vladimir guerrero.

Plus, didn't he fuck up their playoff series somehow?

guys i think what tracer's trying to say is: vladimir guerrero

http://www.superphotospace.com/images/thumb/vida_guerra_king_big_460d402694049-t.jpg

vladimir guerrero

im in class right now but later i will post a youtube of the throw of him gunning cliff floyd at home from the warning track

he's no dave parker

guerrero

vlad

HOF, first ballot

not quite yet, i don't think

v

for vladetta

if everyone wore vlad masks on guy fawkes day, it would be much better.

my brother and i used to talk about how cool it would be to see vladdy pitch for an inning. irl he would probably blow out his arm but i think from the mound he could throw like 105+

also i can't find that throw on youtube but i've got this:

"He's a mutant!" - Scott Stuart (after seeing Vladimir Guerrero throw out a runner at third from the Olympic Stadium warning track on a 1-hop bullet) on ESPN's SportCenter

The July 2006 issue of Playboy featured the first formal nude photos of Guerrero. Part of his motivation for posing for the magazine, his said, was the camera phone incident; he wanted people to see what he really looked like naked.

http://www.ucs.louisiana.edu/~cxw8679/Vlad

Now I get the point of the thread. D'oh!

What's he got, one ring?

and Luis Sojo has 3 or 4, so your point?

Similar Batters through Age 31

Willie Mays (907) *
Frank Robinson (891) *
Duke Snider (876) *
Manny Ramirez (874)
Juan Gonzalez (871)
Hank Aaron (869) *
Mickey Mantle (843) *
Ken Griffey (839)
Goose Goslin (837) *
Al Simmons (831) *

HOF Standards: Batting - 48.7 (Average HOFer ≈ 50)
HOF Monitor: Batting - 174.0 (Likely HOFer > 100)

The One Ring was created by the Dark Lord Sauron during the Second Age in order to gain dominion over the free peoples of Middle-earth. In disguise as Annatar, or "Lord of Gifts", he aided the Elven smiths of Eregion and their leader Celebrimbor in the making of the Rings of Power. He then forged the One Ring himself in the fires of Mount Doom. He intended it to be the most powerful of all Rings, able to rule and control the others (as long as their owners wore them). Since the other Rings were extremely powerful, Sauron was obliged to place most of his native power, life force and will into it to effect his purpose. there were certain pros & cons to this. The pros was that as long as the Ring existed, it was literally quite impossible to remove him from the mortal plane. On the other hand, the cons that the Ring possessed was that if he were to lose the Ring, he would also lose a great deal of his own power (when it was cut off from his hand, he lost/forsook a physical body for at least another 2500 years), and if the Ring were to be destroyed, he too would be vanquished in the process.

of that list i guess only igor, manny and jr. wore batting gloves

Montreal's turf (& maybe swinging at everything w/ 150% effort) messed him up. ;_;

Also: no rings. ;_;

Also: the Angels hitters aside from Vlad kinda blow. u_u

But: vladimir guerrero!!! :D

LAAoA: worst team name in sports? I can't think of many worse ones. Maybe Wash'n Redskins, or FC United.

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i134/dgoobl/VladTavares.jpg

http://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2013/9/14/4729002/vladimir-guerrero-retires-mlb

Okay...didn't realize this needed to be done.

these days, Wladimir Balentien (sp?) is where it's at

one of my favorite players ever

vlad, that is

http://noontimebaseball.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/VladGuerrero_070701_throwhome.gif

that gif is inhuman

sure felt like a HOFer when he played, but man he fell off fast. still rooting for him tho, even if he has less WAR than kenny lofton

jk i'd vote for lofton too

thought about starting a thread for him, but don't wanna jump the gun yet

vlad guerrero jr, the top prospect in baseball. absolutely TEARING UP double-A ball right now -- hitting .400/.450/.650. he just turned 19

and there's this: https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/video-vlad-jr-homers-twice-once-off-a-hotel/

i'm all for this thread. i want him to be amazing.

may as well keep it on this thread anyway, maybe? if there were ilb threads back in the bobby bonds and ken griffey days it would have been fun to see them morph into the barry and griffey jr era.

Popular topic on the call-in shows here, obviously. According to one of them the other day, the team scouts almost unanimously say he's ready to play in the majors now, that he's not learning anything where he is. The ownership seems to have a timetable of their own. I expect he'll be up for good no later than April of next year, though.

