So my dilemma about what to write on Saturday solved itself as yesterday I wound up too busy (I actually had real life company, woot!) to finish the bench/depth projections, so expect that today and the summary piece tomorrow.
HOT STOVE ALERT! HOT STOVE ALERT!
Right now, as a Rockies fan, you'd have to be elated if anything came of this rumor from Ringolsby at the RMN's blog which suggests that the Rockies could match up with the Twins to acquire Young. Since it would be elation on our part, something tells me that the rumor as presently constituted doesn't look likely. If I were a Twin fan, this would be easily laughed off in its current rumor state and hope crushingly mortifying were it to actually happen. However, let there be no doubt that Young's lost a considerable amount of the luster that had him the best prospect in baseball a few short seasons ago.
There's also a blog post about Garrett Atkins, who looks like a decent possibility to start the season with the Rox at this point. This echoes a piece in the Post by Patrick Saunders which quotes O'Dowd in saying that Todd Helton's health is a key factor in the decision. I know deacs and other users are against this keep Atkins for the start of 2009 idea; as he pointed out in Wednesday's Rockpile, there's a pretty clear downward slope to Atkins' production, but I still see a rebound to near 2007 numbers as a very likely scenario with Garrett. It wouldn't take much for a hot start to drive up his value, as right now, he's barely been looked at by clubs that have openings at third. While I know Atkins is not a good bet long term for the Rockies, I just don't envision a scenario where his value could get much lower in the first couple months of 2009 than it is now, while the possibilities of it getting higher are at least pretty decent.
As it stands, all of these recent whispers to the media have been giving us a pretty good idea of O'Dowd's vision for the team to start 2009:
- CF Spilborghs
- 1B Todd Helton
- 3B Atkins
- RF Hawpe
- C Chris Iannetta
- LF Stewart
- SS Tulo
- 2B Barmes or Baker
That would be your starting eight along with my best approximation of the lineup. Again, this isn't my preferred scenario, but it's just where the media reports seem to be taking us. It's a solid OBP driven offense as long as Helton's healthy. Like I was saying before, this will create the fewest outs in the division, and I think a lot of smart people outside of Colorado are underestimating how much power is actually in the 4-6 slots as well as leading off when they downplay our chances.