The anatomy of a 31-game hit streak, plus the chase for .400 in 2022

[Gruber_Tagged_Him]

So Vlad Jr's hit streak started in the middle of the worst stretch of games the 2022 Jays have played this season. Having dropped the first two of the series vs. the 2021 WS champions the Jacksonville Ravens (!) the Jays were only a few games above .500 and the Yankees were off to a stupendous start.


Vlad ended the day on Apr 20 having gone 0-3, leaving him with a solid .300/.398/.450 slash. Good, but not up to the calibre of his 2019 and 2020 seasons. (2021 was a bit of a downturn. It seems that he is a bit sensitive to being accidentally "shopped around".)


4/21: 1B, flyout, HR, flyout, 1B. 3-5, .318 BA
4/22: BB, 1B, GIDP, flyout. 1-3. .318 BA
4/23: 3B, 1B, flyout, 1B. 3-4. .337 BA
4/24: 1B, 1B, 1B, BB 3-3 .358 BA (** low point of young season, swept by Cleveland despite Vlad's efforts)
4/26: flyout, 1B, groundout, flyout 1-4 .354 BA
4/27: 1B, 2B, K, BB 2-3 .363 BA

4/28: 2B, K, K, 1B, flyout, BB 2-5 .364 BA (still stuck on 4 HR for the year)
4/29: groundout, flyout, BB, 1B (phew) 1-3 .364 BA
4/30: 1B, flyout, HR(3-run), 1B 3-4 .377 BA
5/1: 1B, 1B, 2B, K 3-4 .390 BA
5/2: GIDB, groundout, IBB, 1B (phew), BB 1-3 .388 BA
5/3: 1B, HR(2-run), flyout, flyout 2-4 .392 BA
5/4: K, 1B, groundout, flyout, 1B 2-5 .392 BA
5/5: 1B, K, flyout, K 1-4 .388 BA (d*** Yankees)
5/6: 1B, 1B, BB, 2B 3-3 .401 BA (take that Yankees!)
5/7: groundout, 1B, flyout, 1B 2-4 .404 BA

5/9: BB, 1B, K, groundout 1-3 .403 BA
5/10: K, K, 1B, flyout 1-4 .399 BA
5/11: groundout, BB, HBP, 1B(phew), groundout 1-3 .397 BA

5/12: HR(1-run), flyout, flyout, 1B 2-4 .400 BA
5/13: flyout, BB, 1B, 1B 2-3 .405 BA
5/14: flyout, 1B, flyout, 1B 2-4 .407 BA
5/16(1): SF, 1B, BB, groundout 1-2 .409 BA

5/16(2): K, flyout, GIDB, 2B(phew), IBB 1-4 .405 BA
5/17: SF, BB, BB, BB, HR(grand slam)(phew!!), flyout 1-2 .406 BA
** at this point the Jays had climbed to 30-15 and life was good
5/18: BB, flyout, HR(2-run), 1B, K, K 2-5 .406 BA
5/19: K, K, flyout, HR(3-run)(phew-much rejoicing), groundout 1-5 .400 BA
5/20: 2B, flyout, SF, 1B 2-3 .404 BA
5/22: flyout, 1B, 3B (lol), flyout, flyout 2-5 .404 BA
5/23: 2B, K, 1B, 1B, 1B 4-5 .415 BA
5/24: 2B, HR(2-run), HR(2-run), flyout, BB 3-4 .421 BA


Sadly, on May 25 the Red Sox put the Jays and Vlad Jr into their place with an 8-1 stompdown and Vlad went 0-4. His 31-game hit streak was over and the Jays fell to 35-17.


Vlad ended the streak with a .421/.498/.680 slash.


More to come, though, as the quest for .400 continues. (Spoiler - I wouldn't have teased like that if the next week hadn't gone quite well for Vladdy...)

[Gruber_Tagged_Him]

I don't want to do AB by AB anymore unless another hit streak happens (mind you we are back up to 7 games after Boston wrecked it and then hit him with another 0-fer in the following game).


Oh, as an aside, here's a shocker, he won player of the month honours for May with a 0.478 avg.



But since that 2nd 0-fer thumping by the Sox on 5/26, Vlad has again found his stroke.


2,2,4,2,2,2,2 hits in his last 7. Includes 2 2B, 3 HR, and 11 RBI.



0.421/0.500/0.681 OPS = 1.181. On pace for 11.5 WAR (lol). Oddly my scout dropped his current rating to 4 stars on June 1. After a 31 gm hit streak might I add. Scout and I are having words.


I know the idea of "protection" in the lineup is somewhat passe, but having him hit in front of Arenado in the 3-4 spot seems to be helping a lot.

[Gruber_Tagged_Him]

Screenshot, BTW, before the start of the original hit streak disappears below.

[Gruber_Tagged_Him]

Sorry, this post was an irritated post to start with because the photo above seemed to be showing personal details. I may or may not have sorted that out, thank you 19-yr old son who sighed and helped out...

[Gruber_Tagged_Him]

Whelp, Vladdy is on another hitting streak, 20 games and counting. But 5 of the last 6 games have been of the 1 hit variety. So his BA has been slowly dropping.

He hit (lol, "hit", wait for it...) the low spot in the 4th AB vs the A's today, GIDB in a tight game which dropped his BA to .399 despite being on the streak which started with him at .408. First time since May 11 he's been under .400.

But 1 grand slam later, he is back at .401. And heating up in my opinion. 5.5 WAR on July 2.

(And lol he went 2-2 with a BB and a SB in the all-star game which is weirdly early when you don't bother to adjust the computer schedule.)

[Gruber_Tagged_Him]

The dream may be over. Vlad has sagged to .390 and it is getting harder for him to get back to .400. Meanwhile the AL East is ridiculous.

[Gruber_Tagged_Him]

Well, the dream is over. Vlad tried and tried but maintaining a .400 BA turns out to be really hard, despite hitting streaks of 31 and 26 games!

Upside, he is a shoo-in (shoe-in?) for MVP 2022 and he and Arenado (47 HR and counting) have carried the 2022 Jays to their first playoff game since 2016, albeit a 1 game showdown in the WC game vs Jacksonville who won the WS last year.

Also worth noting: the Rays had the 4th best record in the AL this year, and are out. The BoSox had the 5th best record and have been out for a while. The Orioles are gonna finish around .460 (sucks to be them). The AL West will be won by a team at least 10 games below .500...

[Gruber_Tagged_Him]

(Boy his 2021 season was a huge outlier. As noted above I accidentally shopped him around and he turned grumpy and wouldn't speak to me all season. Pre 2022, signed him to an extension eating his arb years and a couple of FA years and he's raking again.)