Carlos Gomez: Biggest Fantasy Bust of 2015
By Brad Kelly
During last night’s Wild Card some fantasy probably couldn’t help themselves from chuckling when Carlos Gomez hit a HR, as in what has proven to be a truly waste of a season, he finally decided to show a sign of life.
There are busts every season and while they have been very deserving candidates this season, Gomez has to be at the top of list as he posted a, .255/12 HR/56RBI/17 SB/.314 OBP line, with a first round price tag.
Going into 2015 Gomez was looked at as one of the top five OF options in fantasy baseball, as his power and speed combo was exactly what owners sought out. In most leagues you would have found him going in the first round making him the biggest bust of them all.
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Now I know that Gomez’s drop-off is probably not completely skill related as he has fought nagging injuries all year. I concede that this killed his production, but we also have to note that he never really got going from the get go, and never had any month where he was the dynamic player we hoped for.
There’s the old fantasy sports adage that, “you can’t win your league in the first round of the draft, but you can definitely lose it”, making Gomez’s abrupt fall a devastating blow. With Gomez battling injuries, owners also had the headache of not knowing when to insert him into their lineup or if he was even going to be able to produce when he played.
So when we look back on the first round and see Gomez routinely picked over the likes of Anthony Rizzo, and Adam Jones, it reminds us that our first round picks are invaluable and too often than not safer picks are the way to go.
This is not to bash Gomez either, all players have bad seasons and this may be just a small setback going into 2016. The silver lining of it all, is that Gomez’s price tag should take a big hit as spurned fantasy owners and those who tend to ignore his injuries, begin to write Gomez off. Making him a possible value pick with first round upside in 2016.
Unfortunately this was the season that owners, including myself, decided to own Gomez and our teams had to suffer all season. It will certainly be interesting to see how the fantasy community gauges his value next season.