A lot of black players never wanted to play for NY or Boston because they were the last two teams in baseball to have a player of color. Plus whenever they used to mention Yankee greats they never mentioned any of their players of color. They still really don't unless it's Jeter. Mets never had that type of history. I'm sure Ken Sr. told Junior the same thing. My father did as well when I asked him why he hated the Yankees and Red Sox so much.
Players are like fans, they had their favorite team(s) growing up as well as team(s) they disliked. Other than Yankee fans, most fans don't like the Yankees. That's what happens when you're the most successful franchise in the sport by far, not to mention money to get the best players and keep on winning. Well, except this year. I'm sure Yankee fans will whine about fire the manager, the GM and other things. Try being a fan of the Royals, or worse, A's. It is strange however for a player publicly saying he doesn't want to play for the most storied franchise in history. Forego the big money, especially what a Griffey Jr could have gotten from them. Upset about how they treated his father? OK, I'll buy that with a grain of salt. Being one of the last teams to have a player of color, that I don't buy. I can see however a player not wanting to constantly be under the microscope in NY by the media and the fans. Maybe that's what Vlad's thinking is. As for his strange season, he wouldn't be the first to have lots of hype beside his name and not perform to expectations and he surely won't be the last. Time will tell but so far, his teammate Bo Bichette has had a better career in many metrics. They both started in 2019 although Vlad played in 123 games and Bo in 46. Bo's OPS+ was higher as was his WAR. Same in 2020. 2021 was of course Vlad's big year, OPS+ of 167 vs 121 and WAR of 6.7 vs 5.8 which is kind of close. Last year, Bo was ust behind: 128 vs 133 in OPS+ and 3.6 vs 3.9 in WAR. This year so far with less than three weeks to go: Bo is ahead 124 vs 113 and 3.9 vs 1.3. Over their careers: Bo played in 510 game has OPS+ of 127 and WAR of 16.6 (average of 5.3 per year). Vlad in 644 games is 120 and 14.6 (average of 3.7 per year and he had WAR of 6.7 in 2021). I can see why the Jays extended Bo before this season and have yet as far as I can tell even discussed an extension with Vlad. Based on the numbers, he would have to get a lower salary than Bo. In my mind he should get the same but most people think he deserves much more. If I'm the Jays, I give Vlad another year, see if he can turn it around to nearer 2021 levels. If so, fine, extend him. If not, trade him after the 2024 season, get value from him. The problem is that the Jays may not be as good a team next year and he would be great trade deadline bait, unless he totally tanks.
As a jays fan, I want to see him do so well so badly, especially because we are in the race right now and we need him. Sure we’re having rookies step up but with no guarantee how long that will last, we need more stability with our stars.
Vlad and Alek Cupcakes are about the two most unlikeable Jays. Both possess big mouths and do nothing when it counts. Vlad ran his mouth last September about "His House" only to watch the NYY celebrate the division title in "His" House last season.
Blue Jays hitting strategist Dave Hudgens worked with Vlad to change his plate approach for some reason. It's not working. Considering the down year several players are having, Hudgens is probably doing more harm than good as hitting strategist.
I remember when he an Bo Bichette were in AAA on the cusp of cracking the big leagues, Bo said something to the affect of Vlad didn't know how to hit home runs, he just hits the ball hard. It's interesting and a little disappointing as a Jays fan (mostly because of the drop of in performance) that it's still true 4 years later. Great players make adjustments and there has to be some made with Vladdy
One hundred percent. I remember a video a couple years ago where Vlad was very critical of launch angle. It's like he has some aversion to swinging that way.
Most great hitters deal with 3 adjustments in their career: 1) batter adjusts to pitchers 2) pitchers adjust to batter 3) batters adjust to pitching adjustments The first adjustment is when they figure out major league pitching. This usually happens within the first 4-5 years of their career. It’s that Aha moment where everything clicks and they’ve seen enough pitchers to figure out how to hit. This is usually when they have the highest batting average of their careers. If you’ll notice, most legendary hitters have their highest batting average season very early in their careers. For Alex Rodriguez, his highest batting average was his rookie season. For Mike Trout it was his second, Pujols his 3rd, Ken Griffey his 3rd, etc. The second adjustment is when pitchers see the hitter as a new superstar and spend time trying to get him out. They pay special attention to him and devise strategies to discover his weaknesses. When pitchers discover the weaknesses the whole league notices and other pitchers pick up the scouting report. When pitchers notice a new superstar, it makes it hard for hitters to ever reach their previous high batting average because now pitchers are focused on them and try harder to beat them. Some hitters struggle to ever overcome this newfound attention and is often why some players only ever become one-hit wonders with one great season and a bunch of mediocre seasons afterwards even when there was no injury. This is where Vlad Jr. is at now. After he broke out as a superstar in 2021, pitchers adjusted to him by figuring out his weaknesses. The third adjustment is when batters adjust to the newfound attention and pitching strategies from the pitchers after the batter’s breakout season. They change their approach and/or fix their weaknesses. Players like Trout and Arod realized they wouldn’t get as many good pitches to hit anymore and started trying to hit for more power. This is when hitters become baseball legends. Ohtani is a great recent example. He broke out in 2021 and battled Vlad for the mvp. Vlad was clearly the better hitter. Now 2 years later, they’ve completely reversed positions in hitting where Ohtani was the best hitter in baseball in 2023 while Vlad had a down year. Pitchers had figured out in the second half of 2021 that Ohtani couldn’t hit changeups. He would chase bad pitches a lot because he was trying to carry a horrible Angels team instead of just drawing walks. In 2023, he learned how to mash changeups and he started letting himself be walked. This led Ohtani to be the best hitter in baseball in 2023. For Vlad Jr. to be effective, he has to figure out how to adjust back to the newfound pitching attention he’s getting now that he emerged as a superstar in 2021. The narrative that he changed something or that he’s in a slump is incorrect. What’s happening is perfectly normal and happens to every hitter who has a breakout season. Opposing pitchers see him as a threat and work extra hard to scout him and pick apart his weaknesses. For most hitters, this takes time to figure out and fix their weaknesses. Some never figure it out. Some like Ohtani, do figure it out.
