Future Colorado Rockies: Albuquerque Isotopes July 7 Update

Image via Colorado Rockies; @Rockies/Twitter.

The Albuquerque Isotopes are having an up-and-down season in their first years as the AAA Pacific Coast League affiliate of the Colorado Rockies.

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I had a chance to see the Colorado Rockies’ AAA affiliate, the Albuquerque Isotopes, in Las Vegas over the July 4th weekend in a game where Roger Bernadina hit two home runs, Dustin Garneau hit another, Rafael Ynoa had three hits, and the Topes destroyed the 51s 10-2 on Independence Day.

John Lannan had a solid six inning start, and the game was pretty enjoyable overall, even if Vegas was about 125 degrees during the evening game and the heat was, to say the last, oppressive. Anyways, that was just one of several games for the Topes this past week. Let’s run down their last seven days in the Pacific Coast League:

The last week (4-3): The Topes went 4-3 on the week, including one weird thing: they had a Tuesday doubleheader in Las Vegas because Monday’s game was rained out. I didn’t even know games could get rained out in Las Vegas, but there we were, with Albuquerque splitting a doubleheader Tuesday afternoon (how hot was it outside for that day game?!). Overall, not a bad week (predominantly) on the road for the Isotopes, who ripped off two of three in ABQ against Reno before splitting a four-game set in Vegas against the New York Mets’ AAA affiliate.

Trending up (Cristhian Adames): Congratulations to Cristhian Adames, for making the Pacific Coast League All Star Team! He will be playing in the AAA All Star Game next week, representing the PCL against the International League. And, it’s just another piece of reinforcement that Adames — who is a defensive whiz who has finally figured out the offensive side of the game, too — deserves to be up in the big leagues as the Rockies’ utility infielder.

Trending down (Jairo Diaz): Diaz came over in the Josh Rutledge trade, and he was supposed to be a hard-throwing bullpen option who could one day compete for a job in Denver with the Colorado Rockies. That didn’t happen — or more accurately, it hasn’t happened yet — with Diaz struggling in AAA all year long, posting a 5.29 ERA and 5 blown saves with a 1.71 WHIP across 34 innings with the Topes this season. Hard fastballs aside, Diaz needs to cut the walks (24 in 34 innings, 10 in his last 10.2 innings) if he wants to get to Denver with that live arm any time soon.

One to watch (Jon Gray): The prospect has struck out 17 hitters in his last twelve innings, and twirled six scoreless innings — allowing three hits and two walks, with eight strikeouts — in a Tuesday start in Vegas. It’s probably time to call the man up and let him face big leaguers as a member of the Colorado Rockies.

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