Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Spring Training Hits & Misses: Game 3 vs. Chicago

Hits

Dexter Fowler

The newer, stronger version of Dexter Fowler muscled up from the right side for his first home run of the spring. According to the Cubs radio broadcast the ball traveled over well 400 feet, so that's pretty impressive and maybe even encouraging. Unless, of course, you don't want your lead-off hitter swinging for the fences.

Tyler Colvin

Colvin's solid day began with an RBI groundout in the second. He then singled in the fourth and concluded his day with a triple in the sixth. That had to feel good for Colvin against his former club, especially on the heels of his three strikeout game on Saturday. He remains a guy to watch closely throughout spring training because of his intriguing upside and versatility.

Misses

Guillermo Moscoso

Moscoso's high flyball rate made his addition to the Rockies pitching staff a head scratcher this offseason. His performance on Tuesday did nothing to change that. Well, aside from maybe leading fans and writers alike from scratching their head to banging it on a desk repeatedly. Yes, the Cubs hit the ball in the air a few times again Moscoso in his two innings, including an Alfonso Soriano home run that traveled 450+ feet and struck the scoreboard on the fly, and a Brett Jackson three-run homer which capped Chicago's four run second inning.

His line: Two innings, five hits, four earned run, two walks, and two HRs allowed.

Not good.

On the positive for Moscoso, he did retire Ian Stewart on a weak groundball. On the negative side, it took him seven pitches.

Zach Putnam

Reminder: Moscoso came over in the Seth Smith trade that also included Josh Outman. Putnam is the reliever Colorado received in the Kevin Slowey trade, whom they had acquired in the Daniel Turpin trade with Minnesota but never appeared for the Rockies.

Anyway, Putnam was bad today, allowing four earned runs on four hits in one inning. Among the hits was Alfonso Soriano's second home run of the day.

Dinger

Listen, I apologize to Rockies fans who disagree, but Dinger is pretty much always a miss with me, regardless of what he's doing. That counts double when he makes it on TMZ, and triple when he makes on TMZ for Tebowing. It would be impossible to find three things I'm more tired of coming together in the same place.

Got Their Work In

Alex White

Today I'll analyze White strictly for his on-field performance, which would be best described as uneven but passable. In two innings of work, White allowed one earned run on two hits (one a ringing double by Soriano, who was absolutely locked in today), walked one and struck out two. He did induce three groundball outs, which is something you'll always look for with White. So yeah, some good, some bad, but it had to be nice for him to get on the field and focus on baseball.

Oh, yeah, and the score in case you're wondering

The Cubs get the win today by a score of 11-4. As you may have gathered throughout the recap, Soriano was the player of game with his 3-for-3, two home run performance.

What's next

The Rockies are back in action on Wednesday against the San Francisco Giants. Audio for the game will again be available via MLB.com, so check that out if you get a chance. First pitch around 1:05 MT.

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