Vladdy is 24, players like harper, machado, semien, betts, lindor who also had struggles had them later on in their careers so to count him out now is a bit ridiculous
He's a natural hitter. I have no trouble believing he has the talent to adapt and come back stronger. Elite athletes do it all the times. I'm not particularly worried to be honest, it's just a bad year to have a "bad" year because I believe the team would be in a very different spot if If was having success like 2021. I Think they would have been a very dangerous dark horse in the postseason with the rotation and bullpen they have this year. It can still happen...
There are far more players who have fizzled out early in their careers. Barking big names does nothing for his personal development, especially when you're talking sheer numbers of players who failed.
The issue is when ppl quote barrels they don’t realize there’s a wide gap of about 20 points to Vlad’s max exit velo. Same with hard hit %. The reason he’s getting “barrels” but not every the home runs is simply down being just underneath that sweet spot as his launch angle is above 10 for the first time in his career and his average exit velo is back to 92 compared to 2021 95. This has led to a big jump in in field fly balls as well . The biggest delta is his hr/fb rate- 2023 is literally half of what it was in 2021. He’s getting 5 points more of sliders which i think is what’s going on. This is his second worst exit velo by pitch and helping pitchings disrupt his swing just enough to dilute his exit velo and avoid a dinger. He went from +3 to -4.4 slider runs above average (fangraphs) as a benchmark reference that’s a good piece of confirming data . On top of that he seen a 5 point jump in pitches outside the strike zone. The good news based on how close he is to turning these pitches over back to his 2021 numbers, it only takes a few adjustments
THIS is the type of bs that RUINED major league hitting. I think they're filling his head with all these bs numbers whereas before he was probably using what his father taught him and his own instincts. Metrics ruined hitting because they thought "exit velocity" was a cool stat to woo the egg heads with. All that crap is why Vlad Jr. strikes out over 100 times a year and has a lifetime batting average of .280 while his father NEVER struck out more than 100 times and is a lifetime .318 hitter. It's not talent - it's APPROACH. The games are only getting longer and more boring and less people are showing up to the park and/or watching at home. The game is nothing but strikeouts and homers and everything in between has been forgotten.
Key word here is definitely, "adjustment." Once pitchers have seen you a few times and you've been scouted, you are definitely going to get pitched to differently. As a professional hitter, you HAVE to make the necessary adjustments, as well. Great content! ✌
I find it funny that for barreled outs theres a comically wide gap between Acuña and literally everybody else. Almost everything Ronnie makes contact with is a barrel it seems like.
The problem with vladdy is his approach. He swings at bad pitches, doesn't work counts and tries to do too much. You can hit the ball hard, but if you keep hitting groundballs, your not good
@@sir.muffiniii7011 yes exactly. What Makes the best the best, is that they don't think about what they're doing. The just do. Vladdy is in his own head. You good sir know what your talking about and I tip my cap
10:00 as a Little League Pitcher the hardest hit ball i ever gave up was a line out to CF, the ball had top spin and dive bombed right into the CF mitt... had the ball had back spin with the same exit velocity it might have landed, or it might have gone into orbit... I was a fan of his father's, and thus got into Jr even though i no longer watch MLB, his lack of dominance has been a suprise--i was suspecting a Albert Pujols/Frank Thomas run where you start comparing the guy to to Ted Williams as his approach to hitting appeared to be perfect... Jr was more disciplined then his father, but with the same explosive swing once it was go time; an absolute joy to watch... (youtube) his groundout v Chapman as a youth is elite baseball, he falls behind 0-2 then grinds out like 10 pitches before grounding out, the number of age 20 guys that could fall behind 0-2 to Chapman THEN make the at bat competitive is pretty small)... fax!!!
@zombiesheepoftheapocalypse good call, my boner... what do you think of Vlad Jr??? he looked like a lock to hit .300 with 30 HR in his weak years... you ever see his dad, if not check out some highlights... i stopped watching 10 years ago and just causully follow Vladdy Jr... fax!!!
0:56 As a side note, it sucks that Joe Buck isn't doing baseball anymore. He'd gotten so much better over the last decade and IMO should've been the voice of SNB (I know there were some family reasons why he didn't want that job but still). Instead we're stuck with the current crap on ESPN.
Yea his batting has been frustrating this season but he's been pretty damn good on the defensive side. But as you said at the end He's still very young. I'm sure he'll get back to it
Yeah, it's crazy even in a down year like this, he still has solid production. This would be a lot of guys best season in the show. That's how you know he's special to me. Hope he stays in shape and has a long career like his dad.
He doesn't have the mindset to be one of the greats because he very obviously doesn't take his game seriously. Goofing off on the bench, weekly base running mistakes, still overweight, no prep... he's an incredible talent but has no grind to go with it.
I don’t think it’s fair to say no grind. He got into wayyyy better shape a few years back and that was a big factor is his insane 2021. I think he definitely needs to focus more on baseball though and I assume he learned a bit with the “movie” quotes. I’ll be curious if they do change the dimensions back too as it obviously hasn’t helped most of their stars numbers wise.
Traded away his pals, pitch clock got added and they put him on a leash. All the players were saying at the start of the season was its about getting on base and passing it to the next guy, problem is no one is doing damage or cashing in. Vladdy is a big kid, he plays best when he is loose. Disciplined approaches are great but they don't work for Vlad. At this point I don't think he enjoys playing for the Jays and is putting in minimal effort. Needs to be traded.
Looking at the distance stats makes it painfully obvious that he isn't hitting baseballs with enough backspin. It's such an important part of hitting the ball further. Forget topspin, the difference in distance of a 2800 to 500 rpm backspin hit is crazy.
it’s wild watching this and seeing why Vlad’s season looks so mediocre but then seeing every graph shown with Acuna jr at the top and he’s having an all world season 😂
I remember being a kid and watching an Albert Pujols interview where he talked about putting “backspin” on the ball to create lift. We don’t have a way of measuring that yet unfortunately but my theory would be that he creates below average backspin or even top spin. How or why idk, something about his swing path id assume.
