Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Musings, Ramblings & Other Stuff: Marco Gonzales

Marco Gonzales:

What He's Done To Get Picked Up in Fantasy Leagues:

A combined product of a rash of injuries to the St. Louis Cardinals starting rotation and very strong numbers in the minor leagues (albeit in a limited sample size).

What To Expect Going Forward:

Enough people seem excited about him to add them to his team. I'm not one of those people. While he has pitched very well in the minor leagues since being drafted last year, none of these starts have been make above AA and only seven of these starts have been made against A batters. While he looks like he can at least rack up some strike outs, his first start in the transition from facing AA competition to going to the majors is going to happen in Coors Field.

As he was a first round draft pick last year and has shown early promising results, I think the future for Gonzales is bright and he is capable of having a very solid major league career, I just don't think he's ready to be a top flight pitcher just yet. My guess is that he gets a rude welcoming in Coors Field tomorrow but may have a better opportunities when pitching in a loss hostile stadium towards pitchers (i.e. anywhere other than Coors).

Then again, since this is the St. Louis Cardinals and occasionally it seems like they have top flight starting pitchers growing on trees as they play the game "the right way" which generally means being overly serious and not liking it when other teams appear to be having fun while playing baseball. Despite these things there appears to be  an effective method to their madness in that they always find ways to win consistently and for all I know he could come out of nowhere and be one of the best pitchers going forward.

Currently, the Cardinals are sitting at second place at 4 1/2 games behind and if the season ended today would be in line to play the Wild Card game against the Dodgers (in a battle of two teams i'm not crazy about). While the Wild Card is likely a consolation prize for the Cardinals, they seem set to spend the next few months in a pretty intense battle in the NL Central against the Brewers. The Cardinals put a damper on the best Brewers season since i've been alive a few years ago, will Gonzales contribute to that happening again in 2014?

All numbers referenced found on either fangraphs or baseball-reference.com

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