Unlike the unceremonious dumping of Ian Stewart to Chicago, this move has as much to do with roster building and economics. Smith hadn’t been quite the underperformer that Stewart was, nor the unpredictable hitter that Iannetta was. He figured to be penciled in as the fourth outfielder, his starting spot taken by the acquisition of Michael Cuddyer last month. With several guys available to jump into the fourth outfielder spot, the Rockies clearly wanted to unload Smith’s contract more than Smith himself ($2.4M, which avoided arbitration).

While this deal will not approach the Holliday to Oakland deal in terms of return, the Rockies got what they were after – unloaded a replaceable expense in exchange for pitching. At this point, it seems the Rockies are looking for any arm they can get. Both Moscoso and Outman were likely candidates for Oakland’s starting rotation, but that rotation was already weakened by the injuries, especially to Dallas Braden. At least one of these guys, probably Moscoso, will push Hammel for a rotation spot, and should be at the very least a good placeholder for Jorge de la Rosa, who will still be rehabbing from Tommy John surgery throughout the spring.

In the end, it’s probably a good deal for the Rockies, though Seth Smith is another one of the high character guys that just couldn’t make the case for a permanent roster spot. Time will tell if this all-out rebuild of the pitching staff, and the resulting shakeup that extends up and down the entire lineup, is successful. One thing is certain – just like every year, with San Francisco and Arizona sitting atop the division, and Los Angeles not far behind, solid pitching will be imperative for the Rockies to make a run at the NL West – slugging won’t win a title.

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The Colorado Rockies are solid at two of three outfield positions, but there is still much drama to be had.  The 2011 Season will be spent monitoring not who is manning the sprawling lawn at Coors Field, but rather how well these young outfielders develop beyond their 2010 performances at the plate.

Carlos Gonzalez is obviously the centerpiece of this speedy young Rockies outfield.  Gonzalez logged time at all three outfield positions in 2010, notching 8 outfield assists in the process.  (Just three assists short of NL leader Jeff Francoeur.)  CarGo deserved a Gold Glove for his magnificent defensive work in one of the most challenging fielding parks in baseball.

Instead, Gonzalez got a 7-year $80 million extension from the Colorado Rockies, predominantly for his earth-shaking hitting and basepad speed.  Gonzalez more than doubled his plate appearances from 2010, and the result was a .336 average and 117 RBI.  CarGo led the Rockies in BA, HR’s, RBI, R’s and OPS.

Gaudy batting statistics aside, the Rockies will be looking for Carlos to work on patience at the plate.  Gonzalez was at his best behind in the count and utilizing his ample natural talents to overpower (and terrify) opposing pitchers by swinging away.  However, if the Rockies are to make a playoff run against the NL’s best hurlers, Carlos is going to need to force pitchers to give him good looks by being more selective early in counts.

Dexter Fowler draws a striking contrast to CarGo at the plate, often finding his way to first without offering at a pitch.  Dex has a long, slow swing that requires patience, and the drastic gap between his batting average (a pedestrian .260) and on-base percentage (a relatively high .351) exemplify that.  Compare that OBP to CarGo’s .376 and Fowler was reaching base almost as often while swinging the bat significantly less.  Still, Dex will need to improve on nearly identical 2010-2011 numbers to live up to expectations.

Where Fowler is not at all lacking is his stellar outfield play.  Dexter is precisely the kind of quick, athletic, long center fielder that Coors Field demands.  Dex plays every ball hit his way at full-speed, and he sacrificed his body on a couple of occasions last season to make thrilling catches.  Fowler is every inch a starting center fielder and we hope that he can continue to get on base from early in the batting order (to be moved along by twin demons CarGo and Tulo.)

Ryan Spilborghs has platooned in right field each of the last five seasons.  He split time with Brad Hawpe until the Hawper was sent packing to Tampa Bay, then swapped starts with Seth Smith through the end of 2010.  Spilly is a great utility outfielder, relatively dependable in the pinch, and has a heartthrob following amongst female fans.

Spilborghs will be earning the second half of a 2-year $3.2 million contract in 2011, and his batting production was solid in 2010 at .279, well up from his disappointing .241 in 2009.

Still, Ryan has long been expected to blossom into the everyday power right fielder that the Rockies need, and he has so far failed to do so.  Between long slumps, poor hitting with men on base, and a decline in power stats from his first three seasons, Spilborghs is so far no more than a very serviceable second option in right field who happens to start when Colorado cannot field a better player.

This will be a very telling year for Spilly, and his future with the Rockies may hinge on his ability to grow beyond his current limitations.

