The Pirates selected Nick Gonzales with the No. 7 overall pick in the 2020 Major League Baseball Draft, and a waterfall of analysis followed.
Many loved the pick (including myself) while others remain hesitant. After all, Gonzales is just 5-foot-10, 190 pounds. He was a walk-on at New Mexico State.
Know which conference New Mexico State calls home? Don't Google it.
Didn't think so.
And that's to say nothing of the 4,000-foot elevation Gonzales enjoyed at home and the aluminum bat that requires a mere love tap to send a ball rocketing through that thin, thin air.
Here's the thing, though: Everyone who's seen Gonzales up close and everyone who's competed against him says stuff like this:
My neck still hurts from turning around so fast watching that ball go out @Nick_Gonzales13 glad we are on the same team now so this doesn’t have to happen anymore! https://t.co/v6Wtz8Eivr
— Logan Hofmann (@lhofmann11) June 12, 2020
That's Logan Hofmann, the Pirates' sixth and final selection in the 2020 MLB Draft, chiming in. Hofmann, a 5-foot-10 right-handed pitcher out of Northwestern State, competed against Gonzales in 2019 Cape Cod League action. Even though Hofmann pitched well there — 3-1 with one save and a 3.38 ERA, good for an All-Star nod — Gonzales still turned his head ... literally.
The bigger picture with Gonzales' Cape Cod League performance is that it answered every question critics had about his game.
Aluminum bat? Nope. They roll with the wooden sticks up there.
Elevation? Sea level.
Poor pitching? Nope.
Gonzales faced the best and tuned them up, slashing .351/.451/.630 with seven home runs and 33 RBIs in 42 games. If the numbers look good on paper, just wait until you hear Gonzales' new teammate, Carmen Mlodzinski, whom the Pirates took at No. 31 overall in the 2020 MLB Draft, talk about 'em.
“I’m happy I don’t have to face him. That’s for sure,” Mlodzinski said of Gonzales in a Zoom video conference after the draft. “I think he’s one of the best players in this year’s draft, no question."
Wait, it gets better. Mlodzinski put up pitch-perfect numbers in the Cape — a 2-0 record, 2.15 ERA, 0.648 whip and 40 strikeouts across 29.1 innings pitched — but even he recognized Gonzales was a different sort of animal at the plate.
"I was surprised he didn’t go first overall, so I think the Pirates definitely got a steal there with him," Mlodzinski added. "He just consistently mashed up there in the Cape. He’s the reason why we didn’t, in my opinion, why we didn’t win the championship up there. He hit a two-run home run to give his team the go-ahead lead in the seventh in Game 3, so I mean, yeah. I’m definitely happy I don’t have to face that guy.”
Decent endorsement.
Add in Hofmann's remarks, and it's clear Gonzales' critics have something in common: They've never had to pitch against him.
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