Spring Training Game 3: Hits, Misses & Foul Tips

Rockies 7, Diamondbacks 4 (boxscore)

Hits

Jason Hammel

Nice opening effort for Hammel Time with two scoreless frames. Troy Renck summed up the outing with this tweet.

We also intercepted this tweet from Jason's brother Bill to Renck.

Chris Iannetta

If you hit a home run, your chances to make the hit list are very good. He also flew out to RF right after a runner scored from third on a passed ball. I was actually very annoyed by that passed ball because I wanted to see if Iannetta would come through with a good situational AB. Guess we'll have to wait.

Jordan Pacheco

Pacheco has future man crush written all over him. Two more hits today with an RBI. He can flat rake.

Hernan Iribarren

First of all, that's a fantastic spring training baseball name. Second, he's played quite well in back-to-back games. Seeing as we've only played three, we'll call go ahead and call Hernan the early favorite for the surprise of camp 2011. What that gets him who knows.

New opponent tomorrow

You can only beat up on the Arizona Diamondbacks for so long without getting bored. Rockies head to Peoria tomorrow to take on the San Diego Padres.

Misses

Greg Smith

The Good: The 3rd inning. He pitched a scoreless top half and doubled leading off the bottom.

The Ugly: Yes, straight from good to ugly. Smith's horrendous 4th inning -- which consisted of 4 ER, 5 H, 2 BB and one home run allowed to Russell Branyan -- will keep him a long ways off the Rockies radar.

In his defense, I'm sure it won't be the last home run Russell Branyan hits off Rockies pitching in 2011. He fits the mold of a Rockies killer the same way Pedro Feliz and Scott Hairston did.

Foul Tips

Franklin Morales

A scoreless inning! Sure there was one little walk mixed in there, but no runs, no hits, no balks, no wild pitches. We're on to something here.

Patience

The Rockies swung at the first pitch of every at bat today. Alright, not really, the At Bat Ap/Gameday on MLB.com only keep track of the pitches put in play. That gets confusing for a half inning or so.

Spring Training Game 2: Hits, Misses & Foul Tips

Rockies 6, Diamondbacks 5 (boxscore)

Hits

Table setters

Dexter Fowler and Jonathan Herrera got the Rockies offense off on the right foot Monday. Fowler opened the game with a single, stole second (though it took a poor throw that allowed him to advance to third), and scored a wild pitch. Herrera immediately followed with a triple and scored on a Charlie Blackmon groundout.

Consistent production from these guys (or at least these spots in the order) would be a huge boost to the Rockies offense. It's something they haven't really had since late in the 2007 season.

By the way, Willy Taveras and Hernan Iribarren continued the production at the top in the later innings. In total the Rockies 1-2 hitters were 4-for-9 with a BB, 4 SB, 4 R, and 1 RBI. That's more than good enough.

Jhoulys Chacin/Esmil Rogers

Two very smooth and very clean innings for the 23-year-old Chacin. His only base runner (Justin Upton) reached on a Tulowitzki error, but Chacin quickly picked him off. Good start.

Esmil Rogers followed with two shutout innings of his own. His only base rummer (Justin Upton) singled hard to right field but was left stranded right there.

Tim Wheeler

We'll give the Rockies prospect a head nod for delivering a sacrifice fly in the 7th inning.

Misses

Troy Tulowitzki

0-for-3 at the plate! Left the bases loaded in the 5th! He made an error! I bet he's gets tomorrow off!

Eric Stults

Stults falls to the back of the line in the competition for a roster that spot likely isn't available unless Colorado suffers a couple injuries. He allowed three earned runs on five hits in his two innings, including a solo HR to Collin Cowgill (great spring name). Stults also committed a throwing error on a pickoff attempt. We'll note the three strikeouts to conclude this otherwise ugly paragraph with a positive spin.

Foul Tips

Huston Street

Not exactly a smooth outing for the Rockies closer. He allowed a single to Arizona's first baseman Brandon Allen. Allen would go on to steal second, advance to third on a wild pitch, and score on a Gerardo Parra groundout. Obviously not concerned about allowing the hit, but I'm sure he heard from Bob Apodaca about controlling the running game.

Very minor issue. It gives me something to write about to knock off the rust.

Spring Training Game 1: Hits, Misses & Foul Tips

Rockies 8, Diamondbacks 7 (boxscore)

Hits

Salt River Fields

I don't think I need to add anything to what you've already seen or heard. It's a magnificent facility/complex. I mean for crying out loud they have a field just for bunting drills. I'm going to think about that field every time I see a failed bunt attempt during the regular season No excuse for that anymore... not that there ever was a good excuse before.

Rockies bunting

Willy Taveras executed the Rockies lone bunt attempt today. The ball was thrown away down the left field line as Arizona catcher John Hester tried to pick off the lead runner. The Rockies ended up plating four runs in that inning.

Moral: Big innings await you when you execute the little things.

Ubaldo Jimenez

Pitching was fine. Even better was the sight of him signing a ton of autographs after his TV interview. Classy young man.

