Who is this guy?

By Mike

I'm sure many people have glanced over the baseball statline in the newspaper this past week and asked to themselves, "Who is this guy?" A former number one overall draft pick, Adrian Gonzalez, the first baseman for the San Diego Padres, currently leads the MLB in homeruns with 22.

He was drafted in 2000 by the Florida Marlins, and quickly traded to the Texas Rangers. But at that time, the Rangers had the beast Mark Teixiera at first base. Also, many scouts claimed that Gonzalez just didn't have all the tools to make it in the major leagues. They claimed that he could hit for average, but that he just didn't have the strength to hit the ball over the fence. So, the Rangers listened to all of the scouts and traded him to the Padres; oh man did the Padres stike gold in this trade. Gonzalez is on pace for an insane 66 homeruns (just imagine how many he would be hitting if he played in the new Yankees' Stadium), and most important of all, he has never been accused of using any sort of performance-enhacing drugs (keep in mind, though, that he was in the Rangers system with Alex "Roid-riguez" and Rafael Palmeiro).

Adrian Gonzalez is definitely playing like an all-star, and I think it is time to finally give this guy some respect. Right now, he is in 5th place for the National League First Base All-Star position (he is behind Albert Pujols, Joey Votto, Prince Fielder, and Ryan Howard). Not to dis any of the others, but Gonzalez definitely deserves to be an all-star, even more so than future Hall-of-Famer Albert Pujols.

Prediction: .280 AVG, 54 HR, 125 RBI, 100 R