AP Photo/Barry Gutierrez
Continuity breeds success in the game of baseball.
The less roster turnover, the better, and the less lineup changes, the better, because it means the general manager and manager are both happy with their current product on the field.
If a manager has to continually jostle his starters around, it means he is constantly searching for that perfect lineup, where hitting becomes contagious and players feed off of one another.
Well, you might as well call Jim Tracy Coach Jostle, because he continues to experiment with several different combinations of Colorado Rockies as the season wears on. There has been minimal amounts of continuity in both the Rockies roster and their lineups, and it is a large reason the team continues to sputter.
Just take a look at the Rockies opening day roster:
Pitchers-
Matt Belisle, Rafael Betancourt, Jhoulys Chacin, Jason Hammel, Ubaldo Jimenez,Matt Lindstrom, Felipe Paulino,Esmil Rogers,Huston Street, Jorge De La Rosa, Franklin Morales, Matt Reynolds
Position Players-
Chris Iannetta, Jose Morales, Jason Giambi, Todd Helton, Jonathan Herrera, Jose Lopez, Ian Stewart, Troy Tulowitzki, Ty Wigginton, Dexter Fowler, Carlos Gonzalez, Seth Smith, Ryan Spilborghs
Now take a look at their current roster:
Pitchers-
Matt Belisle, Rafael Betancourt, Rex Brothers, Jhoulys Chacin, Aaron Cook, Jason Hammel, Ubaldo Jimenez, Matt Lindstrom, Clayton Mortensen, Juan Nicasio, Matt Reynolds, Huston Street
Position Players-
Chris Iannetta, Jose Morales, Jason Giambi, Todd Helton, Jonathan Herrera, Chris Nelson, Troy Tulowitzki, Ty Wigginton, Eric Young, Charlie Blackmon, Carlos Gonzalez, Seth Smith, Ryan Spilborghs
(New players in italics)
From a pitching standpoint, the Rockies already have four new faces taking the mound, in Brothers, Nicasio, Mortensen, and Cook. They lost De La Rosa to a season ending injury, Paulino and Morales both pitched themselves out of town, and Esmil Rogers lost his spot to some of the Rockies emerging young talent (Nicasio, Brothers, Mortensen), and a grizzled old veteran (Cook.)
As far as the position players are concerned, the Rockies have made three adjustments. Jose Lopez was a multi-million dollar bust, Ian Stewart could not find his stroke, and Fowler is currently nursing an injury. Nelson, Blackmon, and Young Jr. have not only been promoted to the show, but have been injected into the lineup, and depended on for production.
When you add it all up, that’s seven different Colorado Rockies on the active roster, just two and a half months into the season. Almost a third of the team has changed. The Rockies nucleus remains, in Tulo, Cargo, and Helton, but the roster turnover of the supplementary Rockies players is glaring.
Juxtapose the Rockies opening day lineup with their starters last Saturday.
Lineup on opening day – Fowler, Smith, Gonzalez, Tulowitzki, Helton, Wigginton, Lopez, Iannetta, Jimenez.
Lineup on June 11th – Gonzalez, Young, Giambi, Tulowitzki, Wigginton, Nelson, Blackmon, Iannetta, Hammel.
The only constants are Tulo hitting clean-up, and Iannetta hitting 8th. That’s it.
Because of both injuries and lack of production, Tracy has been forced to constantly tinker with his lineup card. Cargo has hit 3rd, 5th, and now hits lead-off. Tracy has experimented with four different second baseman (Herrera, Young, Nelson, Lopez), and an immeasurable amount of different outfield alignments. He has been forced to use almost ten different starting pitchers.
If the Rockies are going to continue to believe they are contenders, they are going to have find some continuity first.
-By Zach Cohn
Contact the writer at zscohn@gmail.com.
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4 comments
Pat
June 13, 2011 at 2:08 PM (UTC -6)
Tracy has always preached continuity, and I recall him stating that as soon as the team actually starts rolling he’ll leave things alone (this might have been a quote from last season). Unfortunately, the Rockies aren’t rolling (trudging would be a good term), and instead of sitting on his heels (which would also draw our ire), he is trying to put his players in the right places to succeed. IF this team decides to start playing to their level, I think the continuity will emerge.
