Rockies lineup vs. Braves, 7/19
The Colorado Rockies lineup Tuesday against Atlanta Braves right-hander Brandon Beachy:
LF Carlos Gonzalez
2B Mark Ellis
1B Todd Helton
SS Troy Tulowitzki
RF Seth Smith
3B Ian Stewart
C Chris Iannetta
CF Dexter Fowler
SP Ubaldo Jimenez
If we can’t break out of a losing streak with this lineup and pitcher, God help us.
I soooo hope next year we can move Tulo out of the cleanup spot. He’s either a number 2 or a 5 hitter and there is nothing wrong with that. But putting him in at 4 and its like he has it in his head that he must swing for the fences.
Moving Tulo will have the same positive effect as moving Cargo.
I agree on Tulo. We have to get a legit power cleanup guy. preferably right handed and 3B.
I think Tulo is a leadoff hitter!! Just like Cargo it would change his mindset, however, he would strike out half as much as Cargo at the leadoff spot.
I definately agree that this lineup needs someone better at the cleanup spot.
I totally agree with Prog and Wayne on Tulo. He is not a #4 hitter.
Isn’t it about time to move Cargo to #3. But Prog is right; if they can’t win with this lineup, then bless their little hearts.
tulo is not a cleanup hitter that is the most stupid thing i have ever heard!! hes fine in the cleanup spot can you not remember the end of last season when he was in the 4 hole he was amazing!!!
*correction tulo is not a leadoff hitter
The beauty of this game is that this could be the night we turn this whole thing around…
But probably not.
Lets at least see some positives. For starters, Dex has 0 k’s. Tulo gets a hit after the 7th. Stewart hits his first homer. Who’s with me?
This season my expectations were at a level where I supported Jim Tracy’s constant fiddling with the lineup and all the promotions and demotions. With high expectations I don’t support sitting still with floundering players.
Obviously it didn’t work.
It’s sad I am already looking towards next year, but that’s where I need to find my optimism.
Predicting we’ll trade Stewart and possibly Fowler and Iannetta, I support going with lower expectations next year and simply see where starting a bunch of youngsters (whoever they may be) will take us.
I feel for Todd. 2011 and 2012 are not going to be the competitive seasons he was hoping for to close out his career. If he hangs on until 2013 I think maybe he will have a chance at the playoffs, but by then I think the Rockies will like him to hang it up.
Who else on this team would you put in at cleanup when Giambi isn’t playing?
There isn’t a cleanup hitter. I’m not sure thats the best excuse to put Tulo there though. If Cargo moved back to 3, I guess you can put Helton there, like we did in 2007. Move Tulo to 5.
Dexter
Ellis
Cargo
Helton
Tulo
Smith
Iannetta
Stewart
Time travel back to April (with Lopez instead of Ellis) and I would have said that was a kick ass lineup.
@Bill: Seth Smith is a more than capable cleanup hitter.
If I had my way, here is my lineup order…
1) CarGo 2) Tulo 3)Helton 4) Smith 5) Ellis 6) Stewart 7)Iannetta 8)Fowler 9)Pitcher
I’m going to the game tonight wearing that official Ubaldo no hitter tshirt. His arm strength is almost back to 100 pct according to him.
Would love to see U shatter Freeman’s bats three times tonight. I expect two runs or less and a CG tonight. Only question is will the Rox get us soft tacos (3 runs)? Really our best and only chance to beat the Braves this week.
You guys are just nuts…. Sure Tulo its pressing right now but this is just plain dumb. he’s by far our best cleanup option.
“Here, here” on Freeman, Rockymtn.
I like JT’s lineup as it is.
We seem to forget that Tulo was awful in the No. 2 hole in 2008. We also forget that Cargo’s only sustained success this season has been in the leadoff capacity. Also, if we put Seth Smith in the cleanup role, we’re then vulnerable in late innings to left-handed relief pitching, which, God bless him, he doesn’t hit.
Also, I wouldn’t say the lineup is the problem. Last night we lost because we gave up 7 runs. We lost to the Brewers over the weekend because in one game we gave up 8. Also in the very recent previous Braves series we lost 3-5, lost 9-1, and lost 6-3.It seems the pitching needs to get it together, not the lineup.
Looks like this is going to be one of our high scoring games we have once every two weeks
Does Tulo read this stuff?
This is what we thought we had for opening day. Please make us stop just hoping for change and enjoy this ‘team’ that performs like this tonight. Would be nice if they continue this for rest of the game and strung together a good couple of weeks to give us hope in August.
Tulo sure looks like a bonefide cleanup hitter tonight[so far]Just not sure he’s a great clutch hitter[i.e.the past few 9th innings]yet.I am going back to the game-so far one I want to watch-but wondering who else was outraged when we didn.t bunt Cargo over in the 1st? I almost turned it off right then,but for once we made it work.With this teams struggles to not bunt and play for an early lead really frosted me.
