This just in -- Livan Hernandez is a Rockie.  Here's Rosenthal's piece on it:

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/8416786/Rockies-bolster-rotation-with-Livan-addition?CMP=OTC-K9B140813162&ATT=3498

Rokies give up nothing and will pay remainder of his salary for year.  Minnesota basically allowed the Rockies' waiver claim to stand.  I'm OK with this -- he's gotta be better than De Los Santos.  If he's not, no great harm done.

Catch another "Day on the DL" with Ryan Spilborghs on ROCKIES ALL ACCESS Thurs., Aug. 7 at 6:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. MT on FSN Rocky Mountain.

Next week's episode of RAA is dedicated to Spilborghs and will feature the Rockies outfielder answering questions from Rockies fans.  If you have a question you would like to ask Spilborghs, send an e-mail to ryanspilborghs19@msn.com.

Check to see if he answers your question Thurs., Aug. 14 at 6:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. MT. 

Please put your name and city you live in when submitting your e-mail.

Word on the street is that the Twins are ready to bring Francisco Liriano back up to the Major League ranks.  To do this they will need to make room on the roster.  Rumor has it that the Twins will DFA Livan Hernandez to make room.  Apparently Minnesota's front office is willing to eat the rest of his $5 million contract. 

Hernandez is 10-8 with a 5.48 ERA.  He has slumped lately, but was solid earlier in the year (about the time the Twins came to Coors Field).  If the Twins end up DFA'ing Hernandez, should the Rockies look into claiming the Cuban off waivers?  He has a good rep as an innings eater, and, if nothing else, he's sure better than Valerio De Los Santos.

Your thoughts?

Continue reading this post »

The fact that this brass keeps asking these young players to go out and play behind this absolute joke of a starting rotation is very disturbing to say the least.  Let's see.....We're trotting out De La Rosa, De Los Santos, and Glendon freaking Rusch this weekend in a crucial series, and have been doing this for the last month?  O'Dowd should have cut a deal two months ago for a starting pitcher when it was evident that Morales was not in the realm of ready and Hirsh was hurt.  He bemoans that teams wanted prospects, but guess what Dan, the price goes up when the stakes are highest.  Had you and the rest of the front office been forward thinking, you could have had Josh Fogg, Ian Snell, and Tim Redding for much less than what was being demanded this past week.  Rant, rant, rant.  Very frustrating, and if I am Matt Holliday or Garret Atkins, I want nothing to do with this farm team down the road unless I see a real commitment to winning from the top of the organization.

The Rockies don't always have great timing when it comes to optimizing trade value.  That's not easy, but often they hold onto guys too long to see their worth erode -- and sometimes teams make hasty decisions and give up a player too soon.

Now might be the time for Holliday to be dealt.  As a fan, I actually would like to see them pick up another inexpensive starter to help this team finish out the year and give these guys another shot at late-season heroics since they've gotten some new life recently, but the way things are developing now makes me think that this might be the best time to get the most for Holliday if they are going to end up trading him anyway this winter.  The less time he would have with a trade partner (if dealt this winter or especially next July), the lower his value may go.  Right now he can help someone like the Red Sox with two playoff chases at least.  Beyond that, the opportunities seem to be shrinking.

The Angels, Red Sox, and Yankees are teams that often pop-up in Holliday discussions for future deals because of their resources and use for a big bat in pennant runs.  There are other teams too obviously where he could ultimately go (including staying right here as fans cross their fingers), but some of those windows might be closing a bit today.

If Boston moves Manny and gets a replacement OFer today, that might take the most likely destination out for us (although last word was that the proposed 3-way was dead).  Other than the two front offices squabbling in the past, Holliday to the Red Sox next year as they replace Manny makes a lot of sense with the BoSox having some young players the Rockies would like and saw some of them first-hand in the Series as they helped bring us down.

If Bay became a Red Sox to finish out the year, maybe Holliday still works his way to Boston this off-season with Bay coming to us as he would not cost as much and be something of a reasonable replacement the franchise could use for justification.  But Boston may get their long-term Manny replacement already today if he’s traded as both sides want there and not be in the Holliday bidding next winter.

