Exactly one month ago, I proclaimed my optimism for Jason Bay.

At the time, Bay was hovering around the Mendoza Line, and looked completely dumbfounded at the plate.

A month later, Bay has boosted his average 40 points, is hitting an even .400 over the last seven days, and is looking completely in control of his situation while in the batter’s box. I’d go as far to say he’s in the early part of what we’ll later describe as a hot streak.

How did this happen? Who knows? Part of it had to be putting his hands over his ears and no longer listening to every suggestion thrown his way. Perhaps there was some adjustment he made to his stance or his timing mechanism. But a large part of it, I think, was regaining his confidence. Bay now knows he can hit, he’s not worried that something is wrong with his stance or his stride or some other detail.

To me, it appears that Bay is “back” and in the midst of one of his historical, monster hot streaks where he can put a team on his back and carry it. At the very least, he’s a solid cleanup-type hitter again. What do you think? Is Bay back for the duration? Or is this a temporary blip?