MVN: Most Valuable Network

Scott Beerer was drafted by the Rockies in the second round of the 2003 draft, after a junior season at Texas A&M in which he impressed as both a pitcher (6-1, 1.82 ERA, 58 strikeouts and 12 walks in 49.1 innings) and as a hitter (.335/.379/.547.)  The Rockies initially tried him as a pitcher, but injuries led to a loss of command, and ultimately led to the Rockies releasing him.

Apparently somebody in the Rockies organization remembered that Beerer had been a pretty good hitter in college, and the Rockies brought him back into camp this spring as an outfielder.  And, playing at third base, left field, and DH, Beerer has gotten off to a hot start in his first official week as a professional hitter: a .593 average, with five doubles, a triple, and 10 RBI.  Obviously, the average is not sustainable, but a week that impressive has to have turned a few heads in the Rockies front office.

Now, it's just one week, but the question that has to be asked is: how aggressive do the Rockies want to be with Beerer?  He's almost 27, which is normally too old to still be considered a prospect, but in this case we're talking about a guy who had barely faced live pitching in the last six years (he did get a couple of at bats for Modesto in '06, but that's it.)  Considering his age, and the fact that he's made hitting look easy so far, the Rockies might want to consider a quick promotion to see just what they have on their hands.  After all, given that he's been around a while, Beerer is Rule 5 draft-eligible, so if the Rockies don't figure out quickly what they've got on their hands, somebody might decide to try to snag him and see what he has.  Yes, that seems like an unlikely scenario right now, but then it also seemed pretty unlikely that somebody would pick up Everth Cabrera, who hit .284/.361/.399 in A-ball last year.

The other obvious concern is finding a position for him; three of his six appearances this season have been as a DH.  Unless the Rockies move to the American League sometime soon, he's not going to be playing there in the majors.

Raise your hand if you thought Jason Marquis would have nine wins in the middle of June.  Or that he would have the lowest ERA of all Rockies starting pitchers.Liars.Except that it's true.  Marquis's 3.71 ERA puts him just a hair ahead of Ubaldo Jimenez for the lead on the Rockies' pitching staff.  And no pitcher in the National League has more wins than Marquis, though Matt Cain of the Giants and Chad Billingsley of the Dodgers are tied.  Meanwhile, the Cubs designated Luis Vizcaino for assignment on April 23.  Yeah, I'd say the Rockies won that trade.So what, exactly, has Marquis been doing for the Rockies that he wasn't doing for the Cubs?  Marquis has gotten ground balls on 58 percent of all balls in play.  Last year, that number was 47.6 percent.  In fact, only one pitcher in all of the majors -- the Cardinals' Joel Pineiro --... Read more

We had thought for a while that Manny Corpas might be demoted to Colorado Springs.  Instead, Corpas is likely going to the DL after an MRI revealed bone chips in his right elbow.The way I see it, there are two possibilities for the Rockies to call up here.  Juan Rincon, who has been utterly dominant at Colorado Springs (11 strikeouts in 8.2 innings) since the Rockies picked him up after the Tigers released him, is one possibility.  Rincon is not currently on the 40-man roster, but the Rockies do have a spot open as long as Yorvit Torrealba remains on the restricted list.  The other possibility is Ryan Mattheus, who's struck out 20 in 16.2 innings for the Sky Sox -- and he also has a groundball ratio of 3.29 there.  Mattheus is already on the 40-man roster.... Read more

In evaluating hitting prospects, John Sickels often talks about plate discipline as one of the Seven Skills.  Sickels says that, generally, a hitter should draw walks in at least 10 percent of his plate appearances.  Hitters who have poor plate discipline often have trouble adjusting to more advanced pitching.10 percent is a nice rule of thumb.  How important is it?  Of the 13 hitters on the Rockies' Opening Day roster in 2009, all but four drew walks in more than 10 percent of their minor league plate appearances.  Of the four who didn't, two are strictly backups: Yorvit Torrealba and Omar Quintanilla; both of them are valued more for their glovework than for their hitting.  That's probably not a coincidence.  Another is Clint Barmes, who drew walks in about six percent of his plate appearances in the minors.  Barmes's lack of patience at the plate could explain his erratic performance... Read more

