Dee Gordon? Is That Really You?

Dee Gordon Doesn´t look like this anymore

Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

Remember all of those hopeful Dee Gordon people? The one´s who are unrelenting in their view of Dee? Yep, those people. Well maybe they are on to something. This morning, some photos were leaked about new buff guy, Dee Gordon.

Wow, looks like someone´s actually taking his conditioning seriously this time around. This is particularly encouraging, instead of trying to bunt to get on base constantly, or hitting a slow roller to the shortstop and beating a grounder out just to keep his average afloat, it looks like he can actually hit a baseball out of an infield for once.

There´s always a downside to this, and in this case Gordon could have lost some of that speed that made him even somewhat useable. It would be interesting if he just destroyed his only good tool and he´s just a guy who can´t hit or run. If that would be the case you could wish any chances of him being a major leaguer goodbye.

But you know what?

Instead of waiting for him to learn how to bunt hit 3/10 times he´s at the plate, I like this move for his career. If you compare the two Dee Gordons, you can see a huge difference in body structure. And i´ve always thought Dee to be a unique case. Because he didn´t start playing baseball until late in his high school career i´ve always given him some free passes. While i´m not the most raging Dee supporter, i´ve always liked him because well, he was my weight and in the major leagues.

Gordon has had some well documented trouble with plate discipline, but if you look at his stats last season, he´s gone from well below the league average to right around, if not slightly above the league average for BB% sitting at a nice 9% in the majors, and a very impressive 11.8% in Albuquerque, signs of growth are good.

He´s always been raw, more so because of his experiences with baseball late in his career, and that´s made me believe one day he could turn into a major leaguer. Is this completely irrational thinking? Probably, but I just believe with this 20 pound weight gain, he makes the 2014 Dodgers better. I will say one thing, it´s going to be pretty difficult for Dee to be worse than Skip Schumaker was last year, so he should definitely get the first crack at that 2b/CF spot.