Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Power and Humility

There’s an old Latino saying that perfectly describes Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s recent play. When I tell you to grab an umbrella, it’s because rain is on the way.

That’s an ideal metaphor to describe Guerrero’s recent tear on the major league scene. It was only a matter of time for baseball fans to see the Hall of Famer’s son shower opposing pitchers with his greatness.

The Toronto Blue Jays’ young prodigy overcame a slow start with a barrage of home runs. He was stuck with a .191 average with only two extra-base hits after the first two and a half weeks in the majors. He had played 13 of his team’s 15 games in that span heading into a scheduled day off on May 13.

The dark clouds lifted immediately after the Blue Jays returned to action in interleague play against the San Francisco Giants on May 14, leading him to his first American League Player of the Week Award.

In the six-game span, Guerrero hit his first four major league home runs to go along with a .333 batting average and a .905 slugging percentage.

Many envisioned this display long before Guerrero was called up by the Blue Jays from Class AAA Buffalo on April 11.

“He’s got incredible talent, and he’s a great kid,” said former Blue Jay Yangervis Solarte, who saw Guerrero for the first time last year in spring training. “I hope he gets the opportunity to play every day so he can surpass his father’s and many other Hall of Famers’ numbers.”

Power and humility are two words rarely mentioned in the same phrase. In the Guerrero’s case, they go hand in hand because that’s who he is to everyone surrounding him. He’s a player with the potential to be a superstar, but he also is a kid with his feet firmly planted on the ground.

“We’re like brothers,” said teammate Elvis Luciano, a Dominican righthanded pitcher who earlier this year became the first player born in 2000 to play in the big leagues. “We talk a lot. We have a super great relationship.

“I think he’s going to be a superstar, just as his father, or even better than his father was.”

Junior, who is a portly 6-foot-2, 250-pound third baseman, plays alongside slick-fielding Venezuelan shortstop Freddy Galvis, who already have seen enough of the youngster to praise him highly.

“On top of everything else he’s an excellent human being,” Galvis said. “He’s coming from a huge baseball family, and I think that has helped him get to where he is right now.

“He has one of the best sets of baseball skills I’ve ever seen from any of the major league prospects I’ve played with or against since I’ve been at this level. He’s got a great opportunity to be a superstar. His maturity is well above what you’ll see in a kid his age. His baseball mentality is well above average.”

Charlie Montoyo, the Blue Jays’ first-year manager, saw all of this coming for a while. He could see Guerrero’s ascent so well, he could probably sense the strong “storm” approaching in the same way he once would sense pending rain on some hot days back in his beloved Puerto Rico.

Montoyo credits Guerrero for a steady, even-keel nature that is mixed with a hearty confidence.

“He’s humble,” Montoyo said of Guerrero, “but he also knows he’s going to hit. He is that good. He can carry a team if he gets hot. I don’t want to put pressure on him. But he’s the No. 1 prospect in baseball. He can do things like that.”

Sure enough, Guerrero flexed his muscles and potential in San Francisco against the Giants to begin his first tear in the majors.

Guerrero showed how he could be both a humble young kid and a tremendous power hitter with huge confidence in himself just a few hours before he hit a vicious line drive that with an 111.3 mph exit velocity to dead center field for his first major league home run.

Five innings later, he added a 451-foot, three-run shot to left-center field.

Guerrero was so confident, he actually asked Montoyo before the two-homer game if he would be credited with a home run if he hit the tin above the 24-foot wall in right field.

He discussed the shot in batting practice with his manager and then he drove the ball to center for his first home run. It wasn’t quite to right, as he mentioned during batting practice, but his point was the same.

Guerrero Jr. knows he’ll be asked a ton of questions about the man he loves so much, his father, the Hall of Fame slugger who first made his mark with the Montreal Expos and Angels. He seems prepared to answer them all.

“He already did what he did,” Junior says of his father. “Now it’s my turn to do it.”

Junior receives daily guidance from his father. He sees similarities in the way he plays with the way his father played.

He doesn’t shy away from the comparisons. The comparisons actually warm his heart.

“I would love to put up the same numbers as he did, not more, not less,” he said.

“I would love to be as he was. I must keep working hard, very hard, every day.”

The elder Guerrero is making sure his son follows his own path to greatness the right way.

Not surprisingly, the Hall of Famer was the first person to call Junior to congratulate him for his first two home runs in the majors.

The slugger who hit 449 home runs over 16 years in the majors told his son to remember that he should not go to the plate trying to hit home runs because those home runs would come as long as he just tries to do his job at the plate.

Senior simply told Junior to do his job as he did during the game in which he drilled his first two games in the majors.

How could you repay a man who had you at his side at every All-Star Game he played, including the one when he was the Home Run Derby winner in 2007 in the same stadium where you would hit your first two home runs?

“I’ll give my dad the bat and the two [home run] baseballs,” Guerrero Jr. said. “The rest of what I used today, I’ll keep using.”

Junior has kept using the rest of his hitting weapons in a very powerful way. After his two moon shots at the Bay, he hit one home run per night versus the White Sox at Chicago on May 17 and 19 to cap his fabulous Player of the Week stats.

Get your umbrellas ready. A huge Guerrero power shower is coming your way.

Featured Image: David Banks / Getty Images Sport