I was ready to write an inspiring thread after the game Wednesday night. Then the bullcrap threw away a sweep over the hated Dodgers washing away the heroic turn around of Rockies baseball starting in Washington D.C. The feel-great story of Stephen Cardullo was swept away in the flood of tears.
Now we flip the calendar to September, the final month of the long baseball season all but technically eliminated from post season dance. If you can manage to put the emotions aside, we can say Colorado has played beyond expectations this year. As in off the charts expectations. This is how close we have been to being in the WC spot – win one game each in Milwaukee and Philadelphia, bull crap blew 3-run lead in the ninth against the Dodgers twice, a win here and there against the likes of Cincinnati, etc etc.
There is a real rotation that we can look forward to next year, that’s for sure. Tyler Anderson, Jon Gray, and Jeff Hoffman are likely to be the key cogs for a while with Chat Bettis and Tyler Chatwood bringing up the rear. If the lineup doesn’t regress, Colorado will have the most feared lineup in baseball. Blackmon, DJLM, CarGo, NoDo, Story, Dahl, Tom Murphy will be hitting 1-7. No break for the opposing pitcher until the 8-hole hitter playing first base comes up (Parra?). Rusin and Lyles has shown in small samples that they will be consistent long relief guys. Zero will be another year removed from the TJ and he’s expected to be back to pre-TJ form. It is generally believed that command is the last thing to come back to a pitcher after the TJ. Explains why Zero blew the last game with two walks before the granny.
With the playoff hunt out of the way, we turn our attention to the call ups. Today Murphy and Raimel Tapia were called up. The RWOers are still waiting for Kyle Freeland and Eddie Butler to join the team. Let’s hope Murphy will run Hundley out of town with a Trevor Story/David Dahl like start.
The bad news is that Arizona is in town playing awful baseball. That causes the Rockies to play even worse baseball. Don’t be surprised if Arizona takes 2 of 3 or even pick up a sweep.
Rant over. (I’ll stop ending the article with “Rant over” as soon as Colorado beat up scrap heap teams and the bullpen shut down the opponent over the last three innings.
David Dahl and Raimel Tapia make Blackmon and or CarGo expendable. Trade CarGo and Blackmon for additional pitching prospects. Be wise JB
At the game. Lovely evening. Tapia is some sort of LHed hybrid of Vladdy Guerrero and Edgar Renteria. Jake McGee’s velocity (as noted by many – all season) is way off. Not sure why WW burned Cardullo as his first PHer – given the uncertainty at 1B. Tom Murphy had the physical tools, but still rough around the edges defensively/receiving.
Sorry….,,that was all sort of random.
My turn to go to the game today. Unlike sdcarp I bring good luck. LOL
Funny that you mention that. My wife noted last night that she hasn’t seen the Rox win (in person) this season. We’ve been to 4-5 games together. I have been to an additional handful without her, including the game the Rox won in the Marlins series about a month ago. But………………………..take your luck out to the Park today!
