Foiled again by a lack of hits on relatively unknown arms, the Rox 2015 visit to the Black Hole ended quietly with a 4-1 loss. In 3 days, the Rox fell to Kendall Graverman (the centerpiece to the Josh Donaldson deal to Toronto), avoided Sonny Gray who opted for a short hospital stay with gastroenteritis, needed a huge stop from DLR to overcome Chris Bassitt, and were basically silenced by Jesse Hahn. 17 hits and 4 runs over a 3 game span is a bad formula for winning, and it’s amazing they came out with one victory against the As.
Chad Bettis did his part, 5.2 IP, 7 hits, and 3 runs – mostly due to the Burns and Butler show with some help from Ben Zobrist. The carnage of the John Axford emergency combined with Christian Bergman shoulder fatigue has upset an already messed up rhythm in the pen, but Christian Friedrich and Justin Miller held their ground pretty well. The As basically spit in our face to boot, running out Drew Pomeranz in a hold role.
I’m hearing what grinders Descalso and Ynoa are, and yet I’m seeing both hover precariously near the Mendoza line. The news of the day may have been Nolan Arenado, not only contained during a day road game, but held hitless breaking his streak at 17 games – except if you count Tom Hallion, who hopefully is OK. At least Dan Plesac is on the #VoteNolan bandwagon now. And, Tulo got his beautyrest, so he should be good to go in Arizona.
The Rox continue to sit just over the bad-enough-to-not-be-good line. When they run into solid pitching – and Oakland is super deep – it’s usually a sign of a long day ahead. Kinda makes you wonder what they’re not doing with the analytics the front office is sending down … wait, that’s another team we’ll see shortly.
10 games back of 1st place. I’m officially out of hope for this ball club for this year and several years to follow. Have a great summer fellas!
Nice work as usual, Donny. And one thing’s for damn sure: the Analytics Department is not sending down white papers that say “Start Ynoa in left field for your best chance to win” or “Daniel Descalso is primed to bust out big time.” Or even “Save Tulo’s pinch hitting appearance for the 9th inning rally; don’t go down to the A’s without putting a bat in Mike McKenry’s hands.” I can understand payroll limitations when you’ve got some big salary… Read more »
Amen Ag.
There was a lot of good natured Planet Alignment Theory talk amongst this group this past off-season. Of course we all know it’s a bad strategy. But if you were the GM of the Rockies and you we’re tasked with implementing the PAT, basically all you have to do is build the bench (because everything else is going to miraculously work – that’s the very nature of the PAT). Ynoa – fail. Descalso – fail. Stubbs – fail. Rosario –… Read more »
Yes on all counts, and I do put all this at the GM’s door. In Walt’s defense, he has to get ABs for the bench guys, so there isn’t anywhere for him to hide Ynoa or Descalso on days they start. 3 near-guaranteed outs and at least 1 near-certain error in the field. Was it sdcarp that said Trevor Story might be the superutility guy? I have a sentimental side and I like the Huson story about the hard-working Ynoa,… Read more »
Donny – I agree with everything you say here. Keep in mind ABQ prime function is to serve the Mother Ship……so we shouldn’t worry about them in terms of W’s and L’s. BUT……….none of these proposed changes address the elephant in the room. We have no pitching in Denver. We have insanely minimal pitching in the minors. It was you that (correctly) pointed out the our good Farm ranking isn’t the result of pitching. Trading Rosario/Descalso/Ynoa/etc…..even if you can……brings back… Read more »
Arenado isn’t being traded. Another year or two, maybe, not this year. Anything else is possible. I agree with the need for transformation, but I wasn’t engineering a transformational trade. I’m just trying to get dead weight off the current roster and get better guys on it for July-Sept. That is eminently doable even for PTBNL return. It’s the counter to my DJ argument. I can reproduce Ynoa and Descalso production with almost any min salary AAA player we can… Read more »
carp, yes, Stubbs was a major fail. Acquiring him before the 2014 season (he only cost Outman, who evidently was hurting) is the kind of low risk/low budget move (Stubbs was still cheap) that’s defensible. Re-signing him for 6 million bucks should get you kicked out of the Harvard Alumni Club. Everyone and his brother knew Stubbs had a career year last year – do I need to mention the .404 BABIP again? Everyone except maybe Bridich. But having said… Read more »
Treating FC gingerly in terms of playing time to…. gasp… preserve his trade value??? Nah. Too much like a bold move would THAT trade ever be. Preserving his health to put fannies in the seats? Probably. And for Tulo’s own sake/health? Probably. They are not heartless or careless, even if blinkered in terms of how to make up a team. Question: had Tulo’s Walker-like propensity toward injury showed up by the time they signed him to the big deal? I… Read more »
Tulo actually had a left quad strain in the minors in August 2005, did not know that. First major left quad issue was end of April 2008. Big issues surfaced in 2011.
Big contract was signed in November 2010.
From MLBTradeRumors:
“The Cardinals have fired scouting director Chris Correa for his role in the Cardinals’ breach of the Astros’ proprietary Ground Control computer network, reports Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Lawyers for the Cardinals tell Goold that Correa had already been on an “imposed leave of absence.””
Hire him, hire him now!
More from MLBTradeRumors: “Here are the day’s notable international signings from the National League. Rankings courtesy of Ben Badler of Baseball America, Kiley McDaniel of Fangraphs, and MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez. •The Rockies have a $2MM deal in place with outfielder Daniel Montano after he signed today, per a tweet from MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez. Montano rated 12th on the MLB.com board, based upon his good instincts in center, smooth left-handed stroke, and decent power potential. There are some questions, including inconsistent… Read more »
Stubbs up. Ynoa sent to AAA.