The Yankees are always a possibility for great players who are going to get great contracts as they can afford it more than most.  However, they are shifting away from dealing prospects, and more likely to go out and sign CC Sabathia for their big splash instead of giving up a ton of prospects and cash for Holliday.

The Angels recently got their big bat that was missing in Mark Teixeira, and I think probably make a long-term commitment there -- especially if things go well this October for them together.  Maybe they go after Holliday next winter too, but adding a Teixeira isn't really their style and they are more careful with their prospects in that respect.  I don't know that they would give Teixeira a monster deal and follow that right up with doing the same for Holliday at a great prospect/contract price.  Teixeira might be their big dollar addition to the lineup for now.

So the Rockies might be well advised to jump in and try to replace the Pirates in that discussed 3-way deal that would send Manny to Florida and Bay possibly to the Red Sox.  Surely Holliday would do a better job for them in replacing Manny's production and be a bigger long-term fixture.  The Rockies could get themselves 3-4 talented prospects, many of whom might even be ready to help now or next season. 

Hermida would be a solid young MLB OF replacement with some potential still who could be part of the core here if/when healthy.  SP Ryan Tucker and/or OF Michael Stanton could be other possibilities from the Fish along with seeing if we could get an Ellsbury (since he's down a bit this year and fans would love to see on the other side from the Series) or young pitching prospects from the BoSox for an MVP type bat in the prime of his career.

So I think now might be the best time to sneak into that deal and get the most for Holliday before we find out we waited too long again.  However, maybe it wouldn't be so bad to wait if the Rockies never find what they are looking for in a Holliday deal and just bite the bullet to sign him otherwise.  That would make a lot of fans happy.  For me personally, I think they can find offense overall here without creating another Helton-type deal that may hurt us down the road and would rather see that spread around a bit.  If they also think that or are convinced that they can't sign him, then they ought to give the Red Sox and Marlins a call about replacing the hesitant Pirates and getting their load of youngsters now while they are to be had before it might be too late.

Here are the 2008 draft picks, players in bold are signed, and if I know where they've been assigned, that's also listed. If anybody has other info, feel free to put it in the comments and I'll update the list.

1. Christian Friedrich, LHP, Eastern Kentucky  – Tri-City
2. Charlie Blackmon, OF, Georgia Tech  – Tri-City
3. Aaron Weatherford, RHP, Mississippi State - Tri-City
   
4. Ethan Hollingsworth, RHP, Western Michigan - Casper
   
5. Chris Dominguez, 3B, Louisville
6. Kiel Roling, C, Arizona State - Casper
   
7. Daniel Houston, RHP, Boston College - Casper
8. Kurt Yacko, RHP, Chapman (CA) - Casper
   
9. Craig Bennigson, LHP, California - Casper
10. Stephen Dodson, RHP, Georgia - Tri-City
11. Brandon Walker, LHP, Texas - Casper
12. Ryan Peisel, 1B, Georgia - Tri-City
    
13. Erik Wetzel, 2B, Fresno State - Tri-City
14. Tyler Massey, 1B, Baylor School, Chattanooga, TN - Casper
    
15. Juan Rodriguez, RHP, Universidad del Turabo (PR) JC - Casper
16. Chad Rose, RHP, Broward (Fla.) CC - Tri-City
17. Alan Deratt, RHP, UNC Asheville NC - Casper
    
18. Chadler Jacobsen, 1B, South Carolina-Aiken - Casper
19. Ben Orloff, 2B, UC Irvine
20. Nathan Lape, OF, Marshall WV
21. Tyler Trice, RHP, North Carolina- Tri-City
    
