Monday Bantering: Vlad

So the big news the weekend was the report that Vladimir Guerrero said that he had never lifted weights, that he had never been in a gym.

Personally, I think he was either exaggerating or seeing if he could get reporters to believe a lie. You see players do that every now and then. It’s a long season and daily interviews are boring so they make up a story to see how gullible the reporter is. The ‘man in white’ story was one of those. If you read the thing, it makes no sense. Two guys with walkie talkies passing the signs to each other, which the players overheard on the radio that was in the dugout. Right, with cell phones being everywhere, guys, wanting to be covert, talk on walkie talkies and dugouts have radios. Never mind radios that can dial into walkie talkie frequencies. But players came up with a story to see if they could fool a reporter.

But I do think that Vlad has seen how long a season is and how being in better shape can help him get to the end of the season with some energy left. Of course, I think the same about myself, if I can get myself into better shape this winter, next summer will go easier.

Vlad could stand to lose a few pounds. It does seem like he’s tiring at the end of a busy season, though his defense isn’t showing it, he’s looked better with the glove than he did at the start of the season.

This was posted on Twitter yesterday, it seems to suggest that Vlad has been in a gym at least once:

I’m sure you have heard this, but Blue Jays minor league pitcher Luis Quinones has been suspended for the first 80 games of next season. He and 3 other minor leagues tested positive for PEDs at the end of the season. Quinones tested positive for Nandrolone, an anabolic steroid.

Luis pitched 36.2 innings this year, split between Vancouver and Bluefield. He had a 2.95 ERA, with 17 hits, 19 walks and 57 strikeouts. A right-handed pitcher, Luis was our 34th round draft pick in this year’s draft.

Arden Zwelling wrote about Nate Pearson and his velocity.

“I think he’s going to throw 110 in four years,” says Zach Bove, that college coach, who now works in player development for the Minnesota Twins. “I know just from talking to him that he’s got more in the tank. If you see him throw, he’s not a max-effort guy. And he generates a lot of force. He sequences so well and so easily. I think there’s definitely more in there.”

I’ll take the under on 110 mph, but I like seeing how hard Nate is working to improve. I know it isn’t likely to happen, but I’d love to see him in our rotation at the start of next season.

I’d like to check into how many times a Joe West call has been overturned by replay, but a quick search didn’t show replays by umpire. There is likely a reason for that.

I get the feeling that he has enough power in the umpire’s union that it is hard to overturn his calls. I wish I could prove it, but I get the feeling the replay umpires look for any excuse not to overturn his calls.

I’ve seen people suggest that the replay umpires shouldn’t be told what the call on the field was. I don’t see this as possible, they look at several angles, one of them will show the umpire’s call. Add in that, while just sitting at the forbidden fortress where the replay headquarters are hidden, they must be watching games as they wait for the bat phone to ring. I’m sure, when there is a close call, they see it before the phone rings.

Anyway, obviously there are bugs in the system. And I understand that, with people involved, there are always going to be mistakes made. Hopefully fewer and fewer, but there will always be mistakes.