Sunday Rockpile: Garrett Atkins to get more playing time down the stretch

Could this be some trade baiting by giving him more looks, and also to light a fire under Stewy?

could someone please tell me if fsnrm will be televising both games and when.. thanks

Managing scared? Shouldn’t we wait to see what Tracy actually does for more than a game or two. How often does Tracy do what he’s says he’ll do, and for how long?

I remember when CarGon was called up and he said they’d go with a 4-man OF rotation with Spilly largely sitting. Since then (62 games), here are the OF starts:

Hawpe (57 total OF starts): RF-57, DH-1
Fowler (45): CF-45
Smith (26): LF-26, DH-2
Spilly (21): LF-16 CF-2 RF-3
CarGon (37): LF-20 CF-15 RF-2

Spilly continued to see a lot of playing time. Smith played his way in. CarGon played his way back in, and Fowler partly played himself out.

I’d wait a few days before comparing Tracy to Hurdle. Sheesh, Tracy’s mom might actually read this site, you don’t want her seeing that unless he actually deserves it, right?

That said, I’m surprised Tracy doesn’t actually praise Stewart’s improvement publicly. We haven’t seen homer binges from him, but we have seen him contribute offensively in plenty of other ways, which was missing early in the season.

In addition to the stat-look Rox Girl provided, here’s another:

June: .253 BA, .301 OBP, .547 SLG
Since: .272 BA, .387 OBP, .485 SLG

Sure, you’d like the homers, too, but I’d trade that much of an OBP gain for that much slugging, and more importantly, I’ll take the greater consistency. Most of that June damage was done in 4 games. Even his batting average has improved!

but there is a big difference on the season for Atkins vs Stewart when it comes to hitting with Runners In Scoring Position (If you’ve seen my posts then you know this to me is a key stat in run production, which I think a 3rdbaseman should be).
Atkins is batting .272 .367 .391 .758
Stewart: .230 .320 .517 .838
SO’s? Atkins: 12 Stewart 23
GDP’s? Atkins: 4 Stewart 2
Plate Appearances: Atkins: 109 Stewart 103 ( I was surprised by this)

The big key is in the Slugging. Stewart has 7 Home runs and Atkins 2
They both stink at Late and Close and with 2 outs, but with Atkins having an edge w/ 2 outs RISP. Stewart

Now one area that is starting to be a glaring difference is in the Lefty/Righty splits. Stewart did well hitting lefties, but he’s looking more like a left handed power hitter, and isn’t hitting lefties this year. Atkins isn’t hitting righties….so looks like it’s Platoon time (didn’t RMN have a column on this?)

Now this doesn’t bring up Stewart’s defense, which is superior to Atkins by a mile.

So why is Tracy looking at Atkins? I’ve seen it too. It’s something the stat heads will hate. Atkins seems more confident, and that seems to breed more confidence in the players around him. Stewart seems over whelmed..even when he’s starting to produce. Throw in a long season for a young player, and giving Atkins a few more starts makes some sense, especially as a left/right platoon. Since there are more Right handed starters, that still means Stewart gets the most starts.

(Things I’ve learned from the ’row: Baseball Reference is a great page)

If only he hadn’t been hurt so much while he was here. It might have been nice to have him on the bench with his ability to spell Barmes and Stewart. At any rate, good to see him getting a chance.

“The Rockies are the best team no one knows about, and whats getting them there is their pitching”
gave love to Jason Marquis, Aaron Cook, Ubaldo “jim-en-ehs”, and “Mr. De La Rosa”….and then Huston Street.

"The Rockies are the best team no one knows about INCLUDING US, and whats getting them there is their pitching"

there….fixed it for them

I think tracy is playing a hunch here. Assuming all traces of old Atkins aren’t completely erased, he is a guy with the potential to go off and get very hot. If he does during the next few games, he stays in. If he doesn’t Stewie is back.

Part of his thinking must be that Stewie, like many young guys, may be wearing down and can use a break and Atty is, to put it mildly, “well rested”.

Hey, Tracy’s bought a couple miles of slack with me — if we wants to do something, I say “go right ahead, brother.”