Carlos Gonzalez: Your 2010 Fantasy Man Crush

Now that the baseball offseason is almost over and spring training is right around the corner, it’s time to start seriously looking at fantasy baseball. In the upcoming weeks, I will come out with my fantasy rankings for each position.

For today, I wanted to focus on one player in particular.

Let’s face it, even the most heterosexual male has a man crush. A man crush by definition by Urban Dictionary is “When a straight man has a “crush” on another man, not sexual but kind of idolizing him.”

I can say with a staunch and unblemished record of heterosexuality that I have a man crush on George Brett. I would be like a little school girl if I ever met him in person.

While I might have a man crush on Brett, fantasy baseball owners had a man crush on Chris Davis last year. After Davis hit .285 and smacked 17 home runs and had an .880 OPS in 80 games for the Texas Rangers in 2008, Davis was a hot commodity come draft day.

Every fantasy owner wanted him and in turn, drafted him way, way too early. Davis disappointed fantasy owners last year when he hit only .238 with 21 home runs, 59 RBI, and a .285 OBP in 113 games. Davis was so bad at one point that the Rangers sent him down to Triple-A.

This year, there is one player who stands out to me as the new fantasy man crush. That player is Colorado Rockies’ OF Carlos Gonzalez. Gonzalez was acquired by the Rockies in the trade that sent Matt Holliday to the Oakland A’s.

 

In his first season with the Rockies, Gonzalez’s numbers were quite similar to Davis’ in his first year with the Rangers. Gonzalez hit .284 with 13 home runs and an .880 OPS in 89 games. It’s almost eerily similar to Davis.

The one difference between Davis’ 2008 season and Gonzalez’s 2009 was that Gonzalez has the ability to steal a base. Gonzalez stole 16 bases in 20 attempts in those 89 games.

If the average fan didn’t know about Gonzalez during the regular season, they certainly got to know him in the postseason. In four games against the Philadelphia Phillies, Gonzalez hit .558 with one home run, two doubles, two stolen bases, and a 1.514 OPS.

He was a one-man wrecking crew.

If Gonzalez’s abbreviated performance didn’t wet fantasy owner’s appetite, then his postseason performance did. With a starting position locked down in the Rockies’ outfield for 2010, fantasy owners are expecting big things from Gonzalez in 2010.

But the question is–will Gonzalez flame out like Davis did in 2009 and disappoint fantasy owners?

The answer to that question is no, he will not.

I fully expect Gonzalez to have a huge season in 2010. I don’t see any reason why he can’t put up a .275, 20-25 HR, .350 OBP, 20-25 stolen base season.

Gonzalez should bat second in the Rockies’ lineup, so his RBI numbers might not be that high, but he should make up for it in the runs scored category.

Don’t be afraid to draft this year’s man crush as your second outfielder. He won’t disappoint you in 2010.

You can follow The Ghost of Moonlight Graham on Twitter @ theghostofmlg

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