Morning Links: Rockies News 2/24

Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

For better or for worse, the Colorado Rockies have already had an eventful Spring Training – and it isn’t even March yet.

The club officially announced that Carlos Gonzalez will play left field. They then got some bad news when they learned that Jhoulys Chacin will have to be shut down for a while and could miss two to three weeks because he is having trouble with his shoulder.

Before that we were up to the usual around here at Rox Pile this time of year, trying to make sense of the opening day lineup and the starting rotation. Here’s what else is happening with the Rockies and around the rest of the league:

From Jeff Zimmerman: All Fly Balls Are Not Created Equal (Hardball Times, as reference to Rox Pile article about why Cuddyer should move to left field)

"The longer a ball is in the air, the more time a fielder has to catch it. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Sometimes, in this world of advanced fielding stats, we forget the simple things. While we’re busy measuring things like pitch velocity and deflection, or angle of the ball off the bat, or the exact zone a ball lands in, why not also talk about hang time?"

From Jon Heyman (via Twitter)

From Thomas Lynch: J.J. Putz, Clubhouse Leader (Venom Strikes)

"From reading the story, which you can do by clicking here, it is clear that D’backs’ players and management respect Putz immensely. It shows that his value goes beyond the diamond. One thing that struck me was that 20 minutes after the team traded for Addison Reed, Putz texted a welcoming message to his newest teammate.”"