Jim Armstrong provides a bio/background piece on Jhoulys Chacin, the 23 year old pitching machine for the Rockies that's been holding the rotation together this season.
After Chacin, however, things get kind of murky for the club's starting five, particularly this section with Aaron Cook and Juan Nicasio, which is why Dan O'Dowd has been exploring options for help from the outside. Troy Renck suggests that Wandy Rodriguez makes the most sense of those pitchers expected to be available prior to the trade deadline, and I'd tend to agree as he's an almost certain positive impact, whereas the other pitchers mentioned either are not quite so certain (Sanchez, Liriano) or come with too much baggage (Myers, Zambrano) to make them likely fits for the Rockies. Chips that Renck says the Rockies could use in a deal include Ian Stewart and Dexter Fowler and "any pitcher but Christian Friedrich." The wording adds to the growing number of implications that Stewart and Fowler have been and are actively being shopped by the club. It also gives a hint of how highly Friedrich is thought of within the organization.
Not mentioned as unavailable by Renck was Tyler Matzek, who had little to say to the Asheville Citizen Times about his struggles in 2011, but I would not hold that against him as he's in a place where too much introspection could be counterproductive to a recovery, and as pitching coach Joey Eischen says in the report, seems likely to be a cause of these struggles in the first place.
Today's Rockpile is getting cut short, but there are a couple of minor league related links after the jump.
Michael Marbry has impressed the Rockies this season, and hasn't been pushed up to Tulsa because there's no room.
Bill Geivett discussed Nicasio, Friedrich and more of the Rockies minor league talent with Barry Lewis of Tulsa.