Seth Smith rocked Coors Field in 2009 with his clutch power-hitting in the pinch.  Less impressive but still acceptable pinch-hitting numbers in 2010 made him a starter for brief stretches, but his disappointing decline from a .293 average in ’09 to .246 in ’10 relegated Seth again to backup status.

Smith is an impressive left-handed bat off the bench, and a serviceable late-innings fielder.  Perhaps he needs to return to that role in 2011.  It served the team well in 2009, and Seth simply failed to excel as a part-time starter in 2010.  He is an important and inexpensive piece of the Rockies’ suddenly expensive roster.

Charlie Blackmon will be worth a look in spring training, and was announced this week as a non-roster invitee to the Rockies’ camp.  After being drafted twice as a pitcher, Blackmon decided his future was as a position player and ended up a second round selection for the Rockies.  Charlie has made a steady rise through Colorado’s system, playing well at AA-Tulsa in 2010.

If anybody is going to challenge Spilborghs and Smith in right field, it will be Blackmon who has the speed and arm-strength to play center field.  Because of his defensive range and arm Charlie may even be an eventual replacement for Dexter Fowler if the young Rockies center fielder fails to grow in 2011.  As a defensive addition, Blackmon is ready to play at the MLB level now.

His patience in the minors and in the 2010 Arizona Fall League was noteworthy, but work remains to be done on his strike zone awareness.  Hitting better than .300 at several levels of the Rockies’ system (and in the AFL), Blackmon is worth keeping an eye on.  He will need to surpass fellow prospect Cole Garner, a switch-hitting outfielder added to the Rockies’ 40-man Roster in December, if he hopes to play in the big leagues this year.

Read Colorado Rockies Spring Roster Preview – Catcher and 3B

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The St Louis Cardinals finished their scoring in the top of the 6^th Inning on Tuesday night.  Former Colorado Rockies left fielder Matt Holiday launched a 3-run shot over the left field fence as he had done so often in purple pinstripes from 2004-2008.

That 418-foot blast put Holiday’s Cardinals up 9-2.  It seemed that the rout was on.

The Rockies had stranded 10 runners through five innings (0, 3, 3, 2 & 2) a game after setting a franchise record for most stranded runners with 20.  But as is often the case in baseball, the law of averages finally tilted in Colorado’s favor.

Holiday’s left field replacement (via trade to Oakland) Carlos Gonzalez had three RBI of his own to match Matty’s.  Cargo’s three, however, came on four hits in six at-bats.

After a 427-foot 2-run bomb to left center in the Bottom of the 3^rd, Carlos added a single and a double to leave himself a triple short of completing the cycle.  Instead, his final swing was a lining single to right that scored Dexter Fowler with two outs in the bottom of the 9^th.

Gonzalez would come all the way home from first to score the tying run two pitches later when Jason Giambi drove an 0-1 pitch to deep right field.  Ironically, Giambi did not get credited with an RBI on the play, as Cardinals right fielder Randy Winn was charged with an error for mishandling the ball.  Giambi’s biggest run-scoring drive of the season will not register on his stat sheet as anything more than a single.

The game-tying sprint by Cargo set the stage for Colorado’s other left fielder, Seth Smith.

Playing in right field for the ailing Brad Hawpe, Smith came to the plate with Giambi’s pinch runner, Aaron Cook, stationed at 3^rd base.  Cook, the scheduled starting pitcher for the Rockies tonight, had taken two bases when Miguel Olivo grabbed a low sliding pitch and sent it to shallow right for a single.  Smith needed only a single to steal the walk-off win for Colorado.

Instead, Seth powered a 2-2 split-finger fastball over the right field scoreboard for a 3-run game-winner.  Smith’s shot completed the biggest 9^th Inning comeback in Rockies history and the largest come-from-behind 9^th in Major League Baseball since 1918.

With the San Diego Padres losing last night in DC, the Rockies climbed within four games of the division lead.

After Tuesday’s statement win, Colorado will have a chance to put major pressure on the Padres as Cook and staff ace Ubaldo Jimenez take the mound to round out the St Louis series today and tomorrow.

Colorado victories in both those game could set up a winner-take-all for the NL West when San Diego comes to Coors field for a three-game series this weekend.

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The Colorado Rockies scored 12 runs Tuesday night in a convincing showcase of their powerful hitting lineup.  Less than a day later it was the Arizona Diamondbacks powering past the Rockies in a marathon 10-Inning finale to the 3-game series.

