Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Rock Solid Recrap: Edwar Cabrera Looks Better, Bats Not So Much Against Joe Saunders

Diamondbacks 6, Rockies 2 (boxscore)

What Went Wrong: The Rockies offense against Joe Saunders and the Arizona bullpen was two Michael Cuddyer home runs and a Josh Roenicke single. That's it. Three hits - one coming from a relief pitcher. That won't get it done in support of a pitcher making only his second career start, let alone the other pitchers currently employed by the Colorado Rockies.

Particularly awful was Carlos Gonzalez, who simply had no game plan against Saunders other than to swing at everything out of his hand and pray he left it in the middle of the plate. Saunders never made that mistake, so CarGo went 0-for-4 with some of his ugliest looking post-Aprils swings.

Rookie Josh Rutledge shared in the misery, going 0-for-3 with three strikeouts. The scouting report is already getting around, so now it'll be up to Rutledge to make the necessary adjustments going forward. Jim Tracy might be wise to give him a day off tomorrow to refresh his thoughts a bit, but should definitely continue giving him the bulk of the ABs at short or second.

Edwar Cabrera's Line: 3 1/3 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 4 BB, 4 K, 81 pitches (45 strikes)

This was a calmer, more confident looking Edwar Cabrera than we saw in his disastrous big league debut back on June 27, yet he was still pretty erratic and looks to be another 15-20 more starts in the minors from being a real option in the big leagues. Whether or not the Rockies will decide (or can afford) to give him those starts in the minors is yet to be determined, but there's definite upside here that I think they'd be risking a little bit if they keep throwing him out there at this stage in his development.

Overall Grade: C