The Marlins are trapped in a fire! ...sale, and while the big prizes were already snatched up by the Blue Jays, the leftovers rumored to be available include pitcher Ricky Nolasco, who the Rockies had interest in trading for last winter, and as Troy Renck tweets, figures to be on the Colorado's wish list this off season as well. Nolasco had a peak season in 2008 as a 25 year old, but hasn't replicated that success since. He has seen his K/9 numbers drop from a high of 9.5 in 2009 to the rather low 5.9 figure he had last year, but at the same time he's seen his GB rate improve from a low of 38.3% to 2012's 46.6%. As such, he's now a run of the mill innings eater, nothing special, but still better than a lot of what the Rockies got last season. Nolasco's consistently looked better in advanced fielding independent statistics like FIP than his actual results have shown. He is also familiar with new Rockies director of pitching operations Mark Wiley, having retweeted news of Wiley's hire a couple of weeks ago, while maintaining radio silence on other Marlins moves.
Nolasco would be an interesting get for the Rockies, as he's probably at a buy low point and as long as he's not seen as the centerpiece of the off-season and the cost in prospect talent was fair, I'd be fine with the move. The team's pitching needs all the support it can get. However, the Rockies really should also focus on trading for a higher caliber of starter if they want to be serious about turning the team around.
Rockies franchise saves leader Brian Fuentes retired from baseball for personal reasons. Fuentes had 115 career saves with the Rockies and was a three time All-Star with the team, which gave him two more appearances in the mid-summer classic than any other Rockies pitcher. Fuentes was likely deserving of the honor too, as when situation leverage is considered, Fuentes' Rockies career stacks up well with any other pitcher not named Ubaldo.
Jhoulys Chacin struck out six last night in Venezuelan winter league action. Chacin also gave up a two run home run and walked three in five innings, but only allowed three hits and had a 6/2 GO/AO ratio. In other Fall/Winter league action, Corey Dickerson helped lead Salt River to the Arizona Fall League title game for the second straight season. Dickerson went 4 for 4 and extended his hitting streak to 12 games as the Rafters clinched a division title.