Colorado Rockies Tumble Continues with Jonathan Sanchez

Jonathan Sanchez Debuts With the Colorado Rockies

Phoenix, AZ. The Colorado Rockies tumble to the worst record in Major League Baseball continued on Monday vs. the Arizona Diamondbacks. Only the Houston Astros have a worse record at this point in the season than the Rockies. With newly traded for Jonathan Sanchez taking the mound, the Rockies were looking for a change of scenery for Sanchez to flash back to his form from his days with the San Francisco Giants. Ironically it was the bat of the opposing pitcher, Ian Kennedy that did the damage. In the bottom of the 4^th inning, the Rockies chose to load the bases with Kennedy coming to the plate. Kennedy then hit a bases clearing triple over Dexter Fowler’s head to put the Diamondbacks up for good.

So the story continues for the Colorado Rockies with their starting pitching staff. The current four man rotation does not include a single player that was on the opening day roster and 2 of the starters, Jeff Francis and Sanchez, were not even a part of the Rockies organization at the start of the season. Injuries have included: Jorge De La Rosa with Tommy John surgery last year, Jhoulys Chacin started the season with an unknown injury he didn’t disclose, and Juan Nicasio had a freak knee injury in which they found cartilage floating around his knee cap. All of those injuries, couple with the ineffectiveness of 49 year old Jamie Moyer, have spelled disaster for this years Rockies squad.

Interestingly though, the four man rotation includes all left handed pitchers. In some ways this may be looked upon as an advantage. You have the balance of Jeff Francis with slower off speed pitches, and Drew Pomeranz and Christian Friedrich hitting the radar gun at 95 MPH. The problem is the 75 pitch limit that GM Dan O’Dowd has instituted. This idea may make sense for Pomeranz and Friedrich as they are both very young. But with Francis and newcomer Jonathan Sanchez, the limit should be lifted if they are pitching well. Of course pitching well is the inherent problem right now. The bullpen actually needs some relief at this point. Matt Belisle has been a workhorse but is starting to show signs of fatigue. Matt Reynolds has been ineffective as of late, and Rex Brothers is showing his inexperience and is starting to have location problems.

The Rockies need to look to make some trades. With the emergence of rookie Josh Rutledge, the Rockies should put together a package with second baseman Marco Scutaro and closer Rafael Betancourt to get some more prospects to look to the future. Go with the youth movement and maybe even look to that number one draft pick next year.

Denver Sports Chat – Kris Loco

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