Saturday, September 3, 2011

Rock Solid Recap: Fowler, Rockies hand Alex White his 1st NL victory

Alex White's third start with the Colorado Rockies was another rollercoaster, but at the end of the day I felt encouraged by what I saw, and congratulate him on his first victory in a Rockies uniform.

Rockies 5, Padres 4 (boxscore)

Here are the concerns so far:

1. For the second straight ROAD start, White was greeted by a lead-off home run. White's bread and butter is supposed to be his sinking action, so when the ball is leaving the yard you're rightfully alarmed. But, it's not unusual for sinkerballers to come out early in outing with too much energy, which leads to overthrowing, which leads to less sinking action.

The important thing to note is that as he goes along, the ball doesn't continue to fly out of the yard. So far he's done well in that regard. But obviously there's a ways to go in working through and past early mistakes.

2. Poor command has also been a problem. Again, this is unusual for White, because the scouting reports boast of his ability to pound the strike zone. Why that's not happening is a definite concern until it's cleared up, but my guess is it's simply a combination of nerves and possibly him lacking confidence in his stuff after getting roughed up early in games.

Rock Solid Recap: Our home away from home

Petco Park. If only we could play all of our road games at that wonderful stadium. Actually, it probably wouldn't make any difference unless we got to play those wonderfully miserable Padres every time, so I guess throw my dreams out the window.

Rockies 3, Padres 0 (boxscore)

Some good things to take away from this game.

Also some bad things, ugly things and hilarious things. But mostly good things.

Good: Kevin Millwood continued his surprising string of effectiveness, and less surprising string of professionalism, with seven scoreless innings. At this point, it's obvious the Rockies could do far worse for a 5th starter next season. But let's hope better options surface just to be safe.

Good: Jonathan Herrera with three hits out of the two-hole. It's great to see him taking advantage of his latest playing time. Not because it'll necessarily lead to even more playing time. Who the hell knows with Jim Tracy? It's just great to see it. That's all.

Bad: Helton-Smith-Kouzmanoff: 0-for-11 with one walk. Unfortunately, the one who drew the walk is the most likely to be benched come Saturday.