Rockies Register

Minor League expert John Sickels profiled Fraklin Morales today.  He has the left hander at a B+ rating but he does say there’s a good chance it could improve.  This is a solid look at one of the Rockies top prospects.

David Gassko from the Hardball Times recently previewed the Rockies in their five question format.  He talks about where the Rockies’ prospects are at as well as how much longer the Rockies GM is going to keep his job.  There’s no predictions but I don’t think anyone thinks the Rockies have much of a chance in what should be a tougher NL West.  Solid read though.

Expectations are pretty high for Troy Tulowitzki but even I didn’t expect him to break through this early.  According to this Rocky Mountain News report, the rookie shortstop has beat out Clint Barnes as the starter at short and they’re even speculating that Barnes is on the trading block.

PECOTA thinks pretty highly of Tulowitzki.  His weighted mean average line has him at .291/.349/.461 with 16 homeruns and a solid 24.7 VORP.  They have him at below average defense but if he could hit 20 homeruns, it’d make up for some of that.

There’s a great organizational preview of the Rockies farm system up over at MiLB.com.  You get profiles of players at each level of the minor league system as well as some players under the radar and who they expect to be the best in the organization.  There’s a ton of stuff here so be sure to check it out, especially if you’re into keeping track of the minor leagues.

In addition, there’s a full profile on first base prospect Joe Koshansky, who’s going to start the season at Triple A this year.  If Helton goes on the shelf at all, you could see this kid at the big league level.  He had a monster season at Tulsa and he’s a reason why the Rockies think they could deal Todd Helton.

The Rockies cut catcher Javy Lopez yesterday in what turned out to be a low risk, but unsuccessful experiment. Lopez hit the ball pretty well this spring (six for sixteen with four doubles).  The move now allows him to catch on with another team and he walked away with over $100k.  Not too shabby.  He would have been little more then a placeholder though with Chris Iannetta being pretty much the catcher of the future.

The Rockies spring training profile is the latest in a series by MiLB.com about some of the key questions each team has heading into the spring season.  The primary question is how soon first base prospect Joe Koshansky will be in the Rockies’ lineup (not too soon) and you also get a Q&A with third base prospect Ian Stewart. 

The offense was there, but the pitching wasn’t today.  Jeff Salazar had the big game for the Rockies with the bat though.  He went two for two with a homerun and three RBIs.  Willy Taveras had two runs and Matt Holliday had two hits and an RBI.

Josh Fogg threw two shutout innings but most everyone else wasn’t as sharp.  Newman was particularly hit hard and he gave up four runs in his one inning of work.  The Rockies were also busy on the bases and they stole four (all by four different players).