Kelly Johnson led off the 10^th with a solo home run off Franklin Morales to give the Diamondbacks their first lead since Colorado took over in the bottom of the 3^rd.  Morales battled to keep it a one-run game going into the bottom of the extra inning.  Seth Smith, Dexter Fowler & Todd Helton all made good contact in the bottom of the final frame, but Smith & Fowler couldn’t get line-drives to drop and Helton couldn’t beat pitcher Juan Gutierrez to the base on an infield drive to 1^st.

The Diamondbacks won the first game in this series 5-3, a contest in which the Rockies squandered plenty of offensive opportunities.  The series balancing on today’s afternoon slugfest, Arizona opened up with a 6-run salvo in the 1^st Inning to chase troubled Colorado starter Greg Smith.  The Rockies responded with 1 run in the 2^nd, 6 in the 3^rd, and 4 in the 4^th before the offense dried up.

Colorado is amongst the worst in the league at producing runs in the second half of games.  Read more about the Rockies’ feast-or-famine offense.

The 11-6 lead would not hold.

Matt Belisle pitched three great innings while the Rockies pulled ahead, but gave up 3 scores in the 5^th as the short-reliever tired.  Arizona drove in 2 in the 8^th to tie the game at 11 apiece, giving Johnson his chance to hit a misplaced 2-2 fastball over the Coors Field fence.

The Rockies will now take their 11-11 record on the road for a California road swing through San Francisco, San Diego & Los Angeles.

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Nearing the end of April, the Colorado Rockies are 20 games into the season.

Yet, after 180 innings of baseball, the team and its direction remain an enigma.  Although currently at 10-10 in the standings (1.5 games behind division-leading San Diego), the Rockies are already feeling the sting of missed opportunities.

The Rox find themselves searching for answers.

We know Colorado is no stranger to slow-starting Rockies teams:

2007: 10-16

2008: 11-17

2009: 8-12

This year is different, however, and the 2010 model judges itself on the quality of the players on the field rather than the optimistic hopes that come each spring.  Thus far, the Rockies have fallen short.

Hitting:

So far this season, the Rockies have done both good things and bad things at the plate.

The “baseball card” statistics show a team that is hitting.  The club average is .265 and the Rox have scored 96 runs, good for middle of the pack in the National League.  Colorado has 305 total bases, 2^nd best in the NL.

Inherent power is evident in the lineup; Colorado has hit 24 homeruns (3^rd in the NL) and 71 extra-base-hits (5^th in the NL, but only 5 XBH’s behind the Brewers).

Lurking underneath, though, are some disturbing numbers.

The Rox have struck-out a frightening 161 times, only 1 K behind league-leader Arizona.  They have hit into 21 double plays (2^nd in the NL).  The clutch-hitting is woefully absent; Colorado has only scored 18 runs after the 7^th inning (last in the NL), and rank 14^th out of 16 teams in hitting with 2 outs and runners in scoring position.

Individually, the story is pretty much the same: stellar performances and sputtering starts.

Ian Stewart has clearly grown into himself, limiting strikes-outs and improving his pitch selection while losing none of his fearsome power.  Miguel Olivo has displaced Chris Iannetta by hitting over .300.  Brad Hawpe continues his tradition of fast starts, and Carlos Gonzalez is blossoming into a star.

The underside of this lineup is the lack of a defined spot for Clint Barmes, who remains sub-.200.  Dexter Fowler is only now emerging from an early-season slump, and has stolen just two bases.  Seth Smith started off terribly, but more recently last year’s Mr. Clutch is coming around thanks to more playing time.  (Due to minor injuries to Hawpe and CarGo.)  Jason Giambi remains a potent weapon off the bench and continues to have solid at-bats as a pinch-hitter. But as a starter, his bat goes quiet and he is an enormous liability defensively.

The offensive cornerstones of the Rockies lineup remain Troy Tulowitzki & Todd Helton.

Tulo seems to be adjusting lately, and his power will come around as a result.  Todd Helton remains an on-base machine with a respectable .274 average and a .357 on-base-percentage.  However, it’s clear his power is waning.  With only 3 extra-base-hits so far and no homeruns, one has to wonder how long it will be before manager Jim Tracy begins to consider Ian Stewart for the 3^rd spot in the lineup.

The Rockies clearly have the pieces to put together one of the more formidable lineups in the NL, if not all of Major League Baseball. The question is: can the pieces find a way to fit together before it’s too late?

