Friday Morning Rockpile:

by Russ on May 9, 2008 8:44 AM MDT in News

Did something happen the last time these two teams met? Well, whatever did happen, neither team "much cares to think about" what happened after that night.

Hurdle jabbed at the reporters after being asked about Jake Peavy:

"How do you think the Padres feel about facing Aaron Cook?" Hurdle replied. "We've got Cook going. I feel good about that."

After those April showers of losses, why shouldn't the Rockies become May flowers? We have our best starter going against the Padres' best starter. At PETCO Park. How many innings does this game go?

When the owner says something, you probably can count on it happening:

"We will put him [Greg Reynolds] out there and see what he can do. He would have been up here last year if not for the shoulder injury," Monfort said. "In a perfect world, we would rather have him stay in Triple-A. But we aren't living in a perfect world. We have some issues."

Can we speed up time and have it be Sunday today? I'm excited for this debut.

Tracy Ringolsby says the Rockies have interest in prep shortstop Anthony Hewitt.

Doug Davis is cancer-free.

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Great news about Davis

Does this mean they put Scherzer back in the pen when he comes back?

by moomacher on May 9, 2008 9:16 AM MDT reply reply 0 recs

I believe

Scherzer will be traded to the Rockies as the player to be named later for Jeff Salazar (they really do owe us one for that dumb ass move by O’dowd)

Or Randy Johnson is due to be hurt again any day.

2nd base....anyone? Who hasn't played there yet? Holliday @ 2nd...Spillbourghs in LF

by Redhawk on May 9, 2008 10:32 AM MDT up reply reply 0 recs

I don’t recall, but have the Rox ever picked a prep in the 1st Rnd besides Chris Nelson? Picking that late, I would think that we would want to take a college Sr. that we could start in High A ball and get to the show sooner rather than later. Most “can’t miss” prep players are going to either be gone by then or will be using college as leverage to get big $$ bonuses.

If we took Reynolds and Weathers in ‘06 and ‘07 rather than a stud prep player, why would we take one at #25??? It seems to me that the focus is on finding quality talent that will be in Denver quickly.

TGFPR!!

by jlot10 on May 9, 2008 10:10 AM MDT reply reply 0 recs

HS pitching

There sure seem to be a lot of HS pitchers taken in that part of the draft who are worth the gamble.

Garza, Cain, Hughes all went in the bottom half of round 1 if I recall correctly.

The ‘sure things’ are gone but the high ceiling players who require some projection are still available for those who are willing to take the gamble on them.

From Ringolsby’s short blurb on Hewitt it almost sounds like he is a higher rated player who might require a team to go above slot to sign.

I just hope that they take the most talented player and pay what it takes to get him signed (within reason).

by MADness on May 9, 2008 10:39 AM MDT up reply reply 0 recs

Garza was a college pitcher

But you’re right, Hughes was taken with the 23rd pick, Cain with the 25th pick. Jeff Francoeur was drafted with the 23rd pick in 2002 as well.

by Tom (RFTN) on May 9, 2008 11:03 AM MDT up reply reply 0 recs

cr*p

I took a gamble on whether I should fact check or not but was in a hurry. :(

Thanks for the correction.

by MADness on May 9, 2008 12:00 PM MDT up reply reply 0 recs

Unfortunately...

The Rockies picked high schoolers in the first round almost exclusively in their early years, notwithstanding the fact they led the majors in attendance annually from ‘93 to ‘99.

From 1993 to 1998, Todd Helton was the only collegian drafted in the first round by the Rockies. Jake Westbrook and Jamey Wright reached the majors. Doug Million died tragically after an asthma attack, while Mark Mangum and Matt Roney never panned out. All these draftees were pitchers, as was first-rounder Matt Harrington in 2000.

Jason Jennings, Francis, Tulowitzki and Helton all made it relatively quickly; let’s hope the same for Greg Reynolds.

by alex colfax on May 9, 2008 11:10 AM MDT up reply reply 0 recs

Different organization

Unlike the early years, when they should have been building organizational depth, the Rockies need to add impact players to the system.

They already have depth throughout the entire system, a productive latin american pipeline and a strong amateur scouting department that has proven its ability to get valuable and productive players out of the draft after the first few (premium) rounds of the draft.

They are in a position, IMO, to gamble a bit more on high upside players. Getting more AAAA players or average major leaguers is something that any system needs to constantly do but the Rockies are already piling up prospects who are blocked.

