Thursday Rockpile: Drew Pomeranz learned how to pitch in 2011, now he needs to get back to throwing heat

Jeff Aberle wanted more attention given to the Rockies more promising young rotation candidates than to the veteran Jamie Moyer, and when Aberle speaks, the Associated Press listens as Drew Pomeranz' candidacy for the rotation is put into focus. While there are positive platitudes spun by Pomeranz and Bob Apodaca about the pitcher "learning to pitch" while his velocity was down in his short 2011 Rockies stint, Pomeranz gets closer to the issue with this statement:

"I really wasn't myself because of the whole end of the season," Pomeranz said. "My fastball was down a little bit. I kind of wasn't in rhythm with myself because I hadn't thrown very much."

Being frank, his fastball needs to have the 95 mph velocity and life shown in Cleveland for Pomeranz to be an effective MLB pitcher at this stage of his career. He could ask the old man Moyer, but the skills required to become an effective crafty lefty in the MLB take years of experience and learning at the top level. If Pomeranz wants to thrive in the MLB right now, he needs the ace like stuff to back him. While that velo shouldn't be expected at this point in Spring Training, if it's not getting flashed in a few weeks, the Rockies could be in for another long season without more promising developments elsewhere in the rotation.

Troy Tulowitzki is the new leader in the Rockies clubhouse. This is Tulo's team, despite all of the added leadership. Meanwhile, the Twins are running "Camp Cupcake" without the same type of team leadership they've had in the recent past, including prominently new Rockies outfielder Michael Cuddyer. I'm not sure where I'm going with this as I'm obviously far less cynical about the intangible aspects of the game than many on the Webz. It seems that the word "intangible" gets conflated with "imaginary" for some, when they are definitely two separate terms.

Ramon Hernandez, also a leader, and there you have a link to not prove it, but at least say so.

Off Topic

Aaron Weatherford was once a promising relief prospect for the Rockies and after missing the entire 2010 season recovering from shoulder surgery could still have been seen as a deep sleeper as late as a year ago. However, after missing the entire 2011 season as well, his release became almost inevitable.

Forbes magazine barely scratches the surface of most economic issues it writes about, and offers far less reporting insight than the amount of authoritative credit that it's given by the mainstream media that cites lists like the "Most Miserable Sports Cities" (which has Denver as the nation's 7th most miserable sports town in 2012.) Since that linked article brought up the Rockies, I'm using this post as a platform to rant about Forbes begging the question a bit with these self generated rankings as they later use this list to factor into other lists such as their "Most miserable cities to live" list, which then go on to factor into other lists, and so on. So while Denver teams haven't won championships lately, the comparatively robust attendance of said teams shows that fans really aren't that miserable in the town. Still, this is no excuse for you and your no division title ever ways, Rockies. Fix that and my counterarguments against this kind of fluff could get a lot stronger.

Speaking of the division, the Dodgers supposed 2nd place finish in the Prince Fielder sweepstakes underscores how quickly that particular well heeled rival could alter its outlook, especially once the ownership changes hands later this year. To switch to being Russ for a moment, this would be one of Donald Rumsfeld's looming "known unknowns" that will face the Rockies in coming years. The Dodgers will have money to spend at some point, and a solid enough foundation to have it make a significant impact on the division.

Forbes says we may be miserable as fans, but Yahoo!'s Mark Townsend lists the ten best things that say otherwise, at least as far as the Rockies are concerned.

Alright, that's enough for today. I've got to go make a list of the "Ten top reasons why human beings fall into the trap of clicking on list article links." Number one will probably be something to the effect of "We really want other people to do our research for us and not have to actually think about stuff."