminiscing today about the joy I felt when the Blue Jays signed José Bautista last year around this time. He certainly lived up to his 2011 salary and I hope that he will live up to his $13 million salary for the next four years as well. With many Jays fans (including myself) hoping the Jays will cough up the money for Fielder (which is unlikely) and seeing some of the outrageously large sums of money spent on Free Agents this season (see Angels and/or Marlins), I got to thinking: what kind of contract do you think José would have received as a Free Agent market this year had the Jays not resigned him and had gone through the arbitration process last year. Unlike Fielder or Pujols, Bautista doesn't have quite the same track record but he has been a dominant player the last few seasons. I don't even know what I think about this issue because I would never have predicted some of the contracts that have been handed out this year so far. Just wondering what you all think.