Rockies remember lesson of 2007, turn to prospect
| September 11, 2009 | 10:33 AM
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Much as is happening now with the Colorado Rockies, late in the 2007 season the team’s pitching staff was hit with a series of injuries — Aaron Cook, Jason Hirsh and Rodrigo Lopez were lost from the rotation and attempts to replace them with Elmer Dessens, Tim Harrikala, Ramon Ortiz, Denny Bautista and Mark Redman were met with mixed results at best.
Much as the Rockies do now, the Rockies then had some live arms in the minor leagues that were promising, but not clearly ready for the major leagues. Franklin Morales and Ubaldo Jimenez gave the Rockies great hope for the future of their pitching staff, but Morales was young and puzzling at times, and nothing about Jimenez’s 2007 minor-league season suggested he was ready to take the next step.
The Rockies were under much less pressure then. When the Rockies recalled Jimenez on July 17 that season, the team was 47-46, 5 1/2 games out in the National League West. But they were in the fourth place in the division. Certainly they were having their best season in several years, but the idea of the making the postseason was very much a longshot. They could afford to take a chance on a young pitcher.
Jimenez had made his major-league debut in September 2006. He had dominated at Double-A Tulsa that year and struggled some after a promotion to Triple-A Colorado Springs. He made two appearances with the Rockies, including a start in the final game of the season against the Chicago Cubs. Jimenez was solid, giving up three runs in 6 2/3 innings, but did not factor in the decision. It was a promising debut, controlled but not dominant.
Everything seemed to go haywire in 2007 for Jimenez. He returned to Triple-A to start the season and was 8-5 for the Sky Sox, but his ERA ballooned to 5.85 and he rarely seemed to dominate. He allowed 110 hits and 62 walks in 103 innings and threw 11 wild pitches. His recall in July was not earned so much as it was an act of desperation from the Rockies.
But it worked. His first three starts were solid: he had a 3.50 ERA after his first 18 innings. His fourth and fifth starts, however, were disasters and he managed just 6 2/3 innings between the two games, including a two-inning outing against the Cubs in which he allowed nine hits and nine runs. Another bad start and he was going back to Triple-A. But he met the challenge, and allowed just five runs in his next four starts, won three of four and settled into a spot in the rotation he has yet to give up.
The Rockies have a similar opportunity with Esmil Rogers, who will make his major-league debut in San Diego on Saturday. Rogers dominated at Tulsa this season, then things came apart Triple-A. His ERA jumped to 7.42, including 9.58 in home games. That latter statistic is perhaps telling, because Jimenez suffered from a similar statistical glitch.
It is difficult for pitchers with great stuff to succeed at Colorado Springs. Prospects like Jeff Francis can pitch well enough there because they rely in deception and control, which has nothing to do with thin air and little to do with the grip on a baseball. Even someone like Morales can succeed there, because while he has great stuff, his left-handed delivery and fastball are dangerous to young hitters even without control.
But pitchers who throw hard with movement, especially right-handers, lose their weapons at Colorado Springs, which is much more like Coors Field in 1995 than Coors Field in 2009. There is no humidor and baseball’s are not prepared before a game with quite the same care to provide pitchers a proper grip. A visit to Colorado Springs, however, can be a help, because pitching in the major leagues must seem less daunting to a young pitcher than it would otherwise. It must be a relief to actually be able to hold the baseball and play in front of a defense you can feel certain will back you up when the ball is put in play.
There’s no guarantee Rogers will have the same success as Jimenez, but they are similar pitchers in similar situations and the Rockies, too, find themselves in a familiar place as an organization. The spare parts they have acquired to replace injured players are no longer as attractive or solid as what they have in their own system. With a solid lead and some breathing room in the wild-card standings over the Giants, the Rockies can take a moment to see if the future is now, as it was in 2007.
Journals, Sports, Steve Foster
colorado rockies, esmil rogers, franklin morales, ubaldo jimenez
