Carlos Gonzalez ... the forgotten prospect?

[Casey2884]

This guy was a top-25 prospect for the last 3 years (#22 in 2008, #18 in 2007, #32 in 2006) and is just 23-years-old and RAKING in AAA. He also will be playing half of his home games in Coors Field for the Rockies when he gets the call. Yet his cards are selling for about 1/5 - 1/8 of the prices they were getting just a year or two ago (i.e. a 2005 Bowman Chrome BLUE Refractor #/150 just sold for $13 last week) ... what gives?!

His line this season:

.339/.432/.629 ... 1.061 OPS
5 HR
6 3B
9 2B
40 RBI (in 32 games)
17 BB / 22 K (less than 16% K-rate)
4 SB

He will be 23 until October 17th, 2009 ...

Discuss.

 

[darocker80]

He's moved around a lot, was a fan when he was playing in the bigs.

The A's didn't see anything special "i've talked to some people like geren, fosse about it (even though I'm a huge fan). He is a potential 20-20 guy

 

[miles.ngo]

This guy was a top-25 prospect for the last 3 years (#22 in 2008, #18 in 2007, #32 in 2006) and is just 23-years-old and RAKING in AAA. He also will be playing half of his home games in Coors Field for the Rockies when he gets the call. Yet his cards are selling for about 1/5 - 1/8 of the prices they were getting just a year or two ago (i.e. a 2005 Bowman Chrome BLUE Refractor #/150 just sold for $13 last week) ... what gives?!

His line this season:

.339/.432/.629 ... 1.061 OPS
5 HR
6 3B
9 2B
40 RBI (in 32 games)
17 BB / 22 K (less than 16% K-rate)
4 SB

He will be 23 until October 17th, 2009 ...

Discuss.

He was very good for the A's last year, but he went on a terrible cold streak to end the season; which ended up getting him benched and sent back down to the minors.

He hits a lot of multi-base hits; a LOT of them; he's a very good player, but won't draw the HR appeal, I don't think.

 

[NECpilgrims8]

#1 Reason (IMO) - He is an OF, so solid numbers aren't anything special, when it's all said and done. There are plenty of guys hitting .275/25/90 each year in MLB, that it doesn't do anything for card prices.

I think the same thing will happen to guys like Rasmus, Fowler, and others.

 

[Austin]

I think many people soured on him last year, in his rookie season, when he hit .242 with only 4 homers in 82 games for Oakland.
He won't be a rookie when he's called back up to Colorado, so the rookie hype won't be there anymore.
I'm not saying the above is justified, I just think it's a major reason why his prices have tanked.
But like you wrote, he's only 23.

 

[AKA Coastal]

I like him. I really think he's going to be one of those prospects that starts showing a lot more power around 24-25. He's got great tools and his K/BB ratio looking really good this year.

 

[jlecates]

He was actually a bit of a head case in Arizona which is one of the reasons why they soured on him (he had to be packaged w/ four other players in the Harren deal). Typically he would just go through the motions and not exert much effort, yet he had so much raw talent that he still put up numbers. He is a true 5-tool guy and he will be playing in Coors - something worth watching for sure.