Can Carlos Gonzalez recover from his slow start?
Writing this article I wish I could say that Carlos Gonzalez (CarGo) is having a pleasant season, but when you’re looking at a batting average of .197 with a .592 OPS something is awry. To make matters worse, he is counted on each day to be the power hitter that he has shown able to be. His $20 million salary is a direct reflection of that, but he only has two home runs and is way off his April RBI pace of 12.8, as he only has six. Even more telling is when manager Walt Weiss feels a need to drop CarGo in the line up, as he is now hitting sixth.
Gonzalez went on record to state his personal feelings about this downward slide in production. “I told you in spring training that I can’t wait to have this conversation about the game, and not about how I am, health-wise.” Walt Weiss a former major leaguer understands that this is all part of baseball. Hitters can go a month or so without doing much of anything, then explode. After the Giants game on Saturday, he stated: “I saw real good signs from CarGo, hitting the ball hard the opposite way,” Weiss said. “It wasn’t just the couple of hits he got. It was the way he got them. Those are things that he had been working on. Then, to get results like that, is always encouraging.”
It is possible that Gonzalez could be trying too hard, or that his approach is all-or-nothing. “I’m trying to use the whole field,” he said. “When I am doing well, I can hit to left with power and line drives into the gap. When I see that coming off my bat, I know that something good is coming. … But I can’t just sit here and wait for it (to get better). I have to go out and work for it and get that groove back.”
Even though Gonzalez is not hitting well at the moment, the Rockies are winning as a team. The have a record of 10-8 and are starting a six-game road trip. The first stop will be facing division rival the Arizona Diamondbacks tonight.
CarGo realizes where he stands in all of this “I’m not in a good place. I’m still hitting (.197),” he said. “But I’m happy that I’m healthy, and that I’m playing, and that we are winning. I think we are having a good month so far as a team.” He went on to say “I look at it this way: I am not playing the way I want to and we still have a really good team,” he said.
Then he laughed, adding: “Hopefully I can just click and do damage when everybody else falls asleep, so I can carry the team.”
Fantasy owners should keep in mind that Gonzalez has not always had the brightest of Aprils. Minus the years of 2010 and 2013, where he hit .342 and .371 respectfully, he is only two home runs off his max of four, and is tied with his max of five doubles. He is nine off his best for RBI, and six off his worst. He typically averages around 14 strikeouts a month, so if he strikes out once per game to finish off the month he will hit his average. In sum, even though his numbers overall look ugly, a four-game hitting streak will erase all of this, and he can finish the month in good standing, much less have a productive 2015 campaign.
Mike Valverde is a correspondent for FantasyPros, and he also writes for Fantasy Sports Warehouse. You can follow Mike @RFLRedZone and Fantasy Sports Warehouse @FantasySportsWH.