(Donaldson complicates the issue somewhat.)

i'm particularly excited because not only is he amazing, but he doesn't strike out much at all

feel like they traded for gio urshela today just so they'd be able to say 'sorry we have no room for vlad jr yet'

is he still in new hampshire? i need to get off my ass and see him and bo before they move up. i think i'm closer to manchester than i am buffalo or toronto or wherever their a-ball affiliates are (not that i need to worry about a-ball anymore!)

Me and some friends have a plan to see him when they are playing in Erie, which is the closest place to see him play.
I’m starting to think there is no way he’s still going to be in AA by the time that team will be playing there though.

3-for-3 this morning, now batting .414 overall -- best in the minors by 35 points

That vid of Vlad Jr. hitting that bomb off a tee was pretty impressive. That is way harder to do than you would think.

Motion to turn title of this thred to “ gurrero & son”

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. went 4 for 4 with a walk-off homer today.

It is May 20, and he's hitting .423/.468/.705 at Double-A.

He's barely 19 years old.

And not to sound like a broken record or anything, but he belongs in the big leagues with the Toronto Blue Jays. Like, now. https://t.co/uvuhJAsxJW

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) May 20, 2018

I would absolutely not bring him up this year lol

no they should

they have every incentive to keep him in the minors (except ticket sales and fun) which sucks

otoh it's gonna be a while before they're a vlad away from seriously competing with the yankees (and to a lesser extent, the red sox); maybe they should keep him in the minors for several more years

why? they play in a division with the red sox and yankees, and (I think) would lose a year of control if he gets brought up this year xp

moving him up to AAA seems inevitable at least

Hey--I'm happy! My issue all along was his seeming indifference to his weight. He did something about it, came back in much better shape, and--no coincidence, surely--he's the hitter we'd heard so much about.

i'm starting to think this guy might be good

it's weird, just knowing a guy by his stats. i've barely seen him play. not at all this year, not last year, only a bit during 2019. he's graded at 80/80 on raw power, but then you'd look at his minor league stats and see 13 HRs in 2017, 20 or so in 2018, ok. but not he's on pace for 45+ this year, while hitting .333, on base 44% of the time. O_O OK!

sorry, weird typos. i guess it's just cool to see him realize his power potential. it probably also helps, in a way, to be swinging against guys throwing 95+. solid contact against fast throwers = longballs

also, theoretically there's this thing with athletes "filling" out in their early 20s and getting stronger. personally, i have found that my body is like a coughed bird skeleton, but these are pro athletes so

maybe i’m cynical but i always chalked up the “filling out” to young athletes meeting “trainers” with very specific cutting edge uh nutritional regimes that dance on the edge of legality

it makes sense to be cynical when the words "a physical specimen" come up so often in baseball writing

“a UCLA product”

Vlad had actually dropped weight going into the season. he showed up last year a little heavier and didn't perform like people had hoped so there was some pressure there.
i think it helped his fielding a lot – but with his hitting he's just stopped chasing every other pitch. i think he was way too aggressive when he came up and was wiffing on too many major league caliber pitches.
i also think moving to 1B helped, kinda like with encarnacion. i feel like playing a position you are better suited for seems to make the hitting part easier.

A Triple Crown for Vlad is again not entirely out of reach. (It seemed so a few weeks ago). He's regained the lead in BA, is three HR behind Ohtani and five RBI behind Abreu. He's got 24 games to make that up.

If it ever happened, a Triple Crown vs. Ohtani would be a great MVP story.

ohtani has been awful at the plate for the past month, I don’t think the MVP is completely wrapped up yet

Yesterday Posnanski said it is, unanimous even, but I agree, Vlad still has a shot.

Assuming he doesn't get the Triple Crown, though, he'd probably have to hit lights out in some key games, and the Jays would probably have to make the playoffs to sway some voters. (Not looking to open up that argument, but I suspect it still factors in if the vote is close.)

Triple Crown stuff:

https://www.mlb.com/news/vladimir-guerrero-jr-triple-crown-watch-2021

Not only is Guerrero contending for an AL Triple Crown, but he also has an opportunity to become the first player in 65 years (since Mickey Mantle in 1956) to lead both the AL and NL in all three categories.

• Batting average: second in MLB (two points behind Trea Turner)
• Home runs: tied for second in MLB (one behind Shohei Ohtani)
• RBIs: fourth in MLB (four behind José Abreu and Salvador Perez)

Should a mod change the name to “vladimir guerreros.”?!

vladimirs guerrero imo

Vladimi

There is only ONE Vladimir Guerreros thread

Important Vladimir Guerreros.

