I'll write the Pebble Report and the promised (and late) positives at each level report later, but I wanted to get the conversation going with this first.

First of all, a win is a win is a win, if I might mangle Gertrude Stein a bit, but one run squeakers like last night's aren't a very good indication that the team has turned a corner just yet. Unless a team's as lucky as the D-backs circa 2007, and we all know the Rockies in 2008 aren't anywhere close to that fortunate, seasons aren't won or lost by the close contests. Instead, a team's mettle will be measured in how many times it clobbers the opponent, compared to how many times the clobbering is inflicted upon it. Last season the Rockies split their one run contests, 19-19, while going 29-18 in games decided by five runs or more. This year, they're more or less even again in one run games, 7-6 after last night, but are just 5-9 in the blowouts. If the team is any good, it will become evident when they turn that second figure to a plus.

In order to do that, the Rox will need more innings like last night's eighth -to make a blowout you typically need at least two big innings in a game- and more pitching performances like those Aaron Cook's been giving us. This is all self evident, but stick with me and hopefully I'll get somewhere with this.

So let's go back to the set-up of last night's eighth. The top of the lineup -Willy T, Q, and Holliday- were set to face rookie Kyle McClellan. Taveras hasn't been hitting well this year, Quintanilla's been ripping since his call-up, and Holliday just rips, so the outcome of the first three was sort of predictable. Taveras struck out against the rookie, Quintanilla shot a groundball through the defense up the middle, and Holliday lined a triple deep the other way against a slightly shifted outfield. The only problem with this picture is that we had a guy who's getting out more than two thirds of the time -but he saved a run or two defensively last night- leading off. That first batter, first out scenario always drastically reduces a team's scoring chances.

Anyway, let's go on: next up, Helton. At this point to minimize the damage, La Russa used a common strategy against the Rockies, switching in your best LHP for the Helton/Atkins/Hawpe trio. With one out already, all Randy Flores needed to do was retire the two lefties to end the inning, he could pitch around Atkins. Helton popped out weakly, Atkins walked, and then Hurdle went to this best bat off the bench, Ryan Spilborghs, with two outs to try and get Holliday home. Now LaRussa had an issue, he could stick with Flores, who's allowing a .417 OBP to right handers this year, and has given up a .310/.387/.475 line against them in his career, or he could go to Jason Isringhausen, who had been warming up for the ninth. This was the first time Isringhausen had entered in the eighth inning this season, and this is where I've got to give Hurdle some credit for making TLR squirm. Batting Spilly was absolutely the right decision, and we can probably be thankful that Spilborghs in his career had been a perfect one for one with an RBI single against Flores for making it happen. If it had been Baker or Torrealba with the lone hit off Randy, Hurdle might have been tempted to use one of them instead.

At any rate, Spilly singles in Holliday, and Iannetta triples in both Spilborghs and Atkins to give us that lead. It would make sense that the five players responsible for that rally -Quintanilla, Holliday, Atkins, Spilborghs and Iannetta are five of our best performers this year. All we were lacking was a cameo by Scott Podsednik. So there's the secret to having big innings: GIVE YOUR BEST HITTERS THE MOST CHANCES.

Huh, I thought it might be harder than that.

On to pitching. Also important in manufacturing blowouts is giving up fewer than four runs a game, and so far we've only had one starter capable of this. The big news yesterday was that Greg Reynolds got pulled from his start in Colorado Springs in order to be ready to go Sunday in his MLB debut. Let's make a list of starters this season:

1. Jeff Francis
   
2. Kip Wells
   
3. Aaron Cook
4. Ubaldo Jimenez
5. Mark Redman
   
6. Franklin Morales
7. Jorge De La Rosa
8. as of Sunday, Greg Reynolds

Jason Hirsh will make it nine when he returns. If we trade or troll the waiver wires for someone like Josh Fogg, we'll reach double digits. Believe it or not with all the turnover that occurred at the end of the season, the Rockies didn't use their eighth starter in 2007 until Jimenez pitched on July 19. In that 2008 group, we've got three, soon to be four pitchers in the young, inconsistent phase of their careers, two in the old, ineffective and washed up phase, and what should be our two standbys in Cook and Francis. Francis is a veteran now, a leader, and he should be more consistent than this. Without a real step forward on what he's been doing this season, the Rockies are in trouble. You can blame the rest all you want, but the fact is we need and expect more from Jeff to be competitive. The others are actually meant to be cheap and interchangeable to the point we could stick with the hot hand, should one emerge. It's come to the point that I'm hoping that Reynolds will be that calm and stable, innings eating performer to buffet the ups and downs of the rest of the rotation and it shouldn't be that way.

