Friday Rockpile: Eddie Butler debuts tonight, plus Rockies draft analysis

TURN DOWN UP FOR BUT

Off to hot start in Minors, Butler to make big league debut at home vs. struggling Dodgers | MLB.com
The Dodgers' MLB.com reporter details Los Angeles' struggles and has a blurb about Butler making his debut against The Bums. L.A. manager Don Mattingly recently talked about how crappy (expletive substitution) his team is playing, so let's hope they don't reverse course against the Rockies this weekend. We'll have more on this series in a bit.

Baseball Prospectus | The Call-Up: Eddie Butler
Craig Goldstein and Ron Shah profile Butler, giving a good look at what to expect immediately from the Rockies' No. 2 prospect. Goldstein thinks Colorado will limit Butler to around 15 starts in an effort to not too dramatically increase his workload from last season to this season.

The big key for Butler, as Drew noted yesterday, will be having his entire arsenal of pitches at his disposal. Butler largely shelved a couple of his best offerings -- the slider and the change-up -- to work on commanding three different kinds of fastballs and integrating a curve. Basically, he's everything you want in a starter if he can have even decent command of some of those pitches while being sharp with the fastball.

Draft reaction

Live pick-by-pick analysis - MLB Draft - ESPN
Draft expert Chris Crawford likes the Rockies' selection of Kyle Freeland at No. 8 overall, though there is one concern that might be worrisome. Here's what he had to say:

"The Rockies have been all over Freeland over the past few months, and with good reason. Only Nola has better command of his stuff, and Freeland's slider can be a huge weapon. The only issues with Freeland are that his slot is very low and he has a tendency to fall in love with the slider. If he can make some mechanical adjustments, he could join Jon Gray and Eddie Butler in the Colorado rotation in 2016."

Perhaps I'm making too much of this, but the last thing I want to see the Rockies do is tinker with Freeland's mechanics. Why? Well, is it too apples-to-oranges to compare Freeland to Tyler Matzek? Probably. But Colorado's attempt to fix Matzek set him back almost two years. Having that happen with a pretty highly touted college arm would be nothing short of disastrous. Granted, there are different people in the organization overseeing these things than there were a couple years ago, but at the very least, I'm sure my hesitance is understood by a large portion of the fanbase.

Jacob Gatewood among Round 2 highlights and lowlights - MLB Draft - ESPN
Crawford is not in love with the Rockies' selection of Arizona high school right-hander Ryan Castellani, who apparently isn't adept at throwing strikes at this point. He might be a project for Colorado -- and hopefully one that rounds into form in the next few years.

2014 MLB Draft Day 1 Results: Arms, hair on parade - SBNation.com
The aforementioned Goldstein, this time for the mothership, has everything you need to know about the first day of the draft -- including, of course, a full list of every pick through No. 74.

Let's take a lap

Kiszla: Dan O'Dowd should feel more pressure than Eddie Butler - The Denver Post
I needed some exercise this morning.

Blog roll

Pausing for Roster Identification | Rockies Zingers Colorado Rockies Baseball
Friend of the Row Richard Bergstrom makes sense of the Rockies' onslaught of roster moves in a way that only he can. Great stuff.

Rockies Review - A Colorado Rockies Blog: Another day, another loss for the Colorado Rockies
David Martin wrote at least 1,500 words on how terrible the Rockies are right now. And to a point, he's right. However, it's going to take the team some time to adjust to the losses of Nolan Arenado and Carlos Gonzalez -- and now, Jordan Lyles and Boone Logan. Maybe the depth is good and maybe it isn't, but it's going to take a larger sample size to truly determine that. Let's just hope that by then, it isn't too late.

Purple Row is cool, right? RIGHT?

First off, I will be appearing on The Press Box at 9:40 this morning to talk Butler, the draft and the train wreck of a series against the D-Backs.

The Giants And High-Leverage Dominance | FanGraphs Baseball
Blake Murphy wrote an excellent follow-up to RIRF's thought-provoking "Lucky Giants" piece from last week. Is this a bad time to say that the Rockies haven't won a single game since then?

Join us at Rockies Bloggers Panel No. 2 on June 7 - Purple Row
You have nothing going on tomorrow morning, so head out to Breckenridge Brewery and check out the second edition of the Rockies Bloggers Panel. This one is in conjunction with SABR and will also feature, among others, Nick Groke and Jonah Keri. Be there!

Rockies Draft - Purple Row
Don't forget to check out all of our draft coverage, including some really great blurbs from the incomparable David Hood regarding the Rockies' first three picks.