Wednesday Rockpile: Wilin Rosario Breaks Out -- The Baby Bull Is Growing Up

Wilin Rosario hit his 27th homer of the season last night. When you look at Rosario's 2012 season batting line of .276/.316/.545 and 27 homers (tied for the lead among MLB catchers) in only 396 PAs, it's crazy to think that the dude is only 23 years old. He's almost exactly a year younger than I am and he's already started to crush MLB pitching, which makes my life seem like a failure.

Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com calls Rosario's 2012 a solid rookie season. I call it a great offensive season for a catcher, especially a 23 year-old playing his first full season in the big leagues. Jim Tracy thinks that it's a season worthy of Rookie of the Year consideration. Yes, his H/R splits aren't flattering, but even his .254/.284/.462 road line is within the acceptable bounds for a young rookie catcher.

As I'm sure that you're aware, Rosario has been red-hot of late, hitting .667/.682/1.048 over the last 7 days -- and increasing the sample size to 28 days decreases his batting line all the way down to .361/.384/.578. Heck, the Baby Bull's 2nd half line, during which he has been the primary catcher for the team, is .307/.354/.570. His season line as a catcher is good for a sOPS+ of 134 -- in other words, he's been 34% better than the league average catcher at hitting this year.

The point is that I'll gladly trade some atrocious catcher defense -- which at this point covers poor receiving, game calling, and ineffective plate-blocking, all of which are more correctable than adding arm strength to throw out more base-runners -- for the elite offensive production from the catching position the Rockies have gotten this year out of a 23 year-old rookie.

Off-Topic.

Los Links! -- I feel lost without the jump to break up my post and the links

Todd Helton plans to be back in 2013 -- and performing at a much higher level than in 2012, though with a heavily reduced workload from his prime.

Buster Olney (ESPN Insider) writes about former Rockies catcher Ben Petrick's inspirational story.

Dave Krieger writes about the need for pitchers at Coors to re-learn their craft.

Owen Perkins writes that Jim Tracy described Josh Rutledge's defense at shortstop is "Tulo-esque". Which is hyperbole, of course. The Rutlegend has way more range than our 3rd baseman of the future.

So, this was a few days ago, but to the best of my knowledge nobody posted it in a Rockpile. John Sickels writes about his thoughts on Nolan Arenado and how he might need some more seasoning at AAA. Speaking of prospects, look for the Fall 2012 PuRPs list voting thread to go up this weekend.

There has only been one triple hit at Cleveland's Progressive Field this year by a right-handed batter. To put that in perspective, the Rockies alone have hit 18 right-handed triples at Coors Field this year.