Friday Rockpile: Chacin Down, Torres Up

As we know from Wednesday, Jhoulys Chacin has been optioned to AAA Colorado Springs. Taking his roster spot will be AAA starter Carlos Torres. Torres, 29, was signed as a minor-league free agent this past December, and was brought in mostly to plug organizational holes in the starting depth.

As we've all been watching this season, Chacin has been up and down - mostly down. Of his 5 starts, he surpassed 5 innings in only one, and only finished the 5th inning in 2 starts. His walk numbers are up, hits are up, and homers are up. That's about the brass tacks of the situation.

The more subjective side is that Chacin has just flat out sucked. Outside of that one start, it's been really hard to have any sort of faith in him. In fairness, he's only 24, and he has a lot of time to continue developing. I mean, his strikeout numbers are still there, and still very strong. He has the stuff to be a top flight pitcher, but he has to return to where we saw him 1st half in 2011.

I'm just hoping he isn't hurt.

The counterpart in this back and forth, Carlos Torres, will be brought up to bolster an overworked bullpen. Torres spent last season in Japan, making 6 ill-fated starts. Since signing with the Rockies, Torres has posted a 2.88 with the recently humidored Sky Sox.

Torres' strikeout numbers have been good, his walk numbers.... not so good, but he strikes out more than 2 batters per walk allowed, so we can work with them. Torres has averaged 5 innings per start, so on one hand, he'd probably fit right in with the current rotation, but given that the Rockies' rotation is essentially set for the next 6 games without needing a fifth starter, Torres will provide some much needed relief to a tired bullpen. We hope.

Part of me wishes we could have Tyler Chatwood or Alex White up right now, but Chatwood was pulled from his start on Wednesday with triceps tightness and White isn't fully stretched out at the exact moment. When the Rockies head to San Diego, they'll reevaluate the rotation (and where Jeremy Guthrie is in his recovery from his bike/shoulder accident) and see where the needs are. Renck suggests that White is a favorite for a promotion, if needed, but we'll see how things unfold next week.

Off Topic

Soft-throwing Jamie Moyer a hero to many high school pitchers - The Denver Post

Despite the fact that most High School Aces can reach back for more than the blistering 75 degrees that Jamie Moyer burns by hitters, Moyer's ridiculous longevity in Major League Baseball is still inspiring, even to students who never slop hogs. Location and change of speeds has been the game Moyer has been playing during his whole career, and those fundamental lessons in pitching are ones best learned early.

Is Tulo Unclutch on Defense, Too? | FanGraphs Baseball

This should be an interesting read going forward. Wendy Thurm, who runs the site Hanging Sliders as well as contributing to Baseball Nation has begun a series exploring Troy Tulowitzki and the allegations that he is, in fact, not clutch whatsoever. Looks to be worth following, even if just for discussion's sake.