Marquis — The Main Attraction
SAN FRANCISCO – Nine seasons and four teams later, Jason Marquis has found acceptance.
He’s enjoying every pitch of it.
And so are the Rockies, the team that welcomed him during the off-season, taking a shot that Marquis could be ready for a breakthrough season, and getting an early indication they might be right.
Marquis is certainly the key to what respectability the Rockies have been able to maintain so far this year. He added another page to his resume in a 5-1 victory against the Giants at AT&T Park on Saturday, coming within three outs of a shutout. He pitched the first complete game by a Rockies pitcher since Ubaldo Jimenez went the distance against the Dodgers at Coors Field July 21 last season.
He has opened the season 4-1, and has been the salvation of the rotation.
Since Ubaldo Jimenez and Franklin Morales combined for back-to-back wins at Arizona in the second and third games of the season, April 7-8, the Rockies rotation has accounted for five victories. Marquis has four of them, and Aaron Cook earned the other on Wednesday afternoon.
That’s quite an emergence for a veteran right-hander who has always been considered an acceptance member of a rotation. Face it. In all nine of his previous seasons, he has pitched for a team that advanced to the post-season. He, however, has pitched in only four post-seasons.
He has frequently been the odd-man out when rosters were adjusted.
This time looks like it could be different.
“More than anything I feel like I don’t have to look over my shoulder when something goes wrong,’’ said Marquis. “I’m not pitching game to game, not always about to be sent to the bullpen. I feel my teammates, coaching staff, the manager and front offices are behind me 100 per cent.’’
And they should be.
Marquis has been a blessing.
He is not only 4-1 but has worked at least seven innings in all four wins. He beat the defending world champion Philadelphia Phillies in the Rockies home opener, and then pitched the Rockies past the Cubs, the team that dealt him to Colorado during the off-season, at Wrigley Field. He had a tough night against Arizona, but has bounced back with solid efforts in back-to-back victories against the Dodgers at Coors Field last Sunday, and now against the Giants at AT&T Park.
Saturday marked the fifth complete game of his career. He had one with the Cubs in 2007, and three with St. Louis in 2005. He had the Giants shutout until Pablo Sandoval led off the ninth with a home run. It was only the fifth hit he allowed the four others were singles – three of them infield singles.
He walked one batter and he struck out four.
He was 0-for-3 at the plate, but did draw a walk and score on Ryan Spilborgh’s second home run of the game, a fifth-inning shot that gave the Rockies a 4-0 lead. Spilborghs also led off the game with a home run off Matt Cain.
“He is the ultimate competitor,’’ said Spilborghs. “He is like the little league kid, who wants to do everything. He is the type of guy you want on the mound. He shows no fear.’’
It has not always been this way, however.
The numbers don’t like
There are those five post-season in which he never pitched. While he has won more than 10 games each of the last five years, he’s never won more than 15 in a season, and since going 15-7 in 2004 he was a combined 50-48 the last four seasons.
The Rockies, however, saw potential, and so with the expectation that Jeff Francis would undergo the shoulder surgery that he had in February, the Rockies worked a deal for Marquis that also allowed them to unload right-handed reliever Luis Vizcaino on the Cubs.
He is rewarding the Rockies confidence.
“I am glad they have given me the opportunity here to go out every fifth game and prove myself,’’ he said.
So far, so good.
Marquis has been sensational this season both on the mound and at the plate. He has been the only pitcher in the rotation who has been steady. Hopefully with Ubaldo and Cookie having solid starts, the rotation can get rolling and allow the bats to win some games.
Anyone who thinks Dan O’Dowd is an idiot needs to look no further than this trade.
David Martin,
I don’t think Dan O’Dowd is an idiot. (Not that you were accusing me of saying so.) And I thought the Marquis deal was a sound one right from the start, not the least reason being that he was able to dump $3.5 million of Luis Vizcaino salary, meaning that he got a reliable 4th starter type for a reasonable net expenditure of $5 million this year.
But c’mon, let’s not get carried away here. We’re a month into the season, and Marquis (like any starter who’s lasted this long) has obviously had a bunch of good months before.
Interesting test: by the end of the season, who will have better numbers, Marquis or Chad Gaudin? They were both Cubbie castoffs, but Gaudin is going to cost the Padres only the minimum salary. My guess? They’ll turn out roughly equal in the end. And remember: that $4.5 million more that Marquis costs? That could’ve bought you Orlando Hudson, just for one example. So it’s a solid deal, about as smart as signing Torrealba (or Vizcaino for that matter) to a 2-year deal was stupid.
I think the general criticism of O’Dowd has been more along the lines that he lacks a strategy, or that he changes it every 1-2 years. This was more the case earlier in the decade; since the 2004 or so the organization has been more consistent, at least at the major league level. (I don’t follow the player development side closely enough to know if strategies/philosophies have changed there.)
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