Saturday Rockpile: Carlos Gonzalez Learning from Mistakes of Last Offseason

February 2011

Outfielder Carlos Gonzalez reported to Spring Training weighing 222 — 22 pounds more than he weighed at the end of last season — in hopes of finishing stronger.
…
I was worn down. When I was at 200, that’s when you start feeling a lot of pain in your body. I want to keep healthy all the way to the end this year."
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Said manager Jim Tracy: “It’s all good weight. That’s a man’s body, no question about it.”

These two articles don’t really talk about the same thing. One is about him wearing down at the end of the season and the other is about him preparing for the start of the season.

Could you explain to me exactly what this article was supposed to say?

A year later, Rockies outfielder Carlos Gonzalez can easily identify when his 2011 season unraveled.

CarGo has never lacked confidence, but the Rockies, as with many players, want him to exhibit more leadership.

That player, Gonzalez said, is back. It’s uncertain if his team will follow suit.

This isn’t exactly a ra-ra piece.

Also, for your historical correction, journalism has been filled with PR since its inception, particular American journalism.

Considering how much of the roster was the same from 2009 to 2011. I mean, here’s a list of guys who were here during both “high character” and “low character” times:

Iannetta, Helton, Tulowitzki, Stewart, Smith, Fowler, Spilborghs, Cargo, EY2, Giambi, Ubaldo, De La Rosa, Hammel, Cook, Street, Betancourt, Chacin, Rogers.

So I guess we lost character when we lost these guys:

Hawpe, Barmes, Atkins, Yorvit, Quintanilla, Marquis, Fogg, Franky Morales, Beimel, Flores, Corpas, Mora.

And the character dropped precipitously when we added or called up these guys:

Wigginton, Jose Lopez, Nelson, Ellis, Kouzmanoff, Herrera, Eliezer, Blackmon, Millwood, Nicasio, Mortensen.

So yeah, unless Wiggy was a terrible clubhouse cancer in addition to being a mediocre player, Tracy has no one to point at but himself in my opinion. Most of the players and pretty much all of the key pieces were the same from 2009 to 2011. Did they all fall off of a character cliff? If so, isn’t preventing stuff like that the manager’s main job?

The debunked Oswalt to St. Louis rumor was a one year,$5 million deal. Gotta hope that ownership would give the go ahead to do that kind of deal and then dump Hammel somewhere like we did Street. Only would take on less than $1 million, right?

I’ve never wanted Oswalt but for that type of deal I’d be okay with it. I’d still rather Jackson on short term deal but he’ll still get himself a rich annual salary, just for shorter than he hoped, so should remain out of our price range.

I can’t believe they gave Westbrook a no trade clause. Lohse I can kind of understand given he has had his moments of success there.

I had 2 done about 30 minutes apart. I didn’t want to take the chance of getting sick since they were my 1st tats. I will get them done at a later time.