Vlady seems really unhappy these days. His at bats in the last couple of games looked clownish, swinging at bad pitches and not seeing the pitch. I don't know if the team came down on him for some of his antics, but that spark that was there last year just seems gone. Maybe it was the trade of Lourdis and Teoscar that had an effect on him. Perhaps it's time to consider trading him after the season while he has some value. I wouldn't be surprised if that thought hasn't been considered in the organization. He does put "bums in seats" but eventually, that effect goes away with bad performance.
needs more time in the gym and less time at the buffet table. personally, from what i've seen i wonder if it might be something with his eyes. he's swinging late which explains a lot of the opposite field issues as he doesn't seem to be picking up the ball as easily as he used to. this could be explained by need for glasses or contacts. i had similar issues when i played. i eventually had such bad eyes i could no longer pick up the ball and had to quit playing. i went from a mostly pull power hitting to a single to opposite field hitter as my eyes got worse.
I played 7 years pro baseball & coached 3 years in the minor leagues. All this analysis is great…but the simple answer to why his HR #s have dropped is in his explanation to Harold Reynolds. His approach is to go gap to gap ( left centre to Right centre). Look at the best HR hitters of all time - virtually all them were dead pull hitters. Yank one down the line 330 ft for a bomb or hit dead centre 395 ft for an out
Can't look at just the HR numbers. His OPS+ is down by 20 points. That's huge. WAR by 2.6, also huge. His approach maybe has changed but not for the better so he needs to go back to what worked before. Or the pitchers have just figured him out somehow. He even strikes out more. Early in the season, he hardly struck out. Now he's in line to do so over 100 times. If the Jays make the playoffs, he'll probably do poorly. Likely a quick exit like last year. The other day, he hit a double on a 3-0 pitch, drove in two with two outs. He knew it was likely going to be a strike and he jumped on it. Some were saying he's getting hot at the right time and this hit may be what he needs. No, because he knew where the pitch was going to be and the type. Since then, he's 2/10, 3 Ks.
As a Jays fan, I swear he’s about to break the record for the most ground balls in a season. This guy REFUSES to make adjustments! You want to scream watching him hit. The past 2 seasons have been infuriating to watch him hit. Never thought his best attribute would be his defence
Just a thought on why his barrels aren’t going as far is possibly not producing enough backspin on the baseball and thus the ball doesn’t travel as far
Remember that the Rogers centre has undergone massive change since all his other numbers, it’s no longer a home run ball park it’s now a pitcher’s park, the air circulation has been changed, it’s all together a different environment 😢.
Hey MLB The Show developers at SDS; is it too hard to get fan graphs in the game? 2K gives players (in franchise mode) to create charts based off a choice we decide (for example: points per 100 possessions during road games by let’s say PGs); you can view more analytics than the game offers in the box score, etc. why can’t we see barrel %, exit velocity %, OPS+, Launch Angle, sweet spot percentage, xAvg, xSLG, etc. why can’t we get these things to compare years with our players, determine who to keep on our team due to actual talent or luckiness, etc. bring more immersion.
I don’t remember where I saw this but I remember seeing some stats where Vladdy 1. isn’t pulling the ball as much and 2. is pretty much just hitting the ball hard right at defenders. Idk if someone knows what I’m talking about or has those stats but I think it’s interesting how these things could potentially impact his stats.
Let's look at 2022 we had Hernendez and Gurriel here and Vladdy had friends and he had fun. We traded those guys away and suddenly Vladdy wasn't having fun anymore, to boot you get rid of the "Home Run Jacket". There was an attempt at the trade deadline to bring back Teoscar but they couldn't put a deal together in time. When you have fun at work work isn't work when it becomes work it's not fun.
What a silly comparison. Also, Vlad's in his 5th season, while Schneider is a rookie. Even though, Schneider's actually older. What took him so long to get to the bigs???
Well he went on TV and said 'I just try to hit straight line drives.' Is anyone surprised pitchers adjusted by pitching him lower in the zone? The result is more top spin and less distance. More outs.
Wow, with all this stats and metrics, being a batters has become hard. he just need to continue hitting the ball, and eventually hits and HRs will come.
@@Alan-rw3ez well for them it’s bad. I mean most players would love a season with a obp of .400 like soto this year but I think most were thinking they both would have better seasons.
No they won't. Not as long as "hit the ball harder than everyone else" and "exit velocities" and "launch angles" are the main focus of MLB hitters - instead of just hitting the damn ball where it's pitched. It's why Vlad strikes out over 100 times a year and hits .260 and his father never once struck out over 100 times and hit .318 for his career. Because the approach to the ART of hitting was ruined by bullsh1t metrics.
Why do we pinpoint avg and slg on the walls being taller? That would only inhibit homers not avg. He probably is creating way too much top spin by swinging for line drives. Not much of a point in hitting the ball hard, if it's right to a fielder
When Vladdy calms down and accepts himself as a pure contact hitter, and not trying to swing for the fences....he does great. That's where he was at the beginning of the season. We'll see....he has some years..
It’s September 2024, Vladdy has fixed his issues at the plate, and although the jays didn’t meet their playoff expectations, I’m happy with the direction we’re going in 😁
Vladdy is showing me that he is a Batting Practise player, he refuses to make the opposing Pitcher work, swing at first pitch, ground out, Pop out, pretty soon when someone asks,"who's up after Vladdy?", the Universel answer will be,"the other Team!"
Of course it makes sense. He is a 10 year old. He sat at the end of the dugout for the 2022 season giggling with Teoscar and Lourdes. The three of them demonstrated their lack of maturity. Because the BJ's were so invested in their supposed super hero, they had to dump Lourdes and Teoscar in a hope that Vlad would grow up and focus on his career. Clearly, the strategy did not work. We have had three poor field managers in a row. Gibbons, Montoyo, and now Schneider. While I am sure they have an understanding of baseball, they fail in their real job....managing people. Its up to the players to win or lose ball games...its up to the manager to get performance from the players. The blue jays play up to their capability....but way below the expectation from the sports writers and commentators who had the Blue Jays winning the World Series in April. Thanks to the sports "industry" in Toronto, the same suckers who have been buying Leaf tickets for years are now buying BJ tickets for nought.
It’s actually sad because lots of jays fans now want him gone from Toronto. Personally I don’t want that because of all the potential he has. He still has tons of time to turn it around and become a superstar. Giving him up might be a huge mistake for our franchise. Yes his 2023 wasn’t great and he was a horrible base runner, but remember he’s still really young. It ain’t like he’s someone in his prime at like 30
Vladdy needs to be able to take the ball the other way or he'll fall victim to outside corner and outside off the plate stuff his whole career. You'd think with such high exitV and low launch angle his batting average would be higher but not so if it's always to the same side. 3 Years with declining numbers is not the trajectory to be on. I hope he can turn it around but if next year is sub this year, trade him while there is some stock left. He's young yes, but can't be given a massive deal on hype.
