As Colorado Rockies spring training 2017 rolls on, we want to make sure we are giving you regular progress reports as opposed to just individual game notes. We will still be providing those more from time to time, but if you follow the Rockies at this time of year looking less at the box score and more at how what is happening now might affect the upcoming season, these reports should be far more helpful.
With each, we will give you an update on players who stock is going up and those who are going down, with specific attention paid to those on the bubble at any given position. It’s always nice to check in on Nolan Arenado and Carlos Gonzalez, but almost nothing they do this spring is going to change their perceived role heading into the season.
After taking a look at individual performances, we will wrap up with some miscellaneous notes from the week.
Stock Up
Kyle Freeland +1 (+1) – Freeland continues to put an underwhelming start behind him and is looking like the top prospect with high command and weak contact he was billed as. Since giving up four earned runs in his first start of Spring Training, Freeland hasn’t allowed one run in five innings of work.
Raimel Tapia (+1) – Tapia hasn’t made tons of noise so far this spring, but on Friday night he lined a scorching double off the wall in center to bring around the tying run for the Rockies. He’s traditionally a slow starter, but signs show he’s starting to heat up. If that happens, it’s going to be a lot of fun to watch.
Jordan Patterson +3 (+1) – Speaking of hot, Jordan Patterson. He’s hitting .308 so far, and his SLG sits at .769 after adding another pair of doubles on Friday night for a total of six (team lead) this spring to complement his two home runs. If he keeps this up he’ll be tough to overlook, especially with David Dahl currently sidelined.
Scott Oberg +1 – Oberg has allowed four hits and a run in three innings pitched so far this spring, but what was more telling was his ability to dig out of a hole in the 7th inning appearance against the Cubs. With the bases loaded and the Rockies leading 3-1, Oberg struck out Jeimer Candelario and Tommy LaStella before retiring John Jay on a weak groundout to escape the inning unscathed. Shades of the ability to escape jams we saw last season.
Christian Adames +2 (+1) – Adames stays hot, and now owns a .409 average and .709 SLG percentage through 12 games.
Stock Down
German Marquez -2 (-1) – With the Rockies now needing to fill two rotation spots rather than one, Marquez isn’t inspiring much confidence that he should be someone the team turns to. He gave up four hits and four runs in a start Friday night. Just one run was earned, but Marquez hurt himself with two throwing errors while trying to pick runners off of second, and failed to gain control through his three innings pitched. He now has a 7.94 ERA in 5.2 innings.
Jeff Hoffman 0 (-1) – Hoffman is still trying to find his groove so far this spring, and hasn’t been particularly bad in any one start, but gave up two in his last and is yet to inspire confidence that he is ready to dominate.
Miguel Castro -1 (-1) – Castro had another rough outing Saturday, costing the Rockies the game when he gave up three runs to the Cubs in an inning that featured a long home run, wild pitch and a hit batter.
Notes:
Jon Gray had another great start, throwing three innings with just two hits and a pair of strikeouts.
Tyler Chatwood also had a good outing against the Cubs on Saturday, giving up just three hits and one run with four strikeouts in four innings pitched against most of the Cubs’ “A” lineup.
Trevor Story has four home runs in eight games so far this spring, but just one non-homerun hit and has struck out seven times in 22 at bats.
