Colorado Rockies Rundown: Minors, Barnes, Miller, Hoffman, Arenado’s MVP

Aug 23, 2015; Denver, CO, USA; Colorado Rockies third baseman N. Arenado (28) during the game against the New York Mets at Coors Field. Mandatory Credit: Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports

Nolan Arenado for MVP?

(via MLB.com)

Jeff Nelson (yes, the former player) has a piece up on MLB Network that argues for Arenado to be considered as a possible Most Valuable Player in the National League. We’ll run a poll about this later today, but in short: great! Nolan needs and deserves more recognition! He’s having an MVP-quality season.

But… let’s be honest. He plays for an awful team. It’s tough to give an MVP award to a guy for a team that might legitimately be the worst club in the Major Leagues when the dust settles in three weeks.

[ Related: Now are the Colorado Rockies Arenado’s team? ]

I’m not old school/purist enough to think that the MVP must always go to a good player on a great team by default, but I’m also a realist; will national media vote for an often nationally-ignored player on a very nationally-ignored, irrelevant team? I won’t hold my breath.

Now, if the Rockies got better in the next few years and Arenado kept developing the way we all think (and hope) he can, well, we might just have a future MVP in our midst, for sure.

Next: Jeff Hoffman, revisited

The good and bad from Jeff Hoffman

(via ESPN — $)

Keith Law looks in-depth at Colorado Rockies prospect Jeff Hoffman in his latest Insider ($) post on ESPN.com, and he deduces that the righty, who was the Rockies’ premier piece in the haul back from the Toronto Blue Jays for Troy Tulowitzki, isn’t quite ready for the big leagues yet.

Law likens Hoffman to Jon Gray of a year or two ago; great arm, but straight fastball, not enough feel for off-speed pitches, and needing more touch and experience in trusting his natural stuff against better and better competition.

[ Related: Tinoco, Castro and Hoffman have impressed in the minor leagues ]

That’s no surprise, since Hoffman is young and hasn’t yet been a professional baseball player for two years. Besides — and this is the most important piece — he had Tommy John surgery to reconstruct his elbow about 16 months ago.

Considering how quickly he’s returned from that surgery, and how well he’s done at AA already in his recent rehab and return to baseball, it’s worth it to be optimistic about Hoffman and what he might be able to do for the Rockies at the end of 2016, or most certainly the beginning of 2017.

Next: Brandon Barnes' bat decals

Jun 5, 2014; Denver, CO, USA; Colorado Rockies right fielder B. Barnes (1) heads for home during his inside the park home run play in the eighth inning against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Coors Field. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

Brandon Barnes’ bat decals

(via Twitter)

It’s kind of a slow news day, so let’s reminisce on some cool stuff from the past that inadvertently came up today. The Colorado Rockies tweeted this yesterday:

And of course, that makes us think of this bad boy from last season:

The good old days? Not really, because we remember how badly the Rockies did in 2014, but they were 33-35 at that point in the season, sooo….

Anyways, cool bat decals, Brandon Barnes!

Next: Justin Miller finds a home

Jul 1, 2015; Oakland, CA, USA; Colorado Rockies relief pitcher J. Miller (60) pitches the ball against the Oakland Athletics during the seventh inning at O.co Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

Justin Miller finds a home

(via MLB.com)

This is a nice little piece about Colorado Rockies reliever Justin Miller, and how glad he is to be in the big leagues — and how he found out about his Rockies record four strikeouts in four batters on Twitter (!) from either his dad, or his girlfriend (one day later, he can’t remember. It’s cool, bro. You don’t need to lie about tweeting.)

[ Related: The 2016 Colorado Rockies bullpen wish list ]

Some pertinent quotes from Miller, though:

“Every time I have gone down [to AAA] it’s kind of been a situation where they didn’t want to send me down, because I was pitching good. It was just a numbers kind of thing. So I knew [going up and down] comes with the job. I am just trying to treat it as the same down there as it is here.”

And treat it the same, he has. Miller is fast becoming a reliable late inning option for the Colorado Rockies, and somebody who might get a look or two as a setup man next year alongside Brooks Brown and perhaps Miguel Castro, Tommy Kahnle, and, well, who the hell knows who else will be around.

Either way, good on you, Justin Miller. Hope you stay in the big leagues, because you’ve got some good, hard stuff that can work at this level.

Next: Awards for Rockies' minor leaguers

Jun 19, 2015; Denver, CO, USA; General view of Coors Field during the national anthem before the game between the Milwaukee Brewers against the Colorado Rockies. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

Minor league awards start coming out

(via Twitter and Twitter)

A very short final post on today’s rundown, but here’s a thing to think about:

Minor league end-of-season awards are beginning to be announced, and we’ll keep updated on all the awards that have been won by members of the Colorado Rockies’ organization, like the two tweets above.

Also, we’ll have a TON of minor league end-of-season recaps, awards, and prospect lists coming in the next few weeks. Stay tuned for all your Rockies affiliate news!

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