There’s an additional stat that’s needed. Outs over 350 feet to centre field. Anywhere else in the ball park, these are home runs. With the Hays emphasis on gap to gap hitting, my educated guess is that these kind of outs to centre field are up significantly. When you don’t elevate the ball, this same approach turns into the ungodly number of double plays. Gap to gap is great for guys with lower launch angles. In the case of Vladdy, and several other Jays, it’s counterproductive.
He has 2 clear issues. 1. Swing (his swing path and angle are terrible) 2. Approach, (he seems unprepared, does not zone up pitches and as a result grounds out a lot)
MLB has been doctoring baseballs for years now. 2021 saw the ALL-TIME records for home runs hit by a Catcher, Pitcher, 2nd Baseman, and player 22 or younger. Stop and think about how unlikely that is. I mean Salvador Perez hit 48 home runs!! C'mon people. Clearly they took their experiment a little too far and have tried to reign it in a bit. You're wondering why Vladdy is having a down season?? He's not. He's simply not getting fed juiced baseballs. This video represents a complicated approach to a simple problem. If someone is absolutely mashing the ball and it's not traveling as far as expected, maybe you should look at the ball folks.
Similar to Vladdy, except Acuna has a higher EV and lower LA, so that create more opportunities for barreled outs imo. Maybe sprinkle a bit of "unlucky" outs too
I remmber when he played for the angels expos rangers and orioles. now hes playing for the bluejays. he looks good for a 47 year old. he is timeless and ageless
For the second half of 2022 (last 300abs) he and Kirk were at the bottom of the league in WRC+. Double plays this issue for Vladdy and Kirk is just an average player - at best. He just had a 2 month hot streak. (Really, really hot) They both swing at garbage. Good contact doesn't do much when you swing at pitches designed to induce grounders. (Jays pitchers do the same thing to hitters). He's not hitting it too hard that it creates too much too spin..that's wrong. This doesn't surprise me at all, but it's enough - barely lol Also, Vlad has a negative OPS+ at all but 4 AL parks and is about 85 for his home park. That terrible. He tore up Buffalo and Dunedin in 2021 (40+hr pace at home).. he's always been exactly what he is now in MLB parks. I love Vladdy BTW lol Go Jays
Vladdy Jr. now knows what The Show players go through when we hit the ball right on the barrel and its an out.
Griffey refused to ever play for the Yankees, as well. He said something like "if the Yankees were the only team left, he'd retire..."
Because steinbrenner gave preferential treatment to graig nettles over his dad.
A lot of black players never wanted to play for NY or Boston because they were the last two teams in baseball to have a player of color. Plus whenever they used to mention Yankee greats they never mentioned any of their players of color. They still really don't unless it's Jeter. Mets never had that type of history. I'm sure Ken Sr. told Junior the same thing. My father did as well when I asked him why he hated the Yankees and Red Sox so much.
Players are like fans, they had their favorite team(s) growing up as well as team(s) they disliked. Other than Yankee fans, most fans don't like the Yankees. That's what happens when you're the most successful franchise in the sport by far, not to mention money to get the best players and keep on winning. Well, except this year. I'm sure Yankee fans will whine about fire the manager, the GM and other things. Try being a fan of the Royals, or worse, A's.
It is strange however for a player publicly saying he doesn't want to play for the most storied franchise in history. Forego the big money, especially what a Griffey Jr could have gotten from them. Upset about how they treated his father? OK, I'll buy that with a grain of salt. Being one of the last teams to have a player of color, that I don't buy. I can see however a player not wanting to constantly be under the microscope in NY by the media and the fans. Maybe that's what Vlad's thinking is.
As for his strange season, he wouldn't be the first to have lots of hype beside his name and not perform to expectations and he surely won't be the last. Time will tell but so far, his teammate Bo Bichette has had a better career in many metrics.
They both started in 2019 although Vlad played in 123 games and Bo in 46. Bo's OPS+ was higher as was his WAR. Same in 2020. 2021 was of course Vlad's big year, OPS+ of 167 vs 121 and WAR of 6.7 vs 5.8 which is kind of close. Last year, Bo was ust behind: 128 vs 133 in OPS+ and 3.6 vs 3.9 in WAR. This year so far with less than three weeks to go: Bo is ahead 124 vs 113 and 3.9 vs 1.3.
Over their careers: Bo played in 510 game has OPS+ of 127 and WAR of 16.6 (average of 5.3 per year). Vlad in 644 games is 120 and 14.6 (average of 3.7 per year and he had WAR of 6.7 in 2021). I can see why the Jays extended Bo before this season and have yet as far as I can tell even discussed an extension with Vlad. Based on the numbers, he would have to get a lower salary than Bo. In my mind he should get the same but most people think he deserves much more.
If I'm the Jays, I give Vlad another year, see if he can turn it around to nearer 2021 levels. If so, fine, extend him. If not, trade him after the 2024 season, get value from him. The problem is that the Jays may not be as good a team next year and he would be great trade deadline bait, unless he totally tanks.
Definitely because of how the Yankees treated his dad.
💯 facts, JR is my favorite player and if he went to NY I'd stop watching Baseball 😄 🤣
As a jays fan, I want to see him do so well so badly, especially because we are in the race right now and we need him. Sure we’re having rookies step up but with no guarantee how long that will last, we need more stability with our stars.
same
What a hot take! 😜
Vlad and Alek Cupcakes are about the two most unlikeable Jays. Both possess big mouths and do nothing when it counts. Vlad ran his mouth last September about "His House" only to watch the NYY celebrate the division title in "His" House last season.
Interestingly, Vladdy's been excellent these past 3 games. Effectively carrying the offense.
Jays need him and the offense to get going and stay hot, they cant afford to go cold in the last 12 games.