Anyway, at least I know that Reynolds has the talent to be that guy, but it's a heck of a lot to ask for a rookie. Jeff, step up so the pressure's off him, okay?

Omar Quintanilla may have to compete with Garrett Atkins for playing time at second after last night, but nonetheless Q gets one more shot at showing he's more than just a very good AAA player that can't make the jump to the MLB level. Fortunately for Q, perhaps, but a little more troubling for the rest of us is the fact that he actually figures to get a lot of PT with both Troy Tulowitzki and Jeff Baker going down with injuries last night.

Everything's pretty much blown up right now. Thoroughly demolished and the Rockies will certainly have to be creative to patch this stretch of games together. That's even before we get to the rotation issues for Saturday. As far as that goes, the options seem to be Josh Towers or Jorge de la Rosa . I would figure Jose Capellan is another option since he was used as a starter in Colorado Springs.

With Atkins and Iannetta's position switches, last night's game was truly a memorable one, and should go down in the Rockies all time weird games along with Brent Mayne's pitching performance and the Spring Training bee game among others. As is usually the case with those, it's made particularly special by the improbable win. One positive side effect from it, a silver lining to losing Tulo, might be that  this loosens the team up a bit. Thank goodness we were playing the Giants and not a real MLB team.

Colorado Springs, W 9-0 - Seth Smith and Omar Quintanilla had their first homers of the season in this rout of Nashville last night. Smith, who had four RBI, hit a three-run homer in the first, and Quintanilla, who had three RBI, had a two-run shot in the sixth. Cory Sullivan and Joe Koshansky drove in the other two runs.

John Koronka held Nashville to three hits over seven innings. Matt Daley allowed the only other hit before Steven Register struck out two batters in the ninth.

Tulsa, L 5-6 - The Drillers scored four runs in the first inning off a Dexter Fowler RBI double, a Daniel Carte RBI single, and a Jeff Dragicevich two-run home run. In the fourth, Daniel Carte doubled in Chris Nelson to tie the game at five. Unfortunately that was all the scoring for the Drillers last night. To open the fifth inning, Springfield's Luke Gossett hit a homer to left field to gain the lead.

Xavier Cedeno pitched for five innings, allowed six runs on nine hits and four walks, and struck out four. Jarrett Grube, Adam Bright, and Jon George combined to allow three baserunners over the next four innings, but did not give up any hits.

With Eric Young Jr. out with a broken bone in his wrist, Corey Wimberly now plays second. Find out the call up to Tulsa in the Modesto section.

Modesto, W 11-7 - Mike McKenry and Mike Paulk hit their second home runs of the season (three-run variety) and had four RBI each. Tony Blanco hit a mammoth home run to cap a short run with the Nuts. He will play for Tulsa as a result of EY Jr.'s injury. In the seventh, Cole Garner had an RBI double and Matt Repec singled in Garner. Garner also stole two bases last night.

Shane Lindsay threw four innings of four-run, six-hit ball. He walked three and struck out seven. Brandon Durden picked up the win after pitching the fifth and sixth innings. He allowed a run. Andy Graham surrendered two more runs and collected only one out before leaving the game. Will Harris struck out three in 1 2/3 IP. Tommy Baumgardner walked and struck out one in the ninth inning.

Asheville W 6-3 - Helder Velazquez's bat beat Augusta last night as he hit a grand slam in the seventh inning and had an RBI single earlier the game. Brian Rike drove in the other run and walked twice. Everth Cabrera had two hits and stole his 14th base. Mike Mitchell went 3-for-5 with a double, and Darin Holcomb's two hits went for doubles.

