Airbrushed Fridays: 2010 Topps #116

Fantasy baseball can be a bit perplexing. Sometimes I will look at one of my teams and not understand why I don't have a better record. Other times, I will realize that all along I've thought that I had pretty decent pitching only to realize that Ryan Vogelsong has turned back into a pumpkin and Dan Haren hasn't been good in years. I wonder if real team GMs have similar feelings about their actual teams. I mean, you can look at the Astros or Marlins and know exactly why they are losing, but sometimes it's hard to understand how a team loaded with talent (and stats!) has a less than fabulous won-loss record.

Who is this week's victim, and why? Carlos Gomez has gone from someone I was fantasy-indifferent about to someone who is one of the cornerstones of my offense. How did that happen? Gomez has been through three organizations and failed to provide offense, power, or much in the way of speed at any level. Suddenly, after hitting 19 HRs and stealing a bunch of bases, he's on track to increase his numbers once again and is putting up a .996 OPS at last check. The outfielder is only 27 and is in his 7th major league season, which seems to indicate that he was rushed to the big leagues too soon.

Why is this a thing? Gomez is Photoshopped into a (for some reason, retro) Brewers jersey after Milwaukee acquired him straight up for J.J. Hardy. Gomez was once the Twins bounty for trading away Johan Santana, but after two pretty lousy seasons with the Twins, Gomez was gone.

Airbrushed Fridays is a weekly feature as the name seems to imply. If you know of a card with an altered photograph that you'd like to see featured, please contact me. You probably won't win anything other than a three hour looped recording of Kevin Millar saying "Got HEEEEM!", but you never know!