It's been a busy couple of weeks, which explains all the delays in our offseason coverage.  Plus, with the World Series going on (even without the Rockies), can we really say it's the offseason yet? Back to the player reviews. Todd Helton: Todd's .325/.416/.489 line shouldn't have come as a surprise to anyone.  It's about in line with what he did the last time he played a full season (2007), and it's what he is still capable of doing when healthy.  That last phrase -- "when healthy" -- is the key, because Todd wasn't close to healthy in 2008.  He missed nearly half the season, and even when he played, he wasn't the same player, posting the worst OPS of his distinguished career. With that in mind, the Rockies had initially planned to ease Helton back, giving him more days off than normal and monitoring his playing time.  As it turns out, though, there was no need for that, as Todd had a great spring and then played in 151 games, making a total of 645 plate appearances.  While his power isn't what it used to be, this isn't exactly a recent development; he hasn't had a 30-homer season since 2004 (and hasn't even cracked 20 since 2005.)  But his batting average and exceptional ability to draw walks make him very valuable, and his health was a big reason why the Rockies improved so much from 2008 to 2009.  And good thing, too, because an unhealthy Todd would have meant more appearances by Garrett Atkins, who had a terrible year.  Grade: A-. Clint Barmes: What can be said about Barmes?  The Rockies like his power and glove at second base, and there's a lot to be said about the former: he hit a career-high 23 homers in 2009.  As for the glove, while he's above average at second, he's not great. And then there's that whole OBP thing.  Barmes doesn't draw walks, which means that when his average sucks (which it did this year), he doesn't get on base much.  It weighed down his OPS enough that it was below the league average even for second basemen.  I hesitate to wonder if the Rockies have something of a fantasy team mentality when it comes to Barmes: he's a second baseman who hits homers!  Of course, with those homers comes a low average and OBP, and Barmes gets caught stealing a lot more than he should.  And the other worry is that his power outburst isn't really sustainable: prior to 2009, he'd hit 30 homers in roughly two full seasons' worth of at bats.  Is it worth a long-term contract to have a second baseman hitting around .250 with a sub-300 OBP, just because he's knocking fifteen homers a year?  Grade: C-. Omar Quintanilla: It's hard to look at Quintanilla's 2009 line and think that this was a guy who was on the active roster all season.  Yes, Quintanilla managed just 69 plate appearances all year, just eight more than Eric Young got in roughly a month with the team -- and eight fewer than Ubaldo Jimenez got starting every fifth day.  It didn't help Quintanilla's cause that he was actually a worse hitter than Jimenez, but it's painful to wonder how good the Rockies could have been if they hadn't wasted a roster spot on Quintanilla all year.  Seriously, Jeff Baker (.305/.362/.448 with the Cubs, as a semi-regular starter) needed to go so that the Rockies could carry Quintanilla's glove on the roster?  As I've said before, the Rockies, with two good gloves up the middle who can also hit (Tulowitzki, definitely; Barmes, somewhat), don't really have a lot of use for a good glove/no hit infielder off the bench.  Jim Tracy briefly said that he would be getting more playing time for Quintanilla, but quickly thought better of that.  Grade: Incomplete. Jason Giambi: Like, how much mileage the Rockies got from Giambi's bat late in the season.  While Giambi only made 31 plate appearances, all in September, he managed to get 11 RBI -- nine more than Quintanilla.  While the Rockies realistically could not have had Giambi to start the year -- Giambi was going to start, and probably at DH since he can't really play the field any more -- what he did for the team underscores the mistake the team made in carrying Quintanilla all year.  Somebody like Baker could have done this just as well.  Grade: A.

Tagged as: Clint Barmes, Colorado Rockies, Jason Giambi, MLB, Omar Quintanilla, Player Reviews, Rockies, Todd Helton