Blue Jays hitting strategist Dave Hudgens worked with Vlad to change his plate approach for some reason. It's not working. Considering the down year several players are having, Hudgens is probably doing more harm than good as hitting strategist.
very insightful as to why the hitters other than bo seemed to have fallen off, i didnt even know who dave hudgens was until now
thanks man
Well said. A hitting coach can make or break a great hitter
@@Supremacy_Kinghe is a blessing by the sounds of it
Unless he gets traded to the pirates or the Sox’s red Sox’s then forget everything he said ❤
I remember when he an Bo Bichette were in AAA on the cusp of cracking the big leagues, Bo said something to the affect of Vlad didn't know how to hit home runs, he just hits the ball hard. It's interesting and a little disappointing as a Jays fan (mostly because of the drop of in performance) that it's still true 4 years later. Great players make adjustments and there has to be some made with Vladdy
Bo is a superior player to Vlad. I don't like the Jays but I have much respect for Bo. Vlad and Alek Cupcakes and their mouths? Not so much.
One hundred percent. I remember a video a couple years ago where Vlad was very critical of launch angle. It's like he has some aversion to swinging that way.
Well he was raised by Vlad Sr who famously said "see ball hit ball run like crazy" I'm not surprised he's not concerned with launch angle etc.
Most great hitters deal with 3 adjustments in their career: 1) batter adjusts to pitchers 2) pitchers adjust to batter 3) batters adjust to pitching adjustments
The first adjustment is when they figure out major league pitching. This usually happens within the first 4-5 years of their career. It’s that Aha moment where everything clicks and they’ve seen enough pitchers to figure out how to hit. This is usually when they have the highest batting average of their careers. If you’ll notice, most legendary hitters have their highest batting average season very early in their careers. For Alex Rodriguez, his highest batting average was his rookie season. For Mike Trout it was his second, Pujols his 3rd, Ken Griffey his 3rd, etc.
The second adjustment is when pitchers see the hitter as a new superstar and spend time trying to get him out. They pay special attention to him and devise strategies to discover his weaknesses. When pitchers discover the weaknesses the whole league notices and other pitchers pick up the scouting report. When pitchers notice a new superstar, it makes it hard for hitters to ever reach their previous high batting average because now pitchers are focused on them and try harder to beat them. Some hitters struggle to ever overcome this newfound attention and is often why some players only ever become one-hit wonders with one great season and a bunch of mediocre seasons afterwards even when there was no injury. This is where Vlad Jr. is at now. After he broke out as a superstar in 2021, pitchers adjusted to him by figuring out his weaknesses.
The third adjustment is when batters adjust to the newfound attention and pitching strategies from the pitchers after the batter’s breakout season. They change their approach and/or fix their weaknesses. Players like Trout and Arod realized they wouldn’t get as many good pitches to hit anymore and started trying to hit for more power. This is when hitters become baseball legends. Ohtani is a great recent example. He broke out in 2021 and battled Vlad for the mvp. Vlad was clearly the better hitter. Now 2 years later, they’ve completely reversed positions in hitting where Ohtani was the best hitter in baseball in 2023 while Vlad had a down year. Pitchers had figured out in the second half of 2021 that Ohtani couldn’t hit changeups. He would chase bad pitches a lot because he was trying to carry a horrible Angels team instead of just drawing walks. In 2023, he learned how to mash changeups and he started letting himself be walked. This led Ohtani to be the best hitter in baseball in 2023.
For Vlad Jr. to be effective, he has to figure out how to adjust back to the newfound pitching attention he’s getting now that he emerged as a superstar in 2021. The narrative that he changed something or that he’s in a slump is incorrect. What’s happening is perfectly normal and happens to every hitter who has a breakout season. Opposing pitchers see him as a threat and work extra hard to scout him and pick apart his weaknesses. For most hitters, this takes time to figure out and fix their weaknesses. Some never figure it out. Some like Ohtani, do figure it out.
Vladdy is 24, players like harper, machado, semien, betts, lindor who also had struggles had them later on in their careers so to count him out now is a bit ridiculous
He's a natural hitter. I have no trouble believing he has the talent to adapt and come back stronger. Elite athletes do it all the times.
I'm not particularly worried to be honest, it's just a bad year to have a "bad" year because I believe the team would be in a very different spot if If was having success like 2021. I Think they would have been a very dangerous dark horse in the postseason with the rotation and bullpen they have this year. It can still happen...
but is vlad an elite athlete?@@marianorivera3272
Tell that to ever clueless Jays fan on social media who want to get rid of him after every game.
When did Betts struggle later in his career?
There are far more players who have fizzled out early in their careers. Barking big names does nothing for his personal development, especially when you're talking sheer numbers of players who failed.
The issue is when ppl quote barrels they don’t realize there’s a wide gap of about 20 points to Vlad’s max exit velo. Same with hard hit %. The reason he’s getting “barrels” but not every the home runs is simply down being just underneath that sweet spot as his launch angle is above 10 for the first time in his career and his average exit velo is back to 92 compared to 2021 95. This has led to a big jump in in field fly balls as well . The biggest delta is his hr/fb rate- 2023 is literally half of what it was in 2021. He’s getting 5 points more of sliders which i think is what’s going on. This is his second worst exit velo by pitch and helping pitchings disrupt his swing just enough to dilute his exit velo and avoid a dinger. He went from +3 to -4.4 slider runs above average (fangraphs) as a benchmark reference that’s a good piece of confirming data . On top of that he seen a 5 point jump in pitches outside the strike zone. The good news based on how close he is to turning these pitches over back to his 2021 numbers, it only takes a few adjustments
Blah blah blah
Thanks for the added info
THIS is the type of bs that RUINED major league hitting. I think they're filling his head with all these bs numbers whereas before he was probably using what his father taught him and his own instincts. Metrics ruined hitting because they thought "exit velocity" was a cool stat to woo the egg heads with. All that crap is why Vlad Jr. strikes out over 100 times a year and has a lifetime batting average of .280 while his father NEVER struck out more than 100 times and is a lifetime .318 hitter. It's not talent - it's APPROACH. The games are only getting longer and more boring and less people are showing up to the park and/or watching at home. The game is nothing but strikeouts and homers and everything in between has been forgotten.
Vlads problem is he's not playing in Atlanta where a hard bunt sends the ball over the wall in center
Key word here is definitely, "adjustment." Once pitchers have seen you a few times and you've been scouted, you are definitely going to get pitched to differently. As a professional hitter, you HAVE to make the necessary adjustments, as well. Great content! ✌
Judge doesn't compete in home run derbies since he won in his rookie year and slumped for a month after. Sometimes they have an advserse affect.
