Carlos Gomez: Exactly what Houston Astros needed?

I may have been one of the few people out there that was completely opposed to the Houston Astros acquiring Carlos Gomez when it happened. Giving up Brett Phillips seemed like a no-win situation and Josh Hader was their next closest MLB-ready pitcher, unless you count Mark Appel, but that would be factually incorrect. Domingo Santana can be done without, as he may have been “MLB-ready” but his strikeouts, while Astro-like, were frustrating and overkill.

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Adrian Houser was the other prospect and he too, was starting to make progress in the system. It was not too long ago that Ed Wade was shipping off gobs and gobs of prospects, including five prospects for an aged Miguel Tejada, just for a chance to win the World Series then and there. Wade destroyed the farm system, plain and simple, and in the process sent the Houston Astros on their way to so many years of obscurity and rebuilding.

But now the system has been rejuvenated only to be partially drained again, all for a bunch of near-30 year old players and another chance at success now at a potentially high cost down the road.

And yet, the trade has already grown on me. Carlos Gomez was never one of my favorite players, as his intensity was admirable, but he often had problems with chemistry in the team. You cannot buy chemistry, just ask the New York Yankees, and yet chemistry is the number one thing a team needs to win a World Series.

Carlos Gomez is already fitting in with the Astros. After admitting that he struggled a bit in his first game, not knowing his new environment and whatnot, he was introduced to Club Astros, which is an automatic, foolproof way to tell if a guy is going to fit in or not.

“I feel more like an Astro now,” Carlos Gomez said after just one series with Houston. “I enjoy it like a kid with candy. When you see around you everybody smiling, everybody playing hard, everybody having fun, you can’t contain it.”

Carlos Gomez has a fire for the game that you do not just find every day. Conveniently, the Astros also have incredible fire and passion, which is a common side affect of consistently losing 100 games a year and then suddenly finding yourself in the playoff race. This young Astros team is full of diverse characters that have grown together as a team.

Even the Great White Bear, Evan Gattis, cannot hide how intoxicating this atmosphere is in Houston: “I really kind of fell in love with (Houston). I really don’t want to leave in the offseason. This might be the first place my girlfriend and I could actually make permanent. It would be really nice,” he said via the Houston Chronicle.

Carlos Gomez May be Everything the Houston Astros needed

By Josh Sippie | Aug 3, 2015

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