Christian Bergman Named Arizona Fall League All-Star

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Christian Bergman will try to make his case for a spot in the Colorado Rockies‘ starting rotation next season. To that end, he is pitching well in the Arizona Fall League.

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The Colorado Rockies will once again have a mishmash of candidates for the fifth spot in their starting rotation next spring training. To start the season, teams tend to go with low-risk, low-ceilings guys in that spot before eventually looking to more intriguing candidates over the course of the season.

It feels like Christian Bergman could definitely be that guy for the Rockies for more than one stint in the next couple seasons. I dare say that he seems to have a little bit of Josh Fogg in him. His stuff will never overwhelm, but if he locates he can consistently give you five or six innings of average to above-average baseball. The Rockies know better than any team how valuable that can be.

Bergman surely has higher aspirations for himself than that, something that is apparent in his recent selection as an All-Star in the Arizona Fall League. Thomas Harding of MLB.com reports the following:

"A 24th-round pick in 2010 and Spring Training afterthought this year, Bergman pitched his way to the Majors in 2014, and his good fortune continues in the Arizona Fall League, which on Monday named him as a member of the East Division squad for Sunday evening’s Fall Stars Game."

It would appear that Bergman is taking everything in the appropriate context and refusing to get ahead of himself. Here is what he had to say at the end of last season, also courtesy of MLB.com:

"“This isn’t enough — I have very high expectations for myself…A lot of people would be pretty happy with the way this year has gone if they were me. It went well, I’ll give myself that. But I know I’m capable of much more.“I look at this year as a chance to make all those mistakes that I can learn from, so I don’t make them again next year.”"

Thrust into a difficult situation for an injury-riddled rotation, Bergman had an up-and-down go of things for the Rockies in 2014. He threw 54.2 innings in 10 starts, posting a 5.93 ERA. His 4.55 FIP tells the story of a guy who perhaps could point things in the right direction for the Rockies, but it quickly became clear last season that Bergman has to only be a tick off his game and the opposing lineup will maul him.

Those are the kinds of adjustments and improvements teams hope to see from their players in the AFL, and it sounds like it has gone well for Bergman so far.

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