Brownie19

fify

Que Buck on the 'how to pitch with the lead' speech. Pitch to contact, pitch to the score.

We've seen this before. He's just hot. He won't be hot forever. But leave it to Buck to talk about how he's changed his approach and he's a new hitter now. Pretty sure Buck says the exact same thing every year, only to be proven wrong every year.

It's true though. Everyone thought Vlad and Pearson were elite prospects who would hit the ground running in the majors. Both look like they should be in the minors.

Yeah I've had that happen too. Just to refresh.

Except he missed the spot by about 3 feet? Jansen wanted that up and away.

2020 for the Blue Jays. Teoscar is hitting like we thought Vlad would, while Vlad's hits like Tellez. Jacob Waguespack has been much better than Pearson, who's xFIP & FIP are now over 6.00.

I f***ing hate Hosmer

I was really just curious if he actually 'hits the ball hard' (I was looking at this yesterday when I realized Fangraphs now had Statcast information). It's nice that he hit the ball REALLY hard a few times last year at elite levels, but overall - his #'s were around the league median. It's gotten a lot better this year. It will be interesting to see if he maintains those levels. Out of Soto, Tatis, Eloy and Acuna (who I just added), the biggest 1 year jump was Soto, who raised both stats about 15%. Acuna hit the ball as hard as he does in 2020 as he did in 2018 as a 20 year old. But I get it, Vlad was 20 last year and there aren't a lot of case studies for comparison.

And as per Baseball Savant over a full season in 2019, Vlad was 54th percentile in EV and 47th percentile for Hard Hit%, which reinforces what I was showing. Despite the ground balls, it is positive to see his numbers rise this year. I believe EV stabilize quickly, so it may not be a SSS. To conclude - he didn't hit the ball hard last year (compared to the rest of the league); however, he's definitely trending in the right direction this year over his first 19 games. I was just checking guys like Soto, Tatis, Acuna and Eloy - they all hit the ball a lot harder than Vlad in their rookie years, although you can also see improvements over their first couple of years (although Eloy and Acuna haven't changed much).

Does he really hit baseballs hard? Using the new Fangraph statcast numbers, I'd suggest he hits ball about as hard as everyone else on the team. For those who don't know, HardHit% is the % of balls hit with an exit velocity >95 MPH Vlad - 2019 EV 89.6 HardHit% 38.1 Vlad - 2020 EV 91.7 HardHit% 46.7 Teoscar - 2019 EV 91.1 HardHit% 41.5 Teoscar - 2020 EV 95.5 HardHit% 61.4 Tellez - 2019 EV 90.7 HardHit% 41.6 Bo - 2019 EV 90.3 HardHit% 42.9 Bo - 2020 EV 89.5 HardHit% 36.0 Cavan - 2019 EV 88.9 HardHit% 39.7 Derek Fisher - 2019 EV 92.1 HardHit% 41.6 Grichuk - 2019 EV 89.2 HardHit% 38.6 Lourdes - 2019 EV 90.3 HardHit% 44.4 It certainly doesn't appear that Vlad hits the ball tangibly harder than anyone else on the team (although the upward trend so far this year is a nice to see). I also noticed that his Barrel% is below almost every other hitter listed (no idea how accurate that is though). And then of course his launch angle is abysmal at just 5.3 this year (6.6 last year). Fisher is the only other hitter in single digits (8.8 last year).

I really enjoyed visiting Boston.

I wonder if Pujols himself is interested in chasing 700 HRs or any other counting stats. He's been cooked since 2016 (which is really sad for such a stud).

Clint Frazier's has revamped his stance. He's posted 0.6 WAR in 4 games played this year.

I think he's just pointed out the Red Sox suck dick and currently have the 2nd worst record in baseball.

7 inning games? jesus christ.

Can we add Bobby Dickerson to this list so he can teach Vladdy how to play first?

Ex - you need to report to the Department of Redundancy Department

I mean you're probably right that Acuna is better than Bo, but Bo's career line is pretty sexy 269 PAs 15 HRs .320 / .364 / .588 150 wRC+ 2.5 WAR

Anyone else notice that Fangraphs added exit velocity to the stats listed (right on the season stats - not buried below).

f*** yes. He's the face of this franchise. Vladdy is the face of Arby's.

Has anyone ever heard someone report that Vlady is in early, or staying late to put in extra time to improve at first base or as a hitter?

Zach Greinke trolling hitters - telling them what's coming and yelling out what signs they are using to batters is f***ing incredible.

Shaw looks legit as f***. Could be a massive steal for the Jays.

I was going to ask if he's sacrificed power for contact this year...but he was crushing HR's in spring training, so it seems odd he'd completely change his approach once the season started. It's obviously a SSS for any of this, but I do think the BB/K ratio is a positive. There are plenty of examples of players who simply increased their BB% and lowered their K% without sacrificing power - especially when it returns closer to their minor league track record.