Monday, April 2, 2012

Spring Training Hits & Misses: Game 31 vs. Cleveland

Hits

Tyler Colvin

I don't how good his 400+ foot home run off Ubaldo Jimenez felt to him personally (probably pretty good), but it damn sure felt great to Rockies fans. Colvin would later add a second home run and two additional hits, finishing the day at 4-for-5 with six RBI.

Welcome to the big club, Tyler Colvin. Happy to have you.

Chris Nelson

Speaking of making the big club and homering off Jimenez, Chris Nelson also belongs to this club. His fourth inning two-run shot tied the game momentarily. He later added an RBI double giving him three on the day.

Josh Roenicke

Two more scoreless innings lowers his spring ERA to 0.79. That would be good enough to make the 1990 Cincinnati Reds bullpen, so I'm pretty sure it'll get him on the 2012 Rockies. Especially if they go eight deep initially in the 'pen.

Misses

Jeremy Guthrie

3 IP, 4 ER, 6 H, 4 BB, 2 K

Another less than stellar outing for Guthrie as he heads into his opening day assignment. As you can see, those four walks in his line really stand out as an eyesore. That's not his game, at all. In fact, avoiding walks is essential to his survival because he's not overpowering and he's prone to the big fly.

If this proves to be a trend and not a one game hiccup, we have a big problem. Otherwise, Guthrie should be just fine and should provide #2 starter value. Assign your trepidation accordingly.

Alex White

2 IP, 5 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 3 K

And the final bullpen spot goes to...

Not Alex White.

Now if we can just make him into a starter again everything will be cool.

Matt Belisle

1 IP, 3 ER, 3 H

If my memory serves me correctly, these are the first runs Belisle has allowed all spring. Much better they happened on Sunday than this coming weekend.

Got Their Work In

Marco Scutaro & Jonathan Herrera

They combined for zero base hits in five plate appearances, which would be an unproductive day had they not walked in four of them. Scutaro should have the higher batting average throughout the season, but both will find all kinds of ways to get on base and keep the offense moving.

Oh, yeah, and the score in case you're wondering

This game was a wild one on several fronts. The Indians actually had two grand slams at one point... and were still trailing. But they rallied late for those runs off Belisle and ended up securing a 12-10 win.

What's next

Oh sure NOW Root Sports decides to show up... on a Monday... when we aren't facing Ubaldo Jimenez. A day late and several advertising dollars short now aren't we?

Anyway, the Rockies are taking on their friends from Seattle, who are now back from playing regular season games in Japan that few people even know happened. Should be fun.

More Rockies thoughts await you if you follow me on Twitter: @Townie813

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