Quarter Ton, Full Power

They tip the scales at a combined weight of a quarter of a ton (give or take a few pounds), so what they did should come as a surprise to no one; but that doesn't make what they did any less impressive. It was the late evening/early morning of May 14/15, so you might have missed what they did. I was tuning in to various things on television and changing channels often. At times I made it to the telecasts of the MLB games between the Pittsburgh Pirates and Arizona Diamondbacks and between the Toronto Blue Jays and San Francisco Giants - but just not at the right times; so it wasn't until a couple of hours later, while watching the nightly highlights show on the MLB Network, that I found out about what they did. Who are they? And what did they do? Well, the photo collage above is the giveaway answer to who they are - 1B Josh Bell of the Pirates and 3B Vladimir Guerrero Jr. of the Blue Jays. And in their respective games that night they both blasted a pair of mammoth home runs, with the shortest of them measuring in at 438 feet.

At first I was going to title this post "Quarter Ton, Quarter Mile", but then I realized the sum of the length of the four home runs - 1,795 feet - was way past a quarter of a mile (1,320 feet); so that title wasn't going to work, and I decided to just let what they did slide until the next time I did a dread gallery on baseball. That was until 6 days later. The following Monday, May 20, when Bell and Guerrero were named National League and American League Players of the Week, I figured I better mention it now. It's the first time ever players with dreads took Player of the Week honors in both leagues for the same week.

Homerless in his first 13 games since making his MLB debut on April 26, the 20-year old Guerrero finally broke the ice on his first at bat of a Blue Jays road trip, walloping a 3-2 fastball 438 feet to center field to give Toronto a quick 1-0 lead. His teammates celebrated the event by dousing his dreads with sunflower seeds after he returned to the dugout, requiring him to do some vigorous dreads shaking to make sure he got them all out.

After hitting a single in the 2nd inning and walking in the 4th, Vlad Jr. came up with 2 runners on in the 6th and hit a drive even further than the one in the 1st inning - 451 feet this time, again to center field - to make the score 7-2, and the Blue Jays went on to win 7-3. Here's the video of the two home runs (and the dreads shaking too!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbOfTI7FgCU ..... And here again are the homers, as measured by Statcast (the tracking system that has become one of baseball's best innovations since its inception in 2015): https://www.mlb.com/video/statcast-vlad-jr-s-big-1st-hr

Guerrero was done doing damage for that night but not for the road trip. He hit two more home runs over the weekend in Chicago. The Blue Jays went 3-3 on their road trip, going 3-0 in the games he homered and losing the 3 games in which he didn't.

In the final game of the trip with the score tied 1-1, after CF Jonathan Davis singled to lead off the 8th inning (his first hit of the season, snapping an 0 for 16 streak), Vlad lofted a fly ball into the seats in left field, putting the Blue Jays ahead for good in their 5-2 victory over the White Sox. Certainly it was that home run that made the difference in him winning the Player of the Week. In the video of it you can also get a brief look at Davis' beginner dreads as well as the Blue Jays' other player with dreads, SS Freddy Galvis, during the celebration in the dugout.
https://www.mlb.com/video/must-c-vlad-jr-s-go-ahead-homer

It was in the middle game of the Pirates' season-longest 11-game road trip that Bell had jaws dropping among the 21,000+ in attendance at Phoenix, as he absolutely annihilated a pair of pitches during a 6-2 victory over the Diamondbacks.

After driving in the first run of the game with a ground out in the 3rd inning, Josh hit a drive deep enough and high enough to clear the tall center field wall with RF Gregory Polanco on base in the 5th to make it 3-0. But that blast, measured at 446 feet, was a baby compared to the 460-footer he crushed in the 8th to make it 4-0. It looked like the ball was going to splash down in that little swimming pool they have beyond the fence in right-center field at Chase Field, but it went a good 6 rows of seats even beyond that. Here's the video of those two drives: https://www.mlb.com/video/bell-s-2-homer-game

Four nights later in San Diego the switch-hitting Bell was at it again, belting another pair of home runs - a solo shot in the 2nd inning to open the scoring and then a 3-run shot in the 5th to make it 5-0 and send the Pirates on their way to a 7-2 victory over the Padres. But apparently Josh is a mere weakling when he's batting right handed, because those two homers traveled 'only' 430 and 379 feet: https://www.mlb.com/video/must-c-bell-s-2-homer-game

