Spring Training Game 31: Hits, Misses & Foul Tips

Mariners 7, Rockies 6 (boxscore)

Hits

Offense

Everyone in the lineup today (minus Jose Lopez) recorded at least one hit. Willy Taveras and Ty Wigginton each had three, with Willy scoring twice and Wiggy driving in three. Matt Pagnozzi muscled up for a long ball. 14 hits in total.

Rafael Betancourt

Dial it up big man. Betancourt with his best outing of the spring, striking out all three batters he faced. And I don't care that they were Brendan Ryan, Jack Wilson and Kalian Sams.

Misses

Jorge De La Rosa

Eh, final tuneup wasn't very smooth, but who cares. He gets the D-Backs on Saturday and I expect a much sharper and more focused DLR.

Matt Belisle

Belisle was unable to record an out today. Three singles and an error by right fielder Bronson Sardinha were enough to give Seattle the two runs they needed to pull the game out. So that's nice for them. I think their announcers are still screaming like they won a game in September or October. Sheesh.

Foul Tips

One more

Tomorrow is the final day of Cactus League baseball before the Rockies move on to Tulsa. That means tomorrow will be the final Hits, Misses & Foul Tips of the spring. Fine with me. I'm ready to talk about games that count. Apparently the Mariners announcers are as well.

Spring Training Game 30: Hits, Misses & Foul Tips

Rockies 6, Cubs 4 (boxscore)

Hits

Jose Morales

Morales locked up the backup catcher job before this afternoon, but his performance today put a stamp on it.

Jordan Pacheco gave it one helluva run, but I have no problem at all with Morales getting the gig. Pacheco needs to play. Morales gives you what you need in a backup. He can hit well from both sides of the plate, and he plays sound defense. It clears the way for Iannetta to get steady playing time, which hopefully leads to consistent production.

Clayton Mortensen

Mortensen was awesome today, throwing five shutout innings, allowing only three hits and striking out one.

John Maine will likely get the call if the Rockies need a starter early in the season, but Mortensen at least wants them to think about it. Also, with Maine having an opt out clause should he not make the big leagues by June 1st, Mortensen becomes an even more valuable piece. Whatever happens there, chances are good we'll see him at some point in 2011.

Matt Daley

Daley's ERA stayed at a perfect 0.00 today. Unfortunately (for Matt at least), that won't be good enough to crack the opening day roster. An established veteran and a fan favorite can't crack the roster with a 0.00 ERA. Think about that.

Misses

Billy Buckner

Bad again today. I didn't have high hopes for Buckner, but I did expect him to be respectable and a little better that AAA roster fodder. He may not even be that at this point.

Foul Tips

Bullpen set

Matt Reynolds pitched just well enough over the last two weeks to lock up the final spot in the Rockies bullpen. He will join Huston Street, Rafael Betancourt, Matt Belisle, Matt Lindstrom, Felipe Paulino, Franklin Morales, Matt Reynolds.

The starting rotation is obviously Ubaldo Jimenez, Jorge De La Rosa, Jhoulys Chacin, Jason Hammel and Esmil Rogers. Rogers will not be skipped the first time through the rotation, which I like for two reasons.

1) It shows he has earned Jim Tracy's confidence.

2) It save Ubaldo's arm early in the season. That means the Rockies learned a little bit from last year and are working towards keeping him strong in the second half.

Oddly, these are the twelve pitchers I think the Rockies and most fans envisioned making the team out of camp, with Rogers and Paulino possibly switching roles, and maybe Matt Daley working into the mix. That rarely ever happens.

Spring Training Game 29: Hits, Misses & Foul Tips

Rockies 5, A's 2 (boxscore)

Hits

Ubaldo Jimenez

Good at pitching. Next time we see The Cheif the 2011 season will be officially underway. Relievers Huston Street and Felipe Paulino were equally outstanding in their scoreless innings.

Willy Taveras

The Taveras resurgence continues with three more hits and two runs scored. Great spring and great depth for the Rockies if he sticks in the organization.

Misses

Franklin Morales

Morales is kind of wavering between good and bad lately. Of course the bad will be overreacted to by people with bad memories from last season. And it doesn't help in people's minds that he's made the roster over Matt Daley. Problem is the Rockies want two lefties in the pen, and Daley, while talented and effective, can only pitch with his right arm.

