Last night Clint Barmes performed like he was meant for the 2009 starting second base and lead-off role, pushing the Rockies to a 15-6 thumping of the San Francisco Giants. Barmes homered, doubled, hit two singles, walked once and stole two bases. Unfortunately, even with last night's performance, Barmes was only able to raise his road OBP to a paltry .285, which is just a notch below Houston's .286, the worst lead-off OBP in the National League this season. The league lead is Florida at .387, over the course of the 350 PA's representing a full season of full time Barmes on the road, you're talking about an extra 30 outs or so that Barmes would generate over the league average. So in spite of Clint's work yesterday, it's no wonder that the Rockies will be looking for an offseason upgrade at second. John Perrotto mentioned Mark Ellis and Dan Uggla yesterday, both players who have had somewhat the opposite experience of Barmes this season in that their home parks have served to suppress the production that they have shown on the road. Ellis should be a reasonably priced free agent, while Uggla figures to be awarded just south of $5 million in arbitration and would cost a couple of valuable young players in a trade to the Marlins to boot.
Todd Helton has made the decision to undergo back surgery, with the expectation that he'll be ready to resume baseball activities by Spring Training.
Congratulations to the Diamondbacks Mark Reynolds for breaking the single season strikeout record. Way to go, Mark, here's hoping for even greater achievement in this category next season. I just don't think he's reached the pinnacle of his whiffy awesomeness yet. In losing, the Snakes also gave the Dodgers reason to celebrate.
Jhoulys Chacin ranked as the SAL's fourth best prospect and the California League's fifth best prospect according to Baseball America. Darin Holcomb ranked #17 in the SAL. Subscribers can see where league managers and scouts took issue with Chacin, it mostly comes down to not consistently cracking 90 mh on his sinker.