Tuesday Rockpile: Spring Training Ends Today

Good: Jonathan Herrera
Bad: Jose Lopez

Same reason: work ethic

Lets bring it home!!!

Disappointing: Belisle

A decade later the Blake Street Bombers finally get put to rest by a small ball hero. Fans learn to love the bloops as much as the bombs.

Good : JH

Bad: None, because they’re the Rockies and I love them all

Good: Huston Street

I think he will rebound nicely this year after last years frustrating season

Disappointing: CDI – I think he will start off strong with the momentum he has gained in spring training, but Tracy will start tinkering with the C position again, and the lack of consistancy will cause him to return to the form of the past two seasons.

ATF’s Rockpile

The bad :
ATF’s Off Topic Thread

“It puzzles me how they know what corners are good for filling stations. Just how did they know gas and oil was under there?” ~Dizzy Dean

But not for any of the potential reasons you may have thought of. Crazy story…
http://www.thepostgame.com/features/201103/beloved-baseball-family-gives-live

Breakout: Smith AND Fowler. Boom.

Disappointment: Iannetta. Jose Morales rips his job by June with a sexy, albeit completely empty, .300 average.

Reckons COL takes its first division title this season, then loses in the NLCS to Philapdelphia.

Bad year: Lopez, who was never that good in the first place. Belisle, 90+ IP is going to lead to a down year.

Breakout: Helton for as long as it takes before his back explodes, and Iannetta.
Breakdown: Belisle. He just can’t be that good. And Gonzalez. It would only take regression + a small amount of bad luck for his stats to plummet, and with it the rest of the baseball world will no doubt brag that they knew he couldn’t keep it up.

When Todd was in his first ST, he wore what number (at least the vast majority of the time)

Todays tweet20 is Ubaldo.

Breakout: Dexter Fowler. I expect big, big things from him this season.

Breakdown: 2B. We have tons of options, but none of them are very palatable. Another disappointing offensive season at this position

Breakout: Fowler
Falter: I expect a little less this year from Chacin or Hammel

Breakout: Esmil Rogers will strike fear into opponents hearts – giving the Rockies a lethal 5-1-2 punch that carries them to the WS.

Falter: 2B – I’m not totally convinced that we have a viable option at 2nd base and look to the organization to make a trade in a late season run to the playoffs.

Predictions, I has them.

Ubaldo, JDLR, and Chacin all finish with ERA’s below 3.50

Ty Wigginton will approach 500 ab’s (at the expense of Stewie) and hit 20 HRs

Breakout: Chacin. I think he’s already broken out here in CO, but this will be more of a breakout season, he’ll be sustaining his 2nd half 2010 numbers from April to September. For better or for worse, he won’t be under the national radar anymore after this season.

Breakdown: Herrera. As much as I love this guy and the way he plays ball, I don’t think his hitting style is sustainable. I LOVE seeing a guy hit opposite field bloops and singles when most of our team is swinging for the fences, but I think he regresses to where he’s hitting around .240 or .250 and only getting on base at a .280 or .290 clip. So essentially he’ll be Barmes without pop. Solid D, black hole at the plate.

No really….Troy Renck is intimating that Stewart’s hamstring may be a bigger issue than we thought and that the Rockies would carry a fifth outfielder if Stewart isn’t there Opening Day. The only outfielder still in MLB camp is….

They’ve already broken camp and Dodger Stadium looked like a ghost town…

Breakout: Esmil Rogers – He takes the number 5 position and turns in a 2009 Chacin like year

Breakdown: Not going to to with any of the obvious ones here like Smith, Stewart, Dex, or CDI, I think all 4 will improve on their 2010 years, but not to the point of a true “Breakout” year. I’m gonna go with Jason Hammel being the breakdown of the group, opening up a rotation spot for Maine or Cook come the middle of May.

Breakout – `Seth Smith, cause he has the great skill (has shown flashes), will be given time to prove he is the next great RF for the Rox, once he gains confidence in his game he will be unstopable.
Falter – JDLR – has moved from a FB, SL, CB and CH to a FB, SL, CH. Has basically dropped the curve. Last year his most effective pitch was his CH a pitch he has started to throw much more often. I think ML batters will be able to adjust to this change with seeing it more, scouting, etc….. Lastly his propensity to get batters to swing at pitches outside the zone increased significantly last season. I believe ML will also be able to adjust and be much more patient with JDLR

Helton, Smith, Street I’m choosing to rebound, and maybe too much on what we’ve seen this ST, but still got a good feeling.
Breakout: Chacin.

Bad: Stewart. Injuries will plague him all season, and he will lose the job at 3rd.

It’s a well known fact that whoever has the title “Chris Iannetta’s backup” plays the best baseball of their career. He’ll have four walk off hits in the first 70 games.

Falter: Jose Morales again. He’s hitting .330 in late June but then becomes the starter and turns back into a pumpkin as the magic of being “Chris Iannetta’s backup” disappears. Jim Tracy keeps playing him though despite an OPS of .411 in July.

With Tracy’s style of management who knows what he’ll do with everyone not named Tulo, CarGo or CDI. Why do I include CDI? Because he has the job until Tracy says he doesn’t, which I suspect will last all of 1 month, unless he’s hitting .300. And I don’t think CDI will hit .300.

I am so so sooo sooooo excited for Opening Day! I’m more excited I ever have been for my birthday these past few years.
I guess this is how kids feel before Christmas? Opening Day is the best day of the year. I’ve been singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” and “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” and hoping for great holiday weather: sunny and 70s.

Well I officially announced my belief Helton is going to have a surprise year yesterday in the Game Thread, and I am sticking to that

I’m going to say the disappointment is going to be Fowler. I do concede (and hope) that his pure batting is probably going to improve this semester, however from what we’ve seen/heard in spring training, I am very skeptical of how well he will do on the basepaths this year. For someone who is primarily a speed guy he seems to wipe out alot of the positive of his speed with all the outs he makes through either pickoffs and cs. I hope he improves in this aspect, but ST has done little to convince me that he has.

Breakout: The Pacho Taco
Breakdown: Cook (Physically breakdown)

My breakout player is Dex.. His spring has been great and hes been hitting the ball hard every AB.

No way Chacin repeats those numbers from last year. More exposure to the league is going to make Jhoulys take a step back.

Ian Stewart said it just cramped up. There’s no injury concern Should be fine. Hopes to play in tulsa

Via Renck

I’m picking Fowler too. He’s a much better hitter than he showed last year. I think hitting lead off, knowing his role and over all maturity will combine with his polished ability at the plate to get him on base at .390 clip. He’ll steal 30 or more bags and score over 100 runs.

I am not going to pick Iannetta to flop though. I think he will put up at least above average numbers offensively. I’m picking Stewart to breakdown, as much as I don’t want to. I just don’t think he’s ever going to put together a really solid season.

  TroyRenck:

Good for Sammy RT @NCTPadres: Samuel Deduno has made the opening day roster and is the 8th pitching in the #Padres’ bullpen. #MLB

and get the paper and read the Sports and read Kiszla (takes a lap), but this quote is really nice of Cargo’s:

Ubaldo Jimenez is the nicest guy on the planet.

~ Carlos Gonzalez

Why you should root for the Mets this season.

The Good Hector Gomez
The Bad Eric Young
The Ugly Diamondback wins