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.

Spring Training Game 11: Hits, Misses & Foul Tips

White Sox 9, Rockies 8 (boxscore)

Hits

Dexter Fowler

Fowler is swinging a hot bat and seemingly collecting an extra base hit in every game this spring. And the best part is he's doing it without overswinging. He's just making good contact and the ball is flying. I'm encouraged by his early results and believe a breakout year is coming if he can avoid the bad habits that held him back at points last season.

Ty Wigginton

Wigginton muscled up for his second home run of the spring, a two-run shot off Chicago's lefty John Danks. It's safe to assume Wigginton's name will be on that lineup 100% of the times against lefties, whether it be at first or third or left or right or second.

Misses

Felipe Paulino

Big step back to the pack for Paulino (3 IP, 8 H, 4 ER, 2 BB & 1 K) in the battle for Aaron Cook's spot. He struggled with his location, leaving his fastball in the heart of the plate far too often. His curveball also looked pretty flat and plenty hittable. He just didn't have anything going, and a White Sox lineup mixed with veterans and talented prospects made him pay.

Matt Reynolds

Reynolds is struggling to get his feet under him early on. I don't think it's anything to get worked up about yet, but again, people are worried about the bullpen lefties and today's outing isn't going to help relax those worried people.

Eric Stults

Please remove Mr. Stults from your Rockies roster card. He's not sticking around long after today's brutal (2 IP, 6 H, 4 ER, 2 K) performance. It actually looked even worse than the numbers indicate.

Foul Tips

No MLB.TV for Sox broadcast

Not sure why this game aired locally but was not available on MLB.TV or At Bat. Kind of strange, but you didn't miss much in terms of broadcast quality. The White Sox regular announcers were not on hand and the video feed like it was taken directly from the Camelback Ranch scoreboard.

Oh, and did I mention Felipe Paulino and Eric Stults stunk?

Spring Training Game 10: Hits, Misses & Foul Tips

Rockies 4, Cubs 0 (boxscore)

Hits

Jorge De La Rosa

Awesome. Could not ask for a better outing (4 IP, 2 H, 5 K) from a starter 11 games into the spring.

Jordan Pacheco

Pacheco lit up the scoreboard again today with a three-run home run off Braden Looper. The story of camp continues.

Clayton Mortensen

Mortensen is making the most of his spring opportunity after being acquired from Oakland to add depth to the starting rotation in Colorado Springs. He won't make the opening day roster, but he's a decent bet for a spot start or stint in the bullpen if the Rockies depth is tested.

Franklin Morales 

Three scoreless appearances this spring. Let's all cross our fingers and really hope he's found his groove during the winter.

Misses

Nothing really stood out here. I was honestly more focused on the Rockies game with the White Sox that aired locally than this game, but from what I heard the Rockies played solidly.

Foul Tips

Split Squads

If you're going to split the squads, stagger the times so nerdy fans like myself with blogs can keep their thoughts straight. That is all!

Spring Training Game 9: Hits, Misses & Foul Tips

Dodgers 7, Rockies 1 (boxscore)

Hits

Ubaldo Jimenez

Thumb infection behind him, Jimenez delivered three very strong (and scoreless) innings, allowing only one hit and walking one. According to scouts in attendance he ranged anywhere from 91-98 on his fastball. And he even stuck around long enough to lay down a sacrifice bunt. That's getting your work in.

Hector Gomez

Gomez finally makes the hit list after spending most of last week in the misses with five errors. No errors today, and he even contributed a single, triple and an RBI at the dish. Good for him.

Misses 

Greg Reynolds

On the positive side, his first three innings were actually pretty solid (1 ER, 3 H, 2 K), but that all important final inning (1/3, 4 R, (3 ER), 1 BB, 1 E-1) was the doozy. I always look/hope for a strong finish to these outings as an indication that a pitcher is getting better/stronger as the game moves along. Reynolds didn't pass that test today, but he's still giving me a reason to feel like he could contribute in some fashion if needed.

Foul Tips

Matt Belisle/Matt Lindstrom

Both were touched up a bit today, but both got their inning in and that's all I'm concerned about with these guys.

No Coverage

Pretty quick recap with no video or audio coverage of today's game available to form further opinions on. Not sure what the status is on that for tomorrow's split squad games with the Cubs & White Sox, but we'll be here again with some more thoughts on both of those.

Spring Training Game 8: Hits, Misses & Foul Tips

Rockies 3, Indians 1 (boxscore)

Hits

Ty Wigginton

As I've said before on Twitter, Wigginton replaces Melvin Mora as the professional hitter/jack-of-all-trades defender. The good news? He's a much better version of Melvin Mora at this stage of his career in both roles, so this will prove to be a nice upgrade.

Dexter Fowler

Here's another guy that can benefit greatly from Carney Lansford's addition to the coaching staff. So much untapped potential here, and I believe today (two doubles, walk) is a great example of what Dex can be capable of if he completely embraces what Lansford teaches him.

Huston Street

Everybody worried about Huston Street can breath a little easier. He looked fine today setting the Indians down in order in the 4th inning.

Bullpen

In addition to Street's scoreless frame; Matt Reynolds, Sean White, Matt Daley (team's only strikeout), Billy Buckner and Alan Johnston each tossed a scoreless inning of their own to preserve the 3-1 victory. Nice job by all those guys.

Misses 

Chris Iannetta

Iannetta struggled at the dish going 0-for-3 with two strikeouts. No reason to get too worked up though, it was a light day for misses so I had to find something.

Foul Tips

Jason Hammel

Hammel didn't produce an overwhelming line this afternoon, but seems to be in a good place overall for early March. Hopefully that arrows continues pointing up as we get closer to opening day.

The Rockies are still lucky to have a pitcher of his abilities occupying a spot towards the back of the rotation. Sure, he's no Cole Hamels pitching out of the #4 spot, but he's better and more reliable than most 4's and some 3's.