Earlier this week, John Perrotto speculated that the Rockies might be a possible trade destination for Ian Snell.  What's that?  The Rockies are involved in trade rumors... and they don't involve the Rockies dumping a veteran's salary in exchange for prospects?While I'm not personally sold on the Ian Snell rumor, it does make some sense that the Rockies might be buying in the trade market.  After all, the recent winning streak means that the playoffs aren't terribly far out of the realm of possibility.  Also, Dan O'Dowd is in the final year of his contract, and he's in danger of being removed after the season.  A playoff appearance would probably change all of that... so basically, O'Dowd's in a position where he might really want to mortgage the future in order to win now.Essentially, those two factors combine to produce a situation where the Rockies are going to try to... Read more

Wow,  Just... wow.The Rockies are red-hot.  If you haven't heard, they've won eleven in a row.  The last time the Rockies won 11 in a row?  September 2007, a month all Rockies fans are familiar with.Obviously the Rockies aren't going to win every game the rest of the way, but are they going to make a playoff push?  Or are they going to settle in as a .500-ish team, putting up a respectable record but never really threatening for a playoff berth?The West is probably still going to be out of reach, as the Dodgers are 42-22 and even in the absence of Manny Ramirez are still a very good team.  But the Rockies currently sit just 3.5 back in the wild card, so I'd say that's a reasonable goal.  The Rockies seriously underperformed in April and May, resulting in them having to come from behind, but I think they... Read more

The Rockies had five picks in the first three rounds of this year's draft, and in general, I think they did a good job both in addressing needs and acquiring talent.1.  Tyler Matzek, LHP, Capistrano Valley HS (Ca.)I like this pick.  Matzek, who Baseball America tabbed as the eighth-best player available in the draft, is a great pick for two reasons: one, he was probably the best player available when the Rockies selected; and two, he does fill a need in the system (after Christian Friedrich, the Rockies are very short on left-handed pitching.)  Matzek dropped to the Rockies because of concerns about signability -- he's committed to Oregon, and reportedly has some very large bonus demands -- but we're assuming that the Monforts green-lighted this selection.  In other words, Matzek probably will sign; the only problem is that he may be more expensive than most teams would like.The real... Read more

The Rockies have selected high school lefthander Tyler Matzek with the 11th overall pick in the draft.I'm on the run, so this is short.  I'll have a recap of the draft later tonight.... Read more

The Rockies won their fourth game in a row today, and the offensive outburst over the last four games has really been impressive: the team has scored 38 runs to just 10 by the opposition.  In fact, since Jim Tracy took over as manager, the Rockies are 6-4 -- not great by any stretch, but better than they had been playing.  That's all come, by the way, with Chris Iannetta out of action.I still don't buy into the effects of a midseason managerial change having a great effect on the team.  But it's still apparent that the Rockies have been playing better of late.  Some of that seems inevitable: so many Rockies hitters were underperforming previously that the team was bound to see some uptick.So which players have been key to the Rockies' recent rebound?Ian StewartActually, Stewart really started hitting this weekend: over the team's last five games, Stewart has... Read more

With the Rockies now looking to be out of the playoff race, naturally the trade rumors are beginning to swirl.Carlos Gonzalez is in the majors, he's probably there to stay, and he's probably not up to ride the pine.  That gives the Rockies four outfielders who are probably good enough to start for most teams, plus a fifth outfielder in Ryan Spilborghs who has obvious value as a platoon partner for a left-handed hitter who struggles with lefties, and a guy in AAA in Matt Murton who would be a capable backup for a lot of teams.  That's a lot of outfield depth -- too much, really.  There's always the possibility that an outfielder goes down to injury, but with this much depth, there's really no need to carry so many.  If the Rockies trade one, and another goes down, Matt Miller and Dan Ortmeier would probably be acceptable backups,... Read more

Despite four quality starts to his name -- plus another that would have been had he gotten two more outs -- Jorge de la Rosa had yet to record a win until Friday night.  While not the lights-out starter that he was for two starts in May, on a night when the Rockies offense gave him eleven runs to work with, Jorge was good enough to win.It's probably no coincidence that both de la Rosa and Jason Hammel have turned in good starts over the last two nights.  Franklin Morales is due back soon, and both can see the writing on the wall: One of them will be going to the bullpen when Morales returns.But it's not clear which one it will be.  The main point in Jorge's favor is that he's striking out more than a batter an inning.  And as we've seen, when Jorge is on, he's very... Read more