What to expect from Rockies’ Rodgers in the bigs | MLB.com
In anticipation of Brendan Rodgers’s entrance into the majors, Jonathan Mayo gives a quick scouting report on his game from on offense and defense. He also notes that Rodgers makes it the fifth MLB Pipeline top 10 prospect to play in the majors in 2019.
Called Up: Brendan Rodgers | FanGraphs
Eric Longenhagen looks at FanGraphs’ previous scouting reports of Rodgers, dating back to before he was drafted in 2015. It also gives an overview of his career in the minors and ends with this delicious nugget:
But he’s been a successful hitter every year for the past five years, so it’s logical that he’d continue to be good against big-league pitching, if not right away then soon. He’s a potential All-Star middle-infielder and should be a Rockies franchise cornerstone.
The Call-Up: Brendan Rodgers | Baseball Prospectus ($)
More than the other analyses about Rodgers, this write-up from Baseball Prospectus views it in the context of the Rockies’ bid to make the postseason again this year. In short, Garrett Hampson and Ryan McMahon have underperformed, and this call up is an effort to stabilize second base with a new starter. This makes logical sense given how horribly Hampson has hit so far this season, and how underwhelming McMahon has been. But it’s a thought Rockies fans seem to have been conditioned out of. They might have it right.
Among all the Rodgers articles linked here, this one has the most unfelicitous title. It also throws some water on the sentiment expressed in the BP article linked above. Nick Groke writes:
[Rodgers’s] purpose with the team remains a mystery. Part injury replacement, part offensive injection, Rodgers will not find a clear path to lasting in the bigs, unless he plows that path himself.
See, we have been conditioned to think this way.
How Brendan Rodgers can go from top prospect to season changer | BSN Denver ($)
This Rodgers article splits the difference. Drew Creasman acknowledges Rodgers’s high potential to make a difference with the Rockies, but also hedges on the “where will be play?” question and worries about lost playing time for Ryan McMahon.
After reading all of these, I’m of the mind that Rodgers should be start most games and should only be sent back down to Triple-A if he is clearly overmatched by major league pitching and is striking out over 40% of the time. Otherwise, he should play a lot.
Brendan Rodgers is on the way — now what? | Purple Row
We, too, wrote about Rodgers. Hayden Kane looks at the implications of the call up for the major league roster.
12 players who are having bounce back seasons in 2019 | MLB Daily Dish
And now for some non-Rodgers news.
The member of the Rockies on this list is Wade Davis, who had a pretty uneven first year in Colorado in 2018. So far this season, however, Davis has a 2.45 ERA in his 14 2⁄3 innings pitched. That all sounds great until you get to the secondary question of the article, which is “Can he keep it up?” The answer given here is “probably not,” and it’s hard to argue otherwise. Davis’s appearances have been far more dramatic than they needed to be, and there have been times when he seemingly didn’t have any control of where the ball was going. He’s walked 15.4% of the batters he’s faced. The results have been good so far, but hopefully Davis rights whatever is messing with his command before he enters Fernando Rodney territory.
On the farm
A couple of pitching prospects had nice days on the farm. Rico Garcia (no. 20 PuRP) struck out six batters and walked two in 6 2⁄3 innings pitched for the Yard Goats, while Ryan Feltner (no. 19 PuRP) struck out 10 and walked two in six innings pitched for Asheville. Not only that, Riley Pint (no. 8 PuRP) had about as good of an inning as we can expect from him these days. In an inning pitched, he struck out a batter and did not walk anybody.
Jeff Hoffman was less fortunate for the Isotopes, as his run of excellent starts stopped after allowing 8 runs in 4 2⁄3 innings, in which he struck out four batters and walked four.
Triple-A: El Paso Chihuahuas 11, Albuquerque Isotopes 6 | MiLB.com
Double-A: New Hampshire Fisher Cats, 4, Hartford Yard Goats, 2 | MiLB.com