Down On The Farm: Eddie Butler And Christian Bergman

May 10, 2015; Denver, CO, USA; Colorado Rockies starting pitcher E. Butler (31) signs autographs before the game against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Coors Field. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

Eddie Butler and Christian Bergman are both in AAA Albuquerque right now, for different reasons, but with one ultimate goal for the Colorado Rockies: rotation depth.

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Typically in our Down On The Farm series, I’ll focus on players who are up-and-coming prospects, or lightly-regarded minor leaguers who are having great weeks or monster seasons at some lower affiliate level in the system for the Colorado Rockies.

This week, though, it’s important to check in on Eddie Butler and Christian Bergman as they work in AAA Albuquerque for the time being.

Butler, sent down to work on missing bats, among other things, started earlier this week for the Isotopes, and threw well. In his first outing on June 12 at Tacoma, he allowed just six hits and two walks in seven innings, giving up only two runs, though he earned a no-decision in the game.

One knock on his outing was the single strikeout he got; if Butler is to be successful in the big leagues, he needs to do two things: (a) fewer walks (which, in that start, he did), and (b) fewer total base runners, which is aided by missing bats, something he failed to do this week for Albuquerque. It’s a very small sample size, but it bears watching as Butler works for the Isotopes with the reality of a call-up back to Denver coming in another few months.

Bergman, who was sent down when both Corey Dickerson and LaTroy Hawkins came off the disabled list, is now starting in Albuquerque. He may give the Rockies an option in the rotation should someone get hurt or become ineffective and the club deems prospects like Jon Gray not quite ready for the big leagues.

On June 15, Bergman tossed three scoreless innings, allowing just one hit and striking out four El Paso Chihuahuas (yes, that’s a team) in his first outing with the Isotopes.

It’ll be interesting to see if the Rockies extend Bergman to throwing five or six innings an outing, considering he made a spot start earlier this year and could be seen as a rotation option if ineffectiveness or injury crops up in the next few months.

You can easily make the argument both these guys (especially Bergman) deserve to be in the big leagues right now, victims of the 25-man roster numbers game and stuck in AAA for the time being.

As such, it’d be worth it to keep watching their progress down on the farm. They’re each down there with different goals, but the process will be the same: both will be with the Rockies again sooner rather than later.

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