Mark it in the books now, the Rockies will be 2025 World Series Champions!
Well…it’s too soon to tell but the start of Spring Training has been positive for the Rockies. Spring has officially sprung at Talking Stick and three days into the slate of exhibition games, the Rox are 3-1, good for fourth in Cactus League play. While this is certainly a thing we can hang our hats on, some much better things can be taken away from this weekend’s slate of games.
Young Rockies Arms Look Sharp
The Rockies swept the D-Backs in a 2 game set to kick off Spring Training and sent Bradley Blalock to the mound in Game One Friday. He look dialed in as he struck out 2 hitters across 2 innings and only allowing 1 hit. This is a positive start to spring for a young Blalock who found himself with a 6.07 ERA after 29.2 innings after being called up at the end of last year. At the end of his appearance he broke down his focus of keeping the ball low in the zone, something he struggled with last year. It worked, inducing 3 ground ball outs, to go along with his 2 punchouts. Blalock is projected to be assigned to Triple-A Albuquerque to start the season but looks to continue to dial his pitch mix in, providing good rotational depth in the farm system.
Gabriel Hughes took the ball in Game 2 Saturday. The first round pick from the 2022 draft recovered from Tommy John surgery in the offseason and looked good in his first action since the Arizona Fall League. He struggled this winter, pitching to a 8.31 ERA in just 17 innings, so its good to see him have a good start to camp for the Rockies. Drafted at 10th overall out of Gonzaga, the Rockies see him as a key rotational piece for the future and he showed out. He pitched 2 innings, and didn’t allow a hit and walked 1 batter. He, like Blalock expects to open up the season in the minors but is continuing to build on a strong start to camp.
Young Bats Poppin’ (and Flippin’)
The bats were hot this weekend. Usually, pitchers are dialed in more than hitters due to early reporting but the Rockies’ lineup didn’t care. It started with Brenton Doyle’s grand slam in Game 1 to put the Rockies up 4-3 early in that contest. He is continuing to climb the offensive ladder with a big step forward in 2024 compared to his rookie year. Doyle’s defense will always be flashing gold but it’s great to see his offense isn’t far behind.
Michael Toglia joined the party in Game 2, smacking a 3 run opposite field dinger. The no doubt home run was his first of Spring and put the Rockies ahead for good. He is expected to be the Rockies everyday first baseman this year and has a lot of high expectations surrounding him. His OPS took a step forward last year with a .767 and early numbers suggest he is going to continue his upward trend.
Zac Veen smacked the absolute life out of a baseball this weekend depositing a Billy Corcoran pitch 430 feet into the right field seats. His homer was measured at 108 MPH off the bat, but that wasn’t what people paid attention to. The bat-flip post homer nearly went farther than the baseball itself. Even with the excitement (and subsequent apology) Rockies fans are just excited for Veen as he is for himself. He has been a highly rated prospect since the Rockies drafted him in the 2020 draft. If his hard hitting continues, don’t be surprised to see the kid crack the Opening Day Roster as a key outfield depth piece this year.
Sloppy Defense
This is just nitpicking after a really strong weekend from the Thin Air crew, but during Game 2 a bases clearing sacrifice fly isn’t ideal. With the bases loaded and 1 out, Ketel Marte stepped to the plate and sent a deep fly ball to center fielder Sam Hilliard. With a 3-0 lead, the play should have ended with a 3-1 score but ended with a 3-3 score. Hilliard was late getting the ball in allowing Blaze Alexander to score form second base and with an uncharacteristically bad throw form Tovar, it allowed Barosa from first to score. The Rockies are in the top half of the league in fielding percentage and have Gold flashing from the Center Field and Shortstop positions most days. These moments though are still uneasy, because they seem to happen during key situations than on a rather routine basis. Just flash back to Nolan Jones booting the ball all over the field in left last year. Its good for these moments to happen at Talking Stick than Coors Field, but if the Rockies want to not blunder late in games, the defense needs to be leaned on, and that’s not how you execute.
Overall, a great start to Spring. As the weeks progress, excitement will build for an Opening Day matchup with the Tampa Bay Rays. Perhaps the most exciting debut of Spring happens tomorrow at 1pm MST with Chase Dollander, the Rockies #1 prospect making his camp debut against the San Francisco Giants. The Rockies look to keep it rollin’!
Thin Air Baseball 