Colorado Rockies Rundown: Michael McKenry’s Surgery, Tommy Kahnle’s Struggles, And DJ LeMahieu’s Success

Aug 25, 2015; Atlanta, GA, USA; Colorado Rockies second baseman D. LeMahieu (9) throws a runner out at first against the Atlanta Braves in the ninth inning at Turner Field. The Rockies defeated the Braves 5-1. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

Your morning rundown — news, notes, analysis, and more — on the biggest stories surrounding the Colorado Rockies for this Thursday, August 27, 2015.

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The Colorado Rockies are on their way to Pittsburgh after a three-game set against the Atlanta Braves in the muggy weather at empty Turner Field. God bless the South, right?! (No, seriously, I love the South.)

Now, the Rox have a real test in Pittsburgh, a club that’s not only pretty damn good, but also playing very, very well lately — both the Pirates and the Cubs are gaining on the St. Louis Cardinals, and the NL Central is the toast of baseball right now. This series should be fun…

Before we do that, though, the Colorado Rockies get an off day today. We’ll post a series preview later this morning — so heads up for all that — but before we do, here’s what’s going down in today’s edition of the rundown:

• Michael McKenry underwent successful knee surgery.
• Tommy Kahnle is fading down the stretch.
• MLB Trade Rumors breaks down the Rockies’ three needs.
• Yohan Flande‘s nice “homecoming” in Atlanta.
• DJ LeMahieu is still turning in a great season… and now, batting cleanup (yikes).
• Charlie Blackmon grades out well defensively in terms of sabermetrics, but is that really the case?
• The Colorado Rockies spent the day at UGA, with several players on the club having Georgia ties.
• Kyle Kendrick celebrated a birthday Tuesday!

Lots to discuss! Let’s cover today’s news and notes around the Colorado Rockies.

Next: Michael McKenry has knee surgery

Jul 30, 2015; St. Louis, MO, USA; Colorado Rockies relief pitcher T. Kahnle (54) pitches against the St. Louis Cardinals in the eighth inning at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports

Tommy Kahnle fades down the stretch

(via Twitter)

Here’s a great stat from Baseball Reference via Dargan Southard of MLB.com; Tommy Kahnle is just the tenth pitcher in the last 101 years to walk four hitters, get less than three outs, and not give up a run, after he was bailed out by Scott Oberg on Tuesday night in Atlanta.

It wasn’t just Tuesday that should concern Colorado Rockies fans about Kahnle, though. The righty has walked at least one batter in six of his last eight outings in the big leagues, and Tuesday marked the third time this season that Kahnle has walked at least three hitters in an outing. He’s now walked 28 in 33.1 innings (36 games) this year.

[ Related: Colorado Rockies’ reliever Christian Friedrich is fading lately, too ]

I wanted Kahnle to be the Rockies’ closer for the rest of the year, of course, which looks kind of dumb now — but I’d still argue that the Rockies gain more from letting Kahnle learn in a pressure role than keeping John Axford there just to keep up appearances.

Nevertheless, here we are with Kahnle, who is becoming like most of the rest of the Rockies’ staff (and specifically, the bullpen): completely unable to throw strikes consistently. Baseball is an ebb and flow, so there’s no reason to write Kahnle off right now, but it’d sure be nice to see him bounce back to the player he was in his first career save, and see some improvement heading into 2016.

With the power stuff he has, Kahnle can be a really nice set-up man for the Colorado Rockies, and if this club is going to be successful at all in the short-term, they need to stack as many guys like Kahnle as they can before Adam Ottavino when he eventually returns next year.

Next: MLB Trade Rumors on Rockies' improvements

Jul 3, 2015; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Colorado Rockies manager W. Weiss (22) looks on prior to the game against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field. Mandatory Credit: Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports

Three things the Rockies ought to do

(via MLB Trade Rumors)

The guys over at MLB Trade Rumors do everything well. If you aren’t already visiting that site virtually every day, now is actually the perfect time to start, too, because the winter (with all the trades and free agent signings being made) is second only to Trade Deadline week as the most interesting off-field time in baseball.

