Just as the hype was building on the possibility of having a Triple Crown winner in the NL for the first time in... forever (it seems), along comes the kid from Venezuela to upset the cart. The scary thing is he has an outside chance of taking the Crown himself! Yes, Carlos Gonzalez is that good!
So good in fact that he has the Rockies on another late season charge up the ranks of the NL West and fighting for a playoff shot. He's strong, fast and powerful at the plate and reminds me a little of Willie Mays in that he can do it all on the baseball field. The prototypical Center Fielder.
Can he possibly take the Triple Crown away from St. Louis icon Albert Pujols and Cincinatti's surprising Joey Votto? Well, he has easily eclipsed those two in batting average. He's been on an absolute tear at the plate since the end of August, hitting .500 in that span with 10 RBIs and 3 HRs. Those ribbies gave him the NL lead with 100. .. .
CarGo's issue is the same as Votto's. Will he catch Prince Albert in the HR Department where he trails by 4 as of this writing? One hope is that he is in Colorado and the ball does fly out of the park there with regular ease.
As much as I like the kid. As much as I hope he can pull it off. I have to say that in my heart, I don't think he can do it. He has 32 HRs and 100 RBIs with a .340 average in 125 games this year - incredibly impressive numbers for the soon to be 25yr old. I'm sure he will be filling his trophy case with a ton of metal over the years, I just don't think one of them will be the Triple Crown in 2010.
