vs.
Casey Coleman's 2011 debut start in place of the injured Randy Wells this past Sunday at Milwaukee was described by somebody at Rotoworld as "underwhelming, but not awful" after he gave up nine hits, including a pair of home runs (to Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun) and a pair of doubles, walking one and striking out two in five innings. I think whoever put that too kind description in might have been a relative. Of his 13 outs in play, four were described as deep flyballs to the outfield or lineouts. He's a finesse RHP whose average fastball is 89.3 mph, and as that start against the Brewers shows, he's quite hittable. Like any pro that makes it to this level, Coleman's probably capable of putting up a surprisingly strong performance on occasion, even against quality teams, but with the Rockies own 8th starter on the depth chart scheduled to take the mound tomorrow, it would behoove Colorado's offense to not let that surprisingly strong performance come against them tonight.
Meanwhile, Jason Hammel has been a bit slow coming out of the gate himself with a 4.91 ERA and averaging less than six IP a start in his first two outings. With Esmil Rogers and Greg Reynolds pitching very well for the Rockies, and Aaron Cook recovering from a hand injury, Hammel could find himself a roster target if he doesn't get straightened out. His last start against the Mets on Monday was a bit more positive than his first start against the Dodgers, but still only bottom of the rotation worthy in a pitcher's park. He too has been hittable in the early stages of the season, and against both LA and NY has had issues with elevating his pitches in the strike zone.
GO ROCKIES!!!
I'm going to be out of town and unavailable during the game this evening, so I'll pre-schedule a couple of overflows that will become live at the following times (though not on the front page, go to the Rockies Game Threads tag page to see them) as well as a postgame thread that will have to serve as a placeholder for the wrap which will be written and posted in the wee hours of the night (probably around 1:00 am, MDT). When they do post, if somebody could paste the link into the previous thread to guide other users over, I would greatly appreciate it.
OVERFLOW #1: 9:00 MDT
OVERFLOW #2: 10:15 MDT
Postgame (or extra innings) thread: 11:30 MDT