Vladdy Report: Home Run Derby news drops during tough week

After an injury scare last week Vladimir Guerrero Jr. really could have used a strong stretch to demonstrate his hand was just fine.

Unfortunately for the rookie third baseman, his performances against the Los Angeles Angels and Boston Red Sox didn’t inspire much confidence, either at the plate or in the field.

Guerrero Jr. only had one extra-base hit all week, struck out eight times and continued to swing at bad pitches. Vlad is mixing in his hits here and there, but there’s no doubt he’s not swinging the bat well.

On the plus side, the news broke that the 20-year-old will be participating in the 2019 Home Run Derby. While he might not have the gaudy power numbers many were expecting just yet, his raw power is beyond reproach and he knows how to put on a show in batting practice. Even against far more accomplished MLB sluggers, he could be an interesting dark horse.

The line: 6-for-29 1 2B, 4 BB, 8 K

Best at-bat: Walk vs. Ryan Brasier in the 8th inning on Saturday

To be honest, Vladdy didn’t have too many gleaming highlights last week, so a bases-loaded walk will have to do. The young slugger fell behind 1-2 and fought all the way back to an RBI with a couple of pretty competitive takes and a tough pitch to foul off mixed in.

We expect to see this kind of strike zone control from Guerrero Jr. day-in day-out and it hasn’t always been the case. However, he continues to draw enough walks to make it clear that patience will be a major part of his game - even if he can’t match Cavan Biggio’s scary-good eye.

Worst at-bat: Called strikeout vs. Josh Smith in the 8th inning on Sunday

There are a couple of qualms you could have with this trip to the plate. Guerrero Jr. gets into hitter’s counts multiple times and ends up waving at breaking balls twice. On the second pitch, he definitely could have done some damage but missed. The fourth was a clear take without two strikes.

Ultimately Guerrero Jr. was frozen on a four seamer down — a pitch that’s normally right in his happy zone:

How they pitched him:

If I were drawing up a plan to counter Guerrero Jr. it would look something like this. Until he can show a consistent ability to hold off on sliders away there’s no reason to give him more than 50 percent fastballs, or really anything close to that number.

The offspeed stuff isn’t a big issue, so once Vlad starts forcing pitchers into the zone more on breaking balls he’ll be in business. That’s far easier said than done, but until Guerrero Jr. gets there his diet will continue to be low on mashable fastballs.

Defence and base running: It was not a banner week with the glove for Guerrero Jr., and Wednesday especially stood out as a rough day at the office. In the first inning he bobbled an easy ball off the bat of Kole Calhoun:

A few innings later he botched a play that didn’t go down in the scorebook because it happened in foul territory. It doesn’t get much worse than this though:

That’s a clank of the highest order.

Things didn’t get a lot better the next day when he committed another error, this one of the slightly more forgivable variety as he couldn’t absorb an Albert Pujols shot.

Vladdy isn’t the most graceful at times, so when things go sideways they look particularly painful. Every week it seems like he makes a play or two that raises questions about his defensive future, and his glove has a long way to go at third base.

In May it looked like he might exceed expectations in the field, but as time has worn on it’s become clear that he has some hurdles to clear. That’s fine, he’s 20 and it would have been unfair to expect he’d be MLB-ready with the leather at a tough position.

In the context of a Blue Jays team that can be tough to watch, Vladdy’s defensive adventures aren’t too much of an anomaly, anyway.

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