ARod’s lying or steroid use doesn’t infuriate me the way this does:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/nationalsjournal/2009/02/gonzalez_updated.html
Thanks to the Nats Journal for always breaking news, to me, at least. Here is the original SI article:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/baseball/mlb/02/17/nats.gonzalez/index.html
I honestly think this could have happened to alot of organizations. Record keeping may not be the same as it is here, so even if they did their diligence, this might have happened. Heck, the Rangers were ready to sign him, too. And I don’t care about the $1.4 million. Let Odalis hold out the whole year, and you make more than half of that back.
My issue comes with the viability of the prospect. Basically a 23-year old who hit .343/.431/.475 in rookie league goes from a potential major league hitter to a non-prospect. He’s still a pretty good fielder, but those numbers are really nothing special against a bunch of 18 year olds. This is not to say that he can’t hit well in AA or something, but now there is no evidence predicting that he should. So he probably won’t. It’s another blow to a beleaguered farm system and makes you wonder if there is anything of value beyond the 3 or 4 highly touted names.
So Esmailyn Gonzalez, if that’s his real name (it’s not, his real name is Carlos Lugo) should be ignored on Baseball America’s top 10 prospect list, their projected 2012 lineup, and is another guy off my 2013 lineup. With all the problems this team has had, this isn’t the news they needed. Not devastating, but certainly demoralizing. At this point there is talk about his situation with the team being in jeopardy. If they can get the money back, fine, but if not, might as well play him in the minors, if it’s a sunk cost then it’s a sunk cost.