Know Your Foe #18: Rockies Hope To Avoid Use Of "Snakebitten" In Game Wraps

by Andrew Martin on May 23, 2011 8:34 PM MDT in Know Your Foe

Oh. Chris Young can fly. Well THAT explains a lot.

Arizona Diamondbacks (23-23, 3rd in the NL West)

2011 Record vs Colorado: 3-2

Last Series vs. Rockies: May 3rd-5th @ Chase Field

This past series marked the beginning of that stretch of walkoffs the Rockies had to endure, including the first real signs of weakness from Huston Street.

Game 1 went to the 7th with a 3-3 tie after Jorge De La Rosa and Joe Saunders both turned in quality starts for their team. That 3-3 tie endured into the 8th where Felipe Paulino gave up a homer to Justin Upton and JJ Putz nailed down the save for the Dbacks. Herrera, Helton, and Cargo all had 2-hit games, and the Rockies had a total of 14 baserunners on the night, good for only 3 runs.

Game 2 featured an excellent start from Jhoulys Chacin and a good shellacking of Barry Enright. Despite a shaky 2 runs off of Matt Reynolds, Huston Street was able to nail down the 2-out save to tie up the series.

Game 3 was another pitching duel between Jason Hammel and Ian Kennedy. Hammel went 7 scoreless, while Kennedy filed away a 6 inning, 2 run start, all to watch Huston Street give up 2 homers in the 9th: one to Chris Young, one to Gerardo Parra. 2 outs into the 11th and Justin Upton hits a blooper to no-man's-land down the RF line which dropped to drive in Chris Young.

Latest Series Results: W, 3-0 vs Minnesota

The Diamondbacks should play a good spoiler role this year. They won't crack .500, but some of that young talent is going to put a hurtin' on the NL West. Needless to say, the Diamondbacks reside in the NL West basement.

Unless you actually check the standings.

Thus far, Kirk Gibson's team has turned in the 15th best offense in the majors, the 4th best fielding per UZR, and the 17th best pitching fWAR in the majors, yet is sitting at .500 on the wings of a 6-game winning streak. During those 6 games, the pitching has allowed 21 runs (18ER) and struck out 34 to just 12 walks. The bats put up 62 hits during those 6 games, batting a collective .307/.376/.470.

Looks like the Rockies might just have their work cut out for them.

Pitching matchups and more after the jump.

Tuesday through Thursday: 4-game series at Coors Field

Expected Pitching Matchups

Tuesday, May 24th @ 1:10PM MT (Game 1 of a doubleheader)

	W-L	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	BS	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP
2011 - Jorge De La Rosa	5-2	9	9	0	0	0	0	56.2	45	23	21	4	20	49	3.34	1.15

	W-L	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	BS	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP
2011 - Joe Saunders	0-5	9	9	0	0	0	0	52.0	59	31	29	7	26	26	5.02	1.63

Tuesday, May 24th @ 6:40PM MT (Game 2)

	W-L	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	BS	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP
2011 - Jhoulys Chacin	5-2	10	9	1	1	0	0	60.0	45	21	18	6	22	52	2.70	1.12

	W-L	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	BS	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP
2011 - Josh Collmenter	3-0	9	2	0	0	0	0	26.0	12	2	2	1	1	15	0.69	.50

Wednesday, May 25th @ 6:40PM MT

	W-L	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	BS	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP
2011 - Jason Hammel	3-3	9	9	0	0	0	0	57.2	57	26	23	5	18	33	3.59	1.30

	W-L	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	BS	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP
2011 - Ian Kennedy	5-1	10	10	1	1	0	0	66.2	52	25	24	5	17	56	3.24	1.04

Thursday, May 26th @ 6:40PM MT

	W-L	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	BS	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP
2011 - Clayton Mortensen	1-1	6	3	0	0	0	0	29.0	18	9	7	3	12	16	2.17	1.03

	W-L	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	BS	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP
2011 - Micah Owings	0-0	1	1	0	0	0	0	5.1	7	4	3	2	1	3	5.06	1.50

Expected Lineup

Name	Position	AVG	OBP	SLG	wOBA	wRC+	HR	SB
Ryan Roberts	3B	.277	.396	.487	.394	143	7	6
Kelly Johnson	2B	.191	.255	.329	.271	60	5	6
Justin Upton	RF	.240	.318	.458	.342	108	9	5
Stephen Drew	SS	.271	.348	.438	.348	112	3	3
Chris Young	CF	.225	.275	.465	.314	90	9	3
Miguel Montero	C	.273	.361	.432	.349	113	4	0
Juan Miranda	1B	.272	.392	.494	.387	139	3	0
Gerardo Parra	LF	.283	.364	.370	.328	99	2	4

The Bench

Name	Position	AVG	OBP	SLG	wOBA	wRC+	HR	SB
Henry Blanco	C	.308	.357	.808	.488	207	4	0
Willie Bloomquist	OF	.310	.333	.423	.332	102	1	7
Xavier Nady	UTIL	.269	.333	.373	.321	94	1	1
Sean Burroughs	3B	.000	.000	.000	.000	-100	0	0
Melvin Mora	3B	.262	.278	.310	.249	46	0	0

Closer

	W-L	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	BS	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP
2011 - J.J. Putz	0-1	18	0	0	0	12	0	19.0	13	5	4	1	5	19	1.89	.95

Arizona Diamondbacks Injuries

Questionable

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Juan Miranda	wrist	05/23/2011

15-Day

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Geoff Blum	knee	03/22/2011
Zach Duke	hand	03/22/2011

60 Day DL / Out for the season

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Melvin Mora	other-excused	05/23/2011

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Comments

Collmenter

has 1BB and 15 Ks in 9 games? That’s pretty impressive, let’s see how he is when he starts a game.