Rockies need to go 16-11 over final 27 games to finish at .500. That would be an accomplishment. But more important Rockies need to see the youngsters play. Friday night Weiss said the most important thing is to win the game. Too late for that. And on Saturday both Tapia and Murphy started. I think Murphy and Wolters need to play everyday echoing what Patrick Saunders said in today’s DP. I haven’t seen enough of Murphy to know if he… Read more »
Bill – Bridich seems to be the best and worst at the same time: Think about trades and guys picked up off waivers: 1. Tulo trade – slam dunk for Rockies even with the Reyes misadventure. 2. Kahnle trade – slam dunk for Rockies (Yhency Almonte) 3. Dickerson trade – that trade was really primarily for German Marquez, who has been crazy good. McGee was a flyer and an attempt to even out the salary. Dickerson has been Dickerson. Supplies… Read more »
PS – it was also crazy not to sell high on Boone Logan at the deadline this summer. My gut says opposing teams didn’t want Hundley – not even for the proverbial sack of baseballs. But there were certainly potential takers for Logan. One thing to watch – our highly rated Farm is about to plummet in the ratings because we’ve graduated Gray, Dahl, Hoffman, Murphy, Tapia, Story, etc. Building and maintaining a Farm is a constant, never-ending process. This… Read more »
Sorry – in “ramble” mode: I have maintained, and continue to maintain, that we’re seeing a Bridich vs. Monfort split in personnel decisions. I base this solely on intuition and reading the tea leaves. When Bridich is allowed the reigns (selecting players to returned in a trade, combing the waiver wire, etc.) the results have been good. But when saddled with the Monfort “I’ve got 100M to spend and there’s a chance we can contend this year so go get… Read more »
Carp: “Dickerson trade – that trade was really primarily for German Marquez, who has been crazy good. McGee was a flyer and an attempt to even out the salary.” I think that’s a bit of revisionist history. Bridich was pretty clearly counting on Qualls-McGee-Motte as being his 7th/8th/9th inning guys (o.k., maybe Qualls-Motte-McGee) until Ottaviino was back, with Logan moving to a lefty specialist role. Hey, it’s great the German Marquez took a big step forward, but everything points to… Read more »
Ag – I agree that Bridich wanted McGee, and I can even see why (in the context of that particular trade). But I don’t believe he was the central piece.
Ag – regarding Murphy, what I see is a (really) good athlete. That tells me defensive improvement is possible. I find the idea of a Murphy/Wolters platoon very appealing for the following reasons:
1. Both are young.
2. Hence both are inexpensive.
3. RH/LH combo.
4. Offense/Defense combo.
5. Both are superior athletes by C standards.
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2016/09/rockies-notes-parra-bullpen-weiss.html
I got a laugh out of Weiss being a candidate for Diamondbacks manager. Please, please take him.
Bob K – I literally read that (your link) just before coming to this site and was laughing as well.
My signature line on Purple Row is “the other 29 teams are smart” (or something like that). But after this past off-season, specifically the Shelby Miller trade, I revised that signature line to “about 25 of the other teams are smart” (or something like that). The idea of someone actually wanting WW is mind-boggling, isn’t it.
I’m too tired to make sense but Walt has to go. His mis-handling of the bullpen and his man-love for Estevez has cost the Rockies time and time again.
I gave WW a pass for 2 years because of the great dysfunction that was the Rox Front Office. Remember the days of Bill Gievett living in the Clubhouse? My theory was “it didn’t matter who was Managing until the Clown Shown got cleaned up.” Well…….it did get cleaned up (at least to some extent). Now the talent level has risen and Bridich (when unencumbered by Monfort) shows promise. So it’s time for a new Manager. But (isn’t there always… Read more »
Carp, thanks for the report on Murphy. Odd how these things go – a couple years ago the Rox “offiicial” reporters (mostly the DP guys) were all high on Murphy as the catcher of the future based on his skills/control of the game behind the plate. The question was whether he’d hit enough. Now, it appears to be reversed. I’ll go out on a limb and say he’ll never cut down that K rate, but with that kind of power,… Read more »
No Tyler Anderson?
RMH, I forgot about Tyler Anderson. Definitely part of the rotation next year, so there should be some good competition.
Totally agree on Freeland. Bring him up. Put him as a long guy a couple of times. Let get a taste of “the show” (Said in my best Bull Durham Crash Davis voice).
Bullpen: Bill, you’re right – Walt just seems mesmerized by Estevez’s velocity to the point that he can’t see that the kid just isn’t ready. My in-house solution remains … Chad Qualls! Let’s get this out of the way: he’s old, and he pretty much sucks. But since his return to the big league roster he’s shown a damn good slider, and he still looks about like the same old Chad Qualls who was a modestly effective setup guy for… Read more »
Dude – you’ve been smoking some good stuff this afternoon.
Chettis! Chettis! Chettis! Chettis!
Wonder how Chettis feels walking into the locker room and seeing Gray, Anderson, Hoffman, Chatwood and also knowing Freeland and Marquez are on fire in ABQ. That’s easy math right there. 5 spots, 7 guys. Better get busy!
You know what’s really easy about that math…..5 spots + 7 guys = Butler to bullpen. I have a Masters degree for high level stuff like that!