The Rockies made several roster moves to begin the 2nd half of their season, including the following:
- Ramon Hernandez has been activated and will start behind the dish tonight, batting cleanup. He missed 42 games on the disabled list with a left hand strain. The catcher played in four rehab games at Triple-A Colorado Springs and hit .167 (2-for-12) with one home run and 4 RBI. In 27 games for the Rockies this season, he is batting .215 (20-for-93) with 5 doubles, 4 home runs and 15 RBI. The veteran backstop is a .265 (1,315-for-4,966) career hitter with 255 doubles, 165 home runs, 738 RBI and 568 runs scored in 1,484 Major League games with Colorado (2012), Cincinnati (2009-11), Baltimore (2006-08), San Diego (2004-05) and Oakland (1999-2003).
- Josh Rutledge has been called up from double-A and will start at short, batting eighth (he will use Tulo’s glove and CarGo’s batting glove). Rutledge, 23, has spent the entire 2012 season at Double-A Tulsa, where he has batted .306 (109-for-356) with 27 doubles, 3 triples, 13 home runs, 35 RBI and 14 stolen bases in 87 games. Rutledge was named to the Texas League Mid-Season All-Star team. The Cullman, AL native was a California League Post-Season All-Star in his first full professional season in 2011. With High-A Modesto last season he batted .348 (160-for-460) with 33 doubles, 9 triples, 9 home runs, 71 RBI and 91 runs. He was drafted by Colorado in the third round of the 2010 First-Year Player Draft out of the University of Alabama. Rutledge was rated the 10th-best prospect in the Rockies organization prior to 2012 by Baseball America.
- Todd Helton has been placed on the 15-day DL with a sore right hip (retroactive to July 9th). This marks Helton’s first DL stint since he was on the 15-day DL with lower back stiffness 7/7-8/3/10.
- Mike Ekstrom has been called up from Triple-A and will join the bullpen tonight. He will be returning to the Major League for his fifth-straight season. He has appeared in Major League games with San Diego (2008-09) and Tampa Bay (2010-11). The right-hander has spent all of 2012 to date at Triple-A Colorado Springs as a reliever. In 37 games this season he has gone 2-1 with one save and a 2.64 ERA (47.2 ip, 14 er), 15 walks and 51 strikeouts. In 36 career Major League games, Ekstrom is 0-3 with a 5.36 ERA (45.1 ip, 27 er), 24 walks and 36 strikeouts. He was signed as a Minor League free agent by Colorado on December 16, 2011, and was a non-roster invitee to Major League Spring Training.
- Tyler Chatwood has been optioned to Double-A in Tulsa
- Wil Nieves was placed on the 15-day DL with right turf-toe (retroactive to July 9th).
- Jorge Del La Rosa moved from the 15-day DL to the 60-day DL (To clear room on the 40-man roster).
ROCKIES LINEUP
Fowler [CF]
Scutaro [2B]
Gonzalez [LF]
Hernandez [C]
Cuddyer [1B]
Colvin [RF]
Pacheco [3B]
Rutledge [SS]
Friedrich [P]
IN GAME CHAT
. LOADING...
I believe that is the bulk of moves today…I knew about Todds hip, but didn’t really remember Nieves toe…
Updated information in post to include De La Rosa…
Dave and Dave have a great show on KOA today including Jim Tracy. Minutes after JT stated we will see Rutledge “sooner than later” things happened. I don’t want to put words in JT’s mouth so I would check the KOA website and see if his interview gets posted.
Expect to see Scutaro as THE 2nd baseman. There was some caveat stated something like “if” Scutaro is around after the trade deadline. Looks like it will be Cuddyer at 1st with Gonzalez, Fowler, and Colvin in the outfield. Tulo does NOT want to be moved to 3rd so even if Rutledge is successful at short …
Chat is up – Jerry Schemmel in the booth!
I like what I’m seeing. I was skeptical this morning about our minor leaguers including Rutledge. But right now, why not? Scutaro is going to play 2B every day until he’s traded to showcase him. They apparently think Chris Nelson can’t play SS. So that meant Herrera at SS. We all like Jonny Sparkplug, but we know exactly what we’ve got in him so there’s no reason to give him a tryout at SS. So why not Rutledge? I hope he surprises us. Looking at his stats, he looks kind of like a Pacheco at the plate with some more power. Now a Pacheco with a little more power who can play a middle infield position would be a really nice thing. In fact, it would be the best second baseman this organization has ever developed in 20 years.
