The United States got one step closer to their first World Baseball Classic championship last night with a 2-1 win over Japan. Constant rain and sloppy condition sapped the game from much of the energy that many of the WBC games have had despite the high stakes. While the low score is indicative of a lot of hitters struggling to get hits, none struggled more than Colorado Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado.
Arenado has been struggling to find hits during Team USA’s run to the championship. Before last night, most of those struggle could be attributed to bad luck as Nolan’s been hitting the ball hard, but right at fielders for most of the Classic. Last night, that wasn’t the case as Arenado went 0-4 with 4 strikeouts. Here’s hoping that Arenado has gotten all of his struggles out of the way before the games start counting for the Rockies.
Chatwood fans 12 Minor Leaguers in tune-up | Rockies.com
While the Rockies were off yesterday, Tyler Chatwood wasn’t. To keep Chatwood on schedule for the quickly approaching regular season, the Rockies had Chatwood pitch in a scrimmage among the Rockies own minor league players. Unsurprisingly, those young players didn’t stand a chance against Chatwood’s stuff as he struck out 12 in 6 innings of work while also stretching to 80 pitches.
Rockies’ Tyler Chatwood primed for breakout season — if he can solve Coors Field pitching woes | Denver Post
Speaking of Chatwood, Jorge De La Rosa’s departure and Chad Bettis’ fight against cancer has left him as the veteran member of the Rockies rotation. With the Jon Gray, Tyler Anderson and two of the Rockies young prospect pitcher expected to complete the rotation, the 27-year-old Chatwood is the only starting pitcher who is neither a rookie nor coming off of their rookie season.
Colorado Rockies: NL West Talk and Blank Stares in Paris | Rox Pile
Just in case you were wondering, the Rockies are not a popular team in Paris. Once Dick Monfort gets all of the Rocky Mountain region under the marketing control of the Rockies he should set his eye to the overseas market. Of course winning a championship or two might help as well.