22. Nicholas Schnaitmann, RHP, Cosumnes River (Calif.) JC
23. Samuel Elam, LHP, Notre Dame
24. Thomas Field, SS, Texas State Texas - Tri-City
25. Andy Burns, SS, Rocky Mountain HS, Fort Collins, CO
26. Adam Jorgenson, RHP, Cal State Fullerton - Casper
27. Timothy Matthews, RHP, Baylor - Tri-City
28. Mike Zuanich, OF, UC Santa Barbara - Casper
29. Matt Baugh, LHP, San Francisco - Casper
30. Carlos Luna, RHP, Oral Roberts - Tri-City
31. Rod Scurry, RHP, Nevada - Tri-City
32. William Scott, OF, Kell HS, Marietta, GA
33. Aaron Gates, LHP, Orange Lutheran HS, CA
34. Ryan Radcliff, C, Fairview HS, Fairview Park, OH
35. Maikol Gonzalez, 2B, Tusculum (TN) College - Casper
36. Patrick Rose, OF, UC Santa Barbara - Tri-City
37. Delta Cleary, OF, Louisiana State-Eunice JC
38. Tyler Pill, RHP, Covina (Calif.) HS
39. Kyle Ottoson, LHP, Eaton (Colo.) HS
40. Remer Quirk, OF, Rockhurst HS, Kansas City Mo.
41. Dean Espy, SS, Red Mountain HS, Mesa, AZ
42. Taylor Hightower, C, Cartersville (Ga.) HS
43. Alex Feinberg, 2B, Vanderbilt - Casper
44. Jordan Swagerty, RHP, Prestonwood Christian Academy, Plano, TX
45. Brad McAtee, RHP, UC Davis - Tri-City
46. Jimmy Cesario, INF, Houston - Casper
    
47. Mark Lincoln, RHP, American River (Calif.) JC
48. Austin Nola, SS, Catholic HS, Baton Rouge
49. Roy Uhl, OF UC, Riverside
50. Josh Hungerman, LHP, Cleveland State

Take a look at the following list of players and their OPS

David Wright .912

Ian Kinsler. 912

Jason Giambi .916

????????? .918

Conor Jackson .918

Hanley Ramirez .921

Grady Sizemore .921

So if you were a manager you'd probably want our mystery man above to be in the lineup as much as possible, right?  That is if your goal is to score as many runs as possible.

So who is our mystery man?  None other than Chris Iannetta, riding the bench tonight with Torrealba ( .693 OPS) getting the start.

Torrealba has had 9 starts already in July, to Iannetta's 14. 

I can only help but wonder what our record would have been with Iannetta and his .900 OPS in our lineup more frequently the entire year.

How is this possibly justifiable?  Is catcher so demanding a position for a 25-year old that he can only play in 60% of the games?  Russell Martin (another 25-year old catcher) doesn't seem to have a problem.  Are we playing Torrealba to showcase him for a trade? 

I wonder sometimes if Hurdle really wants to win or not. 

The sports editor of my local paper, The Daily Times-Call (Longmont, CO) , seems to think the Rockies are forever doomed because of the Todd Helton situation:  Keeping Helton will haunt Rox

Since Ian Stewart took over at third base and Atkins moved to first, the Rockies are 7-1 and they’ve scored 8.0 runs per game. Stewart and Atkins have hit a combined .379 with two homers and 23 RBIs in that time.

Enjoy it now, because when Helton returns — either this year or next spring — he’ll be in the lineup. The question is, who else will be?

First, I don't think the potential trade with Boston 18 months ago was that close to becoming a reality, particularly from the RedSox end.   I definitely don't think Helton will be rushed back into the starting lineup if and when he returns this season.  Management will play it very cautiously, while at the same time relishing the production for the stretch run of the new Stewart at third--Atkins at first combo.   

Regarding the Daily Times-Call,  the Longmont paper is where Rockies beat writer Troy Renck got started.  Patrick Saunders was also a former sports editor there..  I met Troy in the late 1990s in Longmont while he was covering a high school girls cross-country meet of all things.   Man has he come a long way since, and I thnk Troy does an excellent job.  I'm now seeing him in the bigtime reporting in video spots on ESPN and FOX.

Do you keep Fuentes or move him for a Double A starter?  Do you unload Jason Hircsh and Franklin Morlaes for a proven major league starter?  Do you stand pat?  If it were your job, what would you do in the next four days?  I would try and trade Jason Hirsch and Seth Smith to the Reds for Bronson Arroyo, assuming they are willing to eat nine million of the contract over the next two seasons.  Arroyo is a major upgrade over Wells and De Los Santos, and Cincy plays in a Philadelphiaesque joke of a ballpark.  He would help us in the next two seasons.