Royals Rumors: Is Carlos Gonzalez on the Move
By Scott Dillon
Charlie Blackmon
Charlie Blackmon has built a reputation in Colorado. He’s not just the spark plug at the top of their lineup, but he’s embraced the role of mountain man rocking a beard that’s become somewhat iconic. However, I don’t think it’s his beard that the Royals would be interested in.
Like Dickerson, and every Rockies’ hitter in history (not really), Blackmon’s numbers on the road are not very good. In fact they’re abysmal.
Charlie Blackmon has put together two very good seasons for the Colorado Rockies. His slash lines are nearly identical over the 2014-2015 seasons. His on-base percentage rose which shows a little more patience at the plate and he stole an eye-popping 43 bases. His slash during the 2015 season was .287/.347/.472. He’s also and average defender in the outfield, which means he won’t make great plays, but he won’t botch things either.
Like Dickerson, and every Rockies’ hitter in history (not really), Blackmon’s numbers on the road are not very good. In fact they’re abysmal.
Blackmon put up a slash line of .238/.300/.395 outside the hitter friendly confines of Coors Field. He did have one metric that shows some promise outside of a Rockies uniform in that he hit 10 of his 17 home runs on the road.
Charlie Blackmon flashes plenty of speed on the base paths and makes consistent contact at the plate. Both of those things along with his ability to play decently in the outfield fit within the Royals model. The gamble taken with Blackmon is whether or not he’ll figure out how to hit outside Coors field.
He has plenty of upside and perhaps he’d hit better in a lineup like the Royals. Their lineup offers protection from top to bottom which would increase the likelihood of him seeing good pitches to hit. He also offers team control through the 2018 season. The Royals are set to lose most of their core following the 2017 season, so it would be nice to have some security beyond that.
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