Taylor Buchholz is the focus of this morning's stories after his effective three inning outing yesterday. It seems fairly certain that should he stay on the same course this Spring, the Rockies will keep him. Troy Renck indicates the bullpen is his most likely destination, which seemed like the least complicated path from before the start of camp. I don't know if the point I've been trying to make this offseason of having reserve starting depth for late in the year has sunk in yet, but if Hurdle's judicious in his use, Taylor would be another relatively fresh arm should we need him later.
More on Buchholz, as well as some good notes about what Aaron Cook was working on in the "B" game yesterday are in this article at the Rockies' official site by Owen Perkins.
Woody Paige has actually started to notice the Rockies have some talent now, yesterday it was a complimentary article on Brian Fuentes, today he picks up on Franklin Morales. See, I told you that the bandwagon would be getting crowded this season.
Ken Rosenthal chimes in with this roster tidbit:
The implication of Iannetta being the number one catcher thus far is pretty clear. Don't rest on your laurels, though, Chris. Both Yorvit and Javy are having decent Springs at the plate, if either one of them could come up with some more consistency behind it, Rosenthal's other point could become less true. At any rate, 2008 and Alvin Colina seem to be on a collision course, which is a fact I'm just fine with.
Both Rosenthal and Tracy Ringolsby once again squish any left over Todd Helton rumors. Ringolsby also wrote a piece about Danny Graves whose walk filled outing yesterday puts him on the path to cuts-ville.
Going back to the first Renck article linked today, from the Denver Post, I wanted to look into something:
Renck's bullpen math might be a little off, unless he knows something he's not saying about one of the other contenders.
Current Bullpen Projection:
Brian Fuentes
LaTroy Hawkins
Manny Corpas
Ramon Ramirez
Taylor Buchholz
Jeremy Affeldt
Tom Martin?
We could hope that Martin's on the outs after being ineffective thus far in camp -and ineffective whenever he pitched at Coors last season- but otherwise where this single open slot comes from is a mystery to me. Losing Corpas seems to be the only other possibility, as he still has minor league options the rest are out of, but his would be a hard arm to lose in favor of one of the aforementioned four.