It seems the Rockies have finally remembered that while Spring Training games don't necessarily mean anything come April, it doesn't hurt to come away victorious every now and then.
After losing the first seven games in Arizona, the Rockies have now won their last six, the most recent coming Thursday against the Los Angeles Angels (redundancy alert) of Anaheim and Most Parts of Southern California not Including San Bernadino or Sea World.
Though still three and a half weeks from the Apr. 6 opener, some key players on the Rockies' roster are starting to emerge from their winter hibernation. Aaron Cook enjoyed his most impressive start of the spring yesterday against Cleveland by tossing five scoreless innings while striking out seven and walking none.
Ubaldo Jimenez, in his lone World Baseball Classic appearance, nearly set baseball in the Netherlands back a decade by striking out a WBC-record ten in only four innings.
Manny Corpas also returned from the WBC yesterday to add another scoreless inning to his spring total keeping his ERA a sparkling 0.00. It sure looks a lot better than his closer's role counterpart Huston Street who needed a spotless inning in Thursday's ballgame to get his ERA under 20.00.
But the man who's making me optimistic for our 2009 starting rotation is the man who will hopefully earn the chance to round it out: Franklin Morales.
Once a hotshot prospect in the Rockies system (and still is, I guess since he only just turned 23) Franklin aided the Rox in their Rocktober run in 2007 and made the Opening Day rotation in 2008 only to find himself in AAA a month later with a battered ego and a 6.39 ERA.
It also came to light this year that he pitched all last season with back pain, yet refused to bring it up to anyone in the organization who could have helped him, either with the pain or with his flawed mechanics caused by his adjustments to try and alleviate the stiffness in his back.
His regression in 2008 was reflected in his numbers in AAA. He never regained any form of consistency, going 10-5 but sporting a 5.47 ERA and an appalling 83/82 K/BB ratio.
This spring, however, with a clean bill of health and a clearer mind on the mound, Morales has impressed the Rockies' brass with his fastball command and presence on the hill.
Though his ERA currently stands at an unimpressive 4.85, that number is skewed from a start against the Angels where he allowed seven runs in three innings pitched.
His initial appearance of the spring showed a flash of the Morales of old as he tossed two scoreless, hitless innings against the White Sox. He also struck out two, and more importantly, didn't walk a batter.
His next start against the Angels set him back, but he responded to that awful outing with a scoreless, four inning start against the Giants where he struck out three and walked none.
Thursday, facing the Angels again, Morales made the necessary adjustments from facing the Angels previously and threw four innings, allowing only two runs on four hits. He also picked off two baserunners (for what that's worth).
In the race for the fifth spot in the Rockies' starting rotation between Morales, Greg Smith, Greg Reynolds, Josh Fogg, Jason Hirsh, and Matt Belisle, Morales has shown the Rockies what they needed to see to put their faith back in a prospect once thought to be the future of the starting five.
Three out of four nearly spotless appearances will certainly go a long way in seeing Morales' name penciled in to start every fifth day in 2009.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Frankie K Makes Case for Rotation
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Rox Recap 4/6/08
To say that I’m discouraged with the Rockies play thus far would be like saying that Independence Day is only an ok Will Smith movie. We were swept by our bitter rivals the D-Bags, yes, but that’s not what I’m most worried about. The supposedly powerful Rox scored only 5 runs in a 3 game series and have scored only 10 runs the entire first week. 10 runs in 6 games? To call our offense inept would be lavishing it with praise. They wasted an incredibly encouraging performance from rookie Franklin Morales and blew an all important one run lead in the ninth. They say that every game you win in April is 1 less you have to win in September. Maybe the Rox are just lulling the rest of the league into a false sense of security and will soon erupt with more ‘splosions than a Michael Bay movie. They better hurry, but hey, at least they’re not the Tigers.
1) Franklin Morales gave one of the best performances of his brief career. In only his 9th career start, Morales gave up 0 runs on only 3 hits in his 6 near spotless innings of work. His fastball was clocked from 89-93 mph and his curveball kept the Diamondbacks hitters off balance all day. Morales’ performance during Spring Training had many fans and front office types praying to every deity they could imagine that he would return to his late season form of last year. His performance today proved that Spring Training statistics mean absolutely nothing a majority of the time.
2) In the season’s first week Rockies fans have gotten a glimpse at a vintage Todd Helton. He’s hitting .320, the highest by far of any starter on the team, with 2 home runs in consecutive games during the Diamondbacks series. He didn’t hit his 2nd home run last year until May 4th by comparison. His defense so far has saved Atkins and Tulo especially from a myriad of errors and he knocked the only run of the game the Rockies should have needed with his rbi single in the 3rd inning. Unfortunately a vintage Todd Helton at the plate also means that the players around him aren’t playing up to their abilities. So far, it’s a bit reminiscent of the Todd and the Toddlers days where Todd would try to do it all himself, succeeding most of the time, but rarely getting any help from his teammates.
3) Our bullpen gave us a schizophrenic performance. Half the time, they were unhittable, giving us glimpses of their limitless potential, the other half was like watching Pearl Harbor (yes, that’s right, 2 Michael Bay references in one article. That’s how I know I’m on my game.) Taylor Buchholz and Brian “Rex-Mex” Fuentes devastated the Baby Backs. Buchholz especially has really come into his own and is pitching with a purpose. His fastball is explosive and his curveball is jaw dropping, the “yellow snapdragon” as Drew and George so creatively dubbed it. He’s going to have a big role with this club this year. Then Manuel “Habeas” Corpas, normally untouchable, promptly regurgitates the hard fought 1-0 lead we’d had going into the 9th. Two batters in and just like that, it’s a 2-1 deficit. Don’t even get me started on Micah Bowie’s performance in the 10th. He’d been fairly impressive thus far, but his inability to get lefties out throughout his entire career is a troubling stat. Bowie has one job essentially. Get lefties out. Yet, the first batter he faces in the 10th inning, left handed pinch hitter Stephen Drew, he serves up a no doubter into the Rockies bullpen opening up the flood gates to put the game out of reach. Not exactly the performance you’d hope to see.
4) Apparently Luis Vizcaino is trying his damnedest to be this year’s Latroy Hawkins. Hawk started the 2007 season with 3 losses in the first two weeks before landing on the disabled list with arm problems. Once he returned he became one of the Rockies most effective relievers down the stretch. In yesterday’s game, Vizcaino threw 6 warmup pitches in the bullpen before coming up with a new injury to go along with his chronic ineffectiveness thus far. He landed on the DL today as Ryan Speier was called up from the Springs to take his place. Maybe history can repeat itself because the fate of our bullpen depends on him and his $7 million arm.
5) Big Daddy finally broke out of his power outage with a clutch bomb to right center in the bottom of the 9th with the Rox down one. His bat flip after contact was more out of relief than anything. Let’s hope this means he’s gotten the proverbial baboon off his back and will be back to the Big Sexy of old.
A 5 game losing streak in the first week of the season can’t be too promising for the flocks of die hards and bandwagoners that packed Coors Field this weekend. With the Braves coming into town for a four game set the road doesn’t get any easier for the Rox as they’re going to have to perform some voodoo magic to wake up their bats a la Pedro Cerrano in Major League. We’ve got to find our Jobu. That or pray for a rainout.