Future Colorado Rockies: Grand Junction Rockies July 26 Update

Apr 10, 2015; Denver, CO, USA; General view of Colorado Rockies hats and gloves during the eighth inning against the Chicago Cubs at Coors Field. The Rockies defeated the Cubs 5-1. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

Trending up (Kyle Freeland): The Denver native and first-round draft pick from 2014 is back after struggling with injury earlier this year, and in his 2015 debut, he tossed three no-hit innings on Friday night against the Ogden Raptors.

After having a great professional debut in Grand Junction and Asheville in 2014, folks were excited about Freeland stepping up to Asheville (or possibly Modesto) for the full season in 2015. Unfortunately, the Evansville University product sustained a shoulder injury and had been stuck for the last few months in Extended Spring Training.

Now, though, he’s healthy and pitching again — though if he throws as well as he did Friday night, he may not be long for Grand Junction as the Rockies likely want to keep extending his pitch counts and move him up a level to see what kind of a prospect they’ve got in the organization.

Trending down (Cole Anderson): It seems like it’d be tough to struggle offensively in Grand Junction, considering how offensively-minded the Pioneer League is, but for 2015 10th round pick — and Rocky Mountain High School product — Cole Anderson, that’s exactly what’s happening.

The right-handed hitting outfielder is slashing just .222/.300/.444 — and has hit safely just 5 times in his last 31 at-bats, to go along with 14 strikeouts and only three walks during that stretch.

Cold streaks like this can’t be too uncommon for a high school product (for goodness sake, the guy was born in 1997, y’all), but with other high school products tearing up the Pioneer League, surely the Colorado Rockies would love to see more from their 10th round pick.

They are bringing him along slowly, like they do for so many other new pros in rookie ball (he’s only played in 19 of the team’s 35 games), and considering he’s already hit three doubles and three home runs in 63 at-bats this year, at least he’s shown some intriguing power despite his struggles at the plate.

Next: GJ Rockies Notes