Powerful baseball prince Vladimir Guerrero Jr. didn’t enjoy the best start to his major-league career, but over the last few games he’s begun to show what he’s capable of. First and foremost among those capabilities is hitting the ball really damn hard.
Vlad Jr. hit the first two homers of his career against the Giants last Tuesday, and after going 0-for-7 in the following two games, he finished up Toronto’s series against the White Sox with two more dingers and four hits in 10 at-bats. A good young prospect stringing a few hits together isn’t anything to get too worked up about, but if you want a glimpse of what a league ruled by Vlad Jr. may eventually look like, you need only seek out his homer from yesterday’s game:
There is all of the hype that’s been surrounding Vlad Jr. for more than a year distilled into a single, brutal swing. Faced with a 94 mph tailing fastball that was a good few inches inside, Vlad unleashed those big hips of his and absolutely dropped the hammer. That’s a pitch that a lot of good hitters can’t get around on without yanking the ball way into foul territory. To do what Vlad Jr. did—keep the ball fair and deposit it deep into the outfield seats—requires a combination of strength and bat speed that not very many 20-year-olds have ever possessed. If this is the sort of bomb Vlad Jr. is going to spend the next 15 years hitting, we are in for a lot of fun.