The Colorado Rockies play their 50th game of the season as they near the 1/3 post in the season long race in the NL West. Once again it can be arguably a critical rubber game when they take on the Atlanta Braves. The depth of the team is making the Rockies resilient. They are in about the same position as Memorial Day weekend 2013 when they played at AT&T Park. They started that weekend with a bang playing their best game of the season before their season began to unravel because they had no depth to stop the bleeding. Angel Pagan started the slide with a walkoff inside-the-park home run. Then Jon Garland (remember him???) kept the team snowballing downhill. The Memorial weekend disaster was punctuated by using the infamous Sunday lineup (no depth on the team) on Memorial Day against the worst MLB team in which they took a walkoff spanking. That pretty much ended the season when Colorado lost their confidence and folded their tents.
The 2014 version of the team is unlikely to repeat the free fall due to depth and confidence playing behind Troy Tulowitzki who is having a MVP-type season and an improved rotation despite losing Tyler Chatwood and Brett Anderson until at least the All-Star break. Our main concern other than Nolan Arenado’s injury is the rotation. Unlike the 2013 team, Colorado has a lot of options regarding the rotation. Even Denver Post’s Mark Kiszla had an idea of his own on how to improve the Rockies by suggesting Jon Gray become a closer. He suggests it is for this year only, not on a permanent basis and there is history in it; see David Price and Adam Wainwright. Apparently most outsiders forgot about another pitcher capable of closing – Nick Massett. There is a good article about Nick Massett in today’s Denver Post by Adam Dater. I cannot provide a link at this moment. In other news on the injury front, it looks like Charlie Culberson will have the first shot to take the third baseman job and run with it. Manager Walt Weiss says he will mix and match D.J. LeMahieu, Josh Rutledge, and Culberson. All the fans can ask for is not to have the third base position go “Chris Nelson” on us. I have my own idea – move Tulo to third base temporarily so Rutledge and LeMahieu can both play.
Franklin Morales (3-3, 5.30 ERA) takes on Atlanta’s ace Julio Teheran (3-3, 1.92 ERA) in the rubber game today. Morales have been teasing the team and fans alike whether he should be in the rotation or be in the bullpen. When the chorus gets loud to replace him, he steps up to buy himself a little more time. Colorado can only hope he can repeat the performance in his last start. Anderson is scheduled to have his pins removed this week while both CarGo and Arenado are making appointments with orthopedic surgeon Dr. Thomas Graham in Cleveland later this week. CarGo wants to know why his finger keeps swelling up.
VS. 
Sunday 5/25, 3:10 PM MT at Turner Field
Radio: COL: KOA 850 ATL: WCNN 680/WYAY 106.7, Braves Radio Network, WLBA 1130
TV: COL: ROOT SPORTS ATL: FSSO
[sac_happens]
Looking for a series win. Hope we get it but I would still rather than Rutledge in the lineup than Culberson although Charlie played well yesterday. Many of us have complained about Root Sports announcers, and to me their whole production. Take a look at http://awfulannouncing.com/2014/your-mlb-local-tv-announcer-rankings.html Rockies finish 29th out of 30th. Ken Harrelson and the White Sox are 30th. No body get touch Harrelson. Of course it’s all subjective and depends upon who votes but you get the idea.… Read more »
Life ain’t fair. Goodman has not won multiple (and several consecutive) Colo Broadcaster of the Year awards by accident. He gets dragged to 29th by the spectacular awfulness of his partner.
Goodman is pretty awful himself
Saw the Kizla article. Earlier this week during an in-game chat roxnsox asked about Kizla’s previous article – to trade Jon Gray for Jeff Smardjzzaadada. At that time I indicated in all the years of reading the Post I had agreed with Kizla maybe twice, and that in general – and I am one of those people who gets along with everyone and could find something redeeming about Manny Ramirez – that is an idiot! The idea of trading Gray… Read more »
RMH, I want to second your nod to the article on Nick Masset. http://www.denverpost.com/rockies/ci_25830602/rockies-nick-masset-blessed-be-back-majors-after Sounds like a quality guy and to fight back from all that…a true stud (anyone who has faced long-term disability, it is so easy to give-up, rather than keep fighting, let alone getting back to the Bigs). Love having Nick as part of the pen. To those who missed it yesterday, I blew the game chat. I was totally exhausted and never even moved from bed… Read more »
Another terrific start by Butler today. And another terrible start by Friedrich today, Bergman got bombed yesterday, although he has been really impressive recently, and Matzek is still inconsistent So, as Morales just gave up another HR to Gattis, where do we look for a starter if the team decides to move Morales to the bullpen? I would think that we would prefer to wait a month or two before promoting any of the Tulsa starters to the Rockies, but… Read more »
Free the Butler, free the Butler NOW. Pitched today on the same schedule as Kerosene.
Bring Butler up. But who falls off the 40-man to do it? And is Morales better than someone in the pen currently?
The 40 man roster has three candidates that stick out and don’t seem to ever be in discussion about bringing them up while we talk about Winkler, Butler and Gray. They are Jayson Aquino, Raul Fernandez and Kraig Sitton. I have no idea of why they are on the 40 man and none of the other are, there may be some reason, but I am in the dark about them.
No to Jayson Aquino! 🙂 I’ve been keeping my eye on him for a couple of years. He is ranked #15 prospect by the Purple Row panel in the off season. Copied/pasted… 15. Jayson Aquino (287 points, 18 ballots) — Summer 2013 Ranking: 12 — High Ballot 12, Mode Ballot (most common when ranked) 12 Aquino, a 21 year-old LHP who spent the year at age 20 pitching for short-season Tri-City and Low A Asheville, had been dominant every season… Read more »
Adding to pitching prospects: We are drafting 8th. According to several mocks, Andrew Fisher on Purple Row collected data and came up with the most likely available pick by the Rockies: Kyle Freeland, a Denver native. Link for more info on Freeland:
http://www.baseballamerica.com/college/game-report-evansvilles-kyle-freeland/