The Rockies will play the first game of this 3-game road series against the San Diego Padres at PETCO Park. Tonight’s game is the first contest on a 7-game road trip at SD (9/14-16) and at SF (9/17-20). The Rockies are coming off a brief 3-game homestand in which the Rox lost a 3-game series vs. SF 2-games-to-1. Colorado dropped the final game of the series vs. SF 8-3 on Wednesday. The Rockies are currently in a stretch during which the club will play 14-of-17 games on the road from 9/3-20 (2-8). Colorado has just seven home games remaining in 2012. Additionally, the Rockies off day yesterday was the club’s final off day this season. The Rockies will finish the 2012 season with 20 games in 20 days from 9/14-10/3. The Rockies are also in a stretch of 14 straight games vs. NL West opponents from 9/10-24 (1-2). The Rockies are 20-29 vs. NL West opponents this season.
- 22-year-old right-hander Tyler Chatwood will make his ninth start and 16th appearance for the Rockies tonight. Chatwood is 3-3 with a 4.46 ERA (34.1 ip, 17 er) in his eight starts this season.
- Right-handed pitcher Andrew Cashner will start tonight’s game for the Padres. This will be his fifth start and 32nd appearance this season. He is 0-0 with a 2.87 ERA (15.2 ip, 5 er) in his four starts.
The game will start at 8:05 and will be on Root Sports.
The press will meet with Geivett tonight. They are being told that the Rockies will expand pitch counts for pitchers from 75 next season and move to a more traditional structure.
What exactly does “traditional structure” mean? Are they scrapping the 4-man/ piggyback idea?
“Traditional structure?” I can’t stand the suspense. (Actually, the joke’s on me since I’m staying home tonight and I’m sure I will watch as if it’s the announcement of a new pope or something … more of a sad commentary on the state of my life than on any excitement about the Rockies)
I almost hate to admit, we never miss watching the game if we are home. Many a night my husband and I have turned to each other and said “We need to get a live”. Still counting till spring training.
Meant life…really need to re-read before hitting “submit”
According to the Post Rockies will go to a 5 man rotation with an increased pitch count, 90 or something. They will keep piggybacks. They won’t really admit they were wrong but they are saying we had to try something.
What they really should try is new management but I’m guessing that DoD, Geivett and Tracy will be here forever.
See the Post article at http://www.denverpost.com/rockies/ci_21547779/rockies-go-five-man-rotation-2013-but-piggybacks
And so it ends, not with a bang but with the wimpiest of whimpers. Look, if this is about pitchers doing worse the 3rd time through the order and not about pitch count, why not just say “in general, we’ll limit pitchers to going twice through the order.” That would create the incentive structure they want — in order to go 5 innings, you’d have to be really economical (and effective) with your pitches. This 90-pitch limit thing is just plain stupid. Leave it to the Rockies to find a way to get the worst of both worlds:
– a 5th starter will get 30+ starts a year, so the primary value of the 4-man rotation (getting more work out of your best 4 starters, and less work out of your worst/5th starter) is gone
– but there’s a bonus! Not only will your worst (5th) starter be guaranteed work, so too will your worst 3 (piggyback) relievers!
As I said, leave it to the Rockies to completely screw this up. And for a moment there (look at my long posts earlier this week) they had me convinced that O’Dowd/Geivett/whoever’s in charge actually had the guts to be innovative. Their true wussy nature revealed tonight … I shoulda known better.
Am I the only pessimist that knew a 5 spot in the first would be blown in the bottom half? How dare these pitchers keep blowing these early lead.
With 3 hits today, Chris Nelson is now at a 102 in the Runs Created + stat. 100 is an average major league hitter. If he can stay over 100, we will have our first league-average hitter at 3B since 2008 (Ian Stewart). Small accomplishments, but at least it ain’t Ty Wigginton.
I saw a piece that put Ty Wigginton as one of the worst in baseball for a regular player. He was tied with Ramon Hernandez for a -1.7 WAR. What do these players have in common? DOD thought they were worth contracts.
Our position player development seems to be pretty decent. Everything else needs to be flushed.
I think Nelson deserves the starters role next year unless Arenado breaks out in the spring. I’m impressed with how he chugged along despite splitting a lot of time with Pacheco and seems to have gotten better as the season goes on.
If Nelson’s our least productive regular next year I think that’s a pretty solid lineup, assuming DJ is not a regular.
Yeah, Prog, Nelson’s been kind of o.k. in the final analysis. His fielding numbers are still pretty poor, but he shows as significantly worse as a second baseman than as a third baseman. Mostly some booted balls (including a couple in that awful doubleheader last week) from lack of concentration. He clearly has the ability to handle the position. And he has the power to bust out beyond what Pacheco and LeMahieu can. But I should clarify one thing: When I said he’s now “league average” as a hitter, I mean he’s absolutely average overall for MLB position players, starters and reserves. That means he’s still below average by significant amount for starting third basemen, but not horribly so like we’ve had the last few years. So I’m with you on feeling pretty good about the position players next year. In this season we’ve seen Rosario, Colvin, and Nelson emerge as hitters, and Pacheco and Rutledge (I’m discounting him simply on small sample size; he’s looked really good) right on the verge.
Spend every dime on pitching. Like you and Ag have said, we have the players. Now give us some pitching (90 pitches or whatever). We don’t need another “veteran bat” — that has not gone well for a couple of years; see, e.g., Wigginton, Hernandez, Cuddyer, Scutaro and so on.
Our pitching is so bad it may not matter.
Hilarious, Thistle. And not only did O’Dowd think they were worth giving contracts. He thought they were worth giving TWO YEAR CONTRACTS. We’re still paying half of Wigginton’s salary this year.
I’ve had very few problems with the offense since July.The kids can hit and with any pitching at all can post at least .500 ball[see August].More maddening is the fact that at .500 we would be in the wild card hunt,albeit just barely.I remember in April saying I thought this team was probably a .500 ball club.If only it were so.However the injuries to regulars has afforded us a chance to see who can play of the youngsters.Also,part of Aug.success was due to EYjr.’s catching fire which can be another reason for some optimism.As far as putting money into pitching,I can’t imagine there being enough money to convince any self respecting pitcher to come here for our 4/5 man rotation,and 75-90 pitch count plan.Expect more Moyers,Millwoods,S.Paiges et.al.Hell,maybe we can go after Clemens and set the record again for oldest winning pitcher two years running.After all, it was argueably the high light of this miserable season.