Vlad Jr. to Indy Ball

[King]

Vlad Jr. should be sent to play for the Chicago Dogs in the American Association.

 

Teams are giving approval for players under contract to go play independent baseball. So why does Vlad get a free pass to hit 80% groundball nukes.

 

Send this guy to independent league for a wake up call

 

[Jonn]

Do it nerds you won’t.

[King]

I know we've all been thinking it.

 

But it's about time someone said it

 

Nothing is more humbling than riding buses to Fargo, North Dakota and playing for a team named after a hot dog

[Jonn]

Does he have another option? Playing for the Hot Dogs just might make him hungrier. Any chance theirs an Indy team named after Kale?

[Barkerfan23]

also save his service time for when he is a bit more mentally mature

[Olerud363]

also save his service time for when he is a bit more mentally mature

 

How does Service time work this year?? How long would they have to send him down to get another year of control?? I think they'd have to send him down the rest of this year and then send him down another time. The way it worked out is they were going to get like 6.85 years or something. Since he already has like 12% of a year this year, even if they sent him down all of this year they might not get another full year.

 

So sending him down doesn't get another year, unless you keep him down until May 2021.

[goldbug103]

also save his service time for when he is a bit more mentally mature

 

Just send him down, take him of the team whatever. He hasn’t done much to deserve playing time on a MLB team

[RobinThicc]

Results leave a lot to be desired, but him showing up fat as f*** is a lot more concerning.

 

The hitting will come.

[BlueBaller]

Results leave a lot to be desired, but him showing up fat as f*** is a lot more concerning.

 

The hitting will come.

especially with how last season ended, and all the talk about taking things more seriously. He just let it all go. I think he's a mental midget and a potential mega bust.

[BTS]

It's been a disappointing 7 games. He's the only hitter in the lineup who projects to be significantly above average this year, and they need him to be a middle of the order monster. He's looked awful so far, and it's not just the ground balls - he's had some very bad PAs. He's going to figure it out eventually, but if it isn't until 2021 this team probably isn't going to contend for a playoffs spot this season.

[DigitalRock]

Vladimir "GroundBall" Guerrero Jr.

[THANOS]

It's been a disappointing 7 games. He's the only hitter in the lineup who projects to be significantly above average this year, and they need him to be a middle of the order monster. He's looked awful so far, and it's not just the ground balls - he's had some very bad PAs. He's going to figure it out eventually, but if it isn't until 2021 this team probably isn't going to contend for a playoffs spot this season.

 

Agreed. Even if we have 2nd half Teoscar, 2019 Bo, a better looking Jansen, and 2019 Biggio, we need that monster Vlad season through 60 games to being it all together.

[Boxcar]

Results leave a lot to be desired, but him showing up fat as f*** is a lot more concerning.

 

The hitting will come.

 

Yeah, we don't actually know that

[Ehjays]

Does he have another option? Playing for the Hot Dogs just might make him hungrier. Any chance theirs an Indy team named after Kale?

 

Post of the week!!

[RobinThicc]

Yeah, we don't actually know that

 

I do

[DigitalRock]

I think he is just really pressing , he was known for his patience at every level, it has not shown up at the MLB. So much hype for the guy he is only 21. I am confident it will come for Vlad.

[Brownie19]

Vladimir "GroundBall" Guerrero Jr.

 

Incredible effort with this one!

[TheHurl]

How does Service time work this year?? How long would they have to send him down to get another year of control?? I think they'd have to send him down the rest of this year and then send him down another time. The way it worked out is they were going to get like 6.85 years or something. Since he already has like 12% of a year this year, even if they sent him down all of this year they might not get another full year.

 

So sending him down doesn't get another year, unless you keep him down until May 2021.

 

He passed 1 year 3 days ago.

[Olerud363]

He passed 1 year 3 days ago.

 

So it's no use sending him down for the rest of this year. Or if you did then you'd have to send him down again next year to get another full year. Even if he becomes a monster after all that he might sour on the organization, so I guess in terms of total years of control it's better to let him just work things out here.

 

Unless we start to consider arbitration. I guess sending him down a couple of weeks this year, is like 6 weeks in a normal year, and it could delay arbitration a year.

 

No idea if sending him down will help. Not really advocating it but not against it, if it's the best way to get on the right path long term. Only 7 games so far this year, but the trend is discouraging as it's the same as last year. Maybe he's not Prince Fielder and needs to trim down to get the bat speed up a bit.

[FrozenRopes]

especially with how last season ended, and all the talk about taking things more seriously. He just let it all go. I think he's a mental midget and a potential mega bust.

 

Everyone has done the COVID19 +20 challenge, no?