They need to add players who have the potential to be an upgrade over players already in the system, IMO. They currently do this primarily through the latin american signings rather than through the draft and they haven’t yet begun to trade off valuable big league assets so we don’t know what specific strategy they have there yet.

by MADness on May 9, 2008 12:54 PM MDT up reply reply 0 recs

Yep...

Ian Stewart 2003, among others.

Eschew Obfuscation!

by Jeff Aberle on May 9, 2008 10:27 AM MDT reply reply 0 recs

The others...

Jamey Wright (1993), the late Doug Million (1994), Jake Westbrook (1996), Mark Mangum (1997), Matt Roney (1998), Matt Harrington (1999, didn’t sign), Stewart and Nelson. Jayson Nix was the Rockies’ first pick in 2001, but he was a sandwich pick rather than a first-round pick.

by Tom (RFTN) on May 9, 2008 11:07 AM MDT up reply reply 0 recs

This is extremely amusing

Right before I woke up, I was having this very detailed dream. The Rockies were playing the Yankees at Yankee Stadium (it was interleague sometime) and it was 1-1 in the bottom of the seventh. For some reason, Corpas had pitched the sixth, and managed to get away with it, but Hurdle put him out for a second inning (PR was bitching) and then Jeter hit a home run off him. We were all like, “WELL THAT WAS PREDICTABLE…”

And then in the top of the eighth, Hawpe came up with the bases loaded against a lefty, and we all began shouting at Hurdle to be proactive and put in someone who could hit lefties.

Then I woke up, but I had to double-check.

We're all going to die!

by Silverblood on May 9, 2008 10:35 AM MDT reply reply 0 recs

Oh, and

I was saying to Brad, “Do not swing at anything right now, Bradley. Unless it is in your wheelhouse and you can put it in some schmuck’s beer in the bleachers.”

Which is pretty much exactly what I would have said anyway.

We're all going to die!

by Silverblood on May 9, 2008 10:38 AM MDT up reply reply 0 recs

And I think

I have a Rockies obsession. ...................

2nd base....anyone? Who hasn't played there yet? Holliday @ 2nd...Spillbourghs in LF

by Redhawk on May 9, 2008 10:45 AM MDT up reply reply 0 recs

Oh yeah and I should mention

that Brad didn’t listen to me and swung on the first pitch anyway (low inside fastball). He missed it, fortunately, so it was 0-1 and I could tell I was waking up. I was angry and attempted to stay asleep since I wanted to know what happened.

We're all going to die!

by Silverblood on May 9, 2008 1:51 PM MDT up reply reply 0 recs

I'm Sure

That the Yankees took a 5 – 1 lead into the ninth only to inexplicably have it blown by noted non-Yankee Trevor Hoffman.

Insert clever and witty remark slash pun here!

by ES46NE10 on May 9, 2008 4:18 PM MDT up reply reply 0 recs

Hewitt

Hmm. Frustratingly, Hewitt is not among the 107 guys profiled here:

http://ww2.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/events/draft_report/y2008/

perhaps he will be added soon. They add people every week.

For the technical folks, you can scrape the IDs through view … source and throw together a HTML file using iframes to view/print these all at once. Not sure why they don’t have a PDF file with all the draft reports.

I have a binder for all the reports :)

by kosmo99 on May 9, 2008 2:38 PM MDT reply reply 0 recs

Too early

It’s too early to figure out who they’re targeting, or want in the first round. It’s just about guaranteed that someone will slide down in that area (although it’s likely a Boras client). Perhaps if we didn’t consistently waste money on guys like Hawkins and Vizcaino, we could afford a guy like that in the first round.

by rosenthal on May 9, 2008 6:08 PM MDT up reply reply 0 recs

Not really

the MLB draft isn’t the NFL draft, it’s almost scripted. Teams narrow down their choices at this time and most often these choices are widely reported a few secrets are really kept. As for any draft, there will be surprises, but without trades, this draft seems to begin well in advance of the actual start date.

That said, Hewitt must be a late bloomer type, because he’s not profiled on brewerfan.net, nor is he one of Keith Law’s top 60 players. Perhaps the Rockies do like him, but not as a first round guy.

Looking at some of the rankings out there, if Colorado wants a toolsy infielder, why not draft Reese Havens again? He’s been killing it since the Cape last summer and could slide over to third or second. I’d call him a poor man’s Evan Longoria.

by David OhNo on May 9, 2008 6:20 PM MDT up reply reply 0 recs