Anyways, MLBTR is running a new series beginning this week looking at each team’s needs as the offseason approaches, and they decided to start with the Colorado Rockies! Two of the three are exactly what you’d predict (the pitching staff, duh, as well as finding a long-term solution at catcher), but the third is noteworthy.

[ Related: I want the Colorado Rockies to lose 100 games, and you should too ]

Take it away, MLBTR:

It’s easy enough for people to answer the question when asked, “Who was the last impact bat the Rockies traded away?” thanks to this July’s Troy Tulowitzki blockbuster. However, prior to that swap, the most recent instance of the Rockies trading a significant hitter came in the 2013-14 offseason when they traded Dexter Fowler. Prior to that, it’s probably Matt Holliday — all the way back in 2008. For a team that struggles to develop pitching but seems to routinely produce above-average bats (even after adjusting the numbers to account for Coors Field’s impact), it’s puzzling that they’ve shown such reluctance when it comes to trading hitters. The Tulo trade was a good start, but moving Carlos Gonzalez and perhaps someone like Charlie Blackmon should be a consideration for new GM Jeff Bridich, assuming owner Dick Monfort won’t stand in the way of such a deal.

Now that’s interesting.

The Rockies have been able to turn average to slightly-above-average players into bonafide studs at Coors Field, including DJ LeMahieu (who was never supposed to hit like he is this year), Charlie Blackmon (an All Star and a leadoff hitter with an .820 OPS this year) and Corey Dickerson (an 8th round junior college pick who challenged for a batting title last season).

They’ve also seen free agents have career years in Denver, like Nick Hundley (still hovering right around .300 this year), and even had marginal talent challenge for batting titles (see Jordan Pacheco‘s unlikely 2012 season).

[ POLL: What’s Walt Weiss’ future with the Colorado Rockies? ]

Considering how hard it is for the Colorado Rockies to develop pitchers, and yet how easy it is for them to exploit offensive numbers from even slightly above average players, it might be worth it to start trading some of these hitters for quality pitching, knowing you’ll be able to re-develop new hitters soon enough to take their place.

Your move, Jeff Bridich.

Next: Yohan Flande's nice homecoming

Jul 28, 2014; Chicago, IL, USA; Colorado Rockies starting pitcher Y. Flande (58) pitches against the Chicago Cubs during the first inning at Wrigley Field. Mandatory Credit: David Banks-USA TODAY Sports

Yohan Flande has a “homecoming” of sorts

(via Baseball Reference)

Yohan Flande didn’t throw great on Wednesday night, but he did throw well enough to keep the Colorado Rockies in the game: 5 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 5 BB, 4 K, and what turned out to be a no-decision after the Rockies rallied for four seventh inning runs to absolve him of the deficit.

It was actually probably somewhat of a big day for Flande, who spent three years in the Braves’ organization at AAA (2011-2013), and despite throwing decently for them, never getting a shot in the big leagues with Atlanta.

[ Related: Have you guys realized Yohan Flande is pretty good? ]

Flande threw in 94 games (58 starts) for the Braves’ AAA affiliate in Gwinnett County, Georgia, between ’11 and ’13, winning 23 games and yet never pitching well enough to earn a shot in the big leagues down the road in Atlanta.

While Flande didn’t dominate the Braves like he did in his last outing against Washington, he was cruising for a while and ended up throwing well enough to more than keep the Rockies in the game against his former employer.

Next: DJ LeMahieu continues to hit

Aug 5, 2015; Denver, CO, USA; Colorado Rockies second baseman D. LeMahieu (9) celebrates in the dugout after scoring in the ninth inning against the Seattle Mariners at Coors Field. Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports

DJ LeMahieu continues his career year

(via MLB.com)

DJ LeMahieu had been going through a slump (4-for-27 in seven games) before Tuesday night, when he mashed three hits, got three RBIs, and scored a run. Slump aside, though, he’s still having the best year of his career with the Colorado Rockies right now, hitting .312/.370/.404 in 120 games.

MLB.com posted a nice piece on him Wednesday afternoon, where LeMahieu discussed his (boring) opposite field-first approach at the plate:

“I’ve just been trying to keep my approach this year. Just not trying to do more than I’m capable of. I have a boring approach. Everybody knows what I’m going to do pretty much. I get out of whack when I try to do more.”

