Colorado Rockies Down On The Farm: The Three New Guys

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Jun 8, 2014; Denver, CO, USA; Colorado Rockies mascot Dinger greets young fans prior to the game against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Coors Field. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

What You Should Expect

Well first, as you can probably tell, all three are at relatively different development levels, and all three will be asked to do different things. Castro is the closest to the big leagues, having already been there before, and he’ll be asked to relieve — and potentially even close one day.

Hoffman is the cream of this three-prospect crop, and should turn into another Jon Gray/Eddie Butler type of prospect for the Rockies, though he still may be a year from the Major Leagues. And Tinoco is maybe more of a back-end rotation guy, though he’s young enough and at a level where the jury is still out quite a bit on his career.

The Rockies, though, are clearly stockpiling power pitchers who are tall and can blow the ball by hitters. All three of these guys mix in their off-speed stuff, too (Castro is pretty specifically a two-pitch pitcher), and you can see what the Rockies’ strategy may be with frontline arms moving forward, especially when considering what Gray and Butler can do on the mound, too.

Obviously, and this should go without saying, though, when it comes down to what to expect from these three… slow that down. Castro is only 20 years old, and has a lot of time to prove himself. Hoffman is recovering from elbow reconstruction surgery and probably ought to be more seriously evaluated next season (though his progress this year is very, very encouraging). And Tinoco is young and has a few years of minor league control left for the Rockies to develop.

Sure, it’s difficult to develop pitchers in Denver, and the Rockies don’t exactly have a great track record of developing more than a handful of decent pitchers in house. But the more arms you can stockpile like this, the better shot you’ve got to create a halfway decent starting rotation and a power back-end of the bullpen two or three years from now.

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