Saturday Pebble Report:

Colorado Springs: L 6-11

Joe Koshansky hit his thirtieth AAA homerun of the season. Jason Hirsh had a rough start.

Tulsa: L 5-6

Casey Weathers came into the game in a very high leverage situation with runners on first and second with nobody out in the bottom of the ninth, he induced two weak pop-ups and struck out the last batter. He got himself into his own jam in the tenth, allowing a double and an intentional walk, but only after striking out the first two batters. He got through that, too. Less than 60% strikes on his pitches isn't usually a good thing, but that IBB may be skewing that number down from where it would be otherwise. Without context, it's hard to tell if it was a straight intientional walk, or if the team decided to make the intentional pass when Weathers was already in a hole with the count.

Chaz Roe pitched alright, I'm pretty down on him right now, and I'm not entirely sure how justified I am in that. Check out the 18/2 GO/AO rate he had in eight innings as evidence that I've unfairly abused him by not having him in my top ten instead of Hynick. I like Hynick's primary stuff better, I like Roe's secondary stuff better and depending on which I'll feel would be most useful to the Rockies will be how I rate these two on any given day.

Modesto: W 4-1

Michael Paulk had his fourth straight multi-hit game with two hits, and he also walked twice. His August (.380/.424/.556) and second half (.339/.405/.465) are showing some clear upward trends that are very encouraging. I'm guilty of this, but I think we get too wrapped up in power potential sometimes to recognize the value of these simple hard contact players like Paulk and Darin Holcomb. A four way combination of power, contact (plate coverage), strike zone judgment and plate discipline, such as Matt Holliday has or that Todd Helton showed in his heyday is clearly preferable. Second best would probably be something like Ian Stewart or Brad Hawpe's power plus plate discipline and strike zone judgment with minor holes in the plate coverage. They don't create a whole lot of outs, but frequently do a lot of damage to the opposition. After that, though, limiting outs becomes huge, and contact plus plate discipline guys like Paulk, Darin Holcomb, Garrett Atkins or Ryan Spilborghs or like Helton is now, who have enough power to keep defenses honest and hit a few HR's, are important for filling out the everyday lineup. The more HR's they hit or the more BB's they take, obviously the more valuable they become. I guess I should somehow include swing speed as a way of distinguishing Paulk and Holcomb from someone like Matt Miller or Christian Colonel or Hawpe and Stewart from Koshansky and point out that because something doesn't appear to be an issue in the minors doesn't mean it's not an issue. All of this is a way of saying that though I may diss on the power (and you can now include Charlie Blackmon in that category) I recognize that there's still some MLB value to be had with these players.

Aneury Rodriguez: Great start.

Asheville: L 0-16

Shane Lindsay: Terrible Start

Tri-City: L 3-4

Charlie Blackmon had a pair of doubles and Patrick Rose and Scott Robinson each had three hits. In all the Dust Devils had fourteen hits, but four 6-4-3 GIDP's acted as a buzzkill for what should have been a romp for our side. If the Dust Devils never have to hear the  words "Cooper to Bordes to Smith" again, I'm sure they won't mind. I guess the good news is that playing Yakima gives me a chance to take a close look at some of Arizona's talent, and when I tell you that their system is barren, one need not look much further than Yakima's team to see why. The D-backs had one prospect pass through in outfielder Collin Cowgill, who is now adjusting slowly to their Low A affiliate, but otherwise form a collection of players with questionable futures. If you want to know why I'm so excited about Scott Robinson despite seemingly mediocre stats, compare what he's doing at the plate with the results of their 19 year olds (particularly Alfredo Marte, who the D-backs are high on) to get an idea how far ahead of the game he is. For that matter, stack up Leo Reyes against their guys too. The Rockies continue to far outpace Arizona in finding talent not unearthed by Baseball America or Perfect Game Crosschecker. Now, the Padres, however, that's a different story. Initial results indicate that San Diego cleaned up with their college draftees, I'm just hoping that they take a step or three back to earth against tougher competition.

Casper: L 4-5

Wilin Rosario went zero for five with a pair of strikeouts, not what we want to see from our new golden boy. Jimmy Cesario, Zack Murry and Alez Feinberg all had a pair of hits.