Two pitchers likely to land in the starting rotation may get a chance to play today.
Tyler Matzek is the scheduled starter and the pressure on him to continue to develop the way we saw at the end of 2014 increases with each newly announced trip to the DL for the Rockies pitching staff. Those frequent trips have also paved the way for Chad Bettis to make his way into the rotation to begin 2015, according to Nick Groke of the Denver Post.
#Rockies vs. #Giants pic.twitter.com/5xhMtQFJlg
— Thomas Harding (@harding_at_mlb) March 31, 2015
Bettis will get a chance to pitch today, according to Groke, only if Matzek is taken out of the game early, which would be both a body blow to this team and also not entirely unexpected giving the recent trends of both injuries and ineffectiveness the Rockies have seen on the mound.
There is a lot more to get excited about when looking at the lineup, though, both in terms of personnel and structure.
The crew is what Rockies fans are likely to see as the regular starting lineup (y'know until more people get hurt) and features for the first time in a while, a grouping of Troy Tulowitzki, Carlos Gonzalez, and Corey Dickerson.
In fun structure news, the pitcher (Matzek) is batting eighth again and Troy Tulowitzki is in the second spot. Charlie Blackmon is leading off which relegates Corey Dickerson to the sixth spot in the lineup, which might make him the best six-hole hitter in the NL.
I would swap Blackmon and Dickerson, but otherwise love this lineup (on both offense and defense, by the way) and it should be exciting to see them all out there as a unit today.
The Giants are also presumably playing people today, but it's spring training so I don't care about them.