Spring Training Game 23: Hits, Misses & Foul Tips

Reds 10, Rockies 3 (boxscore)

Hits

Um...

Well, no one got hurt. And everyone remembered their uniform.

Misses

John Maine

Whatever mystery was left in the Rockies 5th starter derby was gone about three batters into today's game. Maine was brutal... to put it nicely. His velocity was down according to people on scene. His command left a lot to be desired. He committed an error on a throw. Awful.

Sadly, it actually fit right in with several other performances by Rockies starters this week, only they weren't pitching for a job.

Sloppiness

Three more errors defensively. Some more icky base running. They should be playing much sharper baseball at this point. You can understand it when everyone is getting their feet under them and just getting work in. We're less than two weeks from opening day now, it's time to work out the kinks and play solid ball. Hopefully we see the beginning of that tomorrow.

Foul Tips

Franklin Morales/Reds broadcast

First real discouraging outing this spring for the man Reds radio described as one of the most dominant lefties in the game. Eh, well, he should be, and maybe he will be, but come on guys.

The funny thing is, knowing Reds broadcasters (mostly the Brennamans) as well as I do, I know they didn't say that because they didn't do their homework. They know who Morales is and the numbers have to be right there in front of them. They just go out of their way to dress up everything the Reds do. 

Yeah, all home team announcers do that to an extent. The Reds guy take it to levels that are laughable.

Five players reassigned to minor league camp

Among them were Ben Paulsen and Charlie Blackmon, who represented themselves VERY well this spring. All Rockies fans should be impressed and encouraged by both.

Hernan Iribarren had a better than average spring. Didn't run the bases particularly well, but I'm not sure the Rockies view that as a negative.

Pitchers Claudio Vargas and Sean White will likely go to Colorado Springs. White might be one of those relief arms you see come up in September... or he could be released tomorrow.

Spring Training Game 18: Hits, Misses & Foul Tips

Rockies 3, Reds 2 (boxscore)

Hits

Rex Brothers

While Matt Reynolds continued his struggles in a "B" game today, Brothers impressed everyone at Salt River Fields when he set the Reds down in order. In the middle of that 1-2-3 inning was an overpowering strikeout of NL MVP Joey Votto. Seems like the Rockies have little to worry about after all from the left side in their bullpen with Brothers' accelerated development.

PS: Franklin Morales had yet another scoreless inning today.

Jose Lopez

Lopez plays the hero with a walk-off single, described by Purple Row's Andrew Fisher as a 350+ foot flyball gapper to RF. In other words, probably a double or triple in reality, but a single was all they needed here. Lopez also threw out the potential go ahead run at home in the top of the 9th inning. Strong game for him as he stays in contention for playing time at second, third, first, who knows where else.

Jordan Pacheco

Hard to believe Pacheco was 0 for his last 8 coming in to today's game. He got himself back on track with a pair of hits, including an RBI double. Had a pretty good day behind the plate as well, throwing out Brandon Phillips trying to steal.

Misses

Jhoulys Chacin

Minor miss here. According to tweeters on scene of this dark game (no TV or radio), Chacin struggled mightily with his command, was hit fairly hard, and was lucky to escape with the limited damage he sustained. That said, regardless of how, he did limit the damage, which might be an indication his bad days could be more effective than some pitcher's good days.

Foul Tips

"B" Game vs Angels

Here are a few notes from the other Rockies game that took place today.

Ian Stewart was 2-4 (2 singles) in his return to action.

John Maine pitched 3 1/3, allowing 4 hits and 2 runs. The important here is his shoulder feels healthy.

Matt Reynolds still hasn't recorded a scoreless appearance in Arizona. He allowed one run (solo HR to a Triple A guy) on two hits. Looking like another classic example of how you never take the 25 north that you expected to in early March.

Spring Training Game 12: Hits, Misses & Foul Tips

Rockies 8, Angels 1 (boxscore)

Hits

Jhoulys Chacin

Chacin backs up De La Rosa's exceptional start from yesterday with a decent one of his own (4 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 1 K). Aside from DLR's hiccup last week and Paulino's disaster, Rockies starters have been on point in the early going. Hopefully we'll be saying the same thing four weeks from now.

Cole Garner/Ben Paulsen/Charlie Blackmon

A combined 5-for-6 with a HR (Paulsen), 4 RBI and 3 runs in limited time for these young guys this afternoon. Again, none of the three will make the opening day roster (barring injuries), but each has taken advantage of their chances to play and impressed on an almost daily basis.

The star of camp, Jordan Pacheco, actually cooled off with a 0-for-3, 1 BB performance. Maybe he was just allowing his buddies to have a little spotlight.

Jose Morales

Morales is quietly having a good spring and is almost a lock to be Chris Iannetta's backup come April 1st. He's not going to have a first half that comes anything close to Miguel Olivo's last season, but it's not far fetched to believe he will outproduce what Yorvit Torrealba gave the Rockies during his stay. I'll take that.

Hernan Iribarren

Iribarren is another guy that's taking advantage of his playing time. He helped break today's game open with an RBI during Colorado's 7-run 8th inning and is hitting a cool. 350 on the spring. The only real problem I've noticed so far with Hernan is his baserunning (picked off), so I guess he fits right in.

