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KRIEGER: Cook and pray for a trade

By Dave Krieger, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published May 4, 2008 at 6:36 p.m.
Updated May 4, 2008 at 9:03 p.m.

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Aaron Cook, the Rockies' only consistent starter so far, gives Clint Hurdle the ball as he departs while catcher Chris Iannetta looks on Sunday at Coors Field.

Photo by Doug Pensinger / Afp/Getty Images

Aaron Cook, the Rockies' only consistent starter so far, gives Clint Hurdle the ball as he departs while catcher Chris Iannetta looks on Sunday at Coors Field.

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What a difference a little starting pitching makes.

Perhaps you remember Spahn and Sain and pray for rain. This became a motto of sorts for fans of the 1948 Boston Braves, who had Warren Spahn and Johnny Sain at the top of the rotation and then . . . not much.

The Rockies, as you may have noticed, have an even shorter list of reliable starters. Since climbing to 8-8 on April 16, they are 4-11.

Aaron Cook (5-1, 2.40 ERA) has all four wins, including another stellar outing Sunday.

Unfortunately, winning once every five days is unlikely to put them in position to defend their first National League pennant. Hence the need for a new slogan.

Here are a few ideas. Feel free to add your own:

Cook and then book.

Cook and then don't look!

Cook and then some schnook.

I assume that Jeff Francis (0-3, 5.26) will get off the schneid here pretty soon, which will improve our poetry if not the Rocks' chances of getting back to the postseason: Francis, Cook and a parade of rooks.

Let's face it - banking on youngsters Ubaldo Jimenez (1-2, 5.90) and Franklin Morales (1-2, 6.39) to be the third and fourth starters was a daring move that has yet to pay off. They may well be reliable starters of the future, but they are not reliable starters of the present.

Add fifth starter Mark Redman (2-2, 6.99), and you have pretty much the worst-case scenario coming out of spring training.

Perhaps Jimenez or Morales or both will get it together any day now, but Cook's maturation suggests this is a longer-term process. In fact, the Jimenez and Morales bugaboo - getting into a hole and digging it deeper - was also Cook's. After giving up two runs on nine hits Sunday, I asked if he is doing anything different with men on base.

"I think I've just been able to slow down," he said. "My first couple of years I rushed, started to panic, and now I've just realized - settle down, make one good pitch and get out of this inning. Whether the guy's on first or second, not really try to change my game plan or do too much, to let my defense work, and it's been working this year."

There's no telling how long it might take Jimenez and Morales to see the light, but wishing and hoping is no way to run an alleged National League contender.

So the Rocks have a decision to make. Either they go back to the strategy of 2005-06 - take your lumps with the kid Rocks and don't worry about the record - or they prepare to move prospects or a frontline position player to reinforce the pitching staff.

Easier said than done, I know, but that's why they pay general manager Dan O'Dowd the big bucks. He elected not to mortgage the future by dropping a load of top prospects on A's GM Billy Beane to get Dan Haren over the offseason. That was in the hope that Jimenez and Morales would keep his staff competitive in the interim. Patience is a virtue, but much more of it and the Rocks will be playing out the string by Memorial Day.

Before Sunday's game, I asked manager Clint Hurdle if it was fair to say the organization had overestimated its starting pitching coming into the season. He wouldn't bite.

"That's your job and everybody else's, fans' opinions," he said. "Those are opinions that I don't control. Not about to start. So go with it where you want to."

"So you have no opinion on whether that's fair?" I pressed.

"It really doesn't matter to me what's fair," Hurdle said. "Life's not fair at times. You get dealt things like we're being dealt, you do the best you can and you try to work your way through it. Those are tough questions that reporters like to ask and you can figure that out at the end of the day and you can throw that out there and people will run with it where they want to."

Let's try to be fair even if life isn't. This was not Hurdle's call; it was O'Dowd's. And if the front office put too much faith in the young pitchers, it needs to correct that mistake as soon as the opportunity presents itself. Jorge De La Rosa may not be the answer here.

Just as an example, the Texas Rangers will be into their latest overhaul soon enough, which should make the much-traveled Kevin Millwood available again. No one will confuse him with Haren, but at least he's a big-league starter who averages more than six innings per start and has an ERA under 4.00. That would make him the Rocks' No. 2 starter at the moment.

In fact, the 1948 versions of the late Bill Voiselle and Vern Bickford, the Braves' third and fourth starters, would look pretty good at the back end of the Rocks' rotation compared to what they have.

As far as trade bait, the Rocks have a surplus in center field, where Hurdle is trying to find playing time for Willy Taveras, Scott Podsednik and Ryan Spilborghs, as well as in the corners, where Jeff Baker can't break into the lineup and Seth Smith, Ian Stewart and Joe Koshansky can't break into the big leagues.

Ideally, the Rocks would be stockpiling prospects, not dangling them, but the choice here is pretty clear. If they want to climb back into the '08 race, they need starting pitching, and they need it as soon as possible.

Comments

  • May 5, 2008

    12:37 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    bronxs136 writes:

    Lets be realisitic here. Its still early in the season. I for one don't think it was smart for Hurdle to name Francis the Ace of the staff when Cook is still here. I'm quite sure that Aaron isn't happy about it and there is some resentment there even though he won't admit it, but his pitching has spokenly loudly as to what he should be (THE ACE OF THE STAFF). Its really to bad that the Rockies used up all there options on Jimenez and are stuck keeping him at this level. Sending Morales down to Triple AAA was a good move. Its safe to say at the big league level that some players let there heads get way to big and don't realize that every game counts. Last year is a primed example of that. The Rockies are in a huge hole that most likely they won't crawl out of to defend there title and all the baseball experts will be exactly right in saying that the Rockies are a 4th place team in a 5 team division and that last year they got hot at the right time to finish the season.

  • May 5, 2008

    1:58 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Broncosfan75 writes:

    What were the A's looking for in the Haren trade? If it was Morales and one or two double A players I think the Rockies made a horribly bad decision. Think about how much better this rotation would look if it went Haren, Francis, Cook, Redman, Jimenez. Besides which, then the D-backs would look a whole lot more vulnerable. Then they wouldn't have had to spent 3 million on Wells and payroll would have been at a very similar level. I understand wanting to build prospects but with Francis and Cook signed to multi-year deals, Jimenez locked up for awhile, and Reynolds on his way, paying for a legitimate ace would have given the Rockies two #2 pitchers veteran help and less pressure.

  • May 6, 2008

    1:41 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    HE5t writes:

    The Rockies are doomed as long as the Monforts are calling the shots. They don't care about winning. The team won in spite of their ownership. Kroenke needs to buy this franchise and make em winners, until then, its back the bad ol days.