Per RMN's suggestion I am reposting this discussion here from the FanShot I posted the other day.  Couple of good comments on Matzek being a NRI on the FS already. 

Just thought I'd start a Shot to discuss NRI. The only ones I'm aware of right now are Juan Rincon and Paul Phillips. I'm sure DOD will keep true to form and bring in a handful of pitchers to compete for that 5th spot too. As for which prospects could be invited, I presume that Rosario and Davis will be invited to help fill out the need for catchers. As far as pitchers, I think Friedrich and Weathers will be there and Brothers and Matzek are possibilities. May not be many hitters, though I could see Holcomb, who I think was down in the AFL be invited. I might be forgetting a couple others that were down in Arizona. Anyone know the date for C&P to report?? I can barely contain the excitement for 2010!

The other day I had a few minutes (actually was up to my a$$ in work, but this was more interesting than actually working) so I spent some time pondering the 2010 opening day roster and have been looking for answers to questions that have bothered me so - many of which have been debated here already. 

By my count there appears to be 6 open roster spots on the projected opening day roster.

1) 5th starter

2) Swingman

3) Reliever

4) Backup catcher

5) Utility MIF

6) Utility CIF

To start I took a crack at the projected opening day roster...

Rotation                        Starters

1) Jimenez                    13) Iannetta

2) Cook                         14) Helton

3) De La Rosa             15) Barmes

4) Hammel                   16) Tulowitski

5) ???                            17) Stewart

                                        18) Gonzalez

Bullpen                          19) Fowler

6) Street                         20) Hawpe

7) Bentencourt

8) Belisle                      Bench

9) Flores                       21) Smith

10) Morales                 22) Spilbourghs

11) ???                         23) ???

12) ???                         24) ???

                                       25) ???

...and the rest of the current 40-man

TBD – Starters               Probable Minors

26) Francis*                   37) Alburquerque

27) Chacin                     38) Escalona

28) Reynolds                 39) Nicasio

29) Rogers                    40) Roe

30) Smith

                                         41) McKenry

TBD – Relievers           42) Gomez

31) Buchholz*                43) Nelson

32) Corpus*                  

33) Daley

34) Deduno

35) Lindsay

TBD – Hitters

36) Young 

* Potential DL

After the jump I'd like to take a look at some of the possible answers come April 5th.

Continue reading this post »

I was looking through the Rocks minor league stats and came up with a rough list of prospects to consider for the next revision of the Top 30 Purps.  For discussion sake, I was wondering if I was missing anyone that is a definite must have on the list.  Or is there someone on the list who's beyond being a prospect or has a glaring hole that I'm not aware of?   

Nice collection of talent we have assembled over the last few years.  I'm totally stoked over who we have in the pipeline to continue building upon.

Alphabetically

1. Alberto Alburquerque
2. Nolan Arenado
3. Chris Balcom-Miller
4. Charlie Blackmon
5. Rex Brothers
6. Jhoulys Chacin
7. Jared Clark
8. Sam Deduno
9. Brandon Durden
10. Christian Friedrich
11. Hector Gomez
12. Darin Holcomb
13. Ethan Hollingsworth
14. Brandon Hynick
15. Kent Matthes
16. Tyler Matzek *
17. Mike McKenry
18. Chris Nelson
19. Ben Paulsen
20. Chaz Roe
21. Esmil Rogers
22. Kiel Roling
23. Wilin Rosario
24. Charlie Ruiz
25. Aaron Weatherford
26. Casey Weathers
27. Keith Weiser
28. Joey Williamson
29. Tim Wheeler
30. Eric Young, Jr.
31. Mike Zuanich
    
    

Been sitting here watching the end of the CWS and reading MLBTradeRumors.com and a couple of articles have mentioned that the Rocks are starting to look for starting pitching in preparation for us being in the race closer to the deadline.

As it currently stands, not many pitchers are on the blocks due to many would be sellers still feeling like they are in it, so the asking price is pretty high.  Exp - Indians are looking for Clay Buchholz type talent for Cliff Lee.

So I started to look through our roster to see what we might have as possible trading chips and Morales appears to be an interesting possibility.

I see a couple of scenarios playing out

Scenario 1 - Has Morales finally putting it all together down in the Springs and being that "additional" starter that we are looking for down the stretch.

Scenario 2 - Has him just not fulfilling his potential and causing the Rocks roster issues next year as he will be out of options.

So my question to you - If we were to dangle Frankie as trade bait between now and the deadline, what do you think he would fetch?

If you’re like me, a day off after having three exciting games to start off the season isn't going to be all that easy.  I thought it would be nice to have something to help us Rowbots get through the day. So time and optimism permitting on off days, I'll throw out a random topic.  As I'm sure that the daily Rockpile will deal with the topics of the day this will be a bit more Rockies related in general.

I’ll keep today’s topic pretty general to see how this goes. 

Favorite Rockies Related Moments

This can be anything from attending a game to listening to a game online from another country.  Maybe its having met a player in the grocery checkout line to having a favorite Rockies baseball card.  

Could be anything.  Today let's keep it Rockies related.  Another day I'll be more baseball in general.

Thanks for participating and good luck getting through the day. 

I thought about this last week when they announced Fowler was going to make the team.  Hope I'm not stealing anyone's thunder.  

Pl's leave comments on where you think your answer will leave us in the standings and any other predictions/expectations.

As an example: I believe our young team will mature quicker than most of the mainstream "experts" and will win 85+ games and compete for the wide open NL West and wild card.  

NL West
1. Dbacks
2. Rocks
3. Dodgers
4. Giants
5. Padres

Now that Spring has officially gotten underway (Pitchers and Catchers have reported and they are racing at Daytona), I thought it would be worth getting this argument under way.  As many of you know Hurdle is in the final year of his contract and he is preaching fundamentals to help get the team out of the gate. 

Should he fail to inspire this season, how long do you think Clint will make it and why?