Misses

Nothing really stood out as a miss today. I could nitpick a couple things like Seth Smith misjudging a flyball or Iribarren getting picked off again, but we'll save all that for June.

Foul Tips

Dexter Fowler

No hits for Fowler but he did reach base twice via the base on balls. That's another good sign from where I sit.

John Maine

Congratulations to Maine for getting out there and throwing a couple scoreless innings. He dealt with a little traffic, probably wasn't as sharp as he would prefer, but all in all it had to feel good to retire some major league hitters and see 0's on the board.

Friday Rundown: Business is about to pick up

Pitchers and catcher have reported. 

The Albert Pujols deadline has passed. 

The Toronto Blue Jays are handing out questionable contracts. 

Miguel Cabrera has a DUI.

Yup... It's definitely baseball season.

Let's dig in and take a look at what's happening with the Rockies as we head towards the weekend.

-- I was somewhat surprised to learn that Joe Crede will not be reporting to Rockies camp next week. I haven't heard what exactly Crede has planned, but if this is the end of the line I wish him all the best in his life after baseball.

It's also possible he studied the Rockies roster and couldn't come up with a plausible scenario that had him wearing a Rockies uniform come April 1st (or September 1st for that matter). In that case, he's a smart man, and I wish him well in his venture to find 200-300 ML ABs this season.

Might I suggest he place a call to Kansas City or Cleveland or Florida.

-- One injury-plagued long shot exits, another one enters in former New York Mets ace John Maine. Maine will join Rockies camp on a minor league contract that could see him earn up to $3M if he makes the Opening Day roster, and contains an out clause if he does not.

If Maine ends up making the Opening Day roster it will mean one of two things.

1) He bounced back from shoulder surgery better than anyone could hope for and looked like the guy the Mets were banking on two years ago.

2) The Rockies are screwed.

I'm pretty sure there's no middle ground on that one.

If he's receptive to becoming a reliever I suppose that could enhance his chances, but I'd expect to see him accept an assignment to Colorado Springs with goals of getting healthy, stronger, helping the Rockies out down the line, or maybe catching another team's eye that deals with SP issues.

At any rate, it's definitely a worthwhile addition for Colorado. Low risk, decent potential for some degree of reward. Might as rename that the Dan O'Dowd Special.

Links

-- The lovely ladies at Babes Love Baseball preview the Rockies season in Haiku form. BLB

You can tell they are fans of former Twins catcher Jose Morales, who finds himself in a battle for the backup spot behind Chris Iannetta.

-- Troy Renck focuses in on Ian Stewart's adjustments in the batter's box. All Things Rockies

Hopefully we're at the point now where there will be 3-4 posts coming a week. Once the Spring Training games get underway we'll try to have a couple paragraphs on each of those.

It's the most wonderful time of the year! Let's get at it!

Running Thoughts: Smith vs Maine

Carlos Gonzalez is out of the lineup but may be alright to pinch-hit.  Seth Smith starts and hits lead-off.  Miguel Olivo is back behind the plate, which means Chris Iannetta has played one time in the last 7 days.  Not going to lie, that's starting to piss me off.

Can't decide if I want to watch the Rockies feed or the Mets.  Probably end up going back and forth.

1st Pitch on its way.

1st Inning

• Jim Tracy grades his team at a C+ through the first week.  That's a + too generous in my opinion.  
• 22 pitch inning for Smith results in two strikeouts, a walk, but no damage.  Mets batters works some deep counts on him though, so that could factor in next time through the lineup.  
• Two out action for the Rockies: Helton singles on an 0-2 pitch, Tulo walks on four pitches, and Hawpe pulls his first pitch down the line for a 2-run double.  
• Rockies all now scored first in all seven games. Rockies 2, Mets 0

2nd Inning

• Brad Hawpe leaves the game with an undisclosed something or other.  Lovely.  
• Smith with a low pitch 1-2-3 second.  Nice shutdown inning.  
• It wasn't pretty but Greg Smith gets a bunt down.  Rockies 2nd and 3rd, 1 out here.  Top of the order.  
• Horrendous AB by Seth Smith.  Pops to short.  Fowler flies out weakly to center.
  

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Looking Ahead: Meet The Mets

For now, at least, they aren't a total mess.

Not that they're good either. I picked them 4th in the NL East, and they come to Denver after a 2-4 homestand that was capped with back-to-back ugly losses to Washington. Ick.

Aside from Carlos Beltran, Luis Castillo and Daniel Murphy, they appear to be as healthy as the Rockies have seen them in three years. Jose Reyes is back in there. Johan Santana is healthy, but we won't see him. And David Wright, who debuted his Marvin The Martian helmet last season in Denver, has completely shaken the cobwebs from Matt Cain's fastball.

They added Jason Bay, Jeff Francoeur, Mike Jacobs and held onto a guy the Rockies were very interested in this offseason in Fernando Tatis, so the offense will be capable of putting some hits together. And yes, stringing those hits together is important because there's not a whole lot of 1st-to-3rd athleticism amongst that group.

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