Pomeranz among Rockies pitchers headed to fall league
The Colorado Rockies have settled on the four pitchers they will send to the Arizona Fall League: left-hander Drew Pomeranz, who will make his major-league debut on Sunday, and right-handers Joe Gardner, Casey Weathers and Parker Frazier.
Pomeranz, a 2010 first-round pick by the Cleveland Indians who made his professional debut this season, was 4-3 with a 1.78 ERA at two levels in the Indians and Rockies organizations this season.
Gardner, like Pomeranz, was acquired by the Rockies in July in the deal that sent Ubaldo Jimenez to the Indians. He was 10-11 with a 4.31 ERA at Double-A this year, including 3-3, 2.48 at Tulsa after the trade. He may spend time his time in Arizona working on a transition to the bullpen.
Weathers, the Rockies first-round pick in 2007, was 2-2 with a 5.22 ERA at Tulsa. Walks were a problem — 48 in 45 2/3 innings — for Weathers, who missed all of the 2009 season and pitched just 30 games in 2010 following Tommy John surgery.
Frazier was 11-11 with a 4.50 ERA at high Class A Modesto and set career highs in wins, innings (154) and starts (27).
The Rockies previously had announced its position players for the fall league: Tulsa outfielder Tim Wheeler, Modesto third baseman Nolan Arenado and Tulsa first baseman Ben Paulsen.
Still have not given up at Weathers, good to know the Rox have not either. Not surprised by Pomeranz (that two weeks of sitting aside in Arizona was useless) or Gardner (assume the process of pen work will continue there). Parker Frazier is the one I am interested in. He had a nice little season and should be interesting to see how he does against some other good prospects.
Really like the group we are sending this fall. If we can hit on more than half (making it and contributin in the bigs) should help the future a lot.
Trade Parker and George Frazier as a package deal. If I have to listen to that guy for another season I just may shoot myself.
Ryan, well said …
… I haven’t given up on Weathers either. This strikes me as his last chance. Isn’t he out of options, or did the Rockies get an extra one due to his injury? Anyone out there have a scouting report on him post-return from TJ surgery? Is the velocity back? If it is, there’s still a chance the control will come around.
One of the other Rockies blogs says that Weathers has hit triple digits this year. I’m not sure how reliable that is, but I don’t believe he threw that hard before the injury.
I think Weathers does or will have one extra year. That website and cable station based in Conn had a great article this week on recovery from Tommy John, and it is not unusually for more velocity to come at the back end of the surgery, but it is the control that is harder. From what I understand about half the failures or loss of velocity due to other arm issues that come about from pushing without the arm fully back, the other half is control. Its not too late. If he relearns control, that arm could be what we hoped it was in 07.
Steve or Jack,
Do you have a list of which Rox minor leaguers that will need to be protected on the 40-man roster this winter so they don’t get exposed to the rule 5 draft? Of those, which will ultimately be protected?
RockiesRoster.com has a really helpful breakdown of minor-league rosters that shows who will need to be protected. As you go through each roster, anyone who has “MiLB – Rule 5 After 2011″ under contract status or is a minor-league free agent after the season would need to be protected or risk being lost. Just guessing, but a few players the team might want to protect: Joey Williamson, Christian Friedrich, Dan Houston, Daniel Turpen, Thomas Field, Matt McBride, Edwar Cabrera, Parker Frazier and Angelys Nina. There may be others, particularly relievers at Double-A and high Class-A like Stephen Dodson, Michael Marbry and Leuris Gomez, but that first set of guys is the group I think would be legit Rule V possibilities. Nina is pushing it a bit. I think the locks to be added to the 40-man are Friedrich, Cabrera and Field.
Brad Emaus, Albert Campos and Eliezer Mesa may deserve a spot on that potential protection list too, but I agree that Friedrich, Cabrera and Field are the big easy names that a spot will be made for regardless. Rafael Ortega gets an extra year of protection thanks to his age at signing. I’m still not 100% sure of Cristhian Adames’ eligibility; he was signed on a weird date in the middle of the DSL offseason, and I can’t tell if that year counts towards his contract or not.
