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Rockies’ young starters flash talent, offer promise for 2017 | The Denver Post
Patrick Saunders reviews the Rockies' starting rotation with an eye toward the 2017 season. The key takeaway is that the rotation had a good season, and there are a lot of reasons to believe that it will get better. Jon Gray and Tyler Anderson look like an excellent top two, while Tyler Chatwood and Chad Bettis are a solid middle. Though it's necessary to add that in addition to the question of Chatwood solving Coors Field, he also will have to manage a complete season with something other than a 1.69 road ERA, because that's not likely to happen again.
The fifth spot could go to one of Jeff Hoffman, Germán Márquez, or even Kyle Freeland. Gone are the days of pretending that Juan Nicasio is a reasonable number three starter. Because we're talking about pitchers, it can still go terribly wrong, but this view also shows the depth that the team has. It should be fun.
Jorge De La Rosa treasures Rockies years | MLB.com
One pitcher who won't be around is Jorge De La Rosa, who had an up and down season that saw him get demoted to the bullpen and promoted back to the rotation. De La Rosa told MLB.com's Thomas Harding: "I didn't help them this year the way I wanted, but these nine years are the best nine of my career." It sounds like De La Rosa intends to find another pitching job, and it sounds like he'd be willing to do it from the bullpen.
Riley Pint Closes Out First Pro Season | BaseballAmerica.com
And here's one for the future. Recent first round pick Riley Pint didn't, on the surface, have a great first experience in professional baseball. But Pint viewed it as a "learning experience," as he told Baseball America's Josh Norris. Norris observed Pint's final outing in the Rockies instructional league recently, and he states that "it was easy to see both Pint's tremendous upside and the development that still needs to take place." His fastball sat in the mid to high 90s, and his curveball was on point. Norris notes that Pint lost his command in the second inning, as well as some velocity. But each pitch had the scout section "buzzing." In sum, the stuff was great, but there's a lot of work to do, and Pint is a long way from the majors. Norris believes that Pint's has shown enough to begin next season in Low-A Asheville.