00:00My biggest letdown of the season is Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
00:03These numbers are just absolutely staggering here.
00:06To see him only have six home runs and 41 runs driven in, Tom, 265 batting average.
00:13I mean, coming off that World Series, I mean, some people thought that this would not be a breakout year.
00:18I mean, Vlad's broken out for years, and he's been in all these home run derbies.
00:21But to take this huge step back here is stunning.
00:25It really is.
00:26Because, you know, if you told me he had six home runs at the end of May, I would say
00:31that, you know, he's off to a slow start.
00:33You know, we have six home runs, and you're like, okay, then we're going to, you know, we're at the
00:36All-Star, but he only has six home runs.
00:38It's absolutely unbelievable, and we know that he pulled himself out of the All-Star game.
00:43People want to say that there's some type of postseason or World Series hangover.
00:46I don't think he's fully healthy.
00:48I still think something is wrong with his, you know, something underlying.
00:52For me, the biggest letdown in the first half is going to be, you know, Cal Raleigh.
00:57And it's not just he was injured and he missed some time.
01:00It's that when he plays, it has been absolutely abysmal.
01:05Coming off of last year, what he did, which was so special last year, not just the home runs, but
01:10really doing it as a catcher, something that we've legitimately never seen, and I'm not sure we will see again.
01:15But the drop-off is so significant and so staggering.
01:20He went from a 161 WRC plus last year to this year, it's sitting at 71.
01:25His strikeout rate, which has always been bad, it's now over 32%.
01:29So when he plays, I would have liked to still see him be effective and productive when he plays.
01:35Granted, he's missed a lot of time, but to see him drop off this far, I think is, again, it's
01:40staggering to see how much this.
01:42And really, we saw it in the World Baseball Classic, but he was swinging and missing at everything.
01:47Yeah, I saw him play here this week, Tom, and he didn't look right at all.
01:51I mean, he lifted a ball deep for a double, but did almost nothing else.
01:55Can't catch up to the fastball.
01:57And Tom, do you think maybe it's the oblique issue that he had earlier in the year?
02:01Because maybe that's it.
02:02Maybe he's just trying to play through this.
02:04It could be as simple as that.
02:05He got the big contract prior to last season, which I do think he deserves.
02:12But it's just one of those things where if he's not fully healthy, the day-to-day stress of playing
02:17catcher and being solely a power hitter, those things don't vibe together.
02:22You can't be solely a power hitter and trying to play catcher.
02:26If he was just solely a DH, maybe he could work his way through it and he could find some
02:30even keel eventually.
02:32I just don't think it's going to happen.
02:35Doesn't look good for Cal Raleigh.
02:37And naturally, if you think about the MVPs, Tom, from last season, that battle with Raleigh and Judge, if I
02:44would have told you at the beginning of the season that neither would be a factor, you would have said,
02:47get out of here.
02:48Both guys, you're out of your mind, but that's the truth.
02:51You could say that Raleigh wouldn't replicate what he did in 2025 and thus wouldn't be in the conversation.
02:58But to see them both out, we just don't see that in sports.
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