As real as it gets
A one man gang appears on the horizon
Vladimir Guerrero Jr hit four home runs against the Rays during their four-game wraparound series. One of those home runs came in extra innings, one came in the bottom of the eighth inning to tie the game. He walked three times but struck out only twice. Two of the home runs travelled more than 440 feet. Facing the Rays, the team with the best record in the American League, he raised his already stratospheric OPS by 50 points.
The Toronto Blue Jays lost all four of those games.
The point isn’t that the Blue Jays are ravaged by injuries which exposed their paper-thin pitching depth. That wasn’t hard to foresee. The point is, 200 plate appearances into this season, there is no disputing that Vlad Jr is among the three or four best hitters in baseball. Maybe among the top two. With Mike Trout injured, he has a case for number one.
To sustain what Vlad Jr has done over two months is very hard to accomplish. Players get hot and have great streaks. A great month where everything bounces right or fly balls scrape the happy side of the wall. But they don’t produce like this for two months straight. For most big leaguers, even stringing a week together with a .333/.443/.661 line is unthinkable. Putting up numbers like that, in this offensive environment? It’s crazy.
Jose Donaldson’s MVP season. José Bautista’s supernova 2010/2011. Carlos Delgado’s biggest/would be MVP years. John Olerud’s 1993 run. Great stretches from Edwin Encarnacion and Shawn Green. These are the only real comparisons in club history for what he’s doing now.
You can’t fake what he’s doing. There is no amount of good bounces or puck luck or event clustering that can explain away a great player on an all-time great run. The names listed above are all Hall of Very Good or better players. The “worst” of those five players posted 30 WAR for his career with 328 home runs. Together they posted more than 250 Wins and hit 2000 home runs. They’re good. So is Vlad.
As mentioned here before, this is who he is now. It isn’t forever, as if the fitness flags and the bat drags, all these 450 foot bombs could pumpkin back into hard ground outs. But I’m willing to bet that it is continue. That the feeling of being The Best Hitter in Baseball and League Leader in Wins Above Replacement hits different than a few beers around the pool table.
Here’s hoping, as Vlad Jr is the only thing keeping the 2021 Blue Jays afloat.
Blue Jays have 5 good hitters and 3 watchable starters but I feel ya.