Is Chad Bettis the odd man out? | Rox Pile
The Rockies’ starting rotation is full of young, talented, controllable pitchers. They are led by Kyle Freeland and German Márquez, but Antonio Senzatela and Tyler Anderson are continuing to develop and Jon Gray is hoping for a bounce back season in 2019 after his up and down 2018. That leaves Chad Bettis and Jeff Hoffman on the outside looking in. Chad Bettis is the more likely of the two to be the sixth man in the rotation, with Hoffman probably starting the year as a long reliever out of the bullpen. So where does that leave Bettis if he ends up being left out? Would the Rockies move him to the bullpen as well, or would they look to trade him? Aaron Hurt asked Patrick Saunders from the Denver Post and discusses his answer here.
Daniel Murphy might be one of the best first basemen in baseball | Beyond the Box Score
Daniel Murphy was officially signed to a two year deal by the Rockies yesterday with the intention of playing first base. In this article, Bob Ellis talks about why the signing of Murphy is good for two reasons — his big bat and his defense. He uses wRC+ to talk about the effect of Coors Field on Murphy’s bat, but goes into greater detail on how Murphy ranks amongst second and first basemen across the National League using a stat he calls RCS (Runs Created + Saved). Overall, Murphy ranked about sixth overall as a second baseman in 2017 and as a hypothetical first baseman in 2018. Not only does adding Daniel Murphy add a big left-handed bat to the middle of the lineup, shifting him to first base might be a really good thing for the Rockies’ infield.
Yasmani Grandal remains appealing free agent | MLB.com
Mike Petriello details how free agent switch-hitting catcher Yasmani Grandal would be a good fit for such teams as the Angels, Rockies, and Red Sox. He argues that Grandal was as good, if not better than hot commodity J.T. Realmuto. From a statistics perspective, they are about as equal as they can be, but Grandal is a free agent and would cost only money to sign whereas the Marlins are demanding a boat load in return for Realmuto’s services.
From a Rockies perspective, Petriello argues that signing Daniel Murphy is a good start but catcher is another spot that the Rockies could upgrade since the plan is to move Ryan McMahon to second and Ian Desmond to the outfield. Grandal hit .241/.349/.466 in 2018, whereas Chris Iannetta, Tom Murphy, and Tony Wolters hit a combined .207/.314/.354. He would be an instant upgrade at the position for a fraction of the cost of Realmuto, if the Rockies choose to pursue him.