I find it funny that for barreled outs theres a comically wide gap between Acuña and literally everybody else. Almost everything Ronnie makes contact with is a barrel it seems like.
You forgot one thing. The hitting coaches the team has suck
Thank you I’ve been waiting for someone to make this
The problem with vladdy is his approach. He swings at bad pitches, doesn't work counts and tries to do too much. You can hit the ball hard, but if you keep hitting groundballs, your not good
He just needs to get 2021 out of his head and hit on top of the ball
@@sir.muffiniii7011 yes exactly. What Makes the best the best, is that they don't think about what they're doing. The just do. Vladdy is in his own head. You good sir know what your talking about and I tip my cap
That's the hitting coach's fault/
@@ejwwilson2481 thank you and I hope he can get back to his mvp caliber self
@@a18yearoldonyoutubeluigi yessir indeed. The hitting coach is another analytical guy who teaches the hitters coding instead of hitting
He ain't getting enough backspin on his hits.
Vladdy has become expert at grounding to short. Which makes all these other swing stats meaningless.
10:00 as a Little League Pitcher the hardest hit ball i ever gave up was a line out to CF, the ball had top spin and dive bombed right into the CF mitt... had the ball had back spin with the same exit velocity it might have landed, or it might have gone into orbit... I was a fan of his father's, and thus got into Jr even though i no longer watch MLB, his lack of dominance has been a suprise--i was suspecting a Albert Pujols/Frank Thomas run where you start comparing the guy to to Ted Williams as his approach to hitting appeared to be perfect... Jr was more disciplined then his father, but with the same explosive swing once it was go time; an absolute joy to watch... (youtube) his groundout v Chapman as a youth is elite baseball, he falls behind 0-2 then grinds out like 10 pitches before grounding out, the number of age 20 guys that could fall behind 0-2 to Chapman THEN make the at bat competitive is pretty small)... fax!!!
@zombiesheepoftheapocalypse good call, my boner... what do you think of Vlad Jr??? he looked like a lock to hit .300 with 30 HR in his weak years... you ever see his dad, if not check out some highlights... i stopped watching 10 years ago and just causully follow Vladdy Jr... fax!!!
I feel like he does better when he’s having fun
0:56 As a side note, it sucks that Joe Buck isn't doing baseball anymore. He'd gotten so much better over the last decade and IMO should've been the voice of SNB (I know there were some family reasons why he didn't want that job but still). Instead we're stuck with the current crap on ESPN.
Yea his batting has been frustrating this season but he's been pretty damn good on the defensive side.
But as you said at the end
He's still very young. I'm sure he'll get back to it
Vladdy is a lazy player.
@@JuniorCollado1at time he can be
he's actually hurting the team on the defensive side if you look deep defensive analytics.
@@monke.08 what analytics?
@@sir.muffiniii7011 defensive runs saved, and defensive WAR shows he is a negative defender in the field
People forget how young Vlad is. He’s gonna have plenty of huge seasons in the coming years.
He'll never be Aaron Judge.
Yeah, it's crazy even in a down year like this, he still has solid production. This would be a lot of guys best season in the show. That's how you know he's special to me. Hope he stays in shape and has a long career like his dad.
Definitely, he's literally the youngest player on the team. He takes way too much flack when he's not hitting 48 bombs.
He doesn't have the mindset to be one of the greats because he very obviously doesn't take his game seriously. Goofing off on the bench, weekly base running mistakes, still overweight, no prep... he's an incredible talent but has no grind to go with it.
I don’t think it’s fair to say no grind. He got into wayyyy better shape a few years back and that was a big factor is his insane 2021. I think he definitely needs to focus more on baseball though and I assume he learned a bit with the “movie” quotes. I’ll be curious if they do change the dimensions back too as it obviously hasn’t helped most of their stars numbers wise.
Great analysis . Love watching the combination of great editing, great script and great analysis and knowing of ball.
thank you!
Traded away his pals, pitch clock got added and they put him on a leash. All the players were saying at the start of the season was its about getting on base and passing it to the next guy, problem is no one is doing damage or cashing in. Vladdy is a big kid, he plays best when he is loose. Disciplined approaches are great but they don't work for Vlad. At this point I don't think he enjoys playing for the Jays and is putting in minimal effort. Needs to be traded.
It makes sense that his injuries slowed him down. Why would that be a surprise?
Looking at the distance stats makes it painfully obvious that he isn't hitting baseballs with enough backspin. It's such an important part of hitting the ball further. Forget topspin, the difference in distance of a 2800 to 500 rpm backspin hit is crazy.
it’s wild watching this and seeing why Vlad’s season looks so mediocre but then seeing every graph shown with Acuna jr at the top and he’s having an all world season 😂
I remember being a kid and watching an Albert Pujols interview where he talked about putting “backspin” on the ball to create lift. We don’t have a way of measuring that yet unfortunately but my theory would be that he creates below average backspin or even top spin. How or why idk, something about his swing path id assume.
Vlady seems really unhappy these days. His at bats in the last couple of games looked clownish, swinging at bad pitches and not seeing the pitch. I don't know if the team came down on him for some of his antics, but that spark that was there last year just seems gone. Maybe it was the trade of Lourdis and Teoscar that had an effect on him. Perhaps it's time to consider trading him after the season while he has some value. I wouldn't be surprised if that thought hasn't been considered in the organization. He does put "bums in seats" but eventually, that effect goes away with bad performance.
The Teoscar and Lourdis trades did Vlad in I think.
As a Blue Jays fan they have the best team but the worst performance
In the toughest division in MLB...
needs more time in the gym and less time at the buffet table. personally, from what i've seen i wonder if it might be something with his eyes. he's swinging late which explains a lot of the opposite field issues as he doesn't seem to be picking up the ball as easily as he used to. this could be explained by need for glasses or contacts. i had similar issues when i played. i eventually had such bad eyes i could no longer pick up the ball and had to quit playing. i went from a mostly pull power hitting to a single to opposite field hitter as my eyes got worse.
I played 7 years pro baseball & coached 3 years in the minor leagues. All this analysis is great…but the simple answer to why his HR #s have dropped is in his explanation to Harold Reynolds. His approach is to go gap to gap ( left centre to Right centre). Look at the best HR hitters of all time - virtually all them were dead pull hitters. Yank one down the line 330 ft for a bomb or hit dead centre 395 ft for an out
Can't look at just the HR numbers. His OPS+ is down by 20 points. That's huge. WAR by 2.6, also huge.
