Comments on: Crowded at the Corners in Colorado

By: Will

Will — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 14:22:49 +0000

Seth Smith hit another HR vs. a lefty last night, bringing his OPS to 1.164 against lefties, who is usually benched against because he supposedly can’t hit them.

By: Eno

Eno — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 21:53:41 +0000

I doubt anyone would take Helton’s mega-deal, but I’m agreeing with kamikaze80 here. Hawpe seems to be the guy that might bring back the most while improving their defense by substraction.

By: kamikaze80

kamikaze80 — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 21:30:40 +0000

for me, hawpe’s atrocious defense makes him the obvious trade candidate. his bat is not appreciably better than any of the other 4, but he gives back a load of runs with his lack of D.

either that, or see how he’d do at 1B and try to deal helton and free up some payroll.

By: razor

razor — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:40:25 +0000

Depth is never a bad thing. This team is for real. They are flawed (like most teams) but they took off when they stopped playing Ian Stewart at 2B or on a corner in the outfield and moved him to 3B, at least vs RHP’s. Their defense up the middle on the infield has been very good and Fowler is fine in CF despite his UZR. That’s likely to normalize with a bigger sample size next year. Besides, the real story with the purple is their pitching. Looked at in the proper context, it’s been fantastic.

By: Will

Will — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 12:22:22 +0000

Another interesting thing about Smith is that he’s being used only against RHP even though his OPS is higher vs LHP this year. I know he’s a lefty and has historically Bern better vs. RHP, but one does wonder if he’s capable of hitting decently vs. LHP too, if given the chance.

By: puck

puck — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 20:30:43 +0000

It’s an ever fluid solution, which makes some sense given that you have a rookie (Fowler) and a near-rookie in Gonzalez. They’re both adjusting to MLB. As Gonzalez’s bat has started, he’s been taking more of Fowler’s time in CF, which is fine as apparently there have been some fatigue issues w/Fowler.

I don’t know what to make of Fowler’s abysmal UZR. I don’t think many observers think he’s bad in CF.

There seem to be many Rockies fans who think CarGon is better in CF, but I wonder how much of that has to do with the difference in body types. Gonzalez is shorter and quicker, whereas Fowler has the classic long, smooth “I look like I’m dogging it” strides. At any rate, they both seem to cover a lot of ground and have decent throwing arms (CarGon’s being better, but the point is neither is a Johnny Damon/Coco Crisp type out there.)

Smith has been competent out in left, but I don’t think many observers believe he’s the gold glover that the small UZR sample makes him out to be. His supporters want him to see time mainly due to the promise of his bat.

By: Ed Nelson

Ed Nelson — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 16:01:45 +0000

Smith is still young and under team control so actually I was surprised that Toronto, KC, or Milwaukee didn’t try to get him. I have to imagine he has more upside than Bloomquist, or Jose Bautista (ughhhh), and those teams have excellent bullpen arms and utility infielders to trade.

For the Rox though he may just have more value as a great 4th outfielder.

By: BobbyMac

BobbyMac — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 12:55:08 +0000

This may be true, but Spilborghs also has a career batting line against LHP of .308/383/.506. With Fowler (not much of an offensive player yet) and 3 lefty bats comprising the rest of the outfield, he’s a perfect fit. If I had him on a Strat-O-Matic (or other sim) team, I’d keep him for this season at least.

Smith would have been a more natural player to trade away, but to where? Thinking through some contenders in need of lefty bats…. Cubs and Brewers are still ostensibly in direct competition with the Rox, the White Sox needed a CF, so maybe Detroit? Not sure what Detroit has to spare that another contending team would want, though. I guess Texas has to be on the list, too, as badly as their offense has performed, but they already have a plethora of outfielder/1b/DH types, many of whom bat lefty. Boston? Like Texas, they have the talent to trade.

By: Tyler Thompson

Tyler Thompson — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 05:08:18 +0000

At least in terms of Ryan Spilborghs, the reason he wasn’t traded has nothing to do with statistics. He is considered a leader on the team and the team views him as an important piece in the clubhouse. He entered the season as the starting left fielder and has sat due to a sub-par season at the plate and the emergence of both CarGon and Seth Smith.

There were definitely nibbles on Spilborghs a the deadline, but since the team was just beginning to blossom into a contender, O’Dowd really didn’t want to rock the boat in the clubhouse. Signs point to him being reluctantly traded this offseason, however. I see him as a slightly below average major league starter for the foreseeable future. Remember, nearly all of his numbers are down this season. He has more patience and more power than he has shown in 2009.

By: Ed Nelson

Ed Nelson — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 20:41:30 +0000

Agreed. I’m just not sure (if given full time play) if Smith wouldn’t slip, or whether he would prove to be a capable full time corner outfielder. The Rockies for their part don’t seem interested in the experiment in the midst of a playoff race. Maybe he’ll be traded to a team that can afford to see what he can provide when given a real chance…