Hey Karl, welcome back. This does look like the opening day lineup with Ellis replacing Lopez (a major upgrade)
FGH just said Dex is .349 with RISP. I’ll have to check on that, can someone explain to me why he was sent to AAA?
Based purely on tonight’s performance, you could make the case for several players to be the cleanup hitter: Tulo, Cargo, Smith, … Dex.
My earlier point was not to dump on Tulo, who besides Giambi may very well be the Rockies’ best option to hit cleanup. My point was frustration that DOD did not go out and acquire New Hammer, a legit slugger with decent defense who could bat 4th.
Uh Oh.Leaving U.in with 105 pitches and an 8 run lead–showing the out of town scouts what they’re biding for? With no off days and Tracy’s prediliction to constantly “rest”people,can this mean anything other than we’re shopping the Chief?
Dex is hitting .333 slugging .500 with RISP according to baseballreference.com.
He’s also hitting .280 in wins and .189 in loses.
Was it mentioned that Ubaldo’s strikeout of Matt Stairs to end the 8th inning of the July 9 game vs. the Nats made him the Rockies all-time strikeout leader? That was his 750th, Pedro Astacio had 749. I missed that.
The tv guys just mentioned that if the Rockies can hold on to the 9 run lead, Ubaldo will move into 3rd place in wins.
“My point was frustration that DOD did not go out and acquire New Hammer, a legit slugger with decent defense who could bat 4th.”
Like who? Who are you willing to give up?
Stewart’s swing looks so lazy. He’s just sweeping with the bat and dragging the bat head. When was the last time he actually squared one up and attacked the ball at the point of contact. Ugly swing and ugly results to match. His time with the club is ending.
What!? Stewart has a sweet swing. He’s been squaring it up ever since he’s been called up. Not so much since he was pulled a few days ago. I’m pretty sure he wants out of here.
Its a smooth swing, but it is a really slow swing. I thought he had some good ABs yesterday. Gave a ball a long ride to the deepest part of the park. Still has very little to show for his efforts. Was laughing with seat neighbors yesterday that Ubaldo had more RBIs in about 1/3 of the at bats.
The KOA guys were calling out Dex on his long looping swing earlier in the game. Good to hear a candid appraisal from the announcers. Of course this was before his triple.
Prog,
I’m going to have to disagreee with you also. His swing isn’t slow at all. It’s actually really quick. It can get long at times but it isn’t ugly and it isn’t slow. He probably has the quickest wrists on the team. Now Dexter, that is a slow ugly swing haha!
I thought long = slow?
Compare Cargo’s, Smith’s or Giambi’s swing to Stewart’s and I would say Ian’s is much slower than all of them. Thats not to say its a horrible swing, but I think his timing has to be right on the money to make it work, when its not he has big problems.
Last night I compared Cargo’s swing with what Stewart’s used to look like when he had some confidence–both “buggy-whip” swings as Troy Renck liked to say. Unfortunately, Stewart’s is long gone—he’s thinking way too much. A change of scenery will help him tremendously. Only wish this involved having a new manager rather than a new club.
Boy we are a bunch of complainers. Stewart had two well hit balls yesterday to the opposite field which is a very good sign. He also walked twice (albeit one intentionally) and played flawless defense. On the Helton “error” the other night, Wiggy could have easily tagged either 3rd base or the runner but chose instead to throw the ball directly into the sun. Not sure if he could have gotten the guy at 2nd but if you look at the replay he moved out of the way of the runner going to 3rd. What was he thinking?
I read somewhere the other day that the best way to tell how good a team is, is not wins and losses but run differential. Personally I think that is BS. The only thing that gets you to the playoffs is wins and losses. Good run differential is a bogus stat. It can mean that you win a lot of blow outs and lose close games. Or the other way around. For the Rockies it’s the former.
I would say Ian Stewarts swing (or “bat speed) is quicker than all the guys you mentioned Prog. I wonder if there is way to find this out???
Yeah, I wonder because we’re seeing totally different things.
Thank u Rockies. Got everything I wished for in my pre game post. Ubaldo gives up 2 or less. He also blew away that little rookie with a broken bat and two Ks. I also said watch and learn from the Braves. They did just that getting on the scoreboard first and then squeezed and choked them to death all the way until 27 outs were recorded.
A friend of mine had an extra ticket to tonight’s game so I will be back at Coors. But not much hope given that Atlanta is a very good fastball hitting team and Nicasio is the perfect pitcher for them to have a field day. Plus given our habits e will come back to earth and struggle to score even 2 runs. I’m just going to enjoy the ball game and forget about what the tram is doing wrong.