Vladimir Guerrero ready to strengthen Orioles lineup

Yesterday's post featured the Dominican Baseball Guy's all time favorite Dominican player, Manny Ramirez, and today features the Dominican Baseball Guy's second favorite player all time in Vladimir Guerrero.  While Manny is first in career RBI by Dominican born players and second in hits and home runs, Vlad is third in all three categories.  He is just behind Manny in hits and actually has a better average, an amazing .324 lifetime average.

A couple of recent articles by Brittany Ghiroli tell of the excitement Guerrero is brining to Orioles camp.  This one says how Vlad answers all his fan mail during spring training and how his mother makes plenty of Dominican food for Vlad and his teammates.  According to ex-teammate Michael Young, "his mother has the best food in the league."  Another article talks of Vlad's place in the Orioles lineup as designated hitter and who he will be replacing.

Vlad was on some great talented teams with the Expos in the 1990's.  He won an MVP in 2004, his first of six years with the Angels.  And he was with the Rangers for one year last year.  He has nine all-star selections and eight silver slugger awards, along with the one MVP.

His peers call him "Vladdy."  He is a legendary bad ball hitter, and has never worn batting gloves.  Vlad is from Nizao, DR and has several businesses in his hometown.

Guerrero with the Angels in 2005, no gloves hitting one of his
legendary "bad balls," photo by Rich Anderson on Flickr