Saturday Rockpile: Spring Training invites officially announced

by Bryan Kilpatrick on Feb 13, 2010 9:48 AM MST in Rockpile

There is not a lot of Rockies-related news out there today at all, but that might be a good thing as I'm posting from Sin City and (A) the internet connection at my hotel sucks; and (B) it's an hour earlier here than it is in Salt Lake so I'm really tired. Let's get to it...

Inside the Colorado Rockies " Rockies announce non-roster invitees | Major League Baseball in Denver
Steve Foster has the entire list of players that will be invited to Spring Training by the Rockies. The list is broken down by position, then by whether or not the player is on the 40-man roster. The club will invite 16 non-roster players, four of whom are catchers.

A few nuggets from manager Jim Tracy as Tucson looms | All Things Rockies
Troy Renck posted a few bullets from a recent conversation with Jim Tracy. Among those is a bit regarding Ubaldo Jimenez, whom Tracy says is likely to be the Opening Day starter. No big surprise there, I suppose.

Blessed with talent, West divisions are best | ColoradoRockies.com: News
MLB.com's Lyle Spencer believes that the Angels and Dodgers will face some serious competition from teams like the Mariners and Rockies, respectively, in 2010. I can't argue with him, based on the fact that neither of the LA teams did a whole lot to improve their ball clubs.

LBPOST.com: Tulowitzki Will Throw Out Season Opening First Pitch
Troy Tulowitzki will throw the ceremonial first pitch in Long Beach State's season opener against Pepperdine on February 19th. Nothing could possibly go wrong there, am I right? I'd better just move on...

San Francisco Giants, Tim Lincecum reach multiyear deal - ESPN
Timmy signed for 2 years, $23 million just barely before his arbitration hearing was scheduled to take place. That dude honestly deserves every penny of that $23MM, too.

Odds & Ends: Dye, Mets, Lincecum, Vazquez, Colon: MLB Rumors - MLBTradeRumors.com
A guy with one of the all-time great names has been invited to Spring Training for the Rays. J.J. Furmaniak will compete for a roster spot, and the people at PETA are not one bit happy about it...

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I don't get it

What could possibly go wrong with Tulo throwing out the first pitch? The catcher’s hand could get broken?

I hate the Red Wings.

by wtnelson on Feb 13, 2010 12:32 PM MST reply actions

We re-signed Adam Bright this week.

by Greg Stanwood on Feb 13, 2010 12:34 PM MST reply actions

Switzerland gets the first gold medal at the Olympics.

Ski jumping.

by Greg Stanwood on Feb 13, 2010 12:47 PM MST reply actions

fanpost created

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by Andrew Martin on Feb 13, 2010 7:50 PM MST up reply actions

There was an ad on the radio..

For gamblers anonymous playing while I read you were in sin city.

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by Charlie77 on Feb 13, 2010 2:49 PM MST via mobile reply actions

LAD

where did the Dodgers need to improve in the offseason? They signed Padilla who is a capable replacement for Wolf and pitched very well after LA signed him. They have Belliard who was their starting 2B in September and the playoffs, with Blake Dewitt fighting him for the starting 2B job in spring training.
Where else did they need to improve? Billz should bounce back as should Manny. Quite happy with the offseason. The fact that they didn’t spend alot of money this offseason doesn’t mean they had a bad offseason. I think they played it smart since the free agent market was 3-4 deep and they didn’t want to give any starting pitcher 5 years after what Schmidt gave them the last 3 years.
Should be an interesting year. Buster Olney put the curse on the Rockies saying they are the favorites to win the West.

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by Ray Guilfoyle on Feb 13, 2010 3:26 PM MST reply actions

Padilla won’t be as good as he was in September or as wolf all season. Capable replacement, but not close to returning the value. belliard was similarly playing over his head in September, and expecting that same production all year is a mistake. The rotation and second base definitely took a step down

Also, the dodgers were the sexy pick last year and were crowned by some in may, but there was no curse there…

"I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious." - Albert Einstein

by Andrew T. Fisher on Feb 13, 2010 5:59 PM MST via mobile up reply actions

Age isn't on their side, that's for sure.

I think every player you mentioned above, with the possible exception of Billingsley, will regress this season. Sure, Kemp, Ethier, and Loney may pick up the slack, but it isn’t wise (in my opinion) to count on dudes like Belliard, Manny, and Padilla to match their production from previous seasons. Depth is an issue, as well.

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by Bryan Kilpatrick on Feb 13, 2010 10:06 PM MST up reply actions

I know nobody’s hanging around here today, but I wanted to share the updated PECOTA Depth Charts/projected standings from Baseball Prospectus. They made a few changes, the biggest of which related to projecting pitchers by their 75% score and not their 50% score. The result are some more positive projections for all pitchers… and the result is also a projected division title for the Rox.

"You spend a good piece of your life gripping a baseball and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around the whole time." - Jim Bouton

by Franchise26 on Feb 13, 2010 6:24 PM MST reply actions

Apparently no one in the AL Central will finish over .500

by controlled_slide on Feb 13, 2010 6:33 PM MST up reply actions

That almost happened with the NL West in 05

The Padres went 82-80 that year, everyone else was sub-.500.

I think that also happened in my Baseball Mogul league last year, but with the NL Central. The division champ was a game or two under .500.

"Admirably obsessive." - Uni Watch, March 24th, 2009

Is it baseball yet?

by oo_nrb on Feb 13, 2010 11:21 PM MST up reply actions

Question

The difference between a non roster to roster player is? If the roster player doesnt make the 25 squad does he have to clear wavier to be sent down? And a non roster can just be released?

by Jester76 on Feb 13, 2010 10:42 PM MST reply actions

non roster means non-40 man roster

so no waivers necessary. They can accept a minor league position and typically they have clauses built in where they can request a release if not on the 25-man.

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by Andrew Martin on Feb 14, 2010 1:41 PM MST up reply actions