Vladimir Guerrero - Batting Style

Batting Style

Guerrero bats without wearing batting gloves, a custom rarely seen in modern baseball. In an interview with Yahoo! Sports, he attributed this to helping his grandfather pull cows home barehanded as a young boy in the Dominican Republic. To improve his grip on the bat, he coats his helmet with pine tar and simply rubs his helmet before going into the on-deck circle. As the season progresses, his batting helmet becomes covered in the substance. This was particularly noticeable with the bright red helmet of the Angels.

Guerrero batted over .300 from 1997 to 2008. He has driven in over 100 runs in every season but 2003 and 2008. Along with his 2004 MVP season, he has finished 6th (2000), 4th (2002), 3rd (2005), 9th (2006), and 3rd (2007) in MVP voting.

In 2008, Guerrero swung at a higher percentage of pitches outside the strike zone, 45.5%, than any other hitter in major league baseball up to that time. (Albert Pujols has since matched this feat.)

He had a 44-game hitting streak exclusively against the Texas Rangers from 2004 to 2006, the longest such player-vs.-team streak in MLB history since 1969. The streak occurred over his first 44 appearances against the Rangers. The streak finally came to an end in August 2006 in a game in which Guerrero was intentionally walked three times, walked four times overall, and finished 0-for-1. Guerrero has decimated Ranger pitching over his career, putting up a career batting line of .395/.466/.681 with 22 HR, 29 Doubles and 63 RBI in 87 games.

During the 2009 post-season, Cal Ripken Jr. commented during a TBS post-game report that Guerrero was "the best bad-ball hitter he's ever seen." On one occasion in a game against the Baltimore Orioles, Guerrero hit a pitch that bounced in the dirt before home plate. Even more unusual, his bat struck the ground as well before hitting the ball.