Saturday Rockpile: Rockies Q&A Recap

Yesterday was the twitter conference held by the Rockies for fans. Dick Monfort, Jeff Bridich, Walt Weiss and pitching coach Steve Foster took part in the discussion. I am sure that a couple of public relations people helped out though, as a couple of loaded questions were tossed up but the group kept their replies fairly civil. The most important questions asked, of course, had nothing to do with the on-field product:

Q: How do you guys feel about the baseball coverage you get @PurpleRow?
JB: The folks at @PurpleRow are certainly dedicated to covering the #Rockies and most often present thoughtful conversation.

I joke, but it is nice to get noticed by the front office. Here are articles about the twitter interview:

Rockies' leaders engage with fans on Twitter - mlb.com

Rockies' Dick Monfort in chat: "Plain and simple, we are not ok with losing" - denverpost.com

And for the rest of your reading pleasure on a Saturday, here are some notes from around the league:

Top 10 shortstops in MLB - ESPN.com

This is a subscription article, so all I can tell you about it is that Buster Olney says that teams are putting a priority on defense over offense at the shortstop position and that Tulo was not picked number one this year.

Searching for the ideal position for Hanley Ramirez - foxsports.com

Speaking of teams focusing on defense at shortstop, Jeff Sullivan discusses the offensive-minded Hanley Ramirez and the perception that he needs a new position. Other than catcher and pitcher, I feel Hanley's positives at the plate make up for any slight negatives in the field. However, he has had injury issues like Tulo, is over 30 now, only had 13 homeruns in over 500 plate appearances last year (easily his worst pa/hr average since his rookie year), and appears to be slowing down in stolen bases.

Red Sox after Pablo Sandoval - ESPN.com

I know what he did in the World Series, but $95 million over five years for a 28-year old who doesn't appear interested in maintaining his body makes me feel like the Red Sox didn't learn their lessons from a couple of years ago regarding overpaying for free agents. Worse for the Rockies, how will the team ever be able to keep Nolan Arenado if this is the value for a career average defender who didn't have any offensive stat better than Nolan in 2014? Ok that last part isn't quite correct, Pablo had more RBIs and triples (seriously?) than Nolan last year and also had 150+ more plate appearances.

Justin Upton shouldn't cost more than Jason Heyward - fangraphs.com

An interesting article that compares hitting, age, and what teams should value. Not sure I agree, but it is interesting that Atlanta, who finished just under .500 is willing to blow their team up to try and be competitive in the future.

White Sox land LaRoche with two year deal - mlb.com

I, for one, am happy that Adam LaRoche is out of the National League. He always seemed to do well against the Rockies and I just figured that the Giants would pick him up to continue to have guys that beat us in weird ways.