Carlos Gomez has the tools to play baseball very, very well. But if you have those cool tools neatly arranged in your workshop and then don't have a clue how to use them, well, they become pretty useless.
That's what the Twins took in when they made Gomez the central figure in the Johan Santana trade and that's what the Twins dumped on Milwaukee when they sent him to the Brewers for J.J. (Get Well) Hardy.
Simply put, Gomez has no clue how to use his tools.
Not only did he show that in the eighth inning when he acted like his three-run homer meant something -- hitting Joe Mauer with his tossed bat, admiring his upper-decker and then doing a notice-me trot around the bases as the score went from 15-0 to 15-3.
(Here's the video, complete with some chastising from the Milwaukee announcers.)
If A.J. Pierzynski had been behind the plate, he would have decked Gomez right then and there.
And you would have cheered.
More substantial -- even though it's hard for one moment to be substantial in a blowout -- was the throw he made from center field during the seven-run first inning. Gomez showed off his javelin-throwing extra step-and-a-half and then launched the ball about 30 feet toward first base when he was trying to go home.
