Rockies' Gonzalez 'not in a good place' as April woes continue

Carlos Gonzalez is, at long last, healthy.

By appearing in all but one of the Colorado Rockies' 18 games thus far, the 29-year-old has avoided the indignity of answering questions about his health.

Gonzalez's miserable performance through the first three weeks of the season, however, has subjected the two-time All-Star to a new line of questioning.

"I'm not in a good place. I'm still hitting (.197)," Gonzalez told Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post. "But I'm happy that I'm healthy, and that I'm playing, and that we are winning. I think we are having a good month so far as a team."

Gonzalez, who boasts a career 120 OPS+, has managed a meager .197/.229/.364 line through his first 70 plate appearances in 2015. Though his 15.7 percent strikeout rate thus far represents a career-low, Gonzalez has just one multi-hit game since April 8 and only two extra-base hits in his last 11 contests.

"I'm trying to use the whole field," he said. "When I am doing well, I can hit to left with power and line drives into the gap. When I see that coming off my bat, I know that something good is coming. ... But I can't just sit here and wait for it (to get better). I have to go out and work for it and get that groove back."

Rockies manager Walt Weiss said he was encouraged by Gonzalez's double to left field in Friday night's 6-4 victory over San Francisco, though Gonzalez is hitting only .214 with limited power when driving balls to the opposite field thus far in 2015.

"I saw real good signs from CarGo, hitting the ball hard the opposite way," Weiss said. "It wasn't just the couple of hits he got. It was the way he got them. Those are things that he had been working on. Then, to get results like that, is always encouraging."