In 2021, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. roared. He exploded his offensive power and won 6 batting crowns (home runs, runs, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS, total bases). Guerrero was unlucky to have Shohei Ohtani in the league (#2 in MVP voting).
Guerrero predicted an even bigger roar next season. The result of the MVP vote was the impetus. Guerrero expressed his disappointment at the MVP vote, saying, “I knew Ohtani would win the MVP, but he didn’t expect a unanimous vote.” In response, he vowed to surpass Ohtani. And he had to show more dominance if he was to surpass Ohtani.
Everyone waited and expected Guerrero’s counterattack. But in 2022, Guerrero fell short of the previous season. The victory contribution of’Fan Graph.com’, which was second in the league in 2021, fell sharply from 6.3 to 2.8. This was the same record as Baltimore’s Jorge Mateo, and was lower than Texas’ Nathaniel Rowe (3.0). Even in the MVP vote, which I asked the voters to see, 스포츠토토 I got further away from Ohtani (12th place in the MVP vote).
2021: .311 batting average, 48 homers, 111 RBIs, 1.002 OPS
2022: .274 batting average, 32 homers, 97 RBIs, .818 OPS
Guerrero was never bad. He still showed decent offensive power. However, he failed to meet his own standards set by his stellar performance the previous season. Guerrero’s rivals should be the best players in the league, but the players who were actually on the same line were one level lower than him. This is the reason why there is regret while applauding Guerrero’s performance.
Last year, the time Guerrero most wanted to change was in May. He played 26 games in May and his monthly batting average was just .217. From May 8–24, he went home runless in 15 consecutive games. During this period, he did not hit even a long hit, and he had a slugging percentage of .200 and an OPS of .523.
Guerrero’s seriousness was revealed on May 24 against St. Louis. In the top of the 7th inning, he had a chance to score 2 out with a ground ball. It was a more futile result because it was right after St. Louis pitcher Andre Palante allowed two consecutive batters to walk. Local reports said that this at-bat “summarizes Guerrero’s current condition.”
This at-bat leads directly to Guerrero’s overall problem. Last year, Guerrero noticed a drop in his slugging power (.601 → .480 slugging percentage in 2021-22). It was because he couldn’t hit the ball. The proportion of fly balls fell from 25.2% in 2021 to 17.1% last year. It was the fourth lowest among regulation hitters (Isaiah Cainer-Faleppa, Ahmed Rosario, and DJ LeMayhew). Conversely, as the proportion of ground balls increased from 45.6% to 52.3%, the nature of the batted ball changed to the one that was not suitable for producing long hits.