MLB Team Report – Colorado Rockies – INSIDE PITCH
Jhoulys Chacin will pitch for Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic, taking a roster spot that arose late. He will replace Felix Hernandez in Venezuela’s rotation. Hernandez bowed out of the WBC to protect himself after signing a six-year, $175 million contract with the Mariners. Chacin had expressed an interest in pitching for his country during the winter before the WBC rosters were set and then pushed for the chance to replace Hernandez.
“It’s a dream of mine to do this,” Chacin said. “My priority is the Rockies, but this is an opportunity I want to take advantage of.”
Outfielder Carlos Gonzalez and catcher Ramon Hernandez, Chacin’s teammates on the Rockies, will also play for Venezuela in the WBC. Chacin, who turned 25 in January and signed a two-year, $6.5 million contract, is expected to pitch twice in exhibition games for the Rockies before leaving for the WBC.
The Rockies are counting heavily on Chacin this season. He began the 2012 season injured and struggled through the first month before going on the disabled list for nearly three months with a nerve issue in his right chest muscle. Chacin returned Aug. 21 and in his final nine starts, he went 3-2 with a 2.84 ERA.
While pitching for Venezuela, Chacin will take the mound in games that are far more consequential than any in the Cactus League. Manager Walt Weiss said the intensity of the WBC when compared with a spring training start could work to Chacin’s advantage.
“You can look at it any way you want to,” Weiss said. “You like to have your guys around in spring training, so you’ve got them in front of you. But the guys who are in the WBC are going to be in some high-pressure situations, having to win games. They’re going to get a lot out of that. It’s a great honor for these guys to be selected for that.”
With the Venezuelan team, Chacin will be reunited with Wilson Alvarez, who is the team’s pitching coach and whom Chacin visited in January in Sarasota, Fla. According to MLB.com, Alvarez made some adjustments in Chacin’s conditioning and corrected a flaw in Chacin’s fastball grip that Alvarez had noticed on video. Chacin has kept his fingers on top of the ball while throwing his changeup and slider but had gotten in the habit of having his fingers slip beneath the ball on his fastball.
Chacin along with Jorge De La Rosa and Juan Nicasio are starters who missed considerable time last year due to injury. The three pitchers combined to make just 28 starts in 2012. All three are healthy, and the Rockies are optimistic they will be part of the rotation on Opening Day and going forward. But since all three are coming back, the Rockies aren’t certain about how many innings they can pitch this season. Those three pitchers plus Jeff Francis and a fifth starter from among the likes of Drew Pomeranz, Tyler Chatwood, Chris Volstad or Christian Friedrich make for a rotation that needs a boost.
ESPN reported the Rockies have had preliminary talks with the Rays about pitcher Jeff Niemann, who turns 30 on Feb. 28. Niemann, who is competing for the fifth starter job with the Rays, went 2-3 with a 3.08 ERA last year. He suffered a broken right leg when hit with a ball in a May 14 start and returned Sept. 1 only to be removed in the fourth inning from that start with shoulder soreness.
Niemann will make $3 million this season and is under contract through 2014 after which he can become a free agent. The Rockies have had interest in Niemann going back to spring training 2009 when they acquired pitcher Jason Hammel from the Rays just before the start of the regular season that year. In five seasons, all with the Rays, Niemann is 40-26 with a 4.08 ERA in 97 games, including 92 starts.
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MLB Team Report – Colorado Rockies – NOTES, QUOTES
–RF Michael Cuddyer is among the players advocating much stronger penalties for those caught using performance enhancing drugs. He would like to see a one-year suspension for the first positive test and a lifetime ban for the second and believes his is not a contrary opinion.
“I think 100 percent of the guys would be for it,” Cuddyer said. “I can’t speak for everybody, but listening to certain guys’ comments and talking to certain guys, I think guys would be all for stiffer penalties. That’s a full year’s pay and then you can never play again. If that’s not a deterrent, I don’t know what is.”
–The Rockies and LHP Drew Pomeranz are hoping that this is the year that he begins to realize his vast potential that made Pomeranz the centerpiece acquisition in the trade that sent RHP Ubaldo Jimenez to the Indians in July 2011. Pomeranz, 24, went 2-9 with a 4.53 ERA for the Rockies last year with below average fastball command and no consistency with his secondary pitches. He spent five weeks at Triple-A during the first half of the season and ended up with a combined total of 67 walks in 147 1/3 innings overall in 2012.
Instead of going home to Memphis, Pomeranz worked out regularly this winter in Los Angeles at Athletes’ Performance Institute. He lost 10 pounds to get down to 233, and Rockies assistant pitching coach Bo McLaughlin said, “He did a real good job of getting his core strong. He put himself in good position. Now it’s about getting in good pitching shape.”
Pomeranz, who is 6-foot-5, is working to make his delivery consistent and repeatable and knows he must throw more strikes. He recognizes the need not to worry about any mechanics while on the mound and just letting the ball go.