Foul Tips

Mark Tracy

In a cool moment, Jim Tracy's son was allowed an opportunity to pinch-hit. He walked on five pitches, showing more discipline in one at-bat than the Rockies did on their entire trip through Pittsburgh and New York last summer.

Spring Training Game 28: Hits, Misses & Foul Tips

Rockies 4, A's 1 (boxscore)

Hits

Carlos Gonzalez

I was kinda hoping CarGo would go homerless in the spring, make everyone wonder what the heck was going on, and then jack like three on opening day. Oh well. I'll just settle for the three on opening day.

Chris Iannetta

I felt bad for leaving him off the hit list after homering last night. That won't happen again tonight because he collected three more basehits. Chris is in a really good place right now offensively, and doing good things defensively. Cross your fingers this carries over.

Jason Hammel

Good. Really good. Worked out of a pretty big jam in the first inning and it was smooth sailing after that against Oakland's A lineup. He's well past that disaster outing against Texas and ready to go.

Misses

Matt Reynolds

Little bit of a setback for Reynolds after a string of good outings. I suppose this leaves the door open for Eric Stults or Rex Brothers to steal his spot. It will be interesting to see how Jim Tracy and Dan O'Dowd want to play this. The only guy in the mix guaranteed to make it is Franklin Morales because he's pitching well enough to warrant the opportunity and there's this thing where he's out of options.

Foul Tips

Ian Stewart

How often has a base runner been involved in three rundowns in the same game? Well, not counting Little League obviously. It sounded like one was missed sign on a possible squeeze with Fowler at the plate. The other two sounded like they were more of the aggressive base running type. And he got the extra base on one of them after an Oakland error.

Spring Training Game 27: Hits, Misses & Foul Tips

Rockies 10, Rangers 3 (boxscore)

Hits

Esmil Rogers

Rogers is figuring some things out. He had a bit of a setback in his previous outing, but the one before that he was nearly untouchable against the Chicago Cubs. His outing tonight may have been even a little more impressive than that one because he owned the Texas Rangers opening day lineup minus the DH.

One at-bat that stands out was the education he gave Michael Young his first time up. Young really is about as good a pure hitter as you'll find. One that's pretty difficult to strikeout, but Rogers changed speeds and punched him on four pitches. The last a changeup Young was a foot in front of. It was a beauty.

You know what else? The ball makes a nice sound off Esmil's bat. He hit the ball very hard twice with a single to show for it. Terrific athlete/all around baseball player.

Eric Young/Johnny Herrera

Great job by the top of the order tonight. These guys combined to go 4-for-8 with 1 BB, 1 2B, 1 RBI, 3 R, 1 sac bunt and 1 sac fly. It's no wonder the Rockies broke double digits.

Misses

Rex Brothers

Well, he's human after all. His two runs allowed tonight will probably give the Rockies their excuse to start him at AAA. It would have been nearly impossible to do so if his ERA stayed at 0.00.

Foul Tips

Jose Lopez

Some good and some bad tonight.

The good was his defense, which has been sensational at third base and good enough at second base to possibly squeeze Eric Young out of the mix. He made one really good play going to his right and then made a spectacular play going to his right, punctuated by a jump throw across the diamond for the out.

The bad was his strange approach at the plate and lack of focus on the bases.

Yes, he did record a triple, but that came on a flyball Josh Hamilton lost in the lights or sky or twilight or something. Next time up he swings at the first pitch (after a classic grind it out Helton at-bat that resulted in a single) and hits into a tailor-made 4-6-3 double play, only Ian Kinsler couldn't turn it. That was okay for Texas, because Lopez got picked off two batters later.

He did add a single later. So that was good.

Again, if his offense comes around even a little, he'll probably be a nice addition. I'm just not convinced that will happen or that he does enough elsewhere to maintain his value. I'm willing to give him a chance to prove me wrong, but that's where I stand on Lopez at the moment. Which means little, obviously.

Rangers announcers

These guys were pretty difficult to listen to, but I appreciate them doing the game tonight. I also enjoyed the little bit where they thanked the Oakland A's for trading Carlos Gonzalez out of the division. Very funny.