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It was the third inning that saw the Rockies offense open up for 6 runs, and they never looked back. Led by Seth Smith’s three-run homer, the Rockies offense came alive after struggling to put runs across early in the season, downing the Mets in the series opener 11-3. The real encouraging piece of the night, however, was starting pitcher Greg Smith shaking off a precarious start to go 7 innings, allowing six hits (most of them after the game was already blown open), and striking out 8. This was the game that I predicted the Rockies to be vulnerable thanks to Smith – and not only did the offense come alive, but Smith pitched a solid outing, also managed to put up a couple RBIs to help his own cause before giving way to a bullpen that could use the extra rest.

The Mets traditionally give the Rockies trouble, so it was good for the Rockies to come out and assert their dominance early. Look for this to be the series that sets the tone for the early part of the season. The Rockies have had some rust to shake off, and some bullpen issues to contend with. In fact, the biggest price for tonight’s dominance may have come in the shape of a quad injury to Brad Hawpe. Hawpe left the game early, which was easy to deal with thanks to the big lead. The injury was described as “quad tightness”, which in the end is probably nothing to be concerned about. However, on the heels of some hammy tightness from Gonzales last night, the Rockies could be staring down some disaster in the outfield if they’re not careful. It points to a couple things – first, the importance of depth. If Hawpe and Gonzales were both to go down, it’s not that disappointing to see Seth Smith and Ryan Spillborghs step in and pick up the slack. Second, the importance of conditioning. Tightness in the hamstring, tightness in the quad… those are injuries that often speak to less than ideal conditioning.

The Rockies will attempt to take the series with a win tomorrow night as Aaron Cook takes the mound- and believe me, they’d much rather the De la Rosa start on Thursday afternoon be the gravy in the series as opposed to the rubber match.

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Rockies closer Huston Street

The owners of the Colorado Rockies have spent the last decade avoiding big-time contracts.  It’s a strategy that has, arguably, produced the best stretch in Rockies history.

For all of the rumblings within the fan base over the last nine-plus years, at least the Rockies’ national media time has not been occupied by chortling sportscasters bemused by another failed, high-priced pitcher coming to Colorado to die a slow career death.  The 2007 run to the World Series was followed by a disappointing 2008, but the 2009 Rockies that were knocked off by the Phillies may have actually been the most well-rounded baseball club that Colorado has ever produced.

With the signings this week of closer Huston Street and reliever Rafael Betancourt, Colorado is a step closer to becoming a consistent playoff contender.  You read that right; the Monforts are paying for pitching again.  Both players received multi-year contracts.  That’s another departure from the norm for the Rockies’ front office.

Street is locked up through 2011.  The primary loot garnered from the Matt Holiday trade that sent the soon-to-be-pricey slugger to Oakland, Huston will receive $22.5 million for the trouble of playing bullpen sweeper.  Betancourt will pocket $7.55 million over the course of his two-year deal.

Last week the Rockies were shelling out $3.25 million to lock up a utility outfielder for two seasons.  Ryan “Spilly” Spillborghs has officially become more than a fan favorite with a penchant for stellar defense.  Now he’s a well-paid fan favorite with a penchant for stellar defense.

The Rockies backed up that signing with a one-year deal to retain outrageously talented left-handed starter Jorge de la Rosa.  His $6.5 million deal is probably the biggest re-signing of the off-season.  At times last year, Jorge was the Rockies’ best pitcher.  And barring a late-season injury in Hell-A, de la Rosa would have been a series-changer versus the left-heavy Phillies.

Now we see the normally tight wallets of the Monfort brothers opening up for key closer Street and trade-deadline acquisition Betancourt.

In a league that puts the onus on small markets to invent ways to make money, the Rockies have carved out a place for themselves.  It all starts with farmed pitching that feeds off of a heavy Central & South American recruiting network.  But the Rockies have also brought up a litany of talented North American hitters since the front office stopped spending money after the 2001 season.

In fact, every likely Rockies starting fielder for next season came up through Colorado’s farm system, with the noteworthy exception of Carlos Gonzalez.  (Dexter Fowler, Brad Hawpe, Seth Smith, Troy Tulowitzki, Clint Barmes, Todd Helton & Chris Iannetta.  Not to mention Spilly, EYJ & Stewie.)

Thing is, Cargo is only in Colorado through the trading of the Rockies’ most trade-worthy, farm-produced commodity since Todd Helton.  The same savvy deal that shipped overly expensive defensive liability Holiday to the Athletics and brought Street to the Rockies also netted the struggling but talented Gonzalez.

Cargo opened up a can of whoopass in the late stages of the 2009 season.  Now the Monforts have opened up a can of cash to fund their rising Rockies.

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