I don't know if your point is wrong, but I think the point that was being made is the guy's numbers aren't that great, and even his actual numbers are deceiving because he puts them up in low leverage situations.
I acknowledged that he has underperformed according to our expectations. Are there stats for him in terms high and low leverage?
Out of his measly 10 HR's, most are hit with nobody on base or when a game is totally out of reach.
The roster
routinely has had 3-5 guys batting .200 or less, including Springer and Turner and Barger the first time around and Bo was fairly close. I'll leave the catchers out because they are defense 1st, but they certainly haven't helped. The bases being empty were not his fault and as such he probably has a low sample size with men on base. I'd like to see some stats. (Shockingly I saw a stat in last night's game that the Jays have the 2nd highest batting average with RISP and 2 outs in all of baseball.)
In the meantime they got rid of Biggio and Vogelbach. Bo, George, Barger and Turner have all improved recently along with Horwitz' arrival and his ability to get on base. Related, or not, this has coincided with the uptick in Vladdy's HR rate recently.
There is a big part of the fanbase that has no respect for him because for a guy who puts up very pedestrian numbers, especially since they're mostly in low leverage situations, he looks like a complete jackass when he rounds the bases and showboats all the time.
I don't totally disagree with you but these are personal preferences of the fans and have nothing to do with his actual performance. It's just appearances. He seems to be a superstitious guy with lots of little rituals that he doesn't want to change and many athletes in all sports have superstitions. I don't think that it's an ego thing. He's immature and likes to have fun but I don't think it's showboating even though I think it's not necessary.
To me, what's more important about his rituals is not what the fans think but what his teammates think and from what I can see, he is absolutely beloved by his teammates. This is totally different than the situation with a guy like Marner. We've seen incidents where his teammates are fed up with his shtick, even right on the bench where they call him out. The fans have been calling him out as well, but I put more stock into the teammates' opinions. He also seems to be respected by the players on other teams as well.
This guy would possibly be the 7th or 8th batter on the Orioles.
I disagree. A guy batting .290 with his power (although somewhat dormant) will not bat 7th or 8th on any team.
Vladdy has no doubt disappointed but on this team, he's been among the least of our problems. I'll reiterate, if we had a lineup of of 9 Vladdy's (.291/12 homers/44RBIs/.825OPS) we'd be in 1st place.
He projects out to:
| 78runs | 184Hits | 32Doubles | | 24HR | 88RBI | 76Walks |
