Playing Pepper 2009: Colorado Rockies

As the players start getting themselves ready for another season, I thought it'd be a good idea to do the same.  I contacted a blogger for each major league team and posted them five questions.  This is the result.  You can find the tentative schedule of teams here and today's main post is right here.

Some of the most memorable Cardinals of the past decade have come from Colorado.  Darryl Kile's recapturing of his form after leaving the Mile High City of Denver, coupled with his untimely passing, left an indelible mark on Cardinal Nation.  Larry Walker's last at-bats, after being a Colorado icon, came in pennant race form in St. Louis.  Even utility man Aaron Miles, now off to Chicago, wore the purple before the red.

I got with Mark of the now-defunct Bad Altitude to see if the humidor is still working and if Todd Helton is still a fan favorite.

C70: Is the humidor still going in full force and has that really helped in the Rockies' success?

BA: I think "success" is relative—they had one REALLY good month, and other than that they've been the same .450 ballclub that they've been all along. Do you know what year the humidor went into effect? 2002, and they've had all of one winning season since then (versus four of the last seven before then).

The reason people perceive the humidor to have been this big boon is because it was one the widely spread stories in the World Series season. For the most part baseball fans don't think about the Rockies at all, so what few things they do hear tend to stick in thier heads.

However, there are individual Rockies who've obviously benefited—Aaron Cook springs immediately to mind, and Brian Fuentes might never have have had the success he did here as a closer without the humidor's cutting down on the homers he allowed to righthanders.

C70: What's the general opinion about Ubaldo Jiminez's contract extension?

BA: Colorado is deflecting the fact that they're not spending money on their own free agents or major-league quality signings from elsewhere by lavishing these arbitration-avoidance specials on anybody and everybody eligible.

Trouble is, Jeff Francis and Troy Tulowitzki haven't been the same players since they signed theirs. Jimenez, arguably, had done less to deserve his contract than those guys theirs, but the Rockies needed one piece of good news in an offseason where they baldly dumped Matt Holliday and let Brian Fuentes walk as an FA.

Jimenez maybe could have used another spring training feeling like he wasn't guaranteed a starter's spot given his control struggles. That's my opinion—I couldn't tell you what the general opinion is because I don't actually know any other Rockies fans.

C70: Was last year's season from Troy Tulowitski completely due to injuries or something more?

BA: Tulowitzki is the kind of player who just fares much better psychologically when his team is winning. Last year he got out to a brutal start, then got hurt, and by the time he got back the Rockies were clearly lacking the spark they had last year. I thing it made concentrating a lot harder for Troy with the rest of the team scuffling.

This year is a big one for him—either he can take matters into his own hands and lead by example, or he can let the losing drag him down and never be heard from again. Tulowitzki definitely has the ability to lead with his glovework when he's not hitting, but last year he let frustration get to him and it became a vicious circle.

It won't help that the Rockies want him to be a bigger part of their offense than he's really capable of supplying now.

C70: Is Todd Helton still a fan favorite?

BA: The penetration of "Helton 17" shirts at Coors Field, which used to be near 60 to 70 percent of fans wearing jerseys with players' names, fell a lot in the last two years with people favoring "Holliday 5."

With Holliday gone we'll see whether people go get the Helton tops they already have out of storage or buy new ones with Tulowitzki's or Chris Iannetta's name. Helton is still the most visible Rockies player outside of the stadium, with the requisite goofy local TV commercials and public appearances.

Trouble is, he's a shadow of the player he was once. He's still useful because he works at-bats and he gets his walks, but Helton hits for way too little power now to be a centerpiece of the lineup. Particularly for a first baseman. Particularly for a Coors Field first baseman.

If the Rockies would admit to themselves that he's not the 2000-01 Helton and hit him second it might help a little. I think in 2007 Helton's still-marvelous defense played a big part in helping that young infield to a historic season with the gloves, but last year with the Rockies' first-choice second baseman, third baseman, and shortstop all getting hurt it didn't make as much difference.

I still love him. It goes a long way to keep an organization from appearing like a complete joke when they have a slam-dunk Hall of Famer afield, even if he's largely a ghost.

When my dad (Cubs fan) and I go to spring training and see the Rockies in Tucson every year he says, "Who do the Rockies HAVE anyway? They still have Todd Helton?" If it weren't for Todd he wouldn't know any of the players on the team. I don't know what we'll do when he retires.

C70: Will Clint Barmes ever return to his early form?

BA: I hope not, actually. Barmes is perfectly suited to use him as the Rockies intended to last year—as a backup at two or three infield spots and pinch-hitter. He's stretched as a regular at either second or short.

Last year Colorado gave up on Jayson Nix almost immediately (which was weird because he was very good defensively and not any worse than his predecessor Kazuo Matsui was with the bat) and installed Barmes as the starter at second; just like 2005, he was the only middle infielder on the team who hit at all early.

Then Tulowitzki got injured and Barmes slid over to short, where he's even less suited to play every day—he's got a scatter arm and tends to carry his defensive mistakes with him to the plate.

I don't mind having Clint on the bench as the Rockies have on the whole leaned towards really nice guys who can't play a lick as bench players in the recent past. As the year begins the plan is to use him the same way as he ended last season, as part of an offense-defense-compromise triple platoon with Omar Quintanilla and Jeff Baker.

If any teams out there still see him as more than a utility guy, the Rockies should trade him to them.

Thanks to Mark for that assessment of the Rockies.  It sounds like they may have their work cut out for them, but playing in the NL West may help keep them afloat.