Where's The Real Vlad?

[YankFan51]

I look at yesterday's stats and observe a 0 for 5. That's not very Vlad like. His numbers are really not going together like I had hoped. Is he traditionally a slowstarter?

[jdh]

He had sat out Sunday with a flu so it's possible he still wasn't 100% and that affected his performance. I don't think he's that far off his expected pace. His batting average is a bit low, but he's on pace for 30 HR and 100 RBI and he should pick it up. That's pretty good if a 100 RBI pace is considered a slump for him.

[NY1b23]

I heard something about how he's had a sore elbow all year

[Guest]

He's a little banged up. When he's all healed up he should be back to his normal self. I thought I was brilliant for trading Helton and Glavine for Brian Lawrence and Vlad before the season started, but it's not looking so hot right now, hahaha But hey there's still like 20+ weeks left so no worries yet

[sinicalypse]

i hadn't heard about vladdy's elbow... that kind of worries me if it is indeed true.

typically, vlad is a mid-late season player. he'll put up solid #s early on and get stronger and stronger down the stretch. he was hitting .350+ over the last month or two, which propelled him past soriano as the #1 overall player in fantasy baseball.

i hope he doesn't have a lingering elbow problem, although that would explain much. he hasn't had to run that much this season (6 or 7 SB attempts?) but his average is way low, and his HR/RBI #s are somewhat below what they should be (6/23 whereas i think normally he'd be like 8-10/30-35). so i wouldn't call him a bust just yet... but if he's hitting .270 when june rolls around, then you might have reason to be concerned. it could be 2001 all over again, which was, save steals, his worst season since starting to play full-time.