Coming out of the All-Star break it is easy to forget that the Rockies returned to action this weekend. The team was 19 games under .500 and tied with the Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros with the fewest wins in baseball after the first half. Not a lot to root for.
But maybe that wasn’t the case as when I arrived at Coors Field shortly before the first pitch on Friday this was the scene:
Does this look like a team 20 games under .500?
Pretty full park as over 33,000 fans attended Friday night’s contest, followed by 35k+ on Saturday and the Juan Nicasio t-shirts didn’t draw as well as expected as only about 25k witnessed Sunday’s game live (only about 5,000 people didn’t get a t-shirt…usually those draw fairly well).
But if you weren’t one of the many who went to a game this weekend there was quite a bit going on with the Rockies and here are some of the highlights in case you missed out.
With the 6-2 win on Friday the Rockies had won three out of four games for the first time since early June. It was a shocking win since the Philadelphia Phillies had Cliff Lee on the mound. As reported numerous times, to exhaustion, prior, during and after the game, it was Christian Friedrich versus Lee and Friedrich was sort of an understudy of Lee’s this past offseason. Many say that Friedrich’s time with Lee this last offseason is one of, if not the major reason he has seemingly got his career back on track. Once he saw Lee’s workout regimen Friedrich got to work, reported to camp lighter and so far has been pretty good this year. A lot better than many would have thought in February or March.
Todd Helton was placed on the disabled list and Josh Rutledge made his major league debut. Helton has looked old this year, very old. I know he has had a few bounce back seasons recently but first it was his back in recent years and now his hip? He sounds like my grandfather! With Helton finally relenting and going on the 15-day DL (he has an MRI scheduled this week to look into the issue further) Rutledge made his debut on Friday night – and it was a good one. Rutledge went 2-for-2 with two RBI, a walk and a stolen base. Rutledge is 23 and primarily played shortstop in the minors the past three seasons. Recently the 2010 third round pick started to play some second base because, well, the Rockies have a shortstop for the foreseeable future. Second base on the other hand has been bleak. Rutledge moved up one level of the minor leagues each of his three years in the minors and in 947 plate appearances posted a .320/.374/.496 triple slash: pretty good. He should remain with the team for the rest of the year and hopefully Dan O’Dowd gets rid of Marco Scutaro for a bag of peanuts in the near future and Rutledge can start to refine his craft at second. Or, better yet, Jim Tracy should wise up and switch them now. Tulo is obviously the man at short and there is no sense in wasting playing time for Rutledge at shortstop going forward, not if he is to remain a Rockie.
Ramon Hernandez returns to the lineup. In the same article linked above it is noted that Hernandez returned to the lineup and catcher Wil Nieves was put on the DL with a bad foot. Here’s hoping that Tracy doesn’t go all Jim Tracy on Rockies fans and split catching time between Hernandez and Wilin Rosario. Rosario needs to play five days a week here on out and Hernandez can tutor him from the bench, where his old posterior should remain.
And finally Mike Eckstrom was recalled to replace Tyler Chatwood who sucks. Unfortunately the Rockies have a lot of pitchers who suck and even more unfortunate is the fact that they have very little worthy waiting in Colorado Springs or any of their other minor league affiliates who suck less than those who are sucking with the Rockies. Get it? Sounds like Jhoulys Chacin is throwing right now but who knows when he will be back and when he does return will he be any good? Gotta be better than Jeremy Guthrie, right?
Cook has been pretty good in Boston
Finally, trade rumors are swirling in Denver. On the block are guys like Guthrie, Scutaro, Jason Giambi and maybe even Michael Cuddyer?! I am not sure what O’Dowd could reasonably expect in return for Guthrie (in his last outing he failed to see the fifth inning, again) and Scutaro isn’t going to get much in return, either. It appears the Detroit Tigers were in attendance today looking at Mr. Slow Heartbeat himself and apparently the Los Angeles Dodgers are interested in Cuddyer? If the Dodgers, who are in contention for first in the NL West and have a new ownership, are looking to put all their chips into the center of the table for 2012 then maybe O’Dowd can get something decent in return for Cuddyer as it would seem the Dodgers might be ripe for the taking. One can only hope that O’Dowd does something similar with Cuddyer like he did with Ubaldo Jimenez last season**.
