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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Glenallen thought last night's contest was a bit of a snoozer. I can't disagree.

So far this season, Hammel has been a different pitcher. He’s striking out fewer hitters, but he has dramatically increased his ground ball percentage. The additional grounders have lowered opposing hitters’ BABIP against Jason and he is leaving more runners stranded on base. It will be interesting to see how this plays out over the remainder of the season. It could be that it’s just a statistical fluke, and, as the season wears on, Hammel’s numbers will level out to his career averages. However, it’s also possible that Jason is making more of an effort to pitch to contact and rely on the Rockies’ ridiculous defense. I hope it’s the latter.
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