In 2010, Tabata played 102 games for the Pirates. In those 102 games, he collected 121 hits, good for a .299 batting average. He also drew 28 walks which brought his on-base percentage to .368, and struck out only 57 times, which gave him a strikeout to plate appearance of .129, a pretty good number. While Tabata was very consistent at the plate, he showed the ability to be very streaky as well. In his 102 games, Tabata collected two 6-game hitting streaks, a 7-game streak, a 12-game streak, and a 14-game streak.
Jose is off to another hot start in 2011. He has 9 hits in his first 26 at bats and has hit safely in all 7 games. That has brought his career batting average up to .302 and his career on-base percentage to .376 (he has drawn 4 walks this year). He is settling into his role as the Pirates lead-off hitter and doing a remarkable job. He had incredible success as a rookie and he doesn't seem to be anywhere near a sophomore slump.
The negative side with Tabata is that he does not hit for much power. So far in his career he has 130 hits, and 93 of them have been singles. He's hit 4 triples and 4 home runs, which leaves him with 29 doubles. There is some power potential there, but we certainly haven't seen much of it yet.
The Pirates 2008 trade with the Yankees has turned out to be a fantastic move for this organization, if not only because of Jose Tabata. All signs point to him being one of the league's best lead-off hitters for years to come, and we're lucky to have him in Pittsburgh.