Vladimir Guerrero

This article is about the baseball Hall of Famer. For his son and current player, see Vladimir Guerrero Jr. For other terms, see Vladi (disambiguation).
In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Guerrero and the second or maternal family name is Alvino.

Vladimir Guerrero
Guerrero with the Los Angeles Angels in 2007
Right fielder / Designated hitter
Born: (1975-02-09) February 9, 1975 (age 49)
Nizao, Dominican Republic
Batted: Right
Threw: Right
MLB debut
September 19, 1996, for the Montreal Expos
Last MLB appearance
September 28, 2011, for the Baltimore Orioles
MLB statistics
Batting average.318
Hits2,590
Home runs449
Runs batted in1,496
Teams
Career highlights and awards
Member of the National
Baseball Hall of Fame
Induction2018
Vote92.9% (second ballot)

Vladimir Guerrero Alvino[a] (born February 9, 1975), nicknamed "Vlad the Impaler",[1] is a Dominican former professional baseball player who spent 16 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a right fielder and designated hitter. He played for the Montreal Expos (1996–2003), Anaheim Angels / Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (2004–2009), Texas Rangers (2010), and Baltimore Orioles (2011).[2]

A nine-time All-Star, Guerrero was widely recognized for his impressive offensive production — regularly hitting for power and average — as well as his defensive range and strong throwing arm.[3] In 2004, he was voted the American League (AL) Most Valuable Player (MVP). Guerrero helped lead the Angels to five AL West championships between 2004 and 2009 and was voted one of the most feared hitters in baseball in a 2008 poll of all 30 major league managers.[4]

Regarded as the game's premier "bad-ball hitter", Guerrero consistently hit balls thrown well outside the strike zone, a skill evident on August 14, 2009, when he hit a pitch after it bounced in front of home plate.[5] With his aggressive batting style, he hit more than 30 home runs (HR) in each of 8 seasons and surpassed 100 runs batted in (RBI) 10 times, though he had just 2 seasons with at least 65 walks.[2] In the first pitch of an at-bat, Guerrero hit 126 home runs and put 1,780 balls in play.[6]

On September 26, 2011, Guerrero surpassed Julio Franco as the all-time MLB leader for hits by a Dominican player, a record since broken by Adrián Beltré in 2014. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2018.[7] In 2021, Guerrero and his son Vladimir Jr. became the second father-son duo in MLB history to each have a 40-home run season in their careers, joining Cecil and Prince Fielder.[8] His .318 career batting average is the highest of any player who primarily played in the 21st century.


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  1. ^ Landrey, Corinne (December 17, 2016). "Vlad Guerrero's uniform number is etched into the side of a hill he owns in the Dominican Republic". MLB.com. Retrieved November 17, 2021.
  2. ^ a b "Vladimir Guerrero Stats". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. 2019. Retrieved May 16, 2019.
  3. ^ Paine, Neil (January 24, 2018). "Vladimir Guerrero's Best Games Were In Montreal — And No One Saw Them". FiveThirtyEight. Retrieved January 26, 2018.
  4. ^ Stark, Jayson (April 24, 2008). "Identifying the most feared hitter in the bigs". ESPN.com. ESPN Inc. Retrieved May 16, 2019.
  5. ^ "Video: Guerrero's bloop single". MLB.com. Major League Baseball. August 14, 2009. Retrieved May 16, 2019. Vlad Guerrero hits a one-bounce pitch and bloops one into shallow outfield while the Angels score on O's throwing error
  6. ^ Posnanski, Joe (January 17, 2017). "Ballot 10: Vlad and Manny". joeposnanski.com. Joe Posnanski. Retrieved May 16, 2019.
  7. ^ Sharon, Keith (July 28, 2018). "Hall of Famers Vladimir Guerrero, Trevor Hoffman show baseball's place in Orange County's heart". Orange County Register. Digital First Media. Retrieved July 31, 2018. On Sunday, Guerrero and Trevor Hoffman will join Alan Trammell, Jack Morris, Chipper Jones and Jim Thome as the 2018 inductees into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.
  8. ^ "With 40th HR, Vlad joins rare father-son club". MLB.com.