Vladimir Guerrero junior will never escape the game of comparisons with his father, who made rain or shine in the Expos uniform.
But on Monday, the Toronto Blue Jays slugger took the phrase “like father, like son” to another level.
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In a resounding 11-1 Jays victory over the Baltimore Orioles, “Vladdy” hit the 87th homer of his young career, in his 403rd game.
And how many games did it take for his dad to hit 87 long balls? But yes, 403 (see below)!
But these identical statistics do not stop there. After 403 games in major league baseball, both junior and senior had a .363 on-base percentage.
So, between son and dad, who will have the best career?
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We must first consider that baseball has evolved a lot between the first four seasons of Guerrero father (between 1996 and 1999) and the start of his son’s career, in 2019.
Gunners took the upper hand, dramatically increasing the speed of their throws: in 1998, the first year their speed was officially recorded, they averaged 89 miles per hour.
Two decades later, that average has climbed to 93.6 miles per hour.
And the batters, on average, slam one less hit per game. The number of homers per game, however, has increased significantly. It averaged 1.07 per game between 1996 and 1999; it has risen to 1.23 over the past four seasons.
Not so fast!
In this context, the identical statistics displayed by “Vlad father” and “Vlad son” after…
Jessica Lapinski
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