Today will be the memorial service for Keli McGregor, a couple of noteworthy articles about the man have come out:
- Remembering Keli McGregor - Amy K. Nelson at ESPN
- Rockies Reflect McGregor - Troy Renck at the Denver Post
- School of McGregor's daughter celebrates his life - Denver Post
Other:
- Tracy Ringolsby has a factoid column about the Marlins/Rockies series over the years since both teams entered the league together in 1993.
- Irv Moss has a Casey Weathers update as well as other (mostly previously reported) injury news from the minors
- Miguel Olivo's been taking the reins for the catcher slot so far.
Stuff, from the Rockies 2010 season so far, that I worry about:
- Carlos Gonzalez has fewer walks than Miguel Olivo. In fact, Carlos Gonzalez has zero walks, meaning his on base percentage is equal to his .317 batting average, which is part of the reason why our lead off hitters only rank tenth in the NL right now in OBP. Thanks to Dexter Fowler's struggles, the #2 slot ranks 12th in the league in getting on base. The table setters aren't getting their job done right now.
- Jason Hammel. As far as weak links on the pitching staff to have, Hammel isn't that bad. I mean look around the division and compare it to the performances of Todd Wellemeyer, Jon Garland, Charlie Haeger and the entire Diamondbacks bullpen thus far, the Rockies have it easy. Still, every other pitcher on the Rockies staff has had a quality outing or two under their belt in 2010, or in Greg Smith's case, as quality as we can reasonably expect, I'm not convinced that Hammel has yet. Until he does, I worry that he's taken a step backwards.
- Clint Barmes. To be useful, Barmes has to be better than this. Either his range and his glove have to improve greatly or his bat does, but as of right now the Rockies are likely better off starting Eric Young Jr, who has ten hits in his last 21 AB's in AAA. They may be likely better off starting Melvin Mora. So I'm guessing that the organizational clock on Barmes is ticking, and if he doesn't improve through the month of May, we might not see him for all of June.
Stuff I don't worry about:
- 9-9. The Rockies will have some quality win streaks this season, this seems to be a stretch of treading water before they take off. Let's try for an 11-7 on the next ninth of the season.
- Jason Giambi, Chris Iannetta. Their playing time has been far too sporadic to consider anything in their starts as meaningful.