Monday Morning Rockpile:

by Rox Girl on Mar 3, 2008 7:31 AM MST in Rockpile

So far this Spring, the bottom of the rotation battle has been more inspiring than the battle for second base and/or the utility role, with all of the pitching candidates making strong showings, as Ringolsby notes, and nobody can have their chances discounted yet.

The battle for backup catcher is also going well, as noted there, Chris Iannetta is making a solid claim with his bat, his arm, and his words that he thinks his staying with the MLB team is best for him and the Rockies.

Troy Renck has an interesting article on Bob Apodaca, almost as much for what's left unsaid as what is said by Doc and the pitchers in his charge. Clearly the two sides don't always see eye to eye, and you get the sense that our pitching coach gets a bit preachy at times, but we certainly can't argue with the results. Whatever works. If we can continue to get performances like last year, they can have an all out feud in the clubhouse for all I care.

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Riquy Pena and Agustin Arias

According to Baseball America, both Arias and Pena were recently released. Anyone have any details?
Pena was Tri-City's best reliever last season, so his release comes as a surprise.

by malakian on Mar 3, 2008 2:38 PM MST reply actions

Pure speculation, but

Maybe they were denied visas and the Rockies didn't want to deal with it?

by Prospector on Mar 3, 2008 2:45 PM MST reply actions

I was wondering, actually

If it had something to do with this, although Pena did struggle in August as NWL hitters seemed to figure him out, turned 22 so he was a bit old for the league, and he had already repeated once at Casper, so it wouldn't surprise me if the Rockies were just cutting him because his future in the organization was iffy given who was ahead of him.

by Rox Girl on Mar 3, 2008 3:05 PM MST up reply actions

Pena's August

11 hits in 14 innings isn't exactly what I would call hitters figuring him out, but he did obviously have control problems that month. Anyway, I bet it was a visa issue like Roberola guessed. If it were performance related, he would have most likely been released last month along with Loupadiere/Lopez/Campos and the rest of the early releases (and they probably wouldn't have waited until minor league camp had begun).

by malakian on Mar 3, 2008 3:24 PM MST up reply actions