Posts tagged ‘Carlos Gonzalez’

Another week, another re-post of an awesome video. This installment will be hard to top.

Brett over at Tedquarters.net has done a great service to humanity: he has brought Carlos Gonzalez’s Taco Bell ad to the web!  I assume that Brett has already been named an Honorary Ted for his work.

You can watch the video below if your browser is cool enough to handle that. If it doesn’t display, check it out here.

Oh, and Carlos: thanks for providing today’s cheap tacos.  Has anyone ever told you that you’re ridiculously good at baseball?

Carlos tiene sus tacos aquí.

CarGo’s NL ranks as of Sunday morning:

Avg - 1st (.320)
Triples - T-6th (6)
HR - T-6th (24)
RBI - 6th (74)
SB - 13th (17)

He may have been snubbed by all-star voters and managers, but it is going to be tough for CarGo’s season to go unnoticed when it comes time for MVP voting. Do I think he’ll win? Not likely, but I expect to see his name among those receiving votes. The stats speak for themselves, but they don’t tell the whole story of how good CarGo has been this season.

CarGo has 193 at-bats this season while batting first in the order. That’s 47% of his total at-bats coming from a spot in the order that is guaranteed to come up to the plate at least once per game with nobody on base. The rest of the at-bats in that spot are not incredibly likely to have runners on base, with the bottom of the order and pitcher’s spot hitting in front of him. I suppose this next statement is open for debate, but I believe if CarGo had been hitting in the three-spot all year, he would be leading the league in RBI in addition to his league-leading batting average.

He hits, he runs, but can he field? Carlos has one error in 198 opportunities this season while playing all 3 outfield positions (not at the same time, thought he might just be that good). He’s also had a few opportunities to show off his arm, proving it to be both strong and accurate.

Carlos Gonzalez has proven to be such a great all-around player that it is incredibly easy to forget that this is the 24-year-old’s first full season in the majors. If he continues to get better, which he should, he’s going to have to buy a new house just to store all of his future hardware - the Silver Slugger awards, Gold Gloves, batting titles, homerun crowns, all-star jerseys, an MVP award or two, and hopefully a few shiny rings. He’s got as good a chance as anyone to win the first Triple Crown since Carl Yastrzemski won it in the AL in 1967.

It wouldn’t be fair to praise CarGo this much without pointing out some areas that could use some improvement (we love constructive criticism here at Rockiescast, just as long as it’s not directed at us). As we’ve seen all too often with great Rockies hitters, the home/road splits leave a lot to be desired, though you’d never know it by watching this series at Pittsburgh. I wouldn’t mind seeing him walk a little more either, but it’s hard to take more pitches when it seems like you crush the ball every time you swing the bat.

I am Jack’s complete lack of surprise.

If you retain any skepticism that media East Coast bias has a stranglehold on baseball, take a look at how undeserving Atlanta Braves nudged worthy Colorado Rockies off the National League All-Star roster.

Regular all-star Brian McCann was selected over Rockies catcher/hero Miguel Olivo, despite Olivo producing better numbers in just about every category.  While you were reading that sentence, someone else just stole a base on McCann.  To borrow a phrase from John McEnroe: you McCannot be serious!

In the outfield, the fans embarrassed themselves by electing Jason Heyward as a starter for the NL squad.  Meanwhile, Carlos Gonzalez has thus far been passed over as a starter or reserve in the outfield.  Ridiculous.

Fortunately, baseball fans everywhere have a chance to partially redeem themselves by voting Carlos into the final spot on the roster.  It may surprise you that we at Rockiescast encourage everyone to vote early and often for CarGo.  So please Mohawk the vote here, and help baseball fans make the 2010 All-Star vote a little less humiliating.

Oh, and congratulations to Ubaldo Jimenez and Troy Tulowitzki for their well-earned All-Star selections.

Carlos Gonzalez has your tacos right here…again.

With the Rockies putting up seven or more runs on Wednesday and Thursday nights this week, the fine people of Colorado are treated to two consecutive days of taco specials at a certain Mexican-themed fast food chain.

It’s been much discussed this season that the Rockies have been struggling to produce runs while the pitching has been dominant.  With the bats waking up (hopefully for good this time), this seems like a good opportunity to take a look at taco stats so far in 2010 to see evidence of these trends.

-The Rockies have invoked the cheap taco deal by scoring seven or more runs in a game 16 times.

-There have been 14 happy taco days, where the Rockies trigger the taco deal in a winning effort.

