Spring Training Hits & Misses: Split Squad Sunday

Hits

Jamie Moyer vs. White Sox

He's 49 years old. He can't touch 83 MPH on a good day. Yet he's retiring major league hitters with efficiency so far this spring, and he's NOT walking anybody. Lessons definitely to be learned there for young Rockies pitchers. I don't know how much Moyer has to give on the field, but I'll continue tipping my cap to him for professional performances like this one (Three innings, one run, three hits and two strikeouts).

Marco Scutaro & Jason Giambi vs. White Sox

Speaking of professional performances from veterans, Marco Scutaro and Jason Giambi each delivered one of their own against Chicago. For Scutaro, it was a double, two walks and a run scored. For Giambi, a single, double, one run and one RBI. At this point, the only question for either heading into the season is how many games they'll be asked to play.

Misses

Dexter Fowler vs. Milwaukee

Fowler hit a long right-handed home run the other day (I was impressed but not thrilled), but has done little else this spring. In fact, his 0-for-3 dropped his average to .071. It's not something to get worried about yet, but there's little doubt Fowler wanted to get off to a stronger start than this. We'll keep a close a eye on his progress.

Read more »

Spring Training Hits & Misses: Game 7 vs. Kansas City

Hits

Brandon Wood

The Rockies offense is kind of sputtering along over the first week of spring training games, so basically any player with multiple hits will be recognized with a Hit until it starts to become a regular occurrence. In this case it was infield hopeful Brandon Wood, who singled, doubled, tripled and knocked home one of the Rockies two runs in three plate appearances.

My cousin's wedding

I had a really nice time at my cousin Kate's wedding on Saturday. The ceremony was presided over by their youth pastor, who played a part in introducing them 11 years ago, so it was cool hearing him tell their story with a personal touch and perspective. I also spent most of the reception tracking the Colorado/Arizona Pac 12 Championship Game with my cousin Andy (an Arizona graduate). He took the outcome well, but did not send along any congratulations. I wished them well in the NIT.

Misses

Christian Friedrich

After starting his spring with a Hit worthy outing last Xday, I noted that consistency would go a long for Friedrich if he planned on working himself back into the Rockies long term plans. Well, guess what? He took a step back. In three innings, Friedrich allowed four runs (three earned) on five hits and a walk. The three strikeouts were nice, but again it's the inability to string promising performances together that has everyone doubting what once seemed to be undoubtable (new word) talent.

Read more »

Spring Training Hits & Misses: Game 6 vs. Oakland

Hits

Juan Nicasio

Nicasio's comeback story gets better and better with each passing day. For the first time since breaking his neck last August, Nicasio threw in a live game against live hitters and was largely successful, allowing only one unearned run on five hits over the three innings. But the numbers truly do mean little in this case, it's just awesome that Nicasio is healthy enough physically and mentally to resume his big league career. He's already the comeback story of the year.

Troy Tulowitzki

You probably won't see guys like Tulowitzki, Gonzalez or Helton listed here often since, you know, they're well established and we kinda know what to expect, but multiple extra basehits (two doubles) on a day the offense did little else is worth recognizing. Tulo remains a stud.

Misses

Casey Blake

The 38-year-old veteran, who at this point is fully expected to be the opening day third baseman, is off to rough start this spring. In his initial two starts, Blake has four plate appearances, and each appearance has resulted in a strikeout. Again, we shouldn't look at this too closely at this point, but Blake is definitely among the regulars who needs a good spring in the eyes of the fans. With Nolan Arenado already a huge fan favorite and breathing down his neck, there will be justified discontent if he's simply handed the job despite a lousy spring.

Read more »

Spring Training Hits & Misses: Game 5 vs. Kansas City

Hits

Drew Pomeranz

Make that back-to-back strong outings to start the spring for Pomeranz. In today's outing he threw three scoreless innings, allowing two hits, walking one, and striking out three. To break it down a little further, he forced three groundball outs, picked the speedy Lorenzo Cain off first, and teamed up with Ramon Hernandez to have another speedy runner, Mitch Maier, thrown out attempting to steal second.

Good stuff all the way around for Pomeranz individually, but that about covers the good for Colorado today.

Misses

Josh Outman

Outman's day was a miss, no doubt, but not the total miss it looked like it would be after his first inning. That first inning, which was the game's fourth inning, included the Royals plating four runs on five hits, with Yuniesky Betancourt's home run greeting him on just his second pitch. His second inning didn't start much better with a walk and single leading it off, but Outman did bear down at that point to retire six in a row.

Again, not a good outing, but you definitely take note of his ability to collect himself and finish his three innings of work strongly. How a pitcher finishes his outing after a rough start is one of the few things you can actually take away from these spring games, so I wouldn't say Outman harmed his chances of making the team based on this. But he definitely needs to bounce back with a more complete performance his next time out.

Read more »

Plain and simple: Ubaldo Jimenez acted unprofessionally

The big story involving the Colorado Rockies on Wednesday centered around the article Tracy Ringolsby wrote for Fox Sports where we learned more details about the departure of Ubaldo Jimenez last July.

Among the new pieces of information revealed by Ubaldo Jimenez himself...

1. He felt disrespected when the Rockies chose to extend Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez and not him.

"I read in the paper that the Rockies said they were only going to sign two guys, they couldn't do three guys," Jimenez told FOXSports.com. "I was the third guy. They signed the two guys they were going to sign and they gave them more (years) and bigger (salaries). "

2. He arrived to spring training with the intention of being traded.

3. He forced himself to pitch through an infected cuticle on his thumb and a strained groin because "I was not going to get traded if I was on the disabled list."

4. He then continued to pitch with a fatigued arm for the Cleveland Indians after the trade.

Listen, I can completely understand why a person would feel slighted when overlooked for a promotion or an opportunity they felt they earned, especially if they felt like the employer wasn't doing a good enough job communicating their plans and his status directly. It's not fun. Most of us have been there ourselves or we've seen someone close to us being put in that position, so it's very easy to sympathize with that.

Read more »