Rock Solid Recap: A breath of fresh air

The Colorado Rockies are 1-0 in June.

So is Ubaldo Jimenez.

Of course I don't really believe a simple change on the calendar makes a baseball team better. And it's only one little game out of 162, but damn does this feel good for those 25 players in uniform, the coaches, and the fans. It really was a breath of fresh air after five weeks of inhaling polluted air and horse****.

Rockies 3, Dodgers 0 (boxscore)

What can you say about Ubaldo Jimenez? He had everything working from pitch 1 to pitch 106. Which by the way is a really, really efficient number for a complete game shutout. That's what happens for you when you walk ZERO.

No walks!

If I had to make a report card.

Velocity: 93-96ish. B+. (Grading on an Ubaldo curve)

Command: A+

Mechanics: A

Movement: A

Efficiency: A+

Results: A+++

As I tweeted afterwards, I was more nervous in this 9th inning than I was in his no-hitter. Seriously. That performance last season was special. Maybe once in a career for him. Maybe once in a lifetime for Rockies fans. Trust me, I was nervous then. But for all the problems Ubaldo has gone through this season, I wanted this one for him even more.

He needed this badly. I wanted this for him, because I know he needed it that bad and I know his teammates and other fans wanted it that bad for him. Several fist pumps in the air when he set Matt Kemp down with this 7th and final strikeout.

Watch the final out

But like I said at the top, it's one game. Where he goes from here who knows, but it's nice to finally have some genuine optimism and positive energy heading to his next start in San Diego.

Tip your cap to Bob Apodaca as well. He's stuck by Ubaldo the whole way through and very likely played a role in tonight's performance.

-- Baby steps forward for the offense in the early going. More of the same later. But overall if was nice to see them move runners 90 feet, and especially nice to see them cash in two runners from third with sacrifice flies. The offense may not be the juggernaut we figured it could be, but they can still be effective if they produce (hits or productive outs) in those situations.

-- Todd Helton: Still the man. (Watch his home run)

-- I think Ty Wigginton is still catching his breath after that triple. But hey, impressive gear change heading from second to third. That hit and hustle set a nice tone for the evening.

-- Jose Morales: Solid all around game. Sac fly, basehit, called a great game. Who knows, he might find himself catching more Ubaldo starts going forward. They had a nice chemistry working.

Watch Jose's sac fly

-- Bullpen: Enjoy your two days off. See you again on Friday.

-- Be looking for my second player rankings of the season sometime Thursday afternoon. It will cover May, but I might have to bump Ubaldo up a spot or two.

-- Rockies needed a win Wednesday and got it. Now they need a series win just as badly. No better place to find it and take it than San Francisco! Let's see what we have on Friday night.

Rock Solid Recap: If that's the first one...

Just a real quick recap of today's Game 1.

Rockies 6, Mets 5 (boxscore)

-- Carlos Gonzalez got off the home run schneid with an absolute rope into the right field seats.

Watch CarGo's Clothesline from Hell

-- Troy Tulowitzki followed that with a home run of his own. He now has 21 home runs in his last 37 games. I have nothing to add to that.

Watch Tulo go back-to-back

-- Reynolds was really excellent again today. I can only think of one baseball put in play with any type of authority -- David's Wright double. He had two misjudged flyballs for hits. He had the very definition of a ducksnort RBI single by Scott Hairston. And then there was the slow roller through the spot vacated by Tulowitzki covering second base.

Other than that... nothing. A well deserved win.

-- I'll steal this paragraph from Troy Renck's blog on the Franklin Morales injury.

Franklin Morales can’t escape drama or attention. There are no contrasts with the left-hander. He’s either really good, really bad or involved in a weird play. The latter happened today as Morales injured his right ankle/foot covering first base in the sixth inning of the first game of a doubleheader.

That's exactly how it goes for Morales.

-- But it was a better day for the other Morales... Jose. His first hit as a Rockie was a clutch two-out, two-run double in the 6th. He also had a really solid day behind the plate.

Watch Jose put the Rocks ahead for good

-- Rough day for Huston Street. The good news? It didn't result in a blown save or loss. Matt Lindstrom closed the door!

Watch Lindstrom's heart-stopping final out

-- Was Carlos Gonzalez still attempting to nonchalant a flyball he couldn't even see? Looked like it in the first inning. If so, does it get any more stylish than that?

-- If that's the first one... I'm not sure how much hair I'll have left by the end of day. Dark hair that is.

Spring Training Game 30: Hits, Misses & Foul Tips

Rockies 6, Cubs 4 (boxscore)

Hits

Jose Morales

Morales locked up the backup catcher job before this afternoon, but his performance today put a stamp on it.

Jordan Pacheco gave it one helluva run, but I have no problem at all with Morales getting the gig. Pacheco needs to play. Morales gives you what you need in a backup. He can hit well from both sides of the plate, and he plays sound defense. It clears the way for Iannetta to get steady playing time, which hopefully leads to consistent production.

Clayton Mortensen

Mortensen was awesome today, throwing five shutout innings, allowing only three hits and striking out one.

John Maine will likely get the call if the Rockies need a starter early in the season, but Mortensen at least wants them to think about it. Also, with Maine having an opt out clause should he not make the big leagues by June 1st, Mortensen becomes an even more valuable piece. Whatever happens there, chances are good we'll see him at some point in 2011.

Matt Daley

Daley's ERA stayed at a perfect 0.00 today. Unfortunately (for Matt at least), that won't be good enough to crack the opening day roster. An established veteran and a fan favorite can't crack the roster with a 0.00 ERA. Think about that.

Misses

Billy Buckner

Bad again today. I didn't have high hopes for Buckner, but I did expect him to be respectable and a little better that AAA roster fodder. He may not even be that at this point.

Foul Tips

Bullpen set

Matt Reynolds pitched just well enough over the last two weeks to lock up the final spot in the Rockies bullpen. He will join Huston Street, Rafael Betancourt, Matt Belisle, Matt Lindstrom, Felipe Paulino, Franklin Morales, Matt Reynolds.

The starting rotation is obviously Ubaldo Jimenez, Jorge De La Rosa, Jhoulys Chacin, Jason Hammel and Esmil Rogers. Rogers will not be skipped the first time through the rotation, which I like for two reasons.

1) It shows he has earned Jim Tracy's confidence.

2) It save Ubaldo's arm early in the season. That means the Rockies learned a little bit from last year and are working towards keeping him strong in the second half.

Oddly, these are the twelve pitchers I think the Rockies and most fans envisioned making the team out of camp, with Rogers and Paulino possibly switching roles, and maybe Matt Daley working into the mix. That rarely ever happens.

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!