[Laika]

So it's no use sending him down for the rest of this year. Or if you did then you'd have to send him down again next year to get another full year. Even if he becomes a monster after all that he might sour on the organization, so I guess in terms of total years of control it's better to let him just work things out here.

 

Unless we start to consider arbitration. I guess sending him down a couple of weeks this year, is like 6 weeks in a normal year, and it could delay arbitration a year.

 

No idea if sending him down will help. Not really advocating it but not against it, if it's the best way to get on the right path long term. Only 7 games so far this year, but the trend is discouraging as it's the same as last year. Maybe he's not Prince Fielder and needs to trim down to get the bat speed up a bit.

 

I can't see the logic in sending him out right now. He has proven he can demolish the minor leagues and he needs to learn how to hit major league pitching the same way, so he needs to be up.

 

Making him the DH would at least focus his attention entirely on hitting.

 

In terms of a hypothetical demotion and service time - he had .157 in 2019 and would end 2020 at 1.157 if not demoted. The super 2 cutoff is something like 123 days, so in theory if they demoted him for a month (regular 162 season time) it might get him below the super 2 cutoff, which means he would go through arbitration the normal three years instead of the super 2 four years. I highly doubt this is even a consideration though. If he continues to struggle mightily and they decide to demote him for ~2 weeks this year it might keep him from being a super 2 player.

[DigitalRock]

Incredible effort with this one!

Incredible effort with this one.

[max silver]

I think he is just really pressing , he was known for his patience at every level, it has not shown up at the MLB. So much hype for the guy he is only 21. I am confident it will come for Vlad.

 

Vladdy Jr. still possesses elite talent, he has had some nice runs of production at the MLB level. No reason to start writing him off so soon. I can't see how taking him off the active roster is going to have any positive effects towards his development, the guy completely torched milb pitching, there's nothing left to prove against other minor leaguers.

[L54]

Trade him

[goldbug103]

Incredible effort with this one.

 

Move him down in the lineup, he’s useless as a cleanup hitter. A stint in the minors may help to rebuild confidence and provide a chance to tweak his swing path to elevate the ball.

[TheDragon]

If he's hitting grounders more than usual he's either become slower (i.e. due to being a fat*ss) or trying too hard and his swing is just long, hopefully the later...

[bendera3]

Vlad Jr. should be sent to play for the Chicago Dogs in the American Association.

 

Teams are giving approval for players under contract to go play independent baseball. So why does Vlad get a free pass to hit 80% groundball nukes.

 

Send this guy to independent league for a wake up call

 

 

One neat thing about the Chicago Dogs is their manager is Butch Hobson, father of former Jays prospect KC Hobson. He used to manage my "hometown" Atlantic League team Lancaster Barnstormers and they used to sign a ton of former Jays farmhands (John Anderson, Kevin Ahrens). The Dogs actually have on their roster KC, Michael Crouse, and Gustavo Pierre so it seems like he's keeping this trend going.

[Key22]

He was fat in the minors and he hit. Frank Thomas was fat and he hit. Cliff Johnson (ex Blue Jay) was fat and he hit. Babe Ruth was the fattest of them all and he hit.

 

Vlad is facing major league pitching - not a bunch of second rate scrubs who can't make it to the majors. He's facing guys with high 90s fastballs who can spot it and with some elite breaking balls. He can square up the mediocrities with a 91mph fastball right down the middle - but not 96mph with 10 inch movement followed up by guys who can throw wipe out sliders on the black.

 

He's still young but the problem is magnified when he has no positional value - at least Bichette can play competent defense so when he goes into a hitting drought - he still has some value. With Vlad - he's a one tool player - bat. If he is not hitting at a minimum of an .900OPS - he's not really useful. He needs to be putting up Manny Ramirez/Ortiz/Thomas/Carlos Delgado kind of numbers to live up to the hype as the greatest minor league hitter to walk the earth.

 

The hype led me to believe he would be better than Carlos Delgado. To be fair - if you look at Delgado in his age 21,22,23 seasons with the Jays the offensive numbers were crap. .509 OPS in his age 23 season (99Ab's).

 

So not the time to panic - but they could move him to 8th in the order to take some pressure off of him. Have Hernandez bat 3rd or 4th.

[Dick_Pole]

Trade him

 

What would be the point of this? Value is at a low point and upside would be high for the acquiring team. I'd rather have the team wait as long as possible to see if he develops and if not trade him for Brad Lincoln.

[Jimcanuck]

Babe Ruth was the fattest of them all and he hit.

 

This is a common misconception. Ruth was a fantastic athlete for most of his career. Most pictures and video are for his last few playing years when he was bloated from living large.