| | March 15
What happens when the Colorado Rockies don't play in Coors Field? Well, the Rockies hit one home run in their first 13 exhibition games.
That's last among the 30 teams. Pittsburgh is next-worst with five. And someone named Bubba Carpenter hit that one home run.
Hitting coach Clint Hurdle isn't worried. "That doesn't mean anything to me," Hurdle said.
|
Rumor Central
|
|
While spring training trades are rare, the one name that keeps popping up is Jim Edmonds.
According to the San Jose Mercury News, Angels GM Bill Stoneman has revived talks with Oakland. However, the strong play of Terrence Long and Bo Porter has diminished Oakland's interest in Edmonds. Long is hitting .469 (15-for-32) with 17 RBI, tops among all spring hitters.
"We've got three center fielders batting over .400 and one over .500," said A's assistant GM Paul DePodesta. "How can you not like what you see? We are very hapy with the competition we have from our own guys right now."
Another problem for the Angels is that Darin Erstad is not running at full strength, meaning his ability to play the outfield could be a question mark if Edmonds is traded for pitching.
|
Should it? Yes, because the Rockies' offense could end up being awful this year. Of course, the degree of that awfulness will be masked by Coors Field. For instance, last year the Rockies scored 906 runs, second in the NL. However, they scored just 334 runs on the road -- dead frickin' last.
How will they do this year? Jeff Cirillo, Tom Goodwin and Jeffrey Hammonds are in, Vinny Castilla and Dante Bichette are out. Cirillo is a good hitter. He may not match Castilla's power (of course, Castilla was pretty mediocre last year, even for a Coors Field hitter), but should contend for the NL batting title with teammate Larry Walker and provide an on-base percentage well above .400. Hammonds should match Bichette's production -- if he can stay healty. Goodwin? Well, his batting average will be artifically acceptable, but he's not a good offensive player.
Of course, the Rockies' plan was to improve their defense to help them out in Coors Field with its vast room in the outfield. And Goodwin and Hammonds (and Cirillo) will make the team better defensively. However, it still means the Rockies will be near the bottom of the league in runs on the road and if Colorado doesn't lead the league in runs, they won't make the playoffs.
Another interesting idea. Historically, the Rockies have gone after ground-ball pitchers/control-type pitchers, guys like Billy Swift, Scott Karl and Brian Bohanon. The theory being that strikeout pitchers are high-ball pitchers and thus allow too many home runs.
However, the dilemma for Coors Field isn't just the home runs, but all the extra hits the field gives up. Perhaps it would be better to bring in a staff that has a higher strikeout rate -- guys that don't give up so many hits and strike out more hitters. The theory here being that, yes, they may allow a few more walks and a few more home runs, but will allow a lot less hits and put fewer balls in play. This puts less of a premium on the defense and more of a premium on acquiring good hitters.
Is our theory correct? Well, we know this: Watching Scott Karl pitch in Coors Field could get pretty ugly this year. After all, this guy allowed 246 hits last year in just 197.2 innings with the Brewers.
Injury update
Rusty Greer will play through bone spurs this season and avoid surgery. Bone spurs can cause inflammation and soreness in the ankle.
Milwaukee's Jamey Wright had a tear in his rotator cuff and will start the season on the DL. Team doctors think he can recover without surgery and that he'll miss 4-6 weeks.
Arizona Matt Mantei is also having ankle problems and will sit down for at least five days. He doesn't have any structural damage, just looseness from a previous injury, according to the Arizona Daily Star. Mantei also missed five days last week.
Angels' righty Ramon Ortiz returned to Los Angeles on Tuesday to be examined by Dr. Lewis Yocum. Ortiz was initially diagnosed with tendinitis. He's been pitching well, with a 1.80 ERA in two games.
Position battles
Osvaldo Fernandez (remember him?) is competing for the Reds' rotation. Well, perhaps he was competing. The former Giants starter allowed six runs and nine hits in four innings in Tuesday's loss. Look for Mark Portugal to start the year in the Cincinnati rotation.
With Wright going down, the set starters for Milwaukee are Steve Woodard, Jimmy Haynes and Jaime Navarro. Candidates for the final two spots include Rafael Roque, John Snyder and Jason Bere. Snyder is suffering from a strained side muscle while Bere had problems with his velocity in his outing on Monday.
Fantasy corner
Before you bid up Brian Hunter too high in your fantasy league because he steal bases, it looks like the Mariners may soon be giving him a ticket on the first train to nowhere.
The Seattle Times reports that Hunter could be among the team's next wave of cuts, meaning the club would only have to pay a small portion of Hunter's $2.4 million contract he won in arbitration.
"I sense something around here, I've heard some things have been said," Hunter told the Times. "I try to look at it from the team's perspective, too. And I still think my positives outweigh any negatives."
Yeah, and we've got a piece of land for sale ... (OK, we used that line yesterday ...)
Hunter batted leadoff most of last season and led the AL in steals ... but had a .277 on-base percentage, worst in the league among regulars.
"If we had any doubt about having him, we never would have offered him a contract back in December," one official said. "This is not about money. It's about Brian playing effectively for us."
Umm. We feel generous, so we'll give the M's some advice: It is about money. Save yourselves about $2 million and cut him loose, because the team is more likely to pick up Ken Griffey Jr. in a trade than to have Brian Hunter help them win ballgames this year.
| |
ALSO SEE
Previous Rights (and Wrongs) of Spring
ESPN.com's spring training 2000 coverage
|
