Juan Gone is perhaps the last pre-wild-ball slugger standing, inasmuch as he is able to stand. In 1992 he popped 43 home runs, beating Mark McGwire’s total by one to take the AL crown. (No one else had more than 35.) In 1993 he led the league again, with 46, but the AL as a whole hit 300 more homers than it had the year before: the Chicks Dig The Longball era was on. The people on that 1992 list with him and McGwire: Cecil Fielder, Albert Belle, Joe Carter. Ray Lankford led the Cardinals with 20 homers that year; two more players were in double figures, and the grand total for the team was 94.

With a background like that I can’t not be rooting for Gonzalez, though on this team he hasn’t got much of a spot on the roster unless Ryan Ludwick completely falls off the face of the earth. Speaking of falling off the face of the earth, His Goneliness played 36 games with the indie Long Island of Lost All-Stars Ducks in 2006, but didn’t manage to latch on with any big league system. Since then he’s spent time in both the Puerto Rican League and the Caribbean Series, where he DH’d. Sounds like a good fit.

(Also: I would be remiss if I didn’t link to this, perhaps the greatest post in the history of the internet, let alone the always-excellent Transaction Oracle blog.

As good as Anderson has been to this point, we’re still dealing with a guy whose primary asset is his youth, whose .738 OPS in AA is only impressive because he was 20. He’s a few years away by the most optimistic estimation, and his development is far from assured. This deal leaves Yadi with a lot of trade value even if, in the worst case scenario for this contract, he regresses and Anderson starts slugging .450. And if, rather than returning to 2006 Einar Diaz form, he hits like he did last season, he’s a very valuable player, one who will now be very cheap.