Our batters have been pretty amazing this spring. It seems like they all have hot and cold streaks but they don't overlap so each one gets his chance to carry the team for a few games. Then they hand it over to the next guy to have his turn to put the team on his back. John Buck has been having his turn of late.
April was up and down for Buck. 8 games into the season he was hitting .280/.333/.560. Pretty decent start. Then he goes 11 games with just 2 hits, striking out seemingly every time up. People's patience with him was wearing thin very fast. You know things are bad when people are calling for Jose Molina to take over the everyday catching job.
Suddenly he hits 3 homers in one game and goes on a little tear. He is hitting .375/.419/.825 in May and that isn't counting the 3 HR game on April 29th or the 2 for 3 the next day. Add those two games in, he is hitting .426 with an even 1.000 slugging average in his last 15 games.
I'm sure the hot streak won't last forever but it is fun while it is going on. After having Rod Barajas last year we are used to the hot and cold hitting catchers. Like Barajas, I think if he would take a few walks he might level out the ups and downs. Even by his own standards he isn't walking much, 4.4% of the time compared to a career 7.0% average.
Defensively, he's only thrown out 3 of 22 base stealers and, it would be nice if both he and Molina could block at least the odd pitch that bounces. John's been behind the plate for 17 (!) wild pitches (and yet not one passed ball, wouldn't it be fun to be an official score keeper). On the flip side he seems to call a good game behind the plate. The pitchers seem to like to throw to him. I'm not sure how long that will be true if Ricky Romero if he doesn't start blocking some of those bouncing pitches.
He is on pace to hit 33 homers and drive in 96. If he were to get close to those numbers, we'd have to proclaim Cito as a genius at teaching batting. I'm sure he won't be hitting 30 + homers, but I'd be surprised if he didn't better career highs of 18 HR and 50 RBI.
It is fun to watch him right now.