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Profiling Adrian Gonzalez

By Wayne Stewart

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While I normally deplore the idea of considering a pitcher as a candidate for the MVP award, I recognize the fact that in some seasons – years in which there is no everyday player with overwhelming offensive stats and a given pitcher dominates the baseball scene – there is no alternative but to give the illustrious award to a pitcher.  That was the case, for example, in the Year of the Pitcher, 1968, when both league’s MVPs were pitchers: Denny McLain won a staggering 31 times versus just six losses (.838 WL%) to go with his 1.96 ERA and Bob Gibson went 22-9 with 13 shutouts and one of the lowest ERAs in the game’s history, a minuscule 1.12, begging the question, “How in the world did he lose nine games?!”

It is, I believe, also the case this year in the National League – Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers was brilliant (21-3, .875 WL%, 1.77 ERA) and no hitter overshadowed him.  However, recognition should also be paid to men like the steady and productive Adrian Gonzalez. He is, by my reckoning, the Dodgers’ MVOP, their Most Valuable Offensive Player.

First a glance at his stats.  The 32-year-old, 11-year veteran belted out 41 doubles and 27 homers, drove in 116 runs to lead the league, and hit a solid .276. He led his team in doubles, homers, RBI, walks drawn, and total bases. It can be argued that without his bat in the heart of the order, the Dodgers either don’t win their division or they would have had to claw their way to the top rather than beat out the Giants by a six-game margin for the division title.

While Gonzalez did struggle mightily in the postseason, hitting just .188 with one homer in the NLDS versus St. Louis, over his 18 career postseason contests he has belted four homers, drove in and scored 10 runs, and hit .294 – including a high of .357 in the 2006 NLDS versus the Cards when he was with the Padres. He also topped .300 in the 2013 NLDS against Atlanta and in that season’s NLCS against the omnipresent Cardinals.

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He’s a three-time Gold Glove winner through 2013, a lifetime .292 hitter, and he has finished as high as third in the MVP voting (2010). An All-Star four times, his WAR among position players is 38.2, 26th best among active players. His .499 slugging percentage lifetime ranks 106th all-time, not bad considering all of the greats who have played the game of baseball throughout many, many decades.

In addition, Gonzalez has led his league in hits once, the year he won his only Silver Slugger award, 2011, and he has led the league in walks drawn once (2009). Plus, managers can always count on him— he has played between 157 and 162 games in every season from 2007 through 2014 with the exception of 2012; and in six of those seasons he played in 159 or more contests, topping out in 2008 when he led the NL in that department, playing in all 162 games.

To go beyond the cold, but impressive stats, there’s the man himself. When I wrote Baseball Dads in 2012 for Skyhorse Publishing, I interviewed Gonzalez and got to know quite a bit about his background, especially his strong family ties.

In that interview, Gonzalez said his father Dave influenced him greatly in life:

"“I think more than anything else it was . . . how he’s generous and always doing whatever it takes to help.  That’s the biggest thing I’ve learned from him.  Anybody’s actions speak louder than words—anybody can say anything they want, you’ve got to show by doing it.”"

While Dave wanted his sons to be skilled baseball players, there were other goals.  “His biggest thing,” continued Adrian in the interview, “was he wanted people to say that we’re good people rather than good players.”

Adrian speculated that if someone asked his father what the one thing he was most proud about concerning Adrian, it would be a quality such as compassion.  “I would have to say the attributes I try to take from him when it comes to giving and caring about others more than yourself.”

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Adrian also stated that baseball is in his family’s blood.  His oldest brother, David, Jr., and Edgar, the middle of the three Gonzalez sons, have also played pro baseball, and his father played amateur ball as a member of the Mexican National team.  Gonzalez recalled, “All our conversations were usually baseball when we were young.  It was all about baseball—that was our whole life.”  Once the sons and father all played on the same amateur team in a league in Mexico. Adrian was 15 and his father, a first baseman, was in his 40s.

An excerpt from Baseball Dads reads, “Over the years the boys ripped so many wicked line drives in the cage the nets became frayed and balls began to whistle through holes in the netting.” And Edgar recalled that any time Adrian competed he always pushed himself hard to excel. Adrian was labeled as hardworking and a very responsible person. To this day he takes his preparation to play the game as a serious duty to be carried out with zeal.

Normally not very demonstrative, Adrian’s fires burn deep, usually unseen on the surface.  Once his high school football coach asked him to be his team’s holler guy and Adrian refused, walking away from football with a, “That’s not me.”

No, but what he is, is a standout player who knows the importance of family. He is also a MVOP and should continue to be prolific for quite some time.

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