Jason Hammel hasn’t had his best fastball all season, but the results have been decent. In fact, Hammels has done pretty much what we should expect from him. Two of his three starts qualify as “quality starts”. I’m not sure that six innings and three runs should be defined as “quality”, but it does speak to Jason’s ability to compete. When he left last night’s game the Rockies were still in it. In years past, that’s all that was asked of Rockies’ pitchers. However, things have changed. The Rockies starting rotation is off to a torrid start and Jhoulys, Esmil, and DLR are making Hammel look bad.
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The Rockies will have a tough decision to make when Aaron Cook returns from the DL. If he continues to maintain his success, Esmil Rogers will maintain his spot in the rotation, leaving a battle between Hammel and Cook for the fifth starter spot. Can you imagine? Aaron Cook or Jason Hammel may not have a spot in this rotation come June. While you don’t want that for either guy, it’s a nice problem to have. In today’s Post, Dave Kreiger subtly insinuated that it will be Hammel that loses out.
Jim Tracy had it in mind to make Tulo sit out today. Instead, Troy set out one inning last night and is ready to go. I wish I could have seen the go-to-hell look Tulo gave Tracy when it was suggested that he take a game off.
Paul Daugherty at SI feels like it is time to let Pete Rose in the HOF. I agree. The Hall is full of awful human beings. He has paid his penance. The point of the game is to get a hit and nobody did that more than Pete Rose.
The Rockies go for the series win against the Cubs today at 1:10 MT. They have career minor leaguer Alan Johnson on the bump going against Ryan Dempster. They’ll need to break out the lumber.
Diego is going to teach us how to turn a double play.
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