Key this season is that the Rockies are in the midst of a very odd roster crunch. The team assembled for 2011 was built to be able to capitalize on what was expected to be a successful season with essentially the same team being available for another run in 2012. When the team flopped, they were instead stuck with a roster that would require a lot more micromanaging during the 2011 offseason than expected.
The Rockies 40 man roster currently has only three players headed straight for free agency: Mark Ellis, J.C. Romero and Kevin Millwood. Aaron Cook and Jason Giambi have club options. Cook’s will be turned down, and Giambi’s may be too, even if the team intends to re-sign him after the fact. Assuming that we don’t re-sign Giambi, Ellis or anyone else before the Reserves Deadline in November, that right there opens five slots, which is only enough to fill five of the six players currently not taking up space on the 60 Day DL.
That means that in order to fill the roster with one final 60 Day DL player, plus Cabrera, Friedrich and Field, the Rockies have to lose four extra players from the roster already. This could include actual players on the 60 Day like Matt Daley or Jose Morales, fringe roster players like Cory Riordan, Matt Pagnozzi, etc, and could also include trades of players like Jason Hammel, Chris Iannetta or Ian Stewart. It should be noted that all of this happens before the tender deadline, meaning non-tendered players leave the roster a couple weeks later, after the Rule 5 draft has already taken place.
And that’s just to make room for the obvious candidates. If we want to protect more than three players, even more work has to be done. It’s a great irony that the year in which the roster was intended to be most consistent over a two year period, it may see the most changes it ever has over one offseason.
Thanks for the great post, Greg. Very enlightening/interesting.
On those three other names: With Emaus, it will be a question of what else the Rockies do with in the infield. On Campos, my guess is that with his arm injury this season (a ligament injury that has kept him out since July but probably won’t require surgery), Rockies will leave him exposed because it would be a pretty big leap for a team to give him a major-league spot next year. With Mesa, my sense for a while is that fans regard him as a better prospect than the Rockies do. Would be pretty surprised if they put him on the 40-man after a so-so season at Class A.
What would Dan Houston’s place be. He seemed to have a year deserving of a roster spot.
Steve,
I don’t expect Campos or Mesa to be too likely, but I’d definitely consider there somewhere in the same or better realm as McBride or Turpen. Claimed players on the DL still count as being active, and a sneaky team could theoretically use that to their advantage and try to sneak Campos out, but that may be farfetched. I doubt we’re going to have enough room to protect more than five at the very most, and it wouldn’t surprise me if we ended up with just the three obvious choices.
Anonymous,
Dan Houston’s year will definitely get him attention going into next year, but he’s widely considered somewhat of an Alan Johnson type (longevity depth type in the upper levels of an organization’s rotation), but not much more. I would put him outside of our organization’s top 40 prospects, personally.
Thanks Steve and Greg! I think this maybe a blessing in disguise. This team has a lot of player who need to have decisions made, and in some cases the issue may be keeping a veteran, like Ellis, that not only takes salary, but will cost a roster spot.
I am also thinking that roster issues may work for trade movement. A trade of Ianetta, Hammel and or others (remember, I like CDI, but…moves will need to be made). I am thinking guys like Daley and such, especially guys with injuries over the past few seasons wont be taken in the Rule 5, but there is always the minor league free agent movement.
It will be interesting to see when they are sitting there ready for the Rule 5 draft who is on and who is off the 40. Will tell us a lot about how the team feels about certain guys a lot of us might still think are going to be helping the team in 2012.
What happened to Emaus this year? Was he hurt? He disappeared in July and never came back. He’s definitely a major league ready 2B/3B guy, and Lord knows we can use all of those we can find.
Greg, good summary. Thanks.
One other comment: I’m not seeing a roster crunch after you eliminate the replacement level (or sub-replacement level) guys. Herrera, Romero, Roenicke, Mortensen, Greg Reynolds, Riordan, Pagnozzi, Morales, Alfonso, Millwood, Spilborghs; add in the expiring contracts of Cook, Ellis, and Giambi and we’ve just ticked off 14 guys. Then there’s really borderline guys like EY Jr., Chris Nelson, Pacheco … as you can see, we’re quickly approaching half of the 40-man roster which really isn’t worth protecting. We got Kevin Millwood off the scrap heap; we can get a Kevin Millwood off the scrap heap again if we need one.
So among the things to worry about this winter, a 40-man “roster crunch” is certainly not one of them.
