Read the arguments from Bleacher Fan and Loyal Homer about which player they believe is the most important on this off-season’s MLB Hot Stove.
If you are a Chicago Cubs fan like me, you live for Hot Stove and Spring Training every year. Sure, there is a lot of poetic mumbo jumbo about the Spring season and how just as flowers are coming into full bloom and a seemingly relentless Winter is subsiding baseball teams are again taking the diamond and setting out on their yearlong adventure for supremacy. It seems like every baseball story in the Spring has some element of hackneyed seasonal drivel. Real baseball fans do not need the empty hype. Real baseball fans know that the Hot Stove and Spring Training are the best times for baseball because of one reason: unrelenting and perfectly rational expectations.
Hot Stove is a great time of year because it gives diehard baseballs fans the chance to discover really impressive players who have been stuck in obscurity and are ready to break out. Obscure players are not obscure because they lack great stats. Rather, they lack notoriety on a national scale. They may not be on the tip of every fans tongue, or the “hot” player that every GM is salivating over. Generally they are reliable, consistent, and playing in a ballpark that hides their true potential. For me, these are the characteristics of players that are the most important, whether they are free agents or valuable and tradable players making the rounds on the rumor mill. No player fits these characteristics better than San Diego Padres first baseman Adrian Gonzalez.
Gonzalez has had an interesting career. Once a prospect in the Texas Rangers system that was believed to never pan out, Gonzalez was let go in free agency to the San Diego Padres and has toiled away in Petco Park’s spacious surroundings for the last four seasons. His first year in San Diego was okay, but he led the National League in GDPs. Still a work in progress, considering he was just 24 years of age.
Fast forward to an established 27 year-old who just completed the 2009 season where he earned his second All-Star appearance and second consecutive Gold Glove at first base. After two consecutive seasons at the beginning of his tenure with San Diego where he had 140+ strike outs, he led the Major Leagues in walks in 2009. While his batting average has come down since the 2006 season when he hit .304, his OBP has increased every season and he put up a career high .407 in 2009. Speaking of increasing totals, Gonzalez also hit 40 home runs this season, a mark he has improved every season he has been a member of the Padres. Despite his 40 homers in 2009, he failed to crack 100 RBI. Yep, San Diego was that bad in 2009. Overall, Gonzalez has put up impressive numbers in San Diego. He appears to be ready to break out.
Like a muscular dude in an oversized suit, Petco Park has hidden the greatness of Gonzalez’s game. While he uses all parts of the field when hitting, his main power comes in the right field power alley at Petco… you know, the deepest power alley in baseball at 411 feet. Imagine that same power in Boston where all Gonzalez has to do is wrap those pitches around Pesky Pole.
Gonzalez is a left-handed power hitter that definitely hits right handed pitching well, with a career .298 batting average. Here is another fun stat – he is a .408 hitter in October over his career. I think he is ready to jump to the next level. He plays a capable first base when on defense with two Gold Gloves and is a middle of the order asset.
Gonzalez is a hot commodity now not in the Alfonso Soriano way but in the Victor Martinez way. If Martinez were on the open market, his consistency, poise, and overall ability make him a valued asset, and the type of player that can push a team from good to great.
As a Cubs fan, as much as I like Derrek Lee, I would love to have Gonzalez. He is a young, powerful left handed bat and consistently performs. Despite the fact that my team has an established, though aging, first baseman, I would be comfortable with Gonzalez displacing him. All 30 teams are forced to consider Gonzalez for exactly that reason. I, for one, am extremely curious about where he lands. That team will be the front runner.
