due almost entirely to his now proven willingness to take a walk in clutch situations in the postseason. He did it twice last series and I’m convinced that’s why Papelbon threw him the fastball down the middle—he couldn’t be sure that Vlad would just flail away like usual, and in that situation, could not take the chance Vlad would just watch four pitches out of the zone.

As long as Vlad keeps the opposing pitcher uncertain of whether or not he will swing at their junkballs, he should show more success.

I don’t care if he’s “done”. That hit was so amazing…it makes up for it

We all know he can still annihilate the ball. We, also, all still know that Vlad can turn a ball out of the strike zone into a base hit. So the potential is still there. I mean he still is, for the most part, a .300 hitter. Yet, even though we know all of this, we also know his knack for swinging at horrible pitches and grounding into double plays.

Its a tough call. All I can say is that with as easy as it is to hit a homerun in Yankee stadium, its hard not to imagine Vlad getting ahold of one on Friday and putting us over the top for a win.

Go Big Daddy…once last hurrah, eh?

the best impact of Vlad’s Conquest of the Fen could be that he realizes the leveraging power of what he still has in his bat. In critical situations such as an ALCS, he can ply what remains available of his once-formidable skills to simply hit the ball. He can do that with ease. HR’s, less so.

we can only hope it’s for the good.

The fan in me, continues to hope that Vlad will instantaneously revert to ‘05 form, but the analytical baseball mind tells me that it might not have been nothing more than luck, plain and simple at Fenway this Sunday. If this sounds like a negative post, that isn’t my intention at all, nothing more than my honest feelings. Whatever the case may be we’ll soon find out. Here’s to hoping that Vladdy has at least 12 clutch hits left in him this ALCS. And,The fan in me believes it, Go Halos!!

July/August = .341/.392/.629 with 11 HR’s in 132 AB’s. The rest of the year? Not so much.

But his hot streak DID happen, and shows he can still crank it up at times. IF he gets hot…wow. But I won’t be convinced until he rips CC’s first pitch about 435 feet, sending shivers up and down the Hudson River.

it would be a mistake to underestimate him. again.

He has had all of one good postseason series in his life.

I’m thinking that Vlad likes the way he felt after getting that line to center that won us the game so therefore i feel he will have one more post season to relive the glory he once had before he fades away due to age and injuries