Picture retrieved from studiousmetsimus.blogspot.com

Though the Rockies took home the ‘W’ in the first game of the doubleheader yesterday, they ended up losing big.

Jorge De La Rosa, who has been pitching like the staff ace this season, left the game in the third inning with pain in his left elbow. An MRI after the game revealed a completely torn Ulnar Collateral Ligament, and will require season-ending Tommy John surgery to repair.

It will be at least June of 2012 before we see De La Rosa in a Rockies uniform again.

It’s ironic that this devastating injury comes on one of the few days the sun shone down on Coors Field.

So what comes next?

The good news is that Clayton Mortenson has been pitching well, Greg Reynolds is back for a second tour with the club after impressing at Triple-A Colorado Springs, Esmil Rogers is just days away from beginning a rehab assignment, and Aaron Cook has thrown the ball well in Double-A Tulsa as part of his rehab assignment.

As for the starting pitchers still healthy? Ubaldo Jimenez has put everything back together, recovering from his hip flexor, groin injury, and cuticle cut, and came one hit away from earning his first victory of the year in his last start against the Brewers. Jhoulys Chacin has been just as solid as De La Rosa, and save for a rough game yesterday against the Diamondbacks, has been nearly unbeatable.

There’s no question this injury hurts the Rockies a lot, but it’s not like the Rockies don’t have options. Pitching is finally one of this team’s strengths, and though everyone on the pitching staff needs to step up for the rest of the year, this season is far from over.

Any current report over the Rockies’ minor league system has to include Tyler Matzek.  Matzek has been a disaster so far this season.  In four starts he has thrown just 12.1 total innings.  His ERA is a beefy 10.22 and he is walking 13.14 hitters per every nine innings.  Last night in San Jose, he walked eight batters.  He surrendered six runs, including a two run homerun, before being pulled in the bottom of the third after failing to record an out.

At this point, it’s easy to second guess the drafting of Matzek.  It seems like the Rockies fell in love with him because he is a hard throwing lefty and we know how the organization feels about drafting lefties.  Matzek was a player with sign-ability issues.  At the time, he was committed to play for the University of Oregon and he made it known that he intended to honor the commitment.  The Rockies convinced him to change his mind by offering a franchise record $3.1M signing bonus — a sum far outside of MLB’s recommendation for Matzek’s slot.

I’ve consistently applauded the Rockies for recently changing their draft approach.  They’ve made an effort to spend more of their resources on the draft and they’ve ignored the meaningless MLB slot system.  As a result, their farm system is vastly improved.  However, in hindsight, the Matzek pick seems like a bad decision.  This is particularly evident when you look at the players taken after him — Shelby Miller and Mike Trout to name a couple.

In defense of the Rockies, there is no exact science to drafting baseball players.  While most first-rounders eventually make it to the Majors, there are a bunch that fail.  Very few live up to the expectations of being a first round draft pick by becoming stars.  So when the organization committed three million to an eighteen year-old, they knew they were facing a high risk/high return scenario.  Still, it’s disappointing.  Everyone has high hopes for Matzek.  Hopefully he’ll figure it out.

Right now, I’m guessing there are multiple people wondering if Tyler should’ve gone to college first — including Matzek himself.
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