Thursday Rockpile: One in every five Colorado Rockies starters could be harmful to your health

Addressing the Elephant

It's not this one:

• We're Going Streaking! Ubaldomania spreading across Rockies - Big League Stew - MLB - Yahoo! Sports

Nor is it the one whose former Little League team got eliminated yesterday.

Nope, it would be whoever's going to fill the rotation slot currently occupied by one former slayer of dragons, current non-slayer of wolves:

• Rockies' Fogg fails to plug hole in rotation - The Denver Post

So what are our options? Try Fogg or Jhoulys Chacin again? Adam Eaton? Russ Ortiz? These are all either the unready or the undesirable. Skip the fifth start altogether for as long as possible? Okay, that last idea suggested by Tracy Ringolsby certainly has some merit. Delaying a decision in this case should prove to be the most beneficial to the Rockies, and get us a little bit closer to a point where hopefully Aaron Cook can come back and rescue us.

Teekalong described the Cook injury as the elephant in the room yesterday, the big obvious issue nobody wants to talk about, and while this is somewhat true, losing rotation pieces is also a part of the long season that invariably comes up with both contender and non-contender alike. The Dodgers right now are missing Hiroki Kuroda, for instance, and their issues have led them to sign Vicente Padilla to fill in today. Beyond that, their fifth slot has been a revolving door all season, currently occupied by knuckler Charlie Haeger. It's an issue, but it's an issue that if the Rockies are a serious playoff team that they'll be able to work around.

• Hiroki Kuroda pitches a bullpen session -- latimes.com; The article has an update on Kuroda, who's experiencing dizzy spells in Colorado, but also has a note on how happy Joe Beimel is to be playing for a contender now.

Of his time in with the last-place Nationals, he said, "You don't really have anything to play for. It's that kind of atmosphere where you have to find a reason to come to the field."

I'll have more about today's Jorge De La Rosa start in a litle bit with the game thread, but the good news is that the Rockies still have a pretty decent shot of winning the series despite yesterday's somewhat expected loss. It does add pressure for this afternoon, however, as the Rockies have yet to win a series against the Dodgers this year, and if we have any ideas of beating this team in the playoffs, they need show that it could, in fact, happen before then. In a sense, we're in the exact same position the Giants found themselves in Monday: three games behind with one crucial chance to make it two or fail and head to San Francisco four games back. 

Denver Post

• Tulowitzki the Rockies' hero this time - The Denver Post
• Saunders: Boys from LoDo our little secret - The Denver Post
• Rockies pay for Ethier's power surge - The Denver Post
• Both Patrick Saunders and Troy Renck will be live chatting at the Post today, Saunders in less than an hour, Renck during the game.

Garrett Atkins shows up on a top five list of players who let pitches go deep into the strike zone before contact was made, a statistic that backs up the declining bat speed many of us have observed with him. This data was pulled from early in the season, so it could be that he's no longer among the slowest in the majors to get his bat to the ball, but it's not a good sign nonetheless.