Fastball

An Alarming Stat About the Downturn of Toronto Blue Jays' Star Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

If you go into any corner of Toronto Blue Jays social media, you'll see complaints about the play this year of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. These complaints might be validated by the following stat.
Brady Farkas|
An Alarming Stat About the Downturn of Toronto Blue Jays' Star Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
An Alarming Stat About the Downturn of Toronto Blue Jays' Star Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

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Toronto Blue Jays

As the Toronto Blue Jays chase their second playoff berth in as many years, the complaints are growing louder about Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

One of the best young hitters in the game, Guerrero isn't doing enough this year for some fans' liking. He's hitting .263 this season with 21 homers and 84 RBI, which is certainly an adequate season, but it's on pace to be worse than his 32 homer/97 RBI season in 2022. 

It's also greatly less than his league-leading 48 homer season in 2021, when he also had a .401 on-base percentage and 111 RBI.

Perhaps making matters worse for fans is that Guerrero seems to be doing worse against the best teams, when the team needs him to step up most. Those fears aren't just fears though, they are a reality.

Per StatsCentre:

#BlueJays Vladimir Guerrero Jr. this season in 60 games against teams with a record below .500: .

319 batting avg, .932 on base + slugging %, 12 home runs, 26 strikeouts, 45 runs batted in 

In 81 games vs teams with a record at .500 or better: .220 BA, .645 OPS, 9 HR, 65 K, 39 RBI

It makes sense that you would be worse against better teams with better pitching, but for Guerrero, who is one of the best hitters in the game, he should be able to transcend that thinking. He hasn't done it to this point.

The Blue Jays enter play on Wednesday at 80-65 and tied with the Seattle Mariners for the third and final wild card spot.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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