Manager Walt Weiss said, “He’s one of those guys that doesn’t have to be perfect, because there’s so much deception and movement to his pitches. It’s not a comfortable at-bat. The hitters don’t see the ball well. What a strength to have. I stand behind the cage and watch him throw, and I wouldn’t want any part of that.”
–1B Todd Helton has addressed his teammates about his Feb. 6 arrest at 2:30 a.m. for driving under the influence and careless driving and spoke for nearly 10 minutes about it to the media on Feb. 17. He said he has gotten help but declined to be specific about the nature of the help.
“The old saying is that anything that happens after midnight is not good,” he said. “I can attest that it’s true. One time is too many making this mistake.”
Helton, who turns 40 in August and is on the final year of his contract and likely entering the last season of his career, is coming off his worst season. He hit .238 in 69 games with seven homers and 37 and had season-ending surgery Aug. 10 to repair a torn labrum in his right hip.
“I just want to finish the season healthy, and with a feeling I am able to help this team be better in whatever way I can,” Helton said. “To have a chance to go out with a trip to the playoffs, that would be the ultimate.”
After his hip surgery, Helton focused on cardiovascular work and said he ran more than in the past, realizing back and hip problems are less likely if his legs are strong. That said, Helton knows that the Rockies have first base options in outfielders Michael Cuddyer and Tyler Colvin and third baseman Jordan Pacheco and that manager Walt Weiss will give him rest.
“I have to understand that there are days I have to take off to allow me to bounce back and make a positive contribution the next game,” Helton said. “I have to be more honest with myself.”
Weiss said that if Helton is healthy, he will start at first base but how much he plays and where he hits are to be determined. Weiss is still tinkering with the fifth, sixth and seventh spots in the lineup — catcher Wilin Rosario might bat fifth — and they could change depending on who is in the lineup and whether it includes Colvin. Weiss said of Helton, “The approach is that he’s going to go out and play. He’s going to get days off when he needs it. I expect him to be a productive part of the lineup.”
–RHP Rafael Betancourt originally was not scheduled to pitch when the assignments for the first six days of Cactus League games were posted. But the scheduled was amended, and Betancourt, the Rockies closer who turns 38 on April 29, is slated to make his spring debut on Feb. 27.
Either way, Betancourt isn’t concerned. Cactus League games start earlier this year because of the World Baseball Classic, but Betancourt, who earned 31 saves in 2012, his first season as a full-time closer, is pointing toward Opening Day April 1 at Milwaukee and said there was no reason for him to pitch the first weekend of exhibition games.
“I’m going to try to get in 10-12 innings down here in spring training, and there’s plenty of time for that,” he said. “I just want to get ready for the season.”
–The Rockies are paying homage to their past beyond the hiring of manager Walt Weiss and hitting coach Dante Bichette, both of whom played for the team. They announced that Eric Young and Pedro Astacio would serve as guest instructors during spring training. Curiously Young and Astacio were traded for each other on Aug. 19, 1997, with Young, a second baseman whom the Rockies chose in the November 1992 expansion draft from the Dodgers, being sent back to the Dodgers for pitcher Astacio.
Young, whose son Eric Jr. plays for the Rockies, is already in camp where he will work with players on stealing and bunting. He’s expected to spend two weeks in camp and then return toward the end. Young spent the past two seasons as Arizona’s first base coach, but was fired by the Diamondbacks after 2012.
Weiss heartily endorsed the idea of the two former Rockies returning to help out in spring training.
“I love it,” Weiss said. “Bringing guys to the organization who have been successful gives us credibility. I only see it as a positive. I will tell them to roam around and spread the love.”
Astacio pitched for the Rockies from 1997-2001 and went 53-48 during that span. He ranks fifth in franchise history in wins and shares the single-season club record for wins (17). He is expected to be in camp this week and will work with the pitchers, re-connected with the Rockies after speaking with general manager Dan O’Dowd and senior vice president of major league operations Bill Geivett in the Dominican Republic, which is where Astacio is from.
–3B Nolan Arenado is in his second big league camp as a non-roster player. He turns 22 on April 16 and is expected to begin the season at Triple-A Colorado Springs. Arenado, who hit .285 at Double-A Tulsa last year with 12 homers and 56 RBI, was ranked the top prospect in the Rockies’ system by Baseball America.
“It feels a lot more comfortable than last year,” Arenado said. “But still, this isn’t my locker room. I’m still a second-year, big-league-camp guy. But I’m a lot more comfortable, a little more settled in and I know what to expect. That helps out a lot.”
Arenado was ranked No. 52 by Baseball America in its annual compilation of the Top 100 prospects. Other members of the Rockies organization who made the list are OF David Dahl at No. 53 and SS-3B Trevor Story at No. 96.
Arenado hit a run-scoring double in his team’s 2-0 win Feb. 22 in an intrasquad game. Manager Walt Weiss said, “He’s very good defensively. And the at-bat … where he hit the double (to right field), that’s him. I don’t want him to get caught up with where he stands in camp. Just go out and play. That will slow everything down and let his ability shine.”
