Sunday Rockpile: It's too early to say, but I'm just saying...

Former Rockies player Cory Sullivan hit a grand slam to lead the Dodgers to victory yesterday. Jeff Salazar had a big game for the Rays earlier this week. Neither Sullivan nor Salazar have suddenly turned into worthwhile MLB players, it's just another sign that points to how much we should take the Rockies current Spring Training losing streak seriously. As Bryan Kilpatrick pointed out yesterday, so far we know nothing.

Well, we know that Michael Cuddyer is good at card tricks, photography, and likes breaking down opposing pitchers with Tulo, so let's just say that we know almost nothing.

What lessons can be learned will be found more in scouting assessments rather than the box-scores, and we should give a lot more credence to negative assessments than positive ones. That's why early reports on Wilin Rosario and Casey Blake ought to be a concern for Rockies fans at this point, while it will still be a bit too early to jump on the Brandon Wood bandwagon (but as I said earlier this winter, he's a considerably more serious candidate for the Opening Day roster than people are giving him credit for.)

In Troy Renck's piece (the first of the preceding paragraph,)we also see that Esmil Rogers and Eric Young Jr. have an uphill climb for the roster and that Matt Reynolds is no lock given Jim Tracy's penchant for creating matchups. Rogers and Young probably need to get traded within the next week or so if the Rockies are going to get any sort of return at all, as more teams are going to start waiting for the inevitable DFA instead. Don't expect much beyond cash considerations in return, as the Rockies will likely be lowballed without any trade leverage.

In keeping with the "negative news trumps positive news early in the Spring" theme, there's a bit that we can learn from who hasn't played at this point, so D.J. LeMahieu's relatively few AB's thus far compared to other IF candidates, including Wood and Nolan Arenado could be a sign that he's slipping or seen as less likely to open the season on the MLB squad. As Wood gains more attention, it has to come at the expense of somebody else, and thus far that would be DJLM who has options remaining. Meanwhile, the other Cub coming over in the Ian Stewart trade, Tyler Colvin has been seeing plenty of AB's as the Rockies seem to be a bit more seriously considering him for the opening day roster.