November 3, 2008
2008 Rockies in Review: Troy Tulowitzki
Tulo Catch -- uploaded on November 3, 2007 by Eric Kilby
Troy Tulowitzki's 2007 season had us all convinced that this guy was a natural, that he was going to start stringing together 30-homer, 100-RBI seasons sometime in the near future. He wasn't far off in 2007, hitting 24 out and driving in 99 runs, and that was as a 22-year-old playing his first full year in the majors. Tulo came in 2nd in Rookie of the Year voting and 18th in MVP voting, and was a big reason why the Rockies went to the World Series.
2008 had a different answer: not yet.
Tulo fell off quite a bit in 2008, as his BA dropped to .263 and his SLG to .401. He missed 61 games as a result of a couple of injuries; once, he strained his quad after being inserted into the lineup late when Jeff Baker got hurt, and a second time when he punched something in the dugout. If you believe in that sort of stuff, that second injury might convince you that Tulo has some sort of "makeup" issues.
On the other hand, Tulo wasn't bad at all in the second half, hitting .327/.389/.469. It's possible that Tulo has some sort of Brad Hawpe syndrome, where he doesn't think that the season starts until May. After struggling to the tune of .244/.340/.390 in April 2007, Tulo was abysmal in April 2008, hitting .152/.226/.238, or only slightly better than Jayson Nix's April performance that got him sent back to the minors. The difference, of course, was that Nix hadn't just had a season in the majors like Tulo's 2007, and that Nix was striking out about once every three at bats, while Tulo was doing it just once every six. The balls simply weren't falling in for Tulo in April.
More disturbing was the drop in power; through the end of August Tulo only had five homers. Injuries obviously played some role, but for the season his ISO power was down 50 points. It was .204 in September, though. If that can be carried over to 2009, Tulo could have a really great season.
It's also worth pointing out that Tulo did better when Clint Hurdle started batting him down in the order. When batting second, Tulo hit just .222/.296/.292; when batting seventh or eighth, Tulo hit .292/.361/.467. But that's not a trend, since he did just fine in the second spot of the order in 2007.
2007 offered a ton of hope for the future; the Rockies took a step back in 2008, though, and Tulo was no different. Now Tulo needs to put this in the past and focus on getting better in 2009.
Tom's Grade: C+
2008 had a different answer: not yet.
Tulo fell off quite a bit in 2008, as his BA dropped to .263 and his SLG to .401. He missed 61 games as a result of a couple of injuries; once, he strained his quad after being inserted into the lineup late when Jeff Baker got hurt, and a second time when he punched something in the dugout. If you believe in that sort of stuff, that second injury might convince you that Tulo has some sort of "makeup" issues.
On the other hand, Tulo wasn't bad at all in the second half, hitting .327/.389/.469. It's possible that Tulo has some sort of Brad Hawpe syndrome, where he doesn't think that the season starts until May. After struggling to the tune of .244/.340/.390 in April 2007, Tulo was abysmal in April 2008, hitting .152/.226/.238, or only slightly better than Jayson Nix's April performance that got him sent back to the minors. The difference, of course, was that Nix hadn't just had a season in the majors like Tulo's 2007, and that Nix was striking out about once every three at bats, while Tulo was doing it just once every six. The balls simply weren't falling in for Tulo in April.
More disturbing was the drop in power; through the end of August Tulo only had five homers. Injuries obviously played some role, but for the season his ISO power was down 50 points. It was .204 in September, though. If that can be carried over to 2009, Tulo could have a really great season.
It's also worth pointing out that Tulo did better when Clint Hurdle started batting him down in the order. When batting second, Tulo hit just .222/.296/.292; when batting seventh or eighth, Tulo hit .292/.361/.467. But that's not a trend, since he did just fine in the second spot of the order in 2007.
2007 offered a ton of hope for the future; the Rockies took a step back in 2008, though, and Tulo was no different. Now Tulo needs to put this in the past and focus on getting better in 2009.
Tom's Grade: C+
Discussion
Start the discussion on "2008 Rockies in Review: Troy Tulowitzki"
Recent Posts
More rockies Posts
Division Rivals
Regional Teams
Leave a comment