Chris Nelson, Jordan Pacheco, DJ LeMahieu and Arenado are competing for the starting job at third base. Realistically, Arenado will get some experience and development time at Triple-A, barring an absolutely magnificent spring.
And there are some service-time issues at work for the Rockies with a prospect like Arenado. If he stays in the minors until mid-June, he won’t be able to become a Super 2 player after 2015 and gain four years of arbitration eligibility. And if he isn’t called up until after late April, the Rockies would be able to keep him under control through 2019 as opposed to having him possibly become a free agent a year earlier if he began his major league career this season on Opening Day and wasn’t sent back to the minors over the course of six years.
BY THE NUMBERS: 14 — Pinch hits last season for Eric Young Jr., which was second in the majors behind Atlanta’s Reed Johnson (18). Young went 14-for-54 (.259) as a pinch hitter with a major league leading 13 runs scored in that role.
QUOTE TO NOTE: “It proved to me that I can hit up here. All the things you think about and dream about started coming true.” — 3B Chris Nelson, 27, on hitting .344 after the All-Star break with 30 RBI in 55 games as well as a .381 on-base percentage and a .500 slugging percentage
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MLB Team Report – Colorado Rockies – ROSTER REPORT
PROJECTED ROTATION:
1. RHP Jhoulys Chacin
2. LHP Jorge De La Rosa
3. RHP Juan Nicasio
4. LHP Drew Pomeranz
5. LHP Jeff Francis
Injuries limited Chacin, De La Rosa and Nicasio to a combined total of 28 starts last year. Chacin pitched very well in nine starts after returning in August and is less of a question mark than De La Rosa, who was understandably inconsistent in three September starts as he worked his way back from Tommy John surgery performed in June 2011. Nicasio didn’t pitch after suffering a left knee sprain June 2 that resulted in arthroscopic surgery and a microfracture procedure. A breakthrough in his third professional season by Pomeranz, 24, is conceivable and would greatly help the rotation. Francis provides a veteran presence and dependability to the back of the rotation.
RHP Chris Volstad, signed to a minor league contract, will compete for a spot in the rotation along with RHP Tyler Chatwood and LHP Christian Friedrich.
PROJECTED BULLPEN:
RHP Rafael Betancourt (closer)
RHP Matt Belisle
LHP Rex Brothers
RHP Wilton Lopez
RHP Adam Ottavino
RHP Miguel Batista
LHP Josh Outman
Betancourt did well last year in his first full season as a closer, but he turns 38 on April 29. Lopez, acquired from the Astros in December, closed the final two months last year and could step in for Betancourt, if need be. Regardless, the back end of the bullpen should be strong with Lopez, Belisle and Brothers setting up for Betancourt.
The Rockies again are expected to have three hybrid relievers, as they call them, coming in after the starters reach their limit of about 90 pitches. Ottavino was effective in that role last year. Newly acquired Batista should be able to handle the job, although his age (41) is a concern. Outman, Danny Rosenbaum, taken in the Rule 5 draft from the Nationals, or Erick Threets would give the Rockies a second left-hander in the bullpen. RHPs Manuel Corpas, Rob Scahill and Edgmer Escalona also will compete for bullpen spots.
PROJECTED LINEUP:
1. CF Dexter Fowler
2. 2B Josh Rutledge
3. LF Carlos Gonzalez
4. SS Troy Tulowitzki
5. 1B Todd Helton
6. RF Michael Cuddyer
7. C Wilin Rosario
8. 3B Jordan Pacheco
Getting Tulowitzki, Helton and Cuddyer back from injuries lengthens what was a very weak lineup after the three were sidelined for long stretches last year. Tulowitzki didn’t play after May 30, Helton made six starts after July 8, and Cuddyer played three games after July 31.
Their presence will help Gonzalez, who could approach the heights of his 2010 breakout season. Rosario, who led the team with 28 homers as a rookie last year, brings power toward the bottom of the lineup. He could move up if others falter. Pacheco handles the bat well and doesn’t strike out a lot. He could hit second at times.
TOP ROOKIES: RHP Rob Scahill, who has a power arm, posted a 1.04 ERA in six September appearances. He has swing-and-miss stuff and can pitch multiple innings, which makes him suited for one of the Rockies’ hybrid relief roles, but he must improve his control (74 walks and 159 strikeouts in 152 innings at Class AAA last season). 3B Nolan Arenado, who hit .285 with 12 homers and 56 RBI last year in Class AA, likely will start the season at Class AAA but could earn a promotion and the opportunity to play regularly at a position where the Rockies are seeking someone long-term.
MEDICAL WATCH:
–LHP Edwar Cabrera (left shoulder impingement) went on the 60-day disabled list Feb. 14. He likely would have started the season in Class AAA had he been healthy.