Bruce Billings went seven innings, allowed two runs on six hits and two walks, and struck out struck out seven. Randall Taylor picked up his sixth save.

Colorado Springs: W 12-3

It's been written in other places that now that the Rockies are the defending National League champs, that they no longer have the luxury to sit around and wait while rookies like Jayson Nix struggle to find their bats and become valuable assets to the team. After going zero for six last night, and five for forty thus far in April, Nix's time to prove himself worthy is running out . Says Clint Hurdle:

"He needs to play sooner or later. And if I don't play him, I have to move him. I plan on playing him."

Moving him meaning most likely more than just a trip down I-25 to Colorado Springs, as the Rockies would probably attempt to deal him rather than risking losing him to waivers. Why I bring this up here is because if Nix gets moved, Omar Quintainilla will get an opportunity to take his 25-man roster space. Clint Barmes would likely move into the starting second base slot, leaving a void at the utility position -which Quintanilla would fill as he can play both short and second with aplomb. Last night, Q went four for five, raising his average on the season to .356 and his OBP to .496. He's not going to do that in Denver, and he's showing a huge out of character spike in his BABIP that suggests that he's not even going to do it in the Springs for the rest of the season, but the idea of turning an automatic out into a fifty-fifty probability of a player being safe piques my interest, at least.

I'd say that we've got two or three more weeks before we absolutely have to do something, but a surge by the Diamondbacks or a long losing streak (five out of the last six might qualify) should force the issue sooner.

As for the game, the Sky Sox won with a nine run sixth inning that saw Joe Koshansky and Sean Barker score twice, once on a botched throw from the opposing catcher after a Chris Frey bunt attempt and ensuing Quintanilla single, and the second time when Barker hit a three run shot to cap the scoring.

Tulsa: L 12-4

The first time through the lineup, the Drillers hit Mark Mulder pretty well, scoring three runs in the first inning. After that, their bats were mostly silent apart from the fifth inning solo shot by Matt Miller. Meanwhile, Springfield put a hurt on Alan Johnson and Edward Valdez, scoring eleven of the twelve runs and generating sixteen of their seventeen hits off those two.

Modesto: L 2-0

Will Harris finally allowed his first run of the season - it was bound to happen sometime- as he and Andrew Graham failed to maintain the excellent work and shutout put in by Aneury Rodriguez (seven innings, two singles, six K's, one walk). Not that it mattered, the Nuts once again forgot to bring an offense to the ballgame outside of veteran minor league journeyman and recent pickup Tony Blanco who had a double and single.

Asheville: W 11-3

The fireworks started early as the Tourists pounded out fourteen hits against Greenville. Darin Holcomb (6), Michael Mitchell (2), Everth Cabrera (2), and Jeff Cunningham (3) all homered. Cabrera's and Mitchell's blasts were back to back solo shots to lead off the top of the first and set the stage for Cunningham's three run blast. Holcomb wound up finishing a triple shy of a cycle, Rike doubled, tripled and walked and scored three times, Mitchell and Cabrera each scored three as well and Cabrera even had his twelfth stolen base. It was definitely a pad your stats kind of day for the T's. 's Darin now leads the South Atlantic League in extra base hits with fourteen, and is second in the Sally (to Matt Cusick, fight on Matt!) in OPS with his sparkling 1.134 number. Brian Rike's eighth with a .927 OPS. Holcomb, Rike and Cabrera are all in the top ten in OBP as well.

Jhoulys Chacin, meanwhile, had another quality start. He pitched a solid six and a third, allowed three runs (two earned) on five hits and a walk with seven K's.

Colorado Springs, L 4-11 - Ooof! Victor Zambrano got lit up last night. Through the first two innings of the game, Zambrano allowed only a homer and a walk. Then came the third inning. He pitched to eight batters without recording an out. He surrendered two doubles, a triple, a homer, and a wild pitch that inning. All together, he allowed eight runs (seven earned). Omar Quintanilla had a fielding error during the second at-bat in that long frame. Juan Morillo pitched the next two innings, allowed three runs on three hits, two walks, and two wild pitches. He struck out three. Chris George, Matt Daley, and Steven Register held Sacramento scoreless over the remaining innings. Daley struck out four during his two innings of relief.

