:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/35552978/483092455.0.jpg)
At long last, Brett Anderson is returning to Colorado's rotation. The hefty lefty has been absent for about three months since breaking his finger due to strange bat vibrations against the Giants back in April. To that point, Anderson had thrown 15 innings of 3.60 ERA, 1.40 WHIP ball for the Rockies.
When Colorado acquired Anderson for Drew Pomerantz during the off-season, it was for him to serve as a crucial member of the rotation and with the idea that his stuff and approach to pitching were a perfect fit for Coors Field. Unfortunately, this will only be Anderson's second start at Coors for the team. Anderson has a $12 million club option for next year, so he'll be extremely motivated to prove that he is healthy and effective over the second half of the year. The process will begin in today's rubber match against the Minnesota Twins.
To make room for Anderson on the 25 man roster, the Rockies sent down Kyle Parker to AAA Colorado Springs. Since Anderson was coming off of the 60 man DL, the Rockies also needed to take another player off of their 40 man roster. Per Nick Groke and the Denver Post, that move will be Jordan Lyles moving from the 15 day to the 60 day DL:
BREAKING: #Rockies pitcher Jordan Lyles moved to 60-day DL after tests showed his hand is still not fully healed. http://t.co/t1bVzgNEwG
— Denver Post Sports (@DenverSportNews) July 13, 2014
Jordan Lyles suffered a setback in his rehab. And he was in a car accident Friday. So #Rockies had to make a move: http://t.co/gxYcVYGPHU
— Nick Groke (@nickgroke) July 13, 2014
/2014. That means that Lyles will be out at the least until early August.
Anderson's counterpart this afternoon will be Phil Hughes, who the Twins signed this off-season to a three year, $24 million contract. So far Hughes has been worth the money, pitching 116 2/3 innings of 3.70 ERA/2.69 FIP/1.17 WHIP ball for the Twins. The gap in his ERA and FIP have led fWAR (3.5) and rWAR (2.3) to diverge a bit for Hughes, but either way he's been excellent for Minnesota thus far. Let's change that today, shall we?
Lineups
Now that most of the offensive regulars are healthy, the Rockies can now field a lineup that looks dangerous up and down. The hope is that Colorado's lineup is back to wearing down opposing pitchers with its consistent potency.