HuskerBoard

Not sure what that question means, but him being a Royal his entire career helped him stay popular and relevant in the Midwest.  He was given plenty of time early in his career to develop and his transition to outfield saved his career.  He developed into one of the best defensive outfielders in the game, and became a decent hitter.  While Gordon wasn't the best player on those World Series teams, he was a key leader on the team.  His home run in Game 1 of the 2015 World Series will go down as one of the biggest hits in KC Royals history.

I guess I'd be curious to hear how his legacy is thought of now?  By all accounts, he's had a tremendously successful career.  3x AS, 7x gold glover, WS ring.  Moving into the OF absolutely saved his career.  I get that he was taken #2 overall but baseball is so weird and even the top picks don't work out..heck most of the time.  I've included a link to his draft class and outside of Ryan Braun and Andrew McCutcheon, he's got more career WAR than all of them and there are some absolute studs who got taken that year.  I do think he fell victim early in his career to being compared to Ryan Zimmerman who also played 3b, got drafted 2 slots after Gordon and had a really hot start to his career.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/draft/?year_ID=2005&draft_round=1&draft_type=junreg&query_type=year_round

@Xmas32 I would say that Gordon had a very good career, and possibly great when including his defensive prowess in the outfield.  Most people are going to focus on his hitting, which has been good, but not great.  Due to the length of his career, he could get his number retired at Kansas City, as he was a symbol of their rise from terrible seasons to World Series champions.  Plus, I think he is very well thought of as a person in the Kansas City area.

@ColoradoHusk yup, that's well said.  I definitely agree that going to KC really helped keep him top of mind for people in the Midwest.  I sure hope he gets his number retired in KC, that would be pretty darn cool.

Family was bored last night so we actually talked about random stuff like this. I’m not sure if any other team would have hung with him in the early 3b days and he’s not a great hitter, but he has been clutch at pivotal times.  I think the Royals went all in with him and it was ride or die. Having a fan base that could fill Kauffman at any given time probably didn’t hurt either. 

To clarify the question- where would Gordon be today if he wasn’t drafted a Royal? I think it’s possible he gets lost somewhere  in AAA

Ah, gotcha.  He was pretty good his first 2 years before he really struggled and I remember reading some stuff that his 2011 season was going to be his make or break because of how much he struggled in 2010 and they moved him to the OF as a last resort.  Then 2011 happens and the rest is pretty much history.  

I think if he gets drafted by a team other than the Royals, he still gets to the majors but there is definitely a scenario where after 2010 he just can't figure it out at the plate and he ends up as a AAA/AAAA guy.  Even if he got drafted by a team other than the Royals, he would've gotten as many bites at the apple as possible due to his draft status.  It certainly helped Gordon that the Royals stunk.  A more interesting scenario is what if he's a late 1st round pick that gets drafted by a really good team?  Who knows then...Still, he definitely makes the majors just based on what he did in the minor leagues (hint he crushed it).

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/gordoal01.shtml