Home runs:
1. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. -- 44
2. Shohei Ohtani -- 44
3. Salvador Perez -- 42

Batting average:
1. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. -- .319
2. Yuli Gurriel -- .315
3. Michael Brantley -- .315

RBIs:
1. José Abreu -- 107
2. Salvador Perez -- 105
T-3. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. -- 102
T-3. Rafael Devers -- 102
T-3. Teoscar Hernández -- 102

back off, teoscar

Baseball Reference WAR says two things: that one of Vladimir Guerrero's teammates was actually more valuable than Vlad was, and (2) that Carlos Correa was the best defensive player in the AL. I believe ONE of these conclusions. The other one is bat shit crazy.

— Bill James Online (@billjamesonline) October 6, 2021

Doubt he'd have such strong feelings on Correa's defensive value.

lol Vladdy hit this 427 feet pic.twitter.com/GZef4HU0y1

— Andrew Mearns (@MearnsPSA) April 14, 2022

Blood-Stained Hand of the Vlad

The Jays radio guys were saying how remarkably similar father and son are statistically to this point in their careers (404 games going into play today).

Senior: .312/.365/.562, 87 HR, 267 RBI

Junior: .284/.364/.513, 87 HR, 250 RBI

Seeing as Sr.'s numbers were compiled from 1996 into 2000--big hitting years--you'd have to adjust those slash stats downward, so yeah, probably pretty close. As is, unadjusted, dead on in HR and OBP.

(Sr.'s OPS+ through the completion of the 2000 season--i.e., to his 418th GP, is 146; Jr.'s is presently 136.)

They also pointed out Jr is doing this about two years younger!!

One of Posnanski's shareable posts:

https://joeposnanski.substack.com/p/ten-who-missed-no-10-vladimir-guerrero?r=1jtu0&s=r&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

Yes, it is much, much, much too early to be talking about Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and the Hall of Fame. As I write these words, he’s only 23 years old and has played fewer than 400 big-league games. But maybe it’s not too early to dream about something that seems impossible — a father and a son both ending up in the Baseball Hall of Fame...But even cooler — with all due respect to the Griffeys and Bondses, the Alous and Boones, Alomars and Witts, Fielders and Bells and Biggios and Bichettes — I think the Guerreros are already the most fun father-son duo in baseball history.

<3

Asked in NY about off-season comments in which he said he’d never sign with the Yankees, “not even dead,” Vlad Guerrero Jr. doubled down, saying he has personal/family reasons for preferring not to play for the Yankees and would “never” change his mind

— Ben Nicholson-Smith (@bnicholsonsmith) April 21, 2023

BEST SHAPE OF HIS CAREER

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Looks incredible holy shit pic.twitter.com/XpPUb0k8Xm

— Gate 14 Podcast (@Gate14Pod) February 9, 2024

Looks v trim fwiw

The man absolutely has to pop-off. It's in the stars

.172/.276/.314. (Not his father's Sunday-beer-league line.)

I feel like I like Vladdy more than you do, and it’s still very early! Took a long at his unqualified (cos it’s early) 24 statcast numbers.

https://i.postimg.cc/KYWyN08j/IMG-8699.jpg

Is he pressing? He’s smoking the ball when he’s making contact and he’s walking a lot so his eye’s still great and the chase rate is too but he’s striking out well above his normal rate - he’s not normally a high strikeout guy. The sweet spot % (basically hitting the ball with a good launch angle that gets it off the ground and more likely to find grass rather than a glove) makes me think he’s missing his spots because he’s behind and maybe it’s a timing issue?

Assuming I’ve understood xwOBA correctly (I will welcome correction cos expected stats & me are not a happy match), he’s making good quality contact when he does make contact, maybe he’s just unlucky?

https://www.mlb.com/glossary/statcast/expected-woba

You probably do at this point--the closer you are, the more exasperating he can be. It was the same last year: all his advanced metrics suggested he was hitting in bad luck. All year we heard that. I'm like Jeff Blair (local radio guy) at this point: enough. (Directing that at Vlad, not you.) The thing that really changed me with regards to Vlad was learning how dispropotionately his big year was driven by those minor-league parks.

He's definitely pressing. And I'm sure he's got a few dozen people whispering in his ear what he needs to do, from his father on down, and they're all telling him different things.