-If you’re too lazy to do the math, that means Thursday night’s extra-inning loss accounts for only the second sad taco day all year.  That stat can speak to both the pitching dominance and offensive struggles the Rockies have shown this season.  In order for a sad taco day to be possible, the Rockies offense must score at least seven runs and the pitchers must give up at least eight.

-Based on those minimum requirements, the lack of sad tacos in our lives has more to do with good pitching than bad run production.  While the Rockies have scored seven or more in 16 games this year, the pitching staff has surrendered eight or more runs only seven times.  By June 25 last season, the Rockies had scored seven or more on 21 occasions, while allowing eight or more on 14 occasions.

On Sunday, friend of the show SNY.tv senior editor Ted Berg joined Scott and I to give us a preview of the Rockies series against the Mets. You can find that conversation in Episode 131. Today, it was our turn to return the favor. Scott and I gave some insight on the Rockies to SNY.tv’s The Baseball Show. Check it out:

And while we’re talking about Ted Berg, be sure to check out his blog at Tedquarters.net. Once I got over my jealous rage at his awesome domain name, I realized that this is a good site for anyone who can stand to listen to Scott and I ramble on about tacos and beards. This Berg character knows the score.

You don’t know me, but I’m your closer
I’m four and one with thirty-five saves
I came all the way from Oakland
Along with Carlos Gonzalez
You, telling me the things Fuentes would do for you
He aint bad but when you’ve got a lead you want to

Give the ball to the Street
Give the ball to the Street
Give the ball to the Street
Give the ball to the Street

Looking forward to Rocktober
I can’t wait to take the hill
I’ll take the ball, then it’s game over
Once again we’ll beat the Phils
You, telling me the things Fuentes would do for you
He aint bad but when you’ve got a lead you want to

Give the ball to the Street
Give the ball to the Street
Give the ball to the Street
Give the ball to the Street

Aaron Cook is on the mound lookin’ like the Cook of old
And Tulo’s got a bat you’d think was made of solid gold
Todd Helton’s got the goat again and he’s swingin’ like he means it
And EY’s running first to home so fast you barely see it
Yorvit has become Mr. Clutch, CarGonza’s bat goes “THUD!”
DLR is downright nasty and Ubaldo is a stud
It’s been a long, long season and the Rockies have fought hard
And now for all their effort they have clinched (at least) the Wild Card

Barmes with a crazy catch he maybe never made
Iannetta’s walk-off homer brought us a cheap taco day
Ian Stewart avoiding double plays, looking like an acrobat
Huston Street back to close games, how freakin’ sweet is that?
Now that we’ve clinched the Wild Card the journey doesn’t end
The Rockies still have one more important message left to send
The Wild Card is fine and good, but you know what would be best?
To bust out the brooms, sweep the boys in blue, and watch the Rockies take the west!

Car-Gone, Car-Gone, Car-Gonza’s on fire.  We don’t need no water let the crazy homerun hitting continue for the next ten years!  OK, so maybe that doesn’t really fit the rhythm, but Carlos Gonzalez is the hottest thing since Hansel.  After all, how do you overshadow Clint Barmes, who has homered in three straight games?  Car-Gonza’s answer is to homer in four straight, and six of his last eight games.  Yet even with Carlos and Clint’s recent power eruptions, Jason Marquis tying the league lead in wins with 14 and Huston Street saving his 31st game in 32 chances, I left tonight’s game not all that satisfied. 

Despite the Rox winning their fourth third game in a row, the inability to drive in runs tonight really bothered me.  Ted talks all the time about run scoring efficiency and I’m pretty sure leaving the bases loaded three times in a game against struggling pitchers is not what he had in mind.  This game should have been a blowout.  Cheap tacos should have been provided to the peole of Colorado.  Maybe I’ll let it slide (this time) because they won, but this offensive inefficiency isn’t going to get it done against the Giants and the Dodgers.  When Ted and I make our trip to the ballpark to see the final game of the series tomorrow, I want to see cheap tacos earned.  That would make me feel a whole lot better heading into the next week and a half of incredibly important games.  They’ve closed each of the last three series with a Happy Taco game.  Let’s make it one more as we sweep the season series against the Nats.

Scott enjoys a Ben's Chili Bowl chili half-smoke (all the way) with some onion rings and a cold tasting Coors Light. Ted enjoys taking a picture of Scott enjoying a Ben's Chili Bowl chili half-smoke with some onion rings and a cold tasting Coors Light (and his knee).