Edwin Bellorin (2) and Ian Stewart (6) had homers last night. Seth Smith doubled in Omar Quintanilla for his only hit of the night. Q had three hits to go along with his error.

Tulsa, W 8-3 - Chris Nelson drove in four runs last night on a ground out, a single, and a two-run single. The other Nelson, Justin, went 3-for-3 with two doubles and two runs scored. Dexter Fowler drove in two runs while Daniel Carte had a double and three strikeouts. EY Jr. (8), Corey Wimberly (8), and Chris Nelson (2) each stole a base.

Tomas Santiago limited his opponents to one run on three hits over five innings. He struck out seven, walked two, and threw two wild pitches. Luis Gonzalez walked two and allowed no hits, but gave up two runs (one earned). Adam Bright and Jarrett Grube had clean sheets last night.

Modesto, W 5-1 - Esmil Rogers turned in a great start for the win by the time he reached his pitch limit in the sixth inning (51/3 IP). He allowed one run on four hits and three walks. He struck out eight batters. Brandon Durden made his second appearance of the season and pitched a clean frame. David Patton and Tommy Baumgardner combined to strike out four batters over the last 2 2/3 IP.

Every Nuts batter had at least one hit last night. Jay Cox, Matt Repec, and newcomer Tony Blanco had two-hit nights (a double each for Blanco and Repec). Anthony Jackson, Jason Van Kooten, Victor Ferrante (on a triple), Nelson Robledo, and Cox drove in the runs. Jackson stole his seventh base.

Asheville, W 11-6 - It was a good night for Asheville homers tonight. Jeff Cunningham hit his second of the season (two-run), Kevin Clark his third (two-run), Helder Velazquez his second (solo), and Lars Davis his third (three-run). Cunningham had two more RBI in the ninth off a single, and Velazquez had an RBI triple in the game. Brian Rike, though he did not have a hit, walked three times, and Clark walked twice and scored three times. David Christensen stole his third base after getting to first via the walk in the ninth.

Sheng-An Kuo didn't have the best of  starts. He allowed five runs (three earned) on ten hits over 4 2/3 IP. He walked two and struck out two. Joey Williamson went out for 1 2/3 IP and struck out five batters. He allowed one of the two inherited runners to score. Craig Rodriguez allowed the runner he inherited from Williamson to score and blow the lead. He struck out three in 1 2/3 IP. Randall Taylor struck out two to end the game.

Colorado Springs, L 2-6 - A Seth Smith sac fly in the first to score Q and Sean Barker's moving around the bases in the ninth on wild pitches after a double to start the inning were all the runs the Sky Sox got last night. Q walked three times and had his first stolen base.

Victor Zambrano went 4 2/3 IP, walked four, and allowed four runs on seven hits. Josh Newman allowed the other two runs in 2/3 IP. Matt Daley, Juan Morillo, and Steven Register held their opponent hitless for the rest of the game. Register struck out all three batters he faced.

Tulsa, W 4-3 - The balls soared out of the park last night during the Drillers' home opener, as the two teams combined for four home runs. Dexter Fowler had two of them (two-run and solo), his first two of the season. Matt Miller had his first homer of the season.

It was a quality outing for Brandon Hynick after he pitched six innings and allowed three runs over six innings. He struck out five and walked only one. The three runs came off a two-run homer in the third and a solo blast in the sixth. Kaz Matsui collected two doubles off of Hynick. Ryan Mattheus threw two shutout innings of relief before giving way to Pedro Strop in the ninth. Strop struck out one on the way to his first save of the season.

The Tulsa World has some quotes from Fowler and by Bo McLaughlin on Brandon Hynick.

