Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Rock Solid Recrap: Sanchez Fills The Guthrie Role To Perfection

Diamondbacks 6, Rockies 3 (boxscore)

What Went Wrong: Well, you see, about six months ago Dan O'Dowd made a little trade that I think many people understood (and some even liked) when he moved Jason Hammel and Matt Lindstrom to Baltimore for Jeremy Guthrie. But, as you know, that trade done blowed up in O'Dowd's face, leaving him begging anybody to take Guthrie before May was even through.

About 500 miles east, another general manager by the name of Dayton Moore made an even worse trade, sending Melky Cabrera (yes, the All-Star Game MVP) to the San Francisco Giants for Jonathan Sanchez. Yadda yadda yadda, Sanchez is awful, so Moore finds himself in the same boat as O'Dowd.

That was, until last Friday, when O'Dowd and Moore finally found each other and ended up swapping their offseason miscalculations hoping a change of scenery, a change of clubhouse atmosphere, or maybe just praying a for miracle to turn their fortunes around.

Guess how that turned out for the Rockies on Monday night?

Jonathan Sanchez's Line: 4 IP, 5 ER, 6 H, 4 BB, 5 K, 1 HR, 82 pitches (47 strikes)

Earlier Monday at Heaven & Helton:

With a 75 (or thereabouts) pitch limit going in, I wouldn't expect Sanchez to go beyond four innings tonight. He's just not a very efficient pitcher, and seems like an extremely poor fit in this type of system.

Expect that paragraph to be repeated repeatedly for as long as Sanchez lasts in the Rockies rotation.

Spoiler: He won't be any worse than Jeremy Guthrie.

Aside from the strikeouts, that did look an awful lot like Jeremy Guthrie, but certainly not worse. I believe it's called a lateral move, although with slightly more upside.

Screengrab of the Game

Where have I seen this base running before?
It's necessary to acknowledge and make fun of an opposing baserunning error every now and then just to keep our sanity. And this here was a pretty special one by Miguel Montero. I think even Marco Scutaro felt kinda bad.

Highlight of the Night: Positives there were few, but young Josh Rutledge made some personal history tonight with his first career homer. Watch it right here if you missed it.

What's Next: Another dose of baseball hell. It'll be (read below) for the Rockies against Joe Saunders (4-6, 3.58). Tuesday night. 7:40. Make alternate plans if you can.

Final Thoughts: The Rockies will recall or have recalled (not sure it matters) Edwar Cabrera to start on Tuesday for Drew Pomeranz, who as you know reported biceps soreness after his miserable outing in San Diego.

Mhm. The four-man rotation/paired pitching system claims yet another victim, but that's okay since the Rockies are ever so close to that sixth wild card spot (that should exist by 2040).

I seriously hate everything about the way this baseball team is being run right now. I can pick out positives in terms of positions players and a handful of guys in the bullpen, but the clowns pushing the buttons just amaze me with their ignorance. End the ****ing experiment now before you completely ruin several arms we'll need to rely on heavily down the road. It's not solving a damn thing. In fact, it's creating more problems. The less problems the better is how most teams would like to operate.

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

0 comments: