Saturday, June 30, 2012

Rock Solid Recap: Road To 100 Detours Through San Diego

Rockies 10, Padres 2 (boxscore

If there's a reason or two to believe the Colorado Rockies will avoid triple digit losses for the first time in franchise history, it's that they still have 11 games remaining with the San Diego Padres (not to mention another 6 with the Chicago Cubs). My God are they awful.

Winning Player: Jeff Francis - 6 IP, 0 R, 3 H, 1 BB, 1 K, 82 pitches (49 strikes)

Beautiful performance by Francis. And no, I do not care who it came against, it was beautiful and should be recognized as such.

It's also the first win by a Rockies starting pitcher since Christian Friedrich on June 4.

Honorable Mention: The offense was again very productive, backing up an 11-run outburst on Thursday with 10 more against Jason Marquis and others. Marco Scutaro, Michael Cuddyer and Wilin Rosario led the way with two hits each, with Cuddyer and Rosario both hitting their 12th home run.

Highlight of the Night: Rosario's home run was an absolute BOMB. You should definitely watch it again.



Tyler Chatwood's Piggyback Line: 1 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 0 K, 24 pitches (15 strikes)

The kid is a starting pitcher, yet in this paired pitching garbage he's a piggybacker, which means he started throwing, stopped throwing, threw again, and his entire routine was thrown off. Just give him Josh Outman's spot or don't bother with him. All you're doing is exposing another young pitcher who needs to develop to an awful system that hampers said development.

Aaron Cook's Line:  9 IP, 0 R, 2 H, 0 BB, 2 K, 81 pitches (58 pitches)

He's trollin' the Rockies so hard right now. Then again, what former Rockies pitcher isn't?

Screengrab of the Game
I'm a sucker for gorgeous views of Coors Field.
What's Next: The Rockies and Padres are back in action at 5:15 on Saturday and that game will be a Fox telecast available to those in the Denver and San Diego markets only. The pitching matchup there will be Christian Friedrich (4-5, 5.86) vs. Edinson Volquez (4-7, 3.82).

Enjoy, my friends. I'll be watching Brewers-D-Backs.

Final Thoughts: A quote from the Rockies new co-pitching coach, Bob McLaughlin, made me smile today. (Denver Post)

"I think Tyler was trying to be too perfect before," said Bo McLaughlin, who coached Chatwood in Colorado Springs before being named the Rockies' pitching coach this week. 
"He's got enough natural movement on his ball that if he finds the strike zone, he'll be effective. He doesn't need to be so worried about painting the black or painting the corners."

It's a very simple, subtle vote of confidence for a young pitcher coming to the big leagues. Just throw the ball, trust your stuff, and believe you can win here. Don't think about making a pitch, just make a pitch. That's all. You're good enough, or you wouldn't even be in professional ball.

Of course it would be an even bigger confidence boost to put Chatwood right into a regular major league rotation, but we don't have one of those here so we'll just settle for rare sensible thoughts from a coach.

More Rockies thoughts await you if you follow me on Twitter: @Townie813 & @HeavenHelton

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