"There have been only two geniuses in the world. Willie Mays and Willie Shakespeare." ~Tallulah Bankhead
"Love is the most important thing in the world, but baseball is pretty good too." ~Greg, age 8
JFK

by jrockies on May 23, 2011 9:54 PM MDT reply actions

He has two starts actually

Didn’t check the game log but they must have gone well given ERA and WHIP

by AbsenteeRoxFAn on May 23, 2011 11:53 PM MDT up reply actions

Both were six shutout innings with two hits

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

by Andrew T. Fisher on May 24, 2011 12:24 AM MDT up reply actions

Follow Tulo

If Tulo can connect, and everyone else does their job, the Rox should have a sweep. Hopefully Helton will be back.

by Real Perspective on May 23, 2011 10:09 PM MDT reply actions

Since Helton played Sunday

I would assume he is probably going to play this week, but he may not.

by jrockies on May 23, 2011 10:24 PM MDT up reply actions

Have you been watching the 2011 Rockies?

I’ll be shocked if they somehow stumble their way to winning 3 out of 4. If they do it’ll be because of starting pitching. They have the pitching edge in game 1 and the Dbacks have it on Wednesday. The other two games involve question marks. I predict Chris Young and Stephen Drew murder us like they always do (Drew has hit better against us than any other NL team during the course of his career, and we’re somewhere in Young’s top 2 or 3) and we completely forget how to score runs for at least one game. A split would be fine with me.

Wait, what's his real name? We should make a joke out of that.

by BrandonHawpe on May 24, 2011 1:48 AM MDT up reply actions

I think we have the edge on Thursday as well

The second game of the double header is really hard to call.

Cargo has hit the D-Backs well, time for him to win a series for us!

by Britbronco22 on May 24, 2011 3:56 AM MDT up reply actions

Real Perspective

Putting in another entry for “most ironic username of the year” award (which tbh I think he’s already got sewn up) :)

Britbronco, whereabout are you based? Do you use mlb.tv?

It's my blog!

by biondino on May 24, 2011 4:25 AM MDT up reply actions

I actually live in Czech Republic most of the time

Yes mlb.tv is awesome…when it works!
I’ve been using it for a few years, the streamed has gradually got better, but my laptop is getting a little old and last year I had problems with overheating shutdowns.
So I bought a PS3 for this season, and then what happens, PS Networks gets shut down for 3 weeks!
In the interim I got the MLB.tv ap for my iPad, the streaming on that really is great, I highly recomend spending the money.

by Britbronco22 on May 24, 2011 11:53 AM MDT up reply actions

The Rockies need to stop sucking

Between graduation weekend, moving to a new city, and preparing to study for the bar exam I don’t really have time to formulate an opinion on how they can do that… but they should.

And it should be now.

by CarRo2010 on May 23, 2011 11:37 PM MDT reply actions

I'd say that analysis is pretty spot on. ; )

by AbsenteeRoxFAn on May 23, 2011 11:53 PM MDT up reply actions

Visiting Dbacks fan here

I’m looking forward to a good series against you guys. Just as a quick note, Mora’s back from bereavement and should be back for this series (source).

Also, the x-rays on Juan Miranda’s wrist came up negative, so he should be good to go against the Rockies as well.

Rest In Peace: Me (2008-2010)

Good luck keeping your upper lip warm without MY help, Mr. Zavada.

by Zavada's Moustache on May 24, 2011 12:05 AM MDT reply actions

Welcome, thank's for the updates!

by AbsenteeRoxFAn on May 24, 2011 12:15 AM MDT up reply actions

Here is’ ZM’s series preview for the Pit

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

by Andrew T. Fisher on May 24, 2011 7:34 AM MDT up reply actions

We only face one of the "Cerberus of Suck"?

Great use of the language ZM, thanks for sharing. Hope that whole Melvin Mora thing works out for you guys.

Fear the Smeth

by azdenfan on May 24, 2011 8:18 AM MDT up reply actions

Yeah,

and you skip Hudson, he of the 2.59 FIP.

Screw Mora, though.

HEY, FRENCHY! STAR TREK OR STAR WARS?

by DbacksSkins on May 24, 2011 9:35 AM MDT up reply actions

Two questions about Kennedy

Do we think the .251 BABIP makes him a good regression candidate? I only ask because last year it was .256 over 194 IP and it’s .264 for his career. Given the pedestrian 40.9 % GB rate is this a case of a young pitcher’s career being a small sample size?

Second, is the dramatic drop in HR/9 sustainable (1.21 last year to .68 now). Is a rise in GB rate from 37.1% to 40.9% enough to make that legit? or is this too a good spot to look for regression?

Anyway just thought his great numbers deserved a closer look, His fangraphs page for anyone interested

by AbsenteeRoxFAn on May 24, 2011 12:15 AM MDT reply actions

He's

also lowered his walk rate nearly a full one per 9 over 2010. He’d only given up 3 HRs all season prior to his last time out. (When he gave up two)

HEY, FRENCHY! STAR TREK OR STAR WARS?

by DbacksSkins on May 24, 2011 9:39 AM MDT up reply actions

Series

I’m nervous about this series for a few reasons. (1) We always struggle against the NL West. (2) The Dbacks are playing really well right now. (3) Are offense is a complete mess and no one has confidence.

Like someone else said, hopefully Cargo can get hot and carry us this series, because I’m losing faith in Tulo turning it around.

- Attending Rockies game on 28 May vs St. Louis Cardinals

by EssentialCo on May 24, 2011 4:55 AM MDT reply actions