Tuesday Rockpile: Injury Updates Galore

The impalpable yet quietly lingering elephant in the room during the Rockies' hot streak under Jim Tracy was their extreme luck with injuries.  No major ingredients went down, but that good luck has started to catch up to the Rockies, although luckily, we're dodging the big bullets.  As Troy Renck notes, the Rockies are banged up, but not backing down.  Renck notes 8 of the last 10 Rockie wins were of the come-from-behind variety.

The little hurts still have become a pain for Rockies, who won yesterday despite seeing their offensive and pitching MVP's suffer an injury.  Ubaldo Jimenez tweaked his hamstring while scoring the first run of the game.  Jimenez will push his bullpen session from Wednesday to Thursday but still expects to make his scheduled start Saturday.  He held serve and threw a quality start (though it was statistically his worst since I started shaving - (okay not quite)).

"On my breaking ball it was good, but on my fastball it hurt when I pushed off and when I landed," Jimenez said. - Saunders

Troy Tulowitzki strained his lower back while driving in the tying run in the second.  He suffered a similar injury in spring training and rested a couple days, but you can bet his patience is a great deal smaller in September.  He's listed as day-to-day and could return as early as tonight.

"This is different. That was spring training, this is September and it's important for me to be out there" said Tulowitzki. - Saunders

What obviously must be stated is that this week against Cincinnati and San Diego is the least critical stretch of the schedule remaining this season.  Tulowitzki and Jimenez are the most invaluable pieces to this team's success, and the last thing I want to see is either rush back prematurely to face the Matt Maloney's and Luis Rodriguez' of the baseball world.  Take your time.  We'll need you in October.

Jack Etkin reports that closer Huston Street has taken the first step in returning, throwing 20 times from 50-60 feet yesterday with no complications.   The Rockies goal is to get his feet wet in San Diego this weekend, if all goes well, so he'll be rust-free Monday against the Giants..

Aaron Cook will throw off a mound later this week as well.

Other links

Castoffs Paying Dividends In NL West - True Blue LA

Eric Stephen has fun with sample sizes, showing the wave of castoffs into the NL West are performing very well.  Of particular intererst to Rockies fans, Eric notes that Jason Giambi is the third Rockie ever to have an RBI in his first three games with the club, joining Jeff Salazar and Steve Decker.  It's only fitting those names are obscure.

Baseball Prospectus | Player Profile: Jason Hammel (subscription required) - Over the weekend, Marc Normandin at Baseball Prospectus wrote an elaborate feature on our very own fifth starter.