Arguably Bell's most impressive home run of the season came during the Pirates' last game before beginning that long road trip. His 460-foot drive at Phoenix may have overshot that swimming pool, but his 472-foot blast on May 8 was just the right distance to find water - specifically the water of the Allegheny River, which runs outside the right field side of PNC Park. I mean, the ball made it to the river with 10 feet to spare. Also in the video of it you can get a brief look at Polanco's beginner dreads as he welcomes Josh back to the dugout: https://www.mlb.com/video/josh-bell-homers-9-on-a-fly-ball-to-right-field-melky-cabrera-scores

The Player of the Week awards were the first ever in the careers of Guerrero (obviously) and Bell. Vlad has a ways to go to catch his father, who was player of the week 10 times during his career. Here are the details in this article (with videos) from MLB.com. Below that is the link to an interview Bell did on the MLB Network in which, among other things, he concedes that his dreads are not the best hair currently on the Pirates roster.
https://www.mlb.com/news/vladimir-guerrero-jr-josh-bell-earn-player-of-week
https://www.mlb.com/video/bell-on-nl-potw-honors

Not just a great week, Bell has had an incredible whole 2019 season so far. He's been so hot lately that he probably will be named NL Player of the Month for May. He's currently in the top 5 in the NL in batting average, HR, and RBI, and has turned the competition for the 2019 NL MVP into a 3-horse race, joining early favorite Cody Bellinger of the Dodgers and defending 2018 champ Christian Yelich of the Brewers.

I was very happy to see Bell when he made his debut with the Pirates in July 2016. Andrew McCutchen had cut his dreads off the year before, and it was good to see the Pirates had somebody else ready to keep their tradition of dreads going (lol).

Josh certainly caught everyone's attention when he hit a grand slam in just his 2nd MLB at bat. He ended that season with 152 plate appearances, just few enough to retain his rookie status for 2017. He did well enough that year (26 HR, 90 RBI) to finish 3rd in the voting for NL Rookie of the Year; but then he followed that with a very disappointing 2018 season.

But this year it's all good, and incredibly good. Bell is so big that I jokingly refer to him as the linebacker the Pirates have masquerading as a 1st baseman (he even has a linebacker jersey number - 55); but make no mistake hitting baseballs, not running backs, is his thing. This article (link below) from Bleacher Report explains the success Bell is now having compared to his lack of success in 2018. It's a long season, and the jury is still out; but if this isn't just a temporary hot streak, and he really is this good, he's going to be making a whole lot of money in the upcoming years.
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2836432-mlbs-biggest-breakout-slugger-josh-bell-is-averaging-427-foot-bombs

The one thing that is not all good is, of course, those reduced dreads. Up until this year Bell had almost always had his dreads flowing at full blast. But, sad to say, reduced dreads are the norm now, and I guess Josh just decided to join the crowd. Actually though, if having his dreads reduced is going to make him hit like this, I can tolerate it.

Certainly in baseball - and maybe in all of sports - Guerrero Jr. is the first player with dreads to be the son of a player with dreads. You'll remember that Vladimir Sr. had dreads for three full seasons (2007-09) late in his career when he was with the Angels. He didn't have dreads before that during the 7 seasons I enjoyed watching him play for the Montreal Expos. Often during those years he was the only reason Expos fans had for going to the ball park. The photo on left below is of Vlad senior with 3-year old junior from the final game of the 2002 season.

Even though Vlad Jr. is only 20, his arrival in MLB has been much hyped and eagerly awaited for several years now. I don't remember the first time I saw him or heard that he was such a hot prospect - maybe it was at the 2017 All-Star Futures Game - but my mouth has been watering in anticipation ever since. Vlad had everybody's mouth watering in 2018, during which he batted nearly .400 for the whole season in the minor leagues. But due to contractual considerations, the Blue Jays refused to promote him to the majors. He has arrived now though, and we can only hope that one day 25 years or so from now he'll join his dad in the Hall of Fame.

One category he has already surpassed his father in is pounds. Weighing 250 pounds at age 20 probably is too much for someone who stands 6-foot-1; and it means he'll be above 270 before long. Hope he's planning on paying attention to the strength and conditioning coach. Vlad's weight is one of the topics covered in this article from about a month ago by Montreal Gazette columnist Jack Todd: https://montrealgazette.com/sports/todd-oh-the-weight-the-weight-of-vladimir-guerreros-jr-and-sr
Hmm ... It's good to read that somebody else besides me thinks the Expos will ride again some day.

With (hopefully) at least 15 years of baseball in front of him, there's little chance the dreads Vlad Jr. has now will be with him throughout his career. His dad kept his dreads for about three and a half years before cutting them off and starting over. Let's hope Junior is planning on keeping them for longer than that. But for however long he keeps them growing I'm just going to enjoy them while they last. Long dreads, short dreads, or even no dreads I'm looking forward to watching him excel and maybe help lead the Blue Jays back to the World Series one of these years.