Whatever, man. Boring or not, it works.

[ Related: Would the Colorado Rockies consider trading DJ LeMahieu this winter? ]

For what it’s worth, LeMahieu also hit cleanup on Wednesday. To understand how bizarre that is, this’ll be a fun tweet for you:

The Colorado Rockies are quite a long ways away from hitting the pitcher in the eighth spot and trying to figure out whether it’s best to hit Troy Tulowitzki second in the lineup, aren’t they?

Next: Is Charlie Blackmon a good defender or not?

Jul 27, 2015; Chicago, IL, USA; Colorado Rockies center fielder C. Blackmon (19) falls after making a catch during the second inning against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. Mandatory Credit: Caylor Arnold-USA TODAY Sports

Charlie Blackmon’s defensive year in CF

(via Purple Row)

Eric Garcia-McKinley of Purple Row took a look at Charlie Blackmon’s route efficiency (based on StatCast data) this week, after the Rockies’ PR Twitter account tweeted out an interesting stat about Blackmon being one of the better defensive center fielders in terms of route taken to the ball.

Garcia-McKinley’s piece is good — and it gives the important caveats about StatCast (namely that we don’t know how they are deriving the data, since it’s not publicly available, as well as the fact that it’s very new and sabermetricians will no doubt pick it apart in time as people begin to understand more about the tool).

[ Related: More on Charlie Blackmon’s underrated year leading off ]

Nevertheless, my main takeaway from StatCast in general and Garcia-McKinley’s analysis specifically is this: defensive metrics have a long ways to go in baseball.

While they get better each year, there are still a lot of things to iron out before casual fans can begin to better understand route efficiency, range, runs saved, and more ideas that just aren’t as tangible as, say, ball velocity off the bat or more easily identifiable offensive results.

Next: The Rockies go to the Dawgs

Nov 29, 2014; Athens, GA, USA; Georgia Bulldogs mascot UGA IX on the field before the game against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. Georgia Tech defeated Georgia 30-24 in overtime. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

The Rockies visit UGA — sorry, fellas!

(via Twitter)

Sorry to the many Colorado Rockies who are affiliated with Georgia that for a variety of reasons wouldn’t like this (more on that below), but the Rox visited the University of Georgia’s athletic facilities on Wednesday:

https://twitter.com/Rockies/status/636609190165811200

The only real reason this is notable is because the Rockies have so many guys who are affiliated with Georgia, and universities around that rivals to Georgia, to make this unfortunate for most of the team.

Brooks Brown — a University of Georgia alum — and David Hale, a former Atlanta Braves’ pitcher, both are in AAA Albuquerque (and both were just optioned there!), so unfortunately they each missed their homecoming of sorts. Charlie Culberson is also a Georgia boy, though he’s been in AAA (and injured) all season.

[ Related: How can you create your own winning baseball team at home? CLICK HERE! ]

Charlie Blackmon is, of course, a Georgia Tech alum, while Kyle Parker and Ben Paulsen are Clemson alums. For those of you who don’t know the South very well, there’s obviously no love lost between Georgia and Georgia Tech, and UGA and Clemson hate each other.

In other words, the Colorado Rockies got very little enjoyment out of their trip to Athens. (Kidding.)

Next: Kyle Kendrick celebrates a birthday

Apr 6, 2015; Milwaukee, WI, USA; Colorado Rockies pitcher K. Kendrick (38) pitches in the first inning against the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park. The Rockies beat the Brewers 10-0. Mandatory Credit: Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports

Happy birthday, Kyle Kendrick!

(via Instagram)

Happy birthday to Kyle Kendrick, who turned 31 years old on Tuesday! The Rockies celebrated the birthday on Instagram:

https://instagram.com/p/62n81Nx–F/

Just… do yourself a favor and don’t read the comments. Yikes.

Poor Kyle Kendrick, though. He was decent-ish for a few years in Philadelphia, always consistent, and then he fell off a bit near the end and the Phillies decided not to re-sign him. So, he comes to the Colorado Rockies to rejuvenate his career (!) and, predictably, it’s a disaster.

But we’ll always have Opening Day. And we’ve always got this masterpiece.

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