On Thursday night, the Toronto Blue Jays and Kansas City Royals opened their weekend series at Kauffman Stadium. The Royals jumped over Blue Jays starter Anthony Kay (and long-distance Tanner Roark) early in the early innings, and the bullpen retained a 7-5 (goals) victory. Kansas City has won three consecutive games and four of their last five.
For the Blue Jays, the star of Thursday’s game was the newly turned 22-year-old Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Guerrero, who came down three-quarters of the cycle to continue his melted hot start to the season. The home race, a 456-foot by Kyle Zimmer in the seventh innings, was the longest home race in his major league career. Watch it:
Goodness. And to think, it was not even Guerrero’s hardest ball of the night. His fourth innings left his bat at 113.9 mph. The home ride has an exit speed of 112.8 mph. Here are the five longest home games of Vlad Jr. ‘s young career:
- 15 April 2021: 456 feet against Royals (Kyle Zimmer)
- 14 May 2019: 451 feet vs. Giant (Reyes Moronta)
- August 1, 2019: 450 feet against Orioles (Dillon Tate)
- 20 July 2019: 441 feet against Tigers (Gregory Soto)
- 14 May 2019: 438 feet against giants (Nick Vincent)
The home games on May 14, 2019 were the first two home races of Guerrero’s career, and before Thursday, his second home race was the longest in his career. This is no longer the case.
The 3 for 5 with a double and a homer match on Thursday gave Vlad Jr. ‘s season batting to 1313 / .526 / .674 increased by 13 games. This is a cool 1,200 OPS on the nose. He was 15 for 31 (.484) in his last eight games and has nearly as many runs (nine) as heats (10) on the year. It also did not come out of nowhere – Guerrero hit .286 / .351 / .507 in his last 39 games last season.
Vlad Jr. has been consistently among the leagues’ top-ranked rankings since its MLB debut two years ago. His career-average starting speed of 90.6 km / h has been a top-30 point in baseball since his arrival, and Guerrero is one of only three players with multiple batting balls over 118 km / h since 2019 and joins Giancarlo Stanton and Pete Alonso.
Hitting the ball hard has never been an issue with Guerrero. He was held back by his tendency to hit the ball on the ground more than anything. Guerrero achieved a baseball pace of 51.3 percent from 2019-20, well above the 43.0 league average. No matter how hard you hit the ball, your power supply will be limited if you place it on the ground regularly.
Including Thursday night, Guerrero now owns a 47.7 percent baseball early in the season. This is more in line with the game’s best power meters. The ground ball speed, combined with Vlad Jr. ‘s natural ability to hit the ball hard (and also his knowledge of the hitting zone and undervalued contact skills), is a recipe for 30 visitors.
Development is not linear and the fact that Guerrero was considered a disappointment at the age of 21-22 while hitting 0.269 / 0.336 / 0.442 (109 OPS +) is proof of how highly rated he is as a prospect. wash. However, there is always a monster hiding under the surface. Two weeks into the 2021 season, it looks like the long-awaited outbreak of Vlad Jr.