His approach maybe has changed but not for the better so he needs to go back to what worked before. Or the pitchers have just figured him out somehow. He even strikes out more. Early in the season, he hardly struck out. Now he's in line to do so over 100 times. If the Jays make the playoffs, he'll probably do poorly. Likely a quick exit like last year.
The other day, he hit a double on a 3-0 pitch, drove in two with two outs. He knew it was likely going to be a strike and he jumped on it. Some were saying he's getting hot at the right time and this hit may be what he needs. No, because he knew where the pitch was going to be and the type. Since then, he's 2/10, 3 Ks.
Blue Jays hitting strategist Dave Hudgens worked with Vlad to change his plate approach for some reason. It's not working.
This man knows baseball.
As a Jays fan, I swear he’s about to break the record for the most ground balls in a season. This guy REFUSES to make adjustments! You want to scream watching him hit. The past 2 seasons have been infuriating to watch him hit.
Never thought his best attribute would be his defence
Just a thought on why his barrels aren’t going as far is possibly not producing enough backspin on the baseball and thus the ball doesn’t travel as far
Remember that the Rogers centre has undergone massive change since all his other numbers, it’s no longer a home run ball park it’s now a pitcher’s park, the air circulation has been changed, it’s all together a different environment 😢.
Thanks for the shoutout! ❤
This has taught me that Acuña is the unluckiest player in the league
He's on the Braves, that's not unlucky.
Hey MLB The Show developers at SDS; is it too hard to get fan graphs in the game? 2K gives players (in franchise mode) to create charts based off a choice we decide (for example: points per 100 possessions during road games by let’s say PGs); you can view more analytics than the game offers in the box score, etc. why can’t we see barrel %, exit velocity %, OPS+, Launch Angle, sweet spot percentage, xAvg, xSLG, etc. why can’t we get these things to compare years with our players, determine who to keep on our team due to actual talent or luckiness, etc. bring more immersion.
The hitting coach had the jays sitting on breaking pitches this year so that could have something to do with the fastball percentage
his biggest issue is he's so late on fastballs, he has hit his homeruns off breaking balls
Does this video seem slowed down for other people too? I can’t tell if the drugs are bad or just technical issues with the video.
Given the stadium dimensions, can you name the stats of what hits would be fly ball outs compared to what hits would be home runs
He reflects the team as a whole the 2023 blue jays don't make sense this season
I don’t remember where I saw this but I remember seeing some stats where Vladdy 1. isn’t pulling the ball as much and 2. is pretty much just hitting the ball hard right at defenders. Idk if someone knows what I’m talking about or has those stats but I think it’s interesting how these things could potentially impact his stats.
Let's look at 2022 we had Hernendez and Gurriel here and Vladdy had friends and he had fun. We traded those guys away and suddenly Vladdy wasn't having fun anymore, to boot you get rid of the "Home Run Jacket". There was an attempt at the trade deadline to bring back Teoscar but they couldn't put a deal together in time. When you have fun at work work isn't work when it becomes work it's not fun.
He's got a lower BWar than 849th draft pick David Schneider, sums up his season.
And Schneider put up that war in like 25 games. Vlad's played the whole year.
Isn't almost everyone below Schneider?
Schneider is jus the 🐐
@@Andrew-nu4hi*WRONG.*
What a silly comparison. Also, Vlad's in his 5th season, while Schneider is a rookie. Even though, Schneider's actually older. What took him so long to get to the bigs???
Wonder what Gary sheffields exit velocity would have been
The HR derby is a curse - completely screws with guys’ swings
Good report, now why hasn't their hitting coach not figured this out?
Well he went on TV and said 'I just try to hit straight line drives.' Is anyone surprised pitchers adjusted by pitching him lower in the zone? The result is more top spin and less distance. More outs.
his mom has been sick all season, hes tryin to do it all at the plate, hes essentially distracted
Wow, with all this stats and metrics, being a batters has become hard.
he just need to continue hitting the ball, and eventually hits and HRs will come.
He didn’t hit a homerun at home until June 23rd? That’s actually crazy
It was against the A's too. Then he started hitting HR's a bit more often after that.
Vladdy and Juan Soto both had such amazing 2021 seasons. now both have had 2 bad years in a row I feel both will be fine in the long run.
Your version of “bad” is really really high lmao.
@@Alan-rw3ez well for them it’s bad. I mean most players would love a season with a obp of .400 like soto this year but I think most were thinking they both would have better seasons.
No they won't. Not as long as "hit the ball harder than everyone else" and "exit velocities" and "launch angles" are the main focus of MLB hitters - instead of just hitting the damn ball where it's pitched. It's why Vlad strikes out over 100 times a year and hits .260 and his father never once struck out over 100 times and hit .318 for his career. Because the approach to the ART of hitting was ruined by bullsh1t metrics.
He hit 38 HRs last season. That's bad?
@@40pianos he hit 32 last year and it’s not bad for an average player but from him it’s not what most expected.
Amazing content!
I can't wait to see how he'll tackle the Padres season.
Why do we pinpoint avg and slg on the walls being taller? That would only inhibit homers not avg. He probably is creating way too much top spin by swinging for line drives. Not much of a point in hitting the ball hard, if it's right to a fielder
Trust me, we’re all a little concerned, turning into anger in Canada right now regarding the Jays. ESPECIALLY here in Toronto.
The special bouncy ball is gone
that’s what i’m saying they juiced the balls in 2021 and 2022
Pitchers made adjustments to his swings. Now he needs to make the adjustment to show something different
Gotta do a vid on acuna hes 1st in barreled outs
6:43 The top 4 are all Jr. what are the odds of that lol
When Vladdy calms down and accepts himself as a pure contact hitter, and not trying to swing for the fences....he does great. That's where he was at the beginning of the season. We'll see....he has some years..
He needs to aim under or right on ball it if he wants better liners and let the ball get deeper into the zone
I love Vladi but the pitchers have figured him out. Vladi is a sucker for a pitch that is low and away. That's how they strike him out these days.
