Vladdy Report: Injury scare overshadows big games

Since the accumulation of wins is unrealistic for the 2019 Toronto Blue Jays, keeping Vladimir Guerrero Jr. healthy and on a sturdy developmental track is the club’s top priority.

Last week, the Blue Jays got their first major scare on that front as Vladdy took a 96-mph Gerrit Cole fastball to his left hand on Friday, causing him to leave the game. There was an enormous sense of relief when he was diagnosed with a contusion and only missed Saturday’s matchup, and on Sunday he was no worse for wear, but just had an added piece of padding on the hand.

Lost in that minor drama - and of course the major drama of the Raptors winning an NBA title - were a couple of big days from Guerrero Jr., who had the third and fourth three-hit games of his career on consecutive nights. That accomplishment deserves a slight downgrade since it came against the Baltimore eOrioles’ putrid staff, but it was still awfully impressive.

Here’s how the 20-year-old phenom fared during an interrupted week:

The line: 7-for-17, 2 doubles, 1 HBP, 1 walk, and 3 strikeouts

Best at-bat:

While this at-bat didn’t demonstrate otherworldly pitch recognition or patience, it contained an absolutely beautiful swing. After taking a fastball just off the lower corner, Guerrero Jr. found the perfect cut to put on an awful similar, but slightly more hittable pitch.

One of the things that makes Vladdy so impressive is his ability to use the whole field and this silky-smooth swing is an excellent example of what that looks like.

Guerrero Jr. has yet to produce a stunning opposite-field bomb, but three of his eight doubles have gone to right field.

Worst at-bat:

Like many hitters, opposing pitchers are often looking to work Guerrero Jr. up-and-in with the fastball and down-and-away with the breaking stuff. This at-bat is an example of that approach, but it’s not executed particularly well and Vladdy makes some unforced errors.

After taking a borderline David Hess slider for a strike, the rookie chased one off the dish to put himself in a hole. Hess then completely missed on a third slider. That set up the fastball up, but the right-hander totally missed his spot and left one in the middle of the zone. Not only was Guerrero Jr. unable to capitalize with a hit, he swung right though it for strike three.

Guerrero Jr. was more aggressive than usual last week and this was an example of that trend, but more than anything else it goes to show that sometimes bad pitchers strike out good pitchers with bad pitches. That’s baseball.

How they pitched him:

The Orioles and Houston Astros were surprisingly aggressive going after Guerrero last week, which meant a much-higher-than-usual dose of fastballs in the zone. The Orioles’ laughably-inept staff is pretty fastball-heavy, but that’s not the Astros’ MO. Perhaps the previous week’s uneven performance had the clubs drawing up different plans for him.

Whatever the case was, it didn’t work. Guerrero Jr. pummelled the hard stuff and all seven of his hits this week came via the fastball. The further we get into the season, the more apparent it is that the best way to get Vladdy out is on pitches moving away from him. If you don’t have a slider or cutter in your repertoire, you could be in trouble. Trying to overpower him just doesn’t seem to be the way to go.

Defence and base running: Guerrero Jr. did far less fielding than usual this week for a variety of reasons. He started his week at DH, on Thursday he was removed in favour of a defensive replacement late, and his hand injury meant he only saw a single inning in the field on Friday and Saturday combined. All told, he spent just 26 innings at third base - none of them exceedingly eventful.

Vladdy is the type of defender who can be a problem even when he’s quiet due to a lack of range, but nothing jumped off the page last week. It was probably comforting for the Blue Jays to see Guerrero Jr. hurry up his routine plays a little to avoid conceding easy infield hits, though.

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