Yesterday’s home run by Carlos
Gomez caused the benches to clear, for what I believe was just Gomez
celebrating and talking some smack against the Braves. You could see him say something
to pitcher Paul Maholm and Freddie Freeman, and obviously there was some talk
between him and Brian McCann. Freeman and Gomez were ejected. I don’t think
Gomez even touched home plate because of McCann stopping him on the third base
line.
Apparently this all was from an
incident three months ago, when Maholm hit Gomez with a pitch. Gomez claimed
that he was hit on purpose (and the video kind of backs him up too), so that it
was good to get some revenge last night. Gomez apologized on Twitter, saying:
“I would like to
apologize first to the fans, MLB, my teammates and the Brewers organization as
well as the Braves organization…The way I carried myself on the field is
unacceptable, I should have done better to control myself and set a good
example…In the heat of the moment I let my emotions get the best of me. As a
professional athlete I have to respect the game.”
First off, shame on Gomez and the Atlanta
Braves. Come on, Carlos, you’re mad about a play that happened THREE MONTHS
ago?? And Atlanta, this is the SECOND TIME where they’ve gotten mad at a
celebration on a home run. First it was pitcher Jose Fernandez from the
Marlins, and now it’s Gomez. If you don’t know what happened in the Marlins
game, let’s just say it was basically the same incident as the Brewers game.
Lucky for me, both Gomez and the
Braves are hot topics right now. The Braves are clear: they clinched the NL
East, and look for home field advantage with the best record in the NL. Did you
know that Carlos Gomez is (or at least should be) an MVP candidate?
I’ll talk about the Braves later
(stay tuned!). So let’s talk about this Carlos Gomez guy. Gomez is a 27 year
old from the Dominican Republic that was signed by the Mets as a free agent in
2001. He played only a year with New York before moving to Minnesota for two
years, putting up average numbers. Since 2010, he has been a member of the
Milwaukee Brewers, and has really started to surge this year.
Defensively, he’s always been
pretty solid. He reminds me of Torii Hunter: a centerfielder who makes robbing
home runs look easy. In fact, he’s had some amazing robs this year, including
one to rob Joey Votto to win the game!
What’s different about him this
year than previous is his offensive capabilities. From 2007-2011, Gomez batted
just .243/.291/.357 with 25 homers and 147 RBI’s. Last year, his stats got
better, as he batted .260/.305/.463 with 19 homers and 51 RBI’s.
But this year has been something
else. Though he’s been better defensively than offensively, he is still a
statistician’s favorite. Right now, he is the Mike Trout of the National
League. Batting .280/.333/.501 (which is just average for an outfielder), he
has 27 doubles, 10 triples, 23
homers, 71 RBI’s, a career high 37 steals, and… here it is… an 8.0 WAR!
That’s
a 3.8 offensive WAR and an amazing 4.4 defensive WAR. It ties Andrew McCutchen
in the NL for best overall WAR number. His BABIP is .341, and his Ultimate ZoneRating is 23.1, both well-above average. He leads the NL with a 28.4
Power-Speed #. Now can you see why stat nerds like me love him?
Here’s the problem with Gomez: he’s
on a terrible team. I said before that he has the same WAR as McCutchen. Who
would the MVP voters take, a guy on a playoff-clinching team, or a team that is
16 games under .500? Nevertheless, I still think that he should be in the
discussion.
If I had to rank the NL MVP
candidates, it would be this:
1.
Andrew McCutchen
2.
Paul Goldschmidt
3.
Carlos Gomez
4.
Clayton Kershaw
5.
Matt Carpenter
Don’t agree? Email me at statsbuddy42@gmail.com for your top
five.
-Evan Boyd
No comments:
Post a Comment