Matt Gelb

And the second thing I want to see you do is drive the baseball and backspin it to the right center field gap.

If he's backspinning the baseball to the right center field gap, one of the most overused adages in baseball, when he's going right, the truth of the matter is most hitters are not going right when they're doing that.

Most hitters are going right when they're backspinning the baseball over their pull side wall.

But Vlad Jr.

isn't like that because, you know, his swing shape is so unique, is so level, is so flat, so much flatter and more level than almost any slugger in Major League Baseball.

that if he's not optimized, what you're getting is that really weak contact, and his misses then aren't balls that can split a gap.

Rather, they're balls that he's pounding earthworms into the ground.

That's the version that I'm seeing right now.

So I'd love to see Vlad Jr.

be willing to take aggressive hacks early in counts and be willing to swing through those pitches.

And I'd also be willing, would like to see him get on the tee, which he's probably doing anyway, and backspin baseballs to his backside, in which case I think everything else will fall from there.

But if he doesn't do either or even both of those things, I'm kind of worried that he might have one of these seasons with a slugging percentage like in the low fours.

And it'll be perfectly representative, but we know that's just far from him at his very best.

Very funny that you should ask because they have been my favorite band for as long as I have liked music, I might say.

So we're now probably talking about 20, 22 years, truthfully.

I remember where I was when I heard Only One and Ocean Avenue for the first time.

And it's funny that you asked me about this today because literally on Friday,

I'm going to be playing golf with Sean Mackin, Yellow Card's violinist, and I'm going to be seeing a show in Asbury Park, New Jersey.

So if you are within the sound of my voice, you love Yellow Card, you love baseball, and you, for some reason, love StatCast, I suppose that weird Venn diagram of people that you and I are in, and perhaps none other, well, come say hi to me and Sean in Asbury Park on Friday night, and we'll bang it up.

Hi, JT.