CodenameDuchess
June 13, 2011 at 4:25 PM (UTC -6)
That’s a pretty fine line to walk. I think for the time being the OF is set with Cargo, Smith, and Blackmon. Obviously Tulo/Helton/Ianetta are safe with Todd and Chris getting the occasional breather. The problem is clearly the 2nd/3rd disaster.
Right now you have a rotation of Wigginton/Herrera/Nelson/EYJ and it seems to me that if a guy doesn’t go 2-4 or better his ass is on the bench the next day. I understand that Tracey is trying to find something that clicks but I doubt any of the guys in this battle have a lot of confidence or comfort when they know that one bad game or one mistake is going to swing them to the bench. At least until their replacement screws up and they get another chance.
Personally I would like to see Herrera at 2nd full time. He’s the only consistent glove and the double play (at least until the dodger series) is a real weapon for the rockies. We need to be solid up the middle, especially in a hitter friendly field like Coors. I think we seen enough with Wiggington to know that were getting C grades across the board. He’s been hitting the ball better of late but he’s a liability defensively and the little power he does provide doesn’t make up for it. Because of this I think we give the job to Nelson and give him a shot to keep it. He gives the team a speed boost and has been pretty good with the bat to date. If he’s not cutting it after 2-3 weeks maybe it’s time to see if Ian Stewart has figured anything out. That said, this day to day shuffling has to stop.
With this we can let Wiggy go. His spot starts for Helton can be filled with Giambi who could use the ABs anyway. EY can stick around as a pinch runner and for the occasional spot start for Herrera or Cargo. Spilly keeps his role as primary pinch hitter and relief for Smith/Blackmon. I suppose this makes Dexter the odd man out but I think he could use some time in the Springs to work on his bunting as stealing bases because his success rate for both of those subjects is not anything close to what his talent should be producing.
Sorry for the rant
Joe Cullinane
June 13, 2011 at 7:20 PM (UTC -6)
They are avoiding playing Herrera to keep him from being worn down. When August starts, he’ll be in there every day. Fowler is a goner as is Stewart, and if they offered ANYTHING, they are both wearing different jerseys. Same with EYJ. Way too many mistakes, both in the field and on the bases.
Ubaldo is over-trying and needs to just let it go and throw it. He did it on the road and it worked really well (see Milwaukee, LA and San Diego).
Wigginton will be fine…….he’s a veteran and it’s a long season. Nelson can fill in at third and Blackmon is a regular.
Keep the faith. It’s only half past June. Let’s see where it all lies in August.
SapperDrew
June 14, 2011 at 7:30 AM (UTC -6)
Whatever the case may be with the lineup turnover or more consistency in the batting order, the struggles remain the same. Over the past month plus the Rox have allowed pitchers to continue to look like Cy Young candidates that are journeymen. Joe Saunders, Vogelsong, Bass, Ted Lilly, Stauffer, Maholm, Pelfrey and others have all shut down the Rox with average big league stuff. Granted Lilly is probably the best on the list that seems to go on and on. As for the hitters on the other team, it always seems they seem to break out of their slumps against the Rox (see Rasmus, Gonzalez (with Pads), Huff, Cody Ross, Loney, Pujols (although he is a HOFer), Upton, Young and a crap load of other hitters that were mired in a 1/20 slump or something to that effect and they seem to come through against the Rox. Not to mention that it seems like the opposing pitchers have more often than not started or kept some rally going with a base hit. Meanwhile the Rox continue to leave a man on third with less than two outs or can’t seem to get a two out hit with RISP, case in point last night against the Pads with CarGo on third and Tulo hitting back to the pitcher. Unfortunately with a third of the season over, I am beginning to believe that what you see is what you’ll get with this team for the rest of the season. They are the most disappointing team to date. Started off 12-3 and since then they are 18-31.