To Rox Girl

Your Tulowitzki comment has already been duly noted and is on record.  You cannot take it back now.  He is a great young talent  but inexperienced in the professional game.   His time will come and we will all be very excited to watch him in Denver, when he is ready.  Part of what you see in our younger players performing at the ML level now, is a direct result of allowing players to show you when they are ready.  We can all have opinions on when players are ready but patience will always be rewarded in developing ML players.  

Thanks Rox Girl, but I'm in the Draft Meetings and I have to go.  Bill Schmidt and the scouts are lining-up our draft board.

Bill Geivett

 

what Rox Girl said earlier. Good luck and continue doing a great job building the Rox to a contender.

Im sure you will hear from me as the season progresses as you always do in my emails! Thank you for taking the time to respond to them. And especially thank you for taking the time to visit and contribute a post to a blog full of Die-Hard Rockie fans!!

David Lehman

Now I'm going to be self-concious about what I say here.

Any inside information you can give us about whose on the short list for the draft?

Also, are there any 'dark horse' players in the minors we should be watching that may have escaped our attention?

Welcome to my world.  I always have to watch what I say.

We are waiting to see what KC will do with the first pick and until they decide, our scouts will be ranking the top guys.   The names posted on this blog are the suspects being considered but our scouts have not lined-up the top of the board at this point.  

A guy that gets almost no ink is Darren Clarke at Modesto.  He is a mid to upper 90's reliever with very good downhill angle.  I spoke to him yesterday by phone to use his slider more and get used to using more of a mix approach, which he will need against more experienced hitters.  Check the stats.

Geivett

Thanks for stopping by and checking in with the fans! Good luck with the upcoming draft (coughLongoriacough...sorry, couldn't resist!). I live in Kansas City (don't worry, still a HUGE Rockies diehard) and it pains me to watch the Royals try to commit to a youth movement only to shoot themselves in the foot when they sign guys like Mientkiewicz, Grudzielanek, etc. in a short-termed attempt to be competitive.  I love how the Rox have committed themselves to the youth approach and are rebuilding the team from within.  

Once again, keep up the great work and go Rockies!

You guys are great.  

I'm sitting here after a very tough loss and we are struggling at the plate.  You have no idea what it means to have loyal supporters when things are not going well and the team is going through tough times.  Our guys can hit and they will get it turned around very soon.  I believe everyone of those guys are trying to get us going and they are pressing too hard.  I just wish all of you could see how much they care about us winning.  They are great guys and a tight group that wants to win very badly.  Collectively, they will figure it out.

Geivett

I will check-out Scout.com and see what they have there.  

Thanks

I'm sure you guys are showered with unwanted advice all the time, but since you are here there is something that I have always wanted to ask someone in your position.  I have read article after article about the new theory about winning at altitude--ground ball pitchers, humidor, fast outfielders, power hitters--these ideas seem reasonable, but untested and these articles usually contain a quote from someone in the Rockies organization saying that nobody has figured out the trick to winning at altitude yet, but they will keep trying.  Sometimes, I even heard people say that it may not be possible to build a winning team at altitude.  I always wanted to scream back that there is a long history of successful professional baseball at altitude---the minor league teams in Denver (not to mention other high altitude places) were very successful for many of the years in the American Association.  There has to be a wealth of data on what sort of things work at altitude and what doesn't---do you (by you I mean the collective you) look at these datasets when coming up with new theories?  It seems that there is a lot that could be learned there.

You may be asking the wrong guy.  

I have always felt that you can win here and the altitude factor should be an advantage.  The way to win anywhere is to have the best players, in great physical condition, concerning themselves solely with winning games and the success of the team.  Better players in great condition, concerned solely with winning, can win on the moon in my opinion.  The nature of professional sports leads players down a path of concerning themselves with their own individual achievement but there are very talented players that have been groomed as "team players" at a young age.  These players only know one way to play and act as a teammate on a successful club and TRY to keep their individual performance as secondary, as difficult as it may be.  They are out there and they can be added to your club, along with the players that are developed with this mindset from the minor league system.

Altitude does play a factor in usage of players, especially pitchers, but also with position players.  Many studies have shown the recovery of the body is not the same as at sea level and our players might need to have more rest than in other places.  Some slight adjustments can be made, in our case, Brad Andress (Rockies Strength and Conditioning Coach) has tailored our workouts with the "altitude effect" in mind. Clint has to monitor work levels in all of our players and pitchers but this can be done.

Hence, I do not believe altitude is either an excuse or a road block to success.  Better players, well-conditioned, not overworked, will win anywhere, period.  All of the theories have their place and need to be studied and some ideas have been incorporated into what we might think to be successful at Coors Field.  

This is too long a subject for my typing difficulties but I hope you understand my position anyway.  PS. The Denver Bears did win.

Geivett

and I echo most eeveryone's sentiments regarding the outstanding work you guys have done with the draft and the farm system, and I look forward to following the next wave of players to come on Tuesday.

I just have one question for you; Do you think that after the draft you could give us a brief appraisal of Drew Stubbs, without necessarily going threw every strength and weakness, but why the Rockies feel he slipped and what might his ceiling have been in Coors?

I'm sure if you've read this board long enough you've seen some of my Stubbs debates, and some of his weaknesses (strikeouts, contact) could be lessened playing half of his games in Denver, as documented by Baseball Prospectus in their book "Baseball Behind the Numbers," where they outline how Bichette's free swinging played to his advantage at Coors because altitude lessens ball movement, and subsequently, missed swings.

Is this something the front office looks at, and is this taken into consideration when looking at a player like Stubbs, who has four outstanding tools, and a fifth that could be buoyed by his home park?

Anyways, I appreciate your recognition of this fine board, and I too want to thank rox girl for such a wonderful forum for Rockies Baseball discussion.

P.S.
Coming back to Tulsa to take in the Drillers any time soon?