Agbayani,
Emaus broke his thumb and was sidelined for the season (much like Jose Morales with the MLB club).
Your listing of players that can be vacated from the roster is precisely the roster crunch I am talking about. In previous seasons, the Rockies have had 7-10 players departing via free agency and have not had to adjust the roster as carefully during the offseason. The act of eliminating guys like Pagnozzi, and so forth, is the solution, not an absolution. It’s not so much a “worry”, but it will definitely be a vastly different offseason process than the team is used to.
Also, there is absolutely no way the team cuts all of those players. Herrera, Roenicke, Mortensen are likely to stay on the roster through to Spring Training, and Spilborghs is likely to be non-tendered, which as I expressed, occurs AFTER the roster crunch has to be solved.
Again, we’re going to see three sports opened automatically as of free agency declaration, another one or two after contract review, and all of those and more will need to be filled. The Rockies will need to choose which of the fringe candidates to remove.
Thanks, Greg. I see what you mean by “crunch.” But maybe it’s more accurate to call it a housecleaning. Guys like Giambi were kept around because there was an expectation (reasonable in retrospect?) that this team was playoff bound. That’s no longer a sustainable theory of roster management, although I think it impacts the MLB roster, not the 40-man. With the 40-man, the dearth of talent at the AAA level makes the decisionmaking pretty easy. You don’t really have to worry about protecting any of the 2011 AAA players.
good comments.
Agbayani- EY2 and borderline don’t belong in the same sentence. Someone who is good defensively and hitting .270 may be borderline. He isn’t even close. Out with the rest of em ;)
Campos should be ready to throw in the instructional league. 2B Tim Smalling will also be ready to play there, if not before in Tri-City’s championship series vs. Vancouver. He suffered a hyper-extended left elbow and last played Aug. 25.
The Rockies would like to have seen a higher energy level from Emaus, along with better range.
Any chance the Rox may be interested in Aaron Rowand for next year to be the right-handed complement to Seth Smith? He would come cheap since the Giants are on the hook for his salary. He can play all OF positions and perhaps Coors Field can revitalize his career. The guy hit 27 homers in ’07. I would rather have him over Spilly. If it doesn’t work out early, just get rid of him and nothing lost. I believe the team that signs him would only be responsible for the minimum salary.
good point Cisco…but you have to be concerned with Rowland. I remember a comment a while ago on MLB that you really have to do your homework on signing a free agent from Philly. Lots of players are surrounded by good talent which makes them look even better. Case in point is Rowland and Werth.
A cheap sign perhaps would be worth the risk. Cheap is key word.
It’s kind of tough to make much of a commitment to a guy who hasn’t hit since 2007. I guess they could make him a Wily Taveras type of offer, a non-roster invitee/minor league deal sort of thing.
If with Reader f/k/a Mike, I think the Rowland train has long since left the station. At least Taveras has been part of the organization.
Agbayani, you made my point much for directly – the 40 man limit will finally require management to make some decisions, and they will be tough.
Mr. Etkin, thanks for information on Emaus. I remember the injury and figured it cut short what looked “on paper” as a decent start. But there was never anything to show that he was special enough to have been a Rule-5 starter with the Mets in April and worthy of the Rox move to get him. I know this sounds like total heresy, but I really think 2B is a bigger issue (while its a less important position than 3B, production wise) because even without a trade the team has Kozmenouf, Nelson, Pacheco, wiggy, and yes, Stewart if he comes back in 2012 different (think he will be DFAd). At 2B there just does not seem to be anything exciting already here. Please tell me that DOD has fallen out of love with Mr. Ellis.
Go Roxs!
And that’s the problem with Emaus, Doc. Kind of an infield tweener — more suited defensively to 3B, but doesn’t really hit enough to warrant much play there. If he could handle 2B defensively he’d probably be the best in-house candidate for the job. Which isn’t saying much given the competition.
Yep, Rowand is toast. He was good in ’07, below average in ’08 and ’09 (low 90s OPS+ numbers and declining defense), and really awful last year and this year. He’s not even a rebound candidate for ’12. Let someone else take the flyer on him. Bill James once said that as long as a guy had one good year in the last 5 years, some team will believe the comeback is just around the corner …