Hope Springs Joe Morgan and Steve Phillips... Crap

Holy hell. I need some mental respite from the WBC final. Steve Phillips and Joe Morgan in one telecast? Somebody waterboard me or something. If a Morgan/Phillips duet isn't torture, I don't know what is. I thought Obama was supposed to change things.

Anyways... How about them Rockies?

PECOTA told me they would win 78 games and somehow that seems about right. The offense is anything but intimidating and the rotation includes Jorge De La Rosa by default. Ugh. There are still some light spots in spring training.

Let's ignore the guranteed jobs (Cook, Jimenez, Marquis, De La Rosa (crap), Street, Corpas, Buccholz, Embree, Grilli, Iannetta, Atkins, Helton, Tulo, Hawpe) and focuse on the rest.

Clint "The Hacker" Barmes more or less has the 2b job on lock, but he's kinda not really very good mostly. His defense is average and all he really provides is average, literally. His bat has little pop and he has no discipline. His spring line, though a small sample size, shows pretty much how he is as a player (.262/.279/.452). He'll get some hits, he'll never take a walk, and he'll have some Coors Field power (that .452 slugging won't happen on the road in the regular season).

On the other hand, you have Ian "The Strikeout" Stewart. He has a daunting .297/.366/.622 line in the spring. He'll provide subpar second base defense but a ton of power and actually a bit of on-base percentage (unlike Barmes). They aren't going to take third away from Atkins and at this point, Stewart has no business being in the minors. They have to put him somewhere. Why not second?

Another intriguing idea is Omar Quintanilla. He's hit quite well throughout his minor league career, he's hitting well this spring (.325/.400/.500), and, as we all know, he knows how to play some D. He probably isn't good enough to play a full season at second, but why not pretend?

Then there is the outfield mess. Spilly is an all around terrific hitter, especially against southpaws, but, let's be honest, he's not an everyday center fielder. Dexter Fowler is already a gold glove caliber center fielder. No, he doesn't have any AAA experience, but neither does Hanley Ramirez. Pujols had all of 14 AAA ABs. It wouldn't be the end of the world to let him learn on the fly. Plus, every single pitcher on the roster would much rather see Fowler gliding to fly balls in the outfield. Fowler wouldn't hit like Spilly, but there would be a noticeable difference in team ERA if Fowler was the everyday CF. It's Dex time in Lodo.

If Dex is center, all you have to do is Platoon in right and left. Seth Smith and Brad Hawpe murder right handers and Matt Murton and Spilly murder left handers. Put all that together and you have an average to decent defense and an above average offense. The pitchers would like that too.

I'll finish up with them in a day or two...

P.S. Jay Cutler says he will report to Broncos Country when things become mandatory and Mc D says that Cutler is "our quarterback." Let's hope they kiss and make up. It's time to end this mess.