And at this point the Rockies should only have a few guys who are “untouchable”. In this piece it is mentioned that Rafael Betancourt is drawing interest. We shouldn’t be shocked that the Red Sox are interested; they have made a habit recently turning ex-Rockies pitching trash into pitching gold. Ex-Rockie Aaron Cook has pitched pretty well in about 23 innings with the Red Sox this year, including an 81 pitch, nine inning shutout masterpiece in late June. On top of the recent success of Cook the Red Sox have also turned Franklin Morales into a quality starter, or so it seems. It is hard to believe but Morales was only 25 when the Rockies gave up on him and now a little over a year later he owns a sub 4.00 ERA starting for the Red Sox and an 3.16 ERA overall (he has appeared in 28 games, five of them starting) in 2012 in 51 1/3 innings pitched (in the AL East). So if the Red Sox can turn around Rockies trash what will they do with a quality pitcher the Rockies let go of?
While the Rockies are fighting to stay out of baseball’s basement there is still plenty happening with the team. This weekend is the beginning of what will be a crazy few weeks leading up to the trade deadline.
**Was that only last season that Jimenez was traded?! That seems like years ago, doesn’t it?
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5 comments
Seth
July 15, 2012 at 8:03 PM (UTC -6)
I think the Rockies could get some value in return for a few guys on the team. I think a team like Detroit would be willing to overpay for a guy like Scutaro as they start the race for a division crown and have a major hole at second. I think they could pry a decent pitcher out of the deal from Detroit because there arent many second baseman available right now and plus his contract comes off the books at the end of the year and that is always attractive to contenders ready to compete now. I agree that Rutledge should be playing full tine for the rest of the year at second and not at short. While we till have scutaro and Tulo is not playing why not switch them and have Rutledge play second and Scutaro at short until Tulo returns. Rutledge needs the most amount of time at second as he can get since it is relatively a new position for him. I think Betancourt can get some real value back in a trade but Odowd will surely screw it up. Cuddyer could also get some real value in return, but we could get some really good value if it were not for his ridiculous contract our idiot GM gave him for some reason. Even with his contract though I think Cuddyer could get at least two decent prospects in return, but I dont think any team would be willing to pay the rest of Cuddyers contract for two more years unfortunately so I dont think the Rockies end up trading Cuddyer especially to a team in our division. So Cuddyer will end up being a block for some of our other players like Colvin and Wheeler (in AAA) along with his albatross contract. Thank you Odowd…
Brendan Giles
July 16, 2012 at 8:07 AM (UTC -6)
The trade season will be very interesting. Scutaro must go, and soon. I wouldn’t mind even paying him to play for someone else if that what it takes, but there are too many guys on the team that need to be out there before September to get an idea of what 2013 is going to look like. Betancourt is another guy that could yield something, but I think this is his last contract year as well, so he might be worth more as a comp pick than as a trade piece. Guthrie will be gone for sure (even if the Rockies have to pay a sizable chunk of his salary), but I think DOD loves Cuddy too much to seriously consider moving him. Throw Giambi in the mix and there are some interesting pieces that would be valuable to fringe contenders (Pittsburgh, Cleveland) that need to do something for their fan bases, but don’t want to mortgage the future to go after a guy like Grienke. The addition of the 2nd wild card team should help the Rockies as “sellers” by supply and demand. Many more teams are still in the hunt for the playoffs, which means fewer teams are dealing their assets and are instead looking to make some acquistions.
Seth
July 16, 2012 at 11:48 AM (UTC -6)
It wont help if we keep Betancourt for compensatory draft picks because of the new CBA, high compensatory draft picks are now only given to those where the team offers the player a contract of over 12 millions dollars a season, and I dont think or hope the Rockies give Betancourt a salary of over 12 million a season. No team should give Betancourt 12 million a season therefore he will not bring back any compensatory picks if and when he leaves a team so the best would be to trade him. Really the only players this year that are going to bring back compensatory draft picks in free agency would be Cole Hamels and Zack Grienke and other high end free agents, which there are not many this season.
Brendan Giles
July 16, 2012 at 4:39 PM (UTC -6)
Good stuff. Thanks for clearing that up. I knew something had changed with the comp picks, but I did not know exactly what. Let this be a lesson to me and my ignorance!
Mike
July 17, 2012 at 10:06 PM (UTC -6)
Trade ‘em all and play younger guys. I think that Betancout and Belisle could bring something,and Scutaro should at least bring getting his salary off the books. Heck, maybe ODowd could trade both Betancourt and Cuddyer together and actually get something (please, please, please not another #7 starter who doesn’t strike anybody out and gives up lots of fly balls). Jason Giambi should be attractive to somebody who needs a pinch hitter/part time DH. Besides, isn’t there some pretty big drop off most years from pick # 1-1 and pick # 1-3? (first overall pick vs third overall pick)… not that I really want to trust the current front office with a top pick… anybody remember Greg Reynolds picked #2?