Modesto, L 1-9 - Except for Andy Graham, three other Modesto pitchers had trouble finding the strike zone last night. Starter Simon Ferrer walked seven in three-plus innings. He walked four in the two-run first, none in the second, two in the third, and one in the fourth before giving way to Zach Simons, who walked three batters in that inning. Simons settled down over the next  three innings by not walking another batter, but he gave up two runs to go along with Ferrer's three. James Burok allowed four runs in the eighth, three coming off Sean Doolittle's second homer of the night (he had a two-run shot the previous inning off Simons). He also walked two. Graham struck out one in the ninth inning.

The Nuts had three hits last night. Anthony Jackson had a triple in the eighth and then scored on a wild pitch.

Brian VanderBeek has an interesting interview with Daniel Mayora in his latest entry.

Asheville, L 1-3 - Brian Rike has taken well to the Sally League. After eight games, Rike has four homers, his latest coming last night and accounting for the only Tourist run last night. Darin Holcomb had his fourth double in the losing effort. Everth Cabrera stole his sixth base of the season.

Cory Riodran made his second start and lasted 6 1/3 innings. Three runs crossed home plate on eight hits. He struck out four and walked two. Craig Rodriguez pitched a hitless 1 2/3 innings to finish out the game

Night of the Pitcher:

Colorado Springs: L 6-5

Don't blame Greg Reynolds for this one, he rebounded nicely from his disastrous opening day start, pitching five innings and giving up just two runs on four hits. Don't blame Matt Daley, even though he took the loss after a Terry Tiffee solo homerun gave the 51's the difference maker. That was the only hit, only baserunner Daley allowed in an inning and two thirds in his AAA debut. Nope, blame for this one rests solely on the wild shoulders of Juan Morillo, who came in at the start of the sixth with a four to two lead, and left one out later with the game tied and the bases loaded. Daley allowed one more Morillo run to score on a sac fly, but otherwise cleaned up the mess admirably. At this point, however, the mess that Morillo's control issues are leaving our bullpen depth with might call for some professional help.

At this point, we'll want to praise Omar Quintanilla, who had another pair of doubles, and another pair of  walks yesterday. Q's only had two K's in 29 PA's thus far, it's a fantastic contact rate, and he's hit safely in all six games -four times with multiple hits- but unless he starts to rack up a lot more games like last night, it's probably safe to assume that at the moment he's still just AAAron Miles redux. Granted, the way Jayson Nix has started the year, that's probably preferable, but let's wait a while longer before really talking about that option.

Tulsa: L 4-3

Alan Johnson, like Reynolds, rebounded from a subpar initial outing with a sharp six innings yesterday. Johnson allowed just one run on six hits and a walk. He only struck out one, but he did a much better job of keeping his pitches down and had his usual command. Of course, like Reynolds, he handed his lead over to an erratic bullpen member who coughed it up. In this case, Edward Valdez, who had been in the Yankees Nationals system before this season, actually got through one inning unscathed before being hammered in the next frame. The three runs were enough to allow San Antonio to avoid being swept by the Drillers. Daniel Carte doubled and homered (3) and drove in two, Dexter Fowler hit his third triple on the season, Eric Young and Corey Wimberly both do what they do well, got hits and stole bases, and Jeff Kindel doubled and walked, so it appears the Driller offense is starting to kick into gear.

Modesto: W 1-0 (10)

While those first two starting pitching performances were solid, these last two were nothing short of brilliant. Esmil Rogers went seven innings, striking out seven and allowing just five hits (no walks!) and only one for extra bases. On the season, Rogers now has pitched twelve innings with nine K's, eight hits and three walks, giving up just one solo homer for a sparkling 0.75 ERA. In the fifth inning last night , he showed some remarkable poise under pressure, as well. Two leadoff singles left runners on first and third with none out, but he induced a comeback grounder that he fielded, looked the lead runner back to third and fired to get the force out at second. The next batter grounded into an inning ending double play and the shutout was preserved.

Daniel Mayora has had a miserable start to his season -he had just one hit heading into play yesterday- but he proved the offensive hero last night with a lead-off triple in the tenth and scored on a subsequent Jay Cox hit.

