Rockies Register

The Rockies filled a hole when they traded right handed pitcher Clayton Mortensen to the Red Sox for Marco Scutaro.  As a shortstop for the Red Sox, he was solid enough with a .299 batting average and 59 runs.  For the Rockies, it looks like he’ll move over to second base and be the double play complement to Troy Tulowitzki.

Scutaro has had some of the best seasons of his career at the plate the past three seasons.  Three of his top four seasons when measured by OPS have come here late in his career and while his defense seemed to slip this year, he’s been solid in the past.  He hasn’t played a lot of second base the past few years and you have to go way back to 2008 when he played 50 games at second where he got a nice chunk of action there.

Mortensen was solid in 16 games for the Rockies last year after a train wreck of a season at Colorado Springs.  He was going on 27 so he’s no spring chicken and he doesn’t look like he would have done well in a hitters park like Coors Field.  Then again, Fenway has it’s own difficulties so it’ll be interesting to see how he adjusts.

Kevin Goldstein released his list of the top eleven Rockies prospects and there’s definitely some talent at the top of the list.  At number one is third baseman Nolan Arenado.  He had a really nice year last year as a 20 year old at High-A and it also helps that the Rockies traded Ian Stewart.  Double-A is most likely where he’s headed but we could see this future star in a Rockies’ uniform in 2012.

Number two is the Indians 2010 first round pick, Drew Pomeranz.  The left hander was one of the keys in the Ubaldo Jimenez trade and he spent part of the season at High-A and part of the season at Double-A.  He’s another guy who’s close and he could actually compete for a rotation spot with the Rockies but short of that, he’ll be at Triple-A in 2012.

Number three is Wilin Rosario.  With Ramon Hernandez being signed, Rosario will see most of his time at Triple-A in 2012 but he has some power and he’ll definitely force the Rockies hand if Hernandez struggles.  Chad Bettis (RHP) and Tim Wheeler (OF) round out the top five.

The Rockies signed outfielder Michael Cuddyer to a three year, $31.5 million deal.  Cuddyer is older then I thought.  He had a solid season on a bad team last year with a .284 batting average and 20 home runs.

Cuddyer’s best season was 2009 when he hit 32 home runs and he had an OPS of .862.  In the past six years, he’s had 100+ OPS+ in five of those six seasons and in three of those seasons, it was over 120.  It’ll be really interesting to see how his numbers translate to Coors Field.  Target Field is a pitcher’s park although Cuddyer is just one for twelve in three games at Coors Field.

The Rockies made a deal prior to the Winter Meetings and they sent catcher Chris Iannetta to the Angels for pitching prospect Tyler Chatwood.  Chatwood had a rough major league debut season in 2011 but keep in mind he was just 22 years old.

Ianetta has had a rocky road for the Rockies and he became expendable when the Rockies started talking to Ramon Hernandez.  With the team close to signing a two year deal with the veteran backstop, Ianetta could be sent elsewhere and in exchange, the Rockies got another solid pitching prospect.

The Rockies have been stocking up on young pitchers.  They’ve made deals to get Drew Pomeranz and Alex White in trade deadline deals during the 2011 season.  Hopefully some of these guys pan out down the road.

When you have a prospect like Nolan Arenado, you have to think about how he’s going to make his debut and move his way up the chain.  The Rockies came one step closer to bringing Arenado up when they sent third baseman Ty Wiggington to the Phillies for a player to be named later or cash consideration.

Wiggington has been solid but Arenado has been special.  He hit .298 and drove in 122 runs in Class A this year and then he went on and won the AFL MVP award.  The Rockies do have some backup plans though because they have Ian Stewart in the wings and they also signed Brandon Wood to a minor league deal.  This should be fun spring as we get to see who rises to the top in this competition.