Rockies Offseason Addition's

Before kicking off my season preview, I have decided to go ahead and cover all the Rockies offseason moves and how I think they will affect this years team. First off let's look at the players the Rockies kept and made sure they stay in a Colorado uniform for years to come.




All-Star SS Troy Tulowitzki signed a huge extension that will keep him with the team for the next 10 years. This is huge news for all Rockies fans as he signed a seven year extension for $134 million dollars. Despite missing 33 games last season, Tulo belted 27 homers drove in 95 runs and finally hit a stellar .315. Troy is amongst the top in his position in all of baseball and now has his wish to stay with one club his entire career.





Staying on contract extension's, Carlos Gonzalez had a huge season last year and finished 3rd in MVP voting. CarGo in his first full season put up huge numbers taking the batting crown with a .336 average, pounded out 34 homeruns, and drove in 117 runs. This young superstar, who is only 25, signed a 7 year contract worth $80 million. This ensures the 1-2 punch of Tulo and CarGo will remain in purple pinstripes for years to come.





Another key player brought back was left handed starting pitcher Jorge De La Rosa, who accepted a 2 year deal for $21.5 million as he turned down other more lucrative offers to stay with Colorado. Not many pitchers would take less money to pitch in a hitters park like Coors Field, but De La Rosa loves the city and the team enough to stay. Though he struggled a bit last year due to injuries, he is a huge factor in how the Rockies fare this year.





Now onto some trades the Rockies made to increase their odds in the fairly tough NL West. In a move I really liked, Colorado traded minor league pitcher Chaz Roe to the Seattle Mariners for second baseman Jose Lopez. Now Lopez did struggle a bit last season hitting .239 with only 10 homers and 58 runs driven in, but I do believe he will turn back to his 2009 form in which he belted 25 homeruns, drove in 96 runs and batted a respectable .272. Though his defense will be a slight downgrade from Clint Barmes, whom the Rockies lost via trade, he should be the opening day starter. The other options would be Jonathon Herrera and Eric Young Jr. whom both are pretty good options as well, but Lopez takes the spot for now.





Another big bat was added to the lineup as the Rockies brought in veteran infielder Ty Wiggington. Wiggy batted .248, belted 22 homers, and drove in 76 runs last season for the Baltimore Orioles. This gives the Rockies a nice power threat coming off the bench and should see some playing time as well occassionally filling in for Ian Stewart at 3rd and spelling Todd Helton over at 1st. The Rockies were able to get Wiggington fairly cheap signing him to a 2 year $8 million dollar deal. Yet another move I like and showed me the Rockies are not making huge deals, but adding some key players to make a run in the postseason.

Colorado also separted with longtime Rockie and one of the fan favorites in Clint Barmes. Barmes was sent to Houston in exchange for RH pitcher Felipe Paulino. Paulino gives the Rockies another option as a 5th starter or a replacement pitcher should the Rockies need one, but will more than likely start out in the bullpen. Right now he could crack the rotation to start the season pending on Aaron Cooks health status(which right now is not looking good). With the top four spots in the rotation pretty well decided with Ubaldo Jimenez, Jorge De La Rosa, Jhoulys Chacin, and Jason Hammel the Rockies are still very uncertain about veteran Rockie Aaron Cooks status. Felipe Paulino and Esmil Rogers could be battling over that final spot in the rotation. It would represent the first time that Aaron Cook has not broke into the rotation to start the season since 2005.

Chris Iannetta's job may also be safe for now as the Rockies departed with Miguel Olivo who took over the catcher's spot as Iannetta struggled early on. This could be a make or break year for the catcher as his back up is now Jose Morales, who was brought in from the Twins. Morales does not provide a whole lot of power or anything and this could be a weak spot on the Rockies should Iannetta struggle once again. They do have an up and coming catcher in Wilin Rosario down in the minors so he may even be in the mix later in the season.

Going back to the bullpen, Colorado added yet another reliable reliever in Matt Lindstrom with whom the Rockies recieved via trade with the Houston Astros for minor leaguers Jonnathan Aristil and Wes Musik. Lindstrom gives the Rockies another option at closer should Huston Street struggle with injuries once again this season.

