The Rockies continue to search for a replacement for Duane Espy at hitting coach, and reading various reports, it's looking more like that Gary "Kid" Carter is emerging as the frontrunner. The Rockies wouldn't be his first choice, though, as he seems to be wanting to stay with the Mets organization if they were willing to offer him a job at the big league level. At the moment, Willie Randolph doesn't appear to have any staff vacancies to fill, though, meaning the path to hiring Carter seems to be clear for the Rockies should they take it. The wild card for Carter is Mets third base coach Manny Acta, who's drawing strong interest from the Nationals and Giants in their searches for a new skipper. Should Acta leave the Mets, they might reconsider promoting Carter, leaving the Rockies once again in the role of bridesmaid.
Jamie Quirk, meanwhile, is emerging as a finalist in the Athletics' search for a new manager, with an interview scheduled with Billy Beane next Wednesday. If he goes, one more vacancy on the coaching staff will open up, meaning other finalists for the Rockies' hitting and first base coach openings will probably be reconsidered.
Minors News:
Minor League Baseball's Lisa Winston has done a Rockies system overview. It's a good resource with some nice audio and video clips compiled of our top prospects' work.
Dragon Lo rebounded with a nice start his last outing, allowing just one run in five innings after strugglng through most of the Hawaii Winter League season thus far. Eric Young and Dexter Fowler continue to shine at the plate and on the basepaths, and Duke Sardinha's enjoyed his homecoming with a couple of dingers.
In the AFL, Troy Tulowitzki continues to hit, with an average of .357 after yesterday's two for four performance. Tulo had a double among those two hits for only his third extra base hit of the campaign. I still think that loss of power is a side effect from his hurt thumb, so expect it to rebound next Spring. Matt Miller went zero for four to see his average drop to just .233 after a strong start. Jim Miller struck out the side in his only inning and Justin Speier also pitched a scoreless inning in the five to nothing win. Joe Koshansky's also struggled in the AFL with a .182 batting average thus far, but don't get too wrapped up in the stats from these performances.
Choo Freeman's been on a two for fifteen slide to bring his average down to .440 in the Mexican League. I'm not that up to date on others in our system in MExico or Venezuela, so I'll try to provide further details on them by Saturday.
Baseball America has several Rockies ranked among their top prospects by position, subscribers to the website can see exactly where these players rank, but I'll at least tell you who's on their lists:
Chris Iannetta
Joe Koshansky
Troy Tulowitzki
Jonathan Herrera
Chris Nelson
Ian Stewart
Dexter Fowler
Franklin Morales