After getting off to a slow start in 2015, Carlos Gonzalez has returned to top form this year. He has picked up right where he left off in the second half last year when he hit .292 with 26 home runs and 84 RBI.
With such eye-popping results, many teams implemented a strong shift against Gonzalez due to his poor numbers against left-handed pitching (.195 Avg over 159 PA) and his inability to spread his hits around the field. CarGo has hit 52% of his batted balls to the right side so far this season and last year he only hit 22.2% of his batted balls to the opposite field.
Early in 2015, Gonzalez was clearly affected by the shift. Even when he was struggling, Gonzalez was hitting the ball hard but it frequently went right into the shift, giving confidence to teams to using it and sapping confidence from Gonzalez. CarGo finally began turning things around when he stopped trying to do too much. Baseball is as much a mental game as it is physical, and Gonzalez was admittedly in his own head.
“When you hit, you just don’t think about that stuff,” he told BSN Denver. “The more you think, the more it gets to you, and last year early in the year I was trying to do too much and right now I’m just going with my approach.”
Once Gonzalez broke out of his slump and was able to relax, his numbers began to stabilize. After that, his problems against the shift began to dissipate. By July, he was the most dangerous hitter in the league and teams were focused on trying to get him out any way possible, much to their own frustrations.
When a player can hit the ball all over the field there is no point in using a shift against them, as it would leave large gaps in the defense. A player with good bat control can split the defense to avoid the shift. Gonzalez is a great situational hitter who has earned the respect of opposing pitchers league wide but hasn’t always shown a willingness to go the other way.
“Sometimes it depends on the situation,” he explained Saturday. “You saw me in my first at-bat, the first pitch I saw, I tried to bunt to the other side cause I wanted to put some runs on the board and I have a special player behind me like Nolan”.
Gonzalez is the perfect leader for the Rockies. He has no problem laying down a bunt when the shift is on, even if he is one of baseball’s best power hitters.
“I was just trying to create opportunities for my team. And then I walked so it was a great at-bat. The next thing I knew, I hit a rocket the other way for an RBI.”
In the young 2016 season, Gonzalez has gotten off to a hot start, batting .375 with three home runs and five RBI through the first six games. He showed off his power Sunday, bashing two home runs to opposite ends of the yard. Whatever health problems that hindered him early in 2015 (and for almost all of 2014) appear to be a thing of the past.
So far this year, he seems to be relishing the shift, getting multiple hits right to where fielders should have been. While CarGo still sees the shift often, he has found ways to combat it, even if the numbers may not back up what he is saying.
Gonzalez hopes he can continue to produce and doesn’t have any more issues with the shift now that he has put it out of his mind. If he keeps hitting balls hard, which he is doing 58.8% of the time to start the season, there is no defense for that. As long as he can keep the same approach he has since last June, Carlos Gonzalez has the opportunity to have one of his most productive seasons of his career at age 30.
