Six Yard Goats Named to Eastern League All-Star Team | MiLB.com
The Hartford Yard Goats, the Double-A Eastern League affiliate of the Colorado Rockies, boasts a talented roster, and the team is being rewarded with six players being named to the Eastern League All-Star team. Brendan Rodgers (PuRP No. 1), Peter Lambert (PuRP No. 4), Sam Hilliard (PuRP No. 17), Yonathan Daza (PuRP No. 19), Matt Pierpont (PuRP No. 43), and Rule 5 pick Mitch Horacek have all been given the honor.
Rodgers is leading the Eastern League in total bases and extra-base hits, as the consensus top Rockies prospect and former third overall pick continues to prove his worth for the organization. Lambert is having a remarkable season. Despite being the youngest player on the team (having just turned 21 on April 18), he leads the league in ERA (2.23), WHIP (0.99), and innings pitched (92 2/3). Hilliard and Daza are having impressive seasons as well, producing slash lines of .289/.357/.431 and .306/.335/.468, respectively. In his third season with Hartford, Pierpont, 27, leads the league in saves, with 21. And finally, Horacek has made good on the Rockies’ decision to select him as a Rule 5 pick. He has 47 strikeouts in 38 innings, to compliment a 2.37 ERA.
Fun fact: six of the first ten Yard Goats that were selected to the All-Star teams in 2016 and 2017 have already made their Major League debuts.
Offseason Spending on Relievers Isn’t Working Out | FanGraphs
It goes without saying that Rockies fans have become painfully aware of the notion asserted by the title of this FanGraphs article. The highest-paid relievers this offseason (those who received a guarantee of over $10 million) have been worth 0.1 fWAR and -0.16 WPA (Win Probability Added) in 2018. At -0.6 fWAR, Bryan Shaw (3 years, $27 million) has been the least valuable reliever among the bunch. In good news, Wade Davis’ (3 years, $52 million) WPA suggests that he’s been a relative asset to the ‘pen despite a disappointing 0.2 fWAR.
Even if one were to discard the performance of the Rockies bullpen, high-paid relievers delivering poor results has still been a league-wide trend this year. Greg Holland (1 year, $14 million), now pitching for the St. Louis Cardinals, has delivered an awful -1.39 WPA in only 17 1/3 innings. Conversely, it took Holland 57 1/3 innings to amass a +1.43 WPA in 2017. And Anthony Swarzak (2 years, $14 million) of the New York Mets has coughed up five home runs in only 13 innings.
BSN Rockies Podcast: The David John LeMahieu game | BSN Denver
In the latest episode of the BSN Rockies podcast, Drew Creasman recaps the “David John LeMahieu game,” in which DJ’s 5-RBI performance salvaged the series by avoiding a sweep at the hands of the San Francisco Giants.
If Rockies don’t learn how to win, they’ll lose Nolan Arenado like they lost Tulo | Mile High Sports
Rich Kurtzman of Mile High Sports compares Nolan Arenado’s recent comments about his desire for playing winning baseball to those of former Rockies star Troy Tulowitzki. Kurtzman gives credit to General Manager Jeff Bridich for being willing to spend (or, at least convincing the Monforts to open their wallets) relative to Dan O’Dowd, but notes that Bridich’s signings have not given the team much production. Bridich’s Rockies’ career may be known primarily for the poor signings to this point, but it could end up being defined by the loss of Arenado, opines Kurtzman.