Tuesday Pebble Report: Chacin, Graham somewhat effective; Tourists sweep doubleheader

Colorado Springs (7-4): L 5-6

So Matt Murton continues to show that he's worthy of an MLB gig (see Resolution's FanShot just below this), going two for five last night with his second homerun of the season. When Murton was originally given the AAA assignment, statements made by Clint Hurdle indicated that he felt Murton (.409/.480/.636) would be back soon. So when? Right now the Rockies have Jeff Baker (.077/.143/.077) and Ryan Spilborghs (.256/.304/.419) as right handed outfield bats, giving the team's organization an upside down feel. There is little reason to think that we have the better players in Denver right now, particularly with Baker's second base utility being redundant with Ian Stewart. 

Steven Register blew the save twice in the loss, allowing three ninth tenth and eleventh inning runs. Eric Young Jr. had two more hits and two stolen bases but also two K's.

Tulsa (6-5): L 1-5

Jhoulys Chacin went up against Padres pitching prospect Stephen Faris and Faris came away with the headlines. It's not what we want to see. Chacin's still limiting damage, he allowed just one run on five hits in five innings, but his FIP is nearly two runs higher than his ERA right now, which indicates he's in for some setbacks if he doesn't turn things around. The Drillers offense was no hit through seven innings, putting a run together finally in the eighth.

Modesto (8-4): W 3-2

I never made a comment on last week's promotion of infielder Maikol Gonzalez to the Nuts from Asheville (to replace the injured Matt Repec), and I've been meaning to rectify that as it would normally put Gonzalez in a position where he deserves more attention from us. At 23, he would figure to be peaking at the same time as the Fowler/Tulo/Stewart/ group currently with the Rockies, so you could see that he's still some two or three levels below where an above average MLB player/prospect would find themselves at this age, but the quick promotion and relative success in Modesto (five singles in 15 AB's thus far gives him an impressive looking .333 average) invites a little bit of scrutiny.

The first question would be is this a permanent move to a faster track or just a roster shuffle? He's now at the same age and level as outfielder Charlie Blackmon, after all, and we consider Blackmon to be on somewhat of a fast track, so you could see where that impression might come from. The second question is where he would fit in the Rockies organizational depth chart at utility infielder. Right now, answer one seems to be wait and see, when Hector Gomez returns things may be a bit more clear and Gonzalez obviously has to take advantage of the extended look he's getting right now. The answer to the second question is clearly somewhere below Daniel Mayora but likely ahead of the Patrick Rose/Thomas Field/Erik Wetzel group at Asheville.

Conor Graham pitched five sharp but not dominant innings, giving up five hits, two walks and two runs and struck out two. Wilin Rosario went one for three with a double and a walk, he stole a base, scored one run, drove in another and threw two out of three runners attempting to steal in the victory. 

Asheville (5-7): W 3-1, W 10-3

The Tourists swept a doubleheader from Hickory on Monday to salvage a split in their four game weekend series. Patrick Rose and David Christensen each homered in the first win while Dan Houston, Isaiah Froneberger and Aaron Weatherford combined for the win. In the later contest, runs against one of Texas' better pitching prospects, Wilmer Font, were harder to come by, but the T's scratched out enough to win thanks to solid run prevention from Jonathin Aristil, Tyler Trice and Kurt Yacko. Jordan Pacheco and Jimmy Cesario each had three hits over both games.