Toronto Blue Jays: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Hitting Home Runs away from Toronto

With the #1 prospect in baseball making his debut with the Toronto Blue Jays in late April, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has been starting to hit the ball compared to his struggles in his first few weeks. One interesting stat is seeing his power on display, but only when he is playing on the road.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. came with a lot of hype when he first made his debut on April 26, 2019 for the Toronto Blue Jays.

With just over a month under his belt, Vladdy is slashing .248/.322/.459 with 6 HR and 12 RBI. As mentioned earlier, Guerrero Jr. had a rough start to his major league career in that he was constantly striking out and his hits were finding the gloves of the opposing outfielders.

During his first 6 series, he was only hitting .222/.323/.370 and had 2 HR and 6 RBI’s and had accumulated 12 strikeouts.

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Considering he was striking out and swinging at pitches out of the strike-zone, this was a bit worrying to Blue Jays fans.

Most fans were worried because he wasn’t hitting for a .500 AVG and not belting 2 HR’s a game, but the strikeouts were a bit puzzling to a player regarded for his patience at the plate.

Part of this rough start can be blamed on how the pitchers were attacking Guerrero, as they were not leaving many balls over the plate for the young prospect to hit.

He was getting pitched on the corners and getting some calls both his way and against him, but ultimately opposing teams were not afraid to issue a walk to him if need be.

Junior would go on to hit his first home run in San Francisco on May 14, and would go on to belt another one later in the game.

He would follow this series up with two more home runs in the next series against the Chicago White Sox (in Chicago), and would hit his first home run at the Rogers Centre against Rick Porcello and the Boston Red Sox on May 22. His 6th HR of the year would be in Colorado on May 31.

So while Vladimir Guerrero Jr has started to put the ball over the fence these past two weeks, he seems to prefer hitting home runs when he is on the road.

He has now hit 5 HR’s in visiting ball parks compared to just the 1 HR when in Toronto.

This is a bit odd considering the Rogers Centre has been well known to be a hitters park, as the fence is not overly high nor deep.

Maybe it’s because of the constant opening and closing of the dome, but the ball just seems to fly off the bat (unless you are Vladimir Guerrero Jr.).

He still has a higher batting average when he is at home, with his slash line at home being .250/.300/.357 compared to his road slash line being /.245/.344/.566. but he walks and puts the ball in play more when on the road (as evident by the OBP and SLG percentages).

So even though Vladdy is starting to put the barrel on the ball, he seems to find more power when on the road.

No matter where he plays, I am sure Blue Jays fans are just happy that he is starting to put the ball over the fence and that his AVG continues to climb.