It’s September 2024, Vladdy has fixed his issues at the plate, and although the jays didn’t meet their playoff expectations, I’m happy with the direction we’re going in 😁
they took him off the sauce. hes no longer juicing. they changed his hgh formula. hes got more hemeroid then steroids in his system this year.
Vladdy is showing me that he is a Batting Practise player, he refuses to make the opposing Pitcher work, swing at first pitch, ground out, Pop out, pretty soon when someone asks,"who's up after Vladdy?", the Universel answer will be,"the other Team!"
thank u for reverse jinxing
Can we notice that Acuna is a the top of all these lists??? He’s also only 25! His xBA is .363!
V.Jr. has one hell of a Golf swing.
Come on coaches get his left foot down and keep his shoulders square.
Of course it makes sense. He is a 10 year old. He sat at the end of the dugout for the 2022 season giggling with Teoscar and Lourdes. The three of them demonstrated their lack of maturity. Because the BJ's were so invested in their supposed super hero, they had to dump Lourdes and Teoscar in a hope that Vlad would grow up and focus on his career. Clearly, the strategy did not work. We have had three poor field managers in a row. Gibbons, Montoyo, and now Schneider. While I am sure they have an understanding of baseball, they fail in their real job....managing people. Its up to the players to win or lose ball games...its up to the manager to get performance from the players. The blue jays play up to their capability....but way below the expectation from the sports writers and commentators who had the Blue Jays winning the World Series in April. Thanks to the sports "industry" in Toronto, the same suckers who have been buying Leaf tickets for years are now buying BJ tickets for nought.
Paul Goldscmidt has been extremely underperforming too. I think his problem is more simple as he's just not pulling the ball
It’s actually sad because lots of jays fans now want him gone from Toronto. Personally I don’t want that because of all the potential he has. He still has tons of time to turn it around and become a superstar. Giving him up might be a huge mistake for our franchise. Yes his 2023 wasn’t great and he was a horrible base runner, but remember he’s still really young. It ain’t like he’s someone in his prime at like 30
Vladdy needs to be able to take the ball the other way or he'll fall victim to outside corner and outside off the plate stuff his whole career. You'd think with such high exitV and low launch angle his batting average would be higher but not so if it's always to the same side. 3 Years with declining numbers is not the trajectory to be on. I hope he can turn it around but if next year is sub this year, trade him while there is some stock left. He's young yes, but can't be given a massive deal on hype.
That grand slam at 12:26 he hit was the perfect response to his last at bat where he struck out chasing 50 mph pitches
While all this sucks for vladdy its wild that Acuna is on the top of all those charts you showed for 110+ mph outs and barreled balls.
Good lord acuña
Man there’s too much numbers in baseball deciding players from good and bad and eventually deciding games. Just play ball.
Love the Videos
I’m surprised that with all the stat cast stuff we have, there’s nothing for seeing the spin of a ball after contact
There’s an additional stat that’s needed. Outs over 350 feet to centre field. Anywhere else in the ball park, these are home runs. With the Hays emphasis on gap to gap hitting, my educated guess is that these kind of outs to centre field are up significantly.
When you don’t elevate the ball, this same approach turns into the ungodly number of double plays.
Gap to gap is great for guys with lower launch angles. In the case of Vladdy, and several other Jays, it’s counterproductive.
Kinda weird. His stats are only a little worse than last year, but WAR is less than 50% of last year
I'd be real careful offering him a mega contract.
He's just not pulling the ball enough. He's constantly blasting fly balls to the deepest parts of the park.
He has 2 clear issues. 1. Swing (his swing path and angle are terrible) 2. Approach, (he seems unprepared, does not zone up pitches and as a result grounds out a lot)
MLB has been doctoring baseballs for years now. 2021 saw the ALL-TIME records for home runs hit by a Catcher, Pitcher, 2nd Baseman, and player 22 or younger. Stop and think about how unlikely that is. I mean Salvador Perez hit 48 home runs!! C'mon people.
Clearly they took their experiment a little too far and have tried to reign it in a bit. You're wondering why Vladdy is having a down season?? He's not. He's simply not getting fed juiced baseballs.
This video represents a complicated approach to a simple problem. If someone is absolutely mashing the ball and it's not traveling as far as expected, maybe you should look at the ball folks.
Acuña having so many barreled outs is insane
Similar to Vladdy, except Acuna has a higher EV and lower LA, so that create more opportunities for barreled outs imo. Maybe sprinkle a bit of "unlucky" outs too
Do you keep reposting this?
It's crazy. All of those clips of him flying out are mistake pitches.
That’s part of the problem. Pitches he was MASHING two years ago, he’s swinging through or popping up.
Also" He is only 24 years old.
I remmber when he played for the angels expos rangers and orioles. now hes playing for the bluejays. he looks good for a 47 year old. he is timeless and ageless
This is the original Vladdy's son. So no he's not 47 he's actually much younger.
a1 content about my fav player. Mark my words he WILL figure it out! only 24 give the young guys some time.
Send him down. He doesn't care anymore.
I'm not worried about him, if it continues for another year or two I would start to worry but he'll get the luck back
Not a good outlook when he’s a free agent by then.
@@BenjaminDaCunha-ys8ty The Jays ain't gonna lose him or Bichette. I think they are their franchise players.
Sounds like the game theory guy
For the second half of 2022 (last 300abs) he and Kirk were at the bottom of the league in WRC+. Double plays this issue for Vladdy and Kirk is just an average player - at best. He just had a 2 month hot streak. (Really, really hot)
They both swing at garbage. Good contact doesn't do much when you swing at pitches designed to induce grounders. (Jays pitchers do the same thing to hitters). He's not hitting it too hard that it creates too much too spin..that's wrong.
This doesn't surprise me at all, but it's enough - barely lol
Also, Vlad has a negative OPS+ at all but 4 AL parks and is about 85 for his home park. That terrible.
He tore up Buffalo and Dunedin in 2021 (40+hr pace at home).. he's always been exactly what he is now in MLB parks.
I love Vladdy BTW lol
Go Jays
Baseball is hard.
And now, he’s gotten even worse. I don’t know what broke him, but he’s almost beyond repair at this point.
This comment aged like fine wine
Dude just needs to change his approach and figure out what works for him, obviously he is hitting the ball extremely hard. He will come around soon
we need this guy on the jays roster
Vladdy will redeem just needs a little bit of advice on hitting and maybe switch something up.