Ramon Hernandez, who I imagine is being showcased too, is also putting on a nice exhibition. I’m thinking that’s why they DL’d Wil Nieves — that buys them 2 weeks to trade Ramon. Hernandez can obviously still play, but he’s average 90 games the last few years, and it’ll be less than that this year, so he fits better elsewhere.
And Friedrich was very impressive. I say this club plays roughly .500 ball from now till the end of the year. They really need to to convince ownership that we can be competitive next year (which I believe is true). Plus I like watching the young guys play. Baseball is almost fun again.
Ag,
If this team plays .500 the rest of the way, you know what that means don’t you? It gives them reason to keep DOD.
Yep. I thought about that too. That’s what I’m worried about: they play reasonably good ball the rest of the year and they keep O’Dowd and he wrongly diagnoses the problem with the 2012 Rockies and makes some more stupid moves to try to make them competitive in 2013, or they continue to play like crap, fire O’Dowd, and the Monforts use that as an excuse to pronounce “rebuilding” and a significant cut in salary base. I honestly don’t know which result to root for.
You know, IMO what this team may have been missing to not excel but at least compete may have been Ramon Hernandez. As much as I like Rosario’s pop, Hernandez offers a more collected presence behind the plate plus pop. If he played 20 of those 40 games he missed might be nearer to .500 than we are. I’m not convinced we move him.
Agreed that Ramon is still a better catcher overall than Rosario. The problem is that his injury this year just fits in the pattern of a guy who can’t be more than a backup catcher at his age. So even if he’d been around for those 40 games he probably wouldn’t have caught more than about 25 of them. His salary isn’t really a problem unless the Monforts start trimming salary overall next year, but whether he’s back or not someone’s got to be counted on to be the primary catcher. And realistically that’s not going to be the 37 year old guy; it’ll be the 24 year old kid with the passed ball and play at the plate dodging problem.
While he’s still here I think Hernandez should catch the kids Pomerancz and especially Friedrich. They need his veteran presence. Rosario can obviously hit great but his defense is still suspect and more importantly his handling of the pitchers is just so-so. I think Guthrie (when he has in mind in the game) and especially Francis can overcome that but the kids can’t.
Anyway a fun game but don’t buy those playoff tickets just yet
As I opined yesterday,try Rosario at first,or at least for a few innings late in games when Ramon catches.I like solid defensive catchers and Nieves and Hernandez as a tandem could do the job if Wilin could possibly learn to play first.If nothing else,we know he can run faster than Todd,even in Todd’s prime.[Sorry,still love you Todd].
Agree they should keep Hernandez unless they get someone quite good in return. He’s perfect for mentoring Rosario, and playing 1/3 of the games. He and Colvin were the good acquisitions this past winter.
Trade Giambi, if there is an AL team that needs him. I’m not sure there is. Trade Scutaro, who’s been decent but Rutledge is the 2B of 2013. Use Cuddyer at first with last night’s outfield, with Todd playing sparingly and being the late-inning pinch hitter when they need a double.
They still need starting pitching, and a 3rd baseman. Those holes were glaring over the winter, and weren’t solved a bit.
I think Nelson and Pacheco can play 3rd just fine. The question is what to do if Arenado is ready. IMO Nelson and Pacheco have value that shouldn’t be wasted with them on the bench. So trade them or trade the more valuable Arenado.
Agree that Nelson is OK defensively. He made a nice play last night on I think the first play after he replaced Pacheco. It was a close out at first. Pacheco would not have made that play, and it would have resulted in a Phillies run (my speculation). I could agree that Nelson is an average 3rd baseman. I love Pacheco’s hustle and singles hittiing, but he’s not the solution at 3rd base. Maybe he’s the backup catcher to Rosario in the future? Really don’t know where they should put him in the field.
They should package Arenado with a few more players for a legit #1 pitcher. I think this year has proven pitching wins games.
This comment got me thinking about pitching, winning and cheese. Instead of replying I put up a new post about pitching…thanks for the inspiration!
I would not trade Arenado unless we get a proven legit #1 who has 3 years left on his contract. And who wants to be here.
Arenado has had a disappointing year but he is just a kid with tremendous upside. He’s 21.
Maybe for King Felix but you would have to give lots more than Nolan for him.