All eyes were on Vladimir Guerrero Jr. this past weekend as baseball’s top prospect finally made his highly anticipated MLB debut. Although the 20-year-old didn’t smash a home run or drive in any runs during the three-game series against the Oakland A’s, Jays fans seemed to really like what they saw from Vladdy Jr.
One person who got to see the Blue Jays third baseman up close well before he became the top prospect in baseball is Pittsburgh Pirates manager Clint Hurdle. The former big leaguer worked as the Texas Rangers’ hitting coach in 2010, the year Vladimir Guerrero played for the Rangers, and he was asked about the youngster ahead of the Pirates’ tilt with the Rangers on Tuesday evening.
It’s pretty funny that Hurdle got excited about the fact that Vlad had agreed to meet and work with him only to find out at the last second that he was really just going to train Vlad’s 10-year-old son.
However, whatever he taught him that day seemed to work out for him as he went on to become the top prospect in baseball and now the starting third baseman for the Toronto Blue Jays.
Fittingly, the 20-year-old’s first series on the road just so happens to be at the Angel Stadium of Anaheim, the place his father called home from 2004-2009. In 444 games at Angel Stadium, Vlad Sr. hit 89 home runs and drove in 345 runs, so we’ll see if Vlad Jr. can hit his first home run in the same building in the upcoming series.
(H/T Twitter/adamdberry)
