This Week in Purple: What a roller coaster!

The weekend is a great time to kick back and reflect. This Week in Purple is the place to catch up on the news from our team at Purple Row. You’ll find links to Rockpiles and other content below as well as a platform for community discussion in the comments.

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It’s been an up-and-down week for Rockies fans. The team finally won their first series of 2023 against the Cleveland Guardians, outscoring them 12-5. Brenton Doyle was called up and made his MLB debut on Monday. Germán Márquez returned from the IL and José Ureña was DFA’d in his place... but then Márquez returned to the IL on Thursday with right elbow inflamation (Connor Seabold was recalled as the corresponding move) and is worried about potentially facing Tommy John surgery. Even if he doesn’t undergo TJ, he is still thinking he might miss up to six weeks. The Rockies are already missing Brendan Rodgers, so losing Márquez will be a huge blow to this team.

But anyways, here’s what’s been going on at Purple Row:

To Read

• Kenneth Weber’s Rockpile was entitled “The at-bat that defines the Rockies’ 2023 season.” In that Rockpile, he talks about the Rockies three short-term veterans (Harold Castro, Mike Moustakas and Jurickson Profar) and how the team is “adamant on letting the veterans struggle on the field instead of their prospects.” He specifically points to an at-bat against the Phillies where Bud Black pulled struggling shortstop prospect Ezequiel Tovar (hitting .191 at the time) in favor of Castro (hitting .176 at the time), who lined out to center.

• Renee Dechert continued with the topic, but delved into how all three are performing. Spoiler alert: it’s... not great. But luckily, they called up Brenton Doyle and so far seem to be letting the kid play.

• Skyler Timmins kept the ball rolling with player development, but he took a different angle when he recalled the Rockies’ treatment of Carlos González in 2009. He was a key piece of the Matt Holliday trade and tore the cover off the ball in Triple-A, but struggled upon his arrival to the bigs. But the Rockies kept playing him in favor of veteran Ryan Spilborghs, and finally CarGo was able to “figure it out” and the rest is history.

• Evan Lang chronicled the (small) youth movement — namely the Rockies’ commitment to Tovar. Specifically, he talked about Brenton Doyle’s call-up and his first few games in a Rockies uniform. Hopefully Doyle’s success will show the team that “[t]he days of placeholder veterans needs to end, and the age of the rookie must be ushered in.”

• And finally, Joelle Milholm dug into some metrics. Specifically, she looked at Elias Díaz and how the veteran has had a stellar year so far. She noted, “[t]he 32-year-old catcher is leading the team, one that has C.J. Cron and Kris Bryant on the roster, in batting average at .333, slugging percentage at .486, and OPS at .878. He has two homers (tied for fourth), five doubles (tied for fourth), 24 hits (tied for second), eight runs and (tied for fifth).” She then further dug into Statcast’s new Catcher’s Caught Stealing Above Average (CCSAA) metric, where Díaz is tied for seventh in the league. After a down year in 2022, hopefully Díaz’s hot start continues in 2023!

To Listen

• Affected by Altitude: That’s Baseball. — This week Skyler and Evan are less than thrilled with the start of the 2023 season as nothing seems to be working. Could change be on the horizon?
• Every Rockie Ever Podcast: Aaron Cook — If you were to look through the all-time leaders in most all pitching categories, Aaron Cook would be listed in pretty much all of them. Is Cook one of the most foundational pitchers in Rockies history? Skyler and Dustin look back on his 10-year career with the team that created the mold of pitching that the Rox are still trying to replicate.

Weekend Discussion Topic

What are your initial impressions of Brenton Doyle? What might losing Germán Márquez mean for the Rockies? Sound off below!

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