Welcome Mr. Gonzalez to Tuner Field. A few days ago I was reading about how pumped and excited Mike was to become a Brave. You have to enjoy that. Players that actually want to be on your team and help you succeed. Mike G. has got a great attitude coming in and has the upmost respect for the Atlanta Braves. Gonzalez should be given the full-time closer position in 2008. How did Mike get to Atlanta?
Gonzalez was drafted in 1997 at the age of 19, by the Pittsburgh Pirates. Mike went on to pitch in the minors as a starter. After his 2002 campaign at double-A Altoona, Gonzalez would be moved from starter to reliever. In 2003, he started out in Single A and flew through the ranks all the way to Pittsburgh. Strangely enough, on the way to Pittsburgh he spent two games at Pawtucket, the triple-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox. The Pirates and Red Sox made a deal that sent Scott Sauerbeck and Mike to Boston for Brandon Lyon and Anastacio Martinez, but a week later Boston traded Mike back to Pittsburgh w/Freddy Sanchez for Lyon, Martinez, and Jeff Suppan. That's is one of the weirdest trades in recent baseball memory. Regardless, Mike G. broke through w/Pittsburgh in '03 and would stay in the pen until becoming the team's closer last year. The Pirates are looking at Matt Capps as their closer for '07 and decided to move Gonzalez for a 1B with some pop and that came in the way of Adam LaRoche.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I've heard that Salomon Torres will be given a shot at the closer's spot.
Bet the Red Sox would love to have Mike and Freddy back.
Yep, forgot about ole Salomon.
Never met anyone who had the "upmost" respect before...
Post a Comment