Vladimir Guerrero: Guardian "Angel"

In the off-season of 2003 Vlad Guerrero was a free-agent. He was not able to be re-signed by the Expos because of their money problems and was a risk to many MLB teams. He had a back injury that year and some general managers were skeptical about his durability. Little did they know, the best is yet to come.I saw Vlad a lot leading up to the 2003 season because my beloved Mets were in the same division as the Expos. Whenever he came up to bat he always posed a threat. With every vicious cut I became more scared of his possibilities. And when he was in the field, I would always yell at my television saying, “Don’t run he’ll gun you down!” He was a great player as far as I was concerned and a great addition to any team.

Then in 2003 he started having back problems. This was good for the opponents who were always holding their breaths when he came up to bat, but not for Vlad who would be a free agent the end of that year. General mangers who were looking into Vlad were suddenly worried about what his status would be at the end of the year.

At the end of the season, Vlad’s back still posed some problems. My dad didn’t buy into it. He knew that Guerrero would be fine. He was begging for the Mets to pick him up because he was interested in coming to New York. But our hesitant GM, Steve Phillips, decided not to get him. The Angels then got him for a steal and never looked back. My dad still can’t believe it.

Right from the start, Guerrero was hot as a chili pepper. In April, Guerrero had 17 runs,.326 BA, 30 hits and 15 RBI. His stats got even better as the year went on. Guerrero’s monthly batting average never went below .326. Guerrero would make a trip to the All-Star game and be a huge contributor to the Anaheim Angels.

He would remain constant the second half of the season and carry the Angles through their tight division race. At the end of the 2004 season, Guerrero would be awarded the MVP and bring his team to the play-offs. The Angels would be knocked out of the play-offs by the Red Sox but the Angel front-office probably wasn’t too disappointed since their off-season venture was a complete success.

Some of the questions posed at the beginning of the 2005 season were if Guerrero would be able to do as well if not better than he did the year before. Vlad is 29 and healthy and I answered yes. We would soon find out that Adrian Beltre, breakout player of 2004, would not start as he did last year; But not Vlad.

In the first month of the season Vlad would have a .351 BA, 5 HR, and 19 RBI. In mid-May Guerrero would get injured and be placed on the 15-day DL. All in all, Guerrrero would have a good start to the 2005 season.

Vlad Guerrero would show his clutch ability throughout his career. This is one of the reasons why he is so valuable to any team.He has kept the Angels alive while he has been there and is most definitely their “guardian angel.” He would clearly show his clutch ability on June 18 when in the 8th and 10th he hit home runs to beat the Marlins 2-1. While watching this game all I could say is, “damn, how did Phillips let him go.”