BTW, one of the ways Mike McKenry helps his teams is just by making the opponents less willing to run and test his arm. In their first four games, San Jose was ten for eleven in stolen base attempts. In two games against Modesto thus far, they're one for one, but the rate drop from nearly three attempts per game to just half of one is telling.

Dan O'Dowd was at Modesto yesterday to present NL Championship rings to Nuts coaches and staff. As Brian VanderBeek says, it's a nifty gesture that the team doesn't have to do, but knowing how we rely on our farm for success, it certainly has merit.

Asheville: W 2-0

Jhoulys Chacin had a perfect game going two outs into the sixth, and wound up pitching eight innings, allowing just three hits, a walk, an HBP and striking out nine. He gets front page treatment this morning at Milb.com and I'm sure Baseball America will take some notice as well. Chacin still hasn't allowed a run in fourteen innings pitched now, one start in hitter friendly Asheville, one in relatively neutral Kannapolis, so it's not like he's been taking advantage of PETCO-esque ballparks. Chacin definitely seems to be the first under the radar Rockies prospect to grab the national spotlight in 2008.

Craig Baker's been lights out so far this year as well, with six K's in three innings, he picked up his first save last night in the win. Brian Rike scored both Tourist runs, one on a homer in the eighth, one after a single and Kevin Clark double in the sixth.

Minor announcement:

I've started to write a weekly farm report blog with the Rocky Mountain News, but I might have made a mistake with their posting platform so it's not up yet. I'll try and link it when it is. You'll note that they made me give up my pen name for that blog, but my e-mail's still the same. Newspapers are so stodgy that way. Danielle Steel uses a pen name, Ben Franklin had several, why can't I? Anyway, there's that.

Colorado Springs: W 7-6

Ian Stewart's was the only slot in the Colorado Springs lineup to not get a hit last night, as even John Koronka made payback for Randy Johnson's two hits the night before with a single, double and two RBI. Humberto Cota had four hits and drove in three, and Omar Quintanilla a pair of doubles in the win.

Tulsa: L 15-5

If any ten run blow out could be considered not as bad as it looks on paper, this one probably qualifies. Brandon Hynick had a bad outing true and his fabled command was off, but the contact against him was weak for the most part, with a lot of bloop singles and soft liners falling in front of the outfield contributing the biggest chunk of the damage off of him last night. Offensively, Dexter Fowler was impressive, with three singles, a stolen base and a long out to left center that would likely have been a homerun in Whataburger Stadium the night before when the wind was blowing out instead of in. Chris Nelson also had a pair of hits, and Neil Wilson three, including a double. Eric Young Jr. broke up his zero for 2008 with a one for five performance. EY also stole a base for the 200th time in his professional career. Daniel Carte followed his two HR performance the night before with a three strikeout performance last night, as Corpus Christi pitchers fed him a steady diet of high heat (often too high) that he couldn't lay off of.

Modesto: L 9-1

The Stockton Ports rotation was dubbed the best in the minors by BA's Ben Badler in a chat yesterday, the performance Henry Rodriguez came up with last night against our beloved Nuts gives an indication why, as he pitched five innings, striking out eight while allowing just three hits and three walks. Our own Rodriguez, Aneury, couldn't match him -unless this was a poker game- lasting only three innings with a pair of sixes (hits and runs allowed) and a pair of jacks. Anthony Jackson continues to impress playing with the home team, walking three times, stealing two bases, and getting a single in five AB's. Mike McKenry and Jay Cox each had their first two hits of the season for Modesto. One of McKenry's was a double off Rodriguez.

Daniel Mayora played shortstop and Nick Haley second for the Nuts, as Hector Gomez was held out as a matter of precaution after x-rays on his shin came back negative according to Brian VanDerBeek at the ModBee's Nuts blog. Gomez is expected to miss a couple of games, but the good news is that it's nothing serious.

Asheville: Postponed

Rain across the Atlantic seaboard forced many games into postponement last night, the game will be made up tonight as part of a shortened double-header. Jason McGill predicts Darin Holcomb will go for the cycle.