Jordan Pacheco/Charlie Blackmon

Pacheco had a solid single back through the box in his lone AB. Blackmon ended up playing the role of hero with his HR in the 10th. We're going to hear a lot more from these young men before the spring is over. Very impressive.

Mike Jacobs

He's a strong dude. I'll put the over/under on his home run total at Colorado Springs at 35. Of course that's assuming that's where he ends up.

Cole Garner/Jonathan Herrera

Good days at the plate, and teamed up for a really nice 7-4 putout at second when Tony Abreu tried stretching a single to a double.

Anti-wave commercial

So much win! Actually all of the commercials were full of win. Once again a great job by everyone involved in that process.

Misses 

Ian Stewart

Rough afternoon for the Rockies starting 3B. It'll mostly be remembered for his first inning collision with Carlos Gonzalez on a pop foul a little ways down the line. That was definitely a scary moment that saw his knee just miss Cargo's head by mere inches. Add in the one pitch 4-6-3 DP in the second inning and a later strikeout and I guess you could say his performance was as close to disastrous as you can get in February.

Billy Buckner

Not a very smooth inning or impressive debut for Buckner. He's a Triple A roster filler at best.

Adam Jorgenson

You feel bad for a kid when he gets his chance to make an impression and the end result is what we saw today. I doubt he'll get another chance in a big league game this spring.

Foul Tips

Greg Reynolds

Greg's performance doesn't really qualify as a hit or miss, but I just felt the need to comment on him. He made a bad pitch to Kelly Johnson that he was able to extend on and drive to LF. It probably wouldn't be a HR most places, but it's safe to assume it would be a Coors and in Arizona. That's all that counts.

He had another AB in his 2nd inning where he didn't put a batter away after an 0-2 count, but aside from that I was happy with how he looked. He didn't spiral after allowing the HR, which is something we saw in his few ML appearances. Like I said, not really a hit or miss, but worth mentioning.

Friday Rundown: Rosenthal offers more Rockies trade speculation

-- With the Michael Young trade rumors all but dead and buried, Fox Sports writer/sideline reporter/chief speculator, Ken Rosenthal, is now turning his attention to a possible Rockies deal with the St. Louis Cardinals. Fox Sports


Just this week, the Cardinals lost right-hander Adam Wainwright, who will undergo Tommy John surgery and miss the entire season, and infielder Nick Punto, who has a sports hernia and will be out two to three months.


The Rockies currently have seven starting pitchers –right-handers Ubaldo Jimenez, left-hander Jorge De La Rosa and righties, Aaron Cook, Jason Hammel, Jhoulys Chacin, Esmil Rogers and Felipe Paulino. Cook already is experiencing shoulder soreness. Paulino is out of options, and cannot be sent to the minors without clearing waivers.


The Rockies’ extra infielders – Chris Nelson, Eric Young Jr., Jonathan Herrera and Jose Lopez – also could appeal to the Cardinals. Herrera, a switch-hitter who can play shortstop, probably is the most valuable member of the group.

Rosenthal also added the teams have not had any discussions. It's always important to note that after so many false reports of the Rockies talking to the Rangers during that six week period when they didn't speak.

One of these days Rosenthal will get one right. It's not something I would my breath in anticipation of, but maybe if Aaron Cook gets back on track in the next 10-14 days something will come of this. Or maybe if the Cardinals gets so desperate and confused that they make Colby Rasmus available. Or fill-in-the-blank with some other unlikely event.

Also, I just want everyone to know where this speculation started before Troy Renck gets lambasted for responding to speculation on his Twitter feed and blog. I'm sure he'll be asked a lot of questions about this once it gets out there a little more, and it'll be his job to address it.

-- David Martin at Rockies Review had an interesting theory or two on why the Rockies have become notorious slow starters.

He believes the move north to Scottsdale will help the Rockies become better prepared for early season baseball since it will significantly shorten their bus rides and allow them to face major league pitching with a little more frequency during these all important weeks of preparation.

At first glance the basis of his piece seems like it would be easy to dismiss, but give Martin a chance to go a little further into detail. I think you'll find there is a degree of validity to each of his points. Just how much impact these changes make will be difficult to measure accurately, but I expect their April play to improve enough that we'll know the impact does indeed exist.

-- Check back tomorrow for some words on the Rockies and D-Backs christening Salt River Field at Talking Stick with a little Saturday afternoon of baseball!

Huston Street appears in ESPN fantasy baseball commercial

A couple disturbing things I noticed there... well, aside from the two men taking an ice bath together.

1. Seeing Huston Street with ice strapped to his shoulder made me freak out. Not that there's anything abnormal about a pitcher icing his shoulder, but just seeing that image a week into spring training brings back bad memories.

2. The prototypical meathead fantasy owner hit on a touchy subject for me: Jim Tracy's overuse of the former all-star closer, and really every closer he's ever employed.

In fact, I could almost picture Jim Tracy himself having the conversation with Huston in the ice tub, begging and convincing him he could throw a third or fourth day in a row because he's a team player.

3. Is that your foot? WTF?

Hat tip to @JMurph72 for posting the video. You can follow him on the Twitter.