Colorado also brought back Jason Giambi, signing him to a minor league deal. He should make the team because of his veteran presence and he is still a feared and powerful pinch hitter. Finally Colorado released veteran pitcher Jeff Francis, who turned down an invitation to Spring Training to become a starter for the Kansas City Royals. Francis had one great season back in 2007 in which he led the club to their first World Series appearance, since then he has struggled with injuries and consistancy the past couple seasons. That is pretty well the jist of trades and offseason moves the Rockies made this year. I would give the Rockies an A for the moves and also securing their best players for years to come. I am looking foward to an exciting season and can not wait until the season starts! Coming soon will be a complete season preview here at RoxNation! So until then Go Rockies!

RoxNation Is Back

I am back and ready to cover the Colorado Rockies, as well as other big stories that go on during this 2011-2012 season. As of right now Spring Training is getting close to wrapping up and the regular season will be in full swing, so the first item on the agenda is getting up a season preview. I will be adding and playing around with the site here at RoxNation hoping to expand. This is just a message letting everyone know the site is back in action, season preview coming soon!

Rockies Looking For Revenge Against D-Backs

The Rockies kick off yet another divisional matchup against the Arizona Diamondbacks in a 3-game set at Coors Field. The last time these two teams met Arizona took 2 of 3 from Colorado earlier this month and in that one win Jorge De La Rosa (6-7, 5.21) shut down the Diamondbacks in 5- Rockies win. De La Rosa has owned Arizona his last two starts giving up only 1 run in 14 innings of work. Doug Davis (4-9, 3.41) will take the start for Arizona as he hasn't been as lucky in his career against the Rockies going 2-4 in eight starts.

Todd Helton who is 5 for 9 against Davis is hoping to become only the 50th player to reach 500 doubles and only needs 1 to reach that milestone. The Rockies are hoping to gain momentum heading into their series against the San Francisco Giants who currently lead the Rockies by half a game in the NL wild card standings. Colorado has only lost 10 games since June 4 in 40 contests. I certainly hope the Rockies don't struggle in this series against the lowly Diamondbacks in a series in which the Rockies certainly have a huge advantage on both sides of the ball. So a Rockies victory and a Giants and Dodgers loss would certainly make me happy so go Rockies keep it up all the way to the playoffs.

Time To Get Caught Up

Well it's about time I get back to work and throw out a few events that have taken place since last time I updated. In more recent news Jason Marquis just became the league's first 12 game winner when the Rockies defeated the lowly San Diego Padres by a score of 6-1. Ian Stewart and Brad Hawpe both jacked a ball out of the park and helped the Rockies reach 50 wins.

Brad Hawpe and Jason Marquis were both elected to the All-Star game, which I was a little disappointed when Marquis never got to pitch but hey he made it which makes me happy. Brad Hawpe went 0-2 with a long flyout which would have been a homerun if not for the great defense of Carl Crawford who earned the All-Star MVP for making that catch, Hawpe struck out in his second at bat in the 9th inning of the game.

The Rockies bullpen took a huge blow when veteran pitcher Alan Embree was struck in the leg and will miss the rest of the season if not his career. Though he wasn't exactly our greatest pitcher you still never like to see an injury like that and I certainly hope that wasn't the last game for the 39 yr. old veteran. Colorado signed Matt Herges and assigned him to the minor leagues for right now. Herges previously played for the Rockies in 2007 and 2008 but struggled and was let go. The Rockies are currently sitting at 50-42 and only half a game out in the wild card behind divisional rival San Francisco Giants, and are now 8 games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Well so far our Rox are off to a great start this second half and let's just hope they keep it up. If you have any suggestions for the site leave me a comment or email me at coloradorockiesfan5@yahoo.com. I look to building this site up and even though I havn't kept up on posting I have been looking at different possible options and ideas for this site. Hope to hear from all you fans and now it's time to take on the Arizona Diamondbacks, a sweep here would be nice but unlike the last series at least a series win.

The Rockies fell last night to the LA Angels after blowing a lead in the 8th inning. For Colorado it was just their second loss in the last 19 games and look to Jason Marquis to get them back on the winning side of things. Marquis is going for his NL leading 10th victory this season and is posting a 3.71 ERA. The Rockies had plenty of chances in last nights game going 0-10 with RISP and quite a few of those came with a runner on 3rd with less than 2 outs. That means a sac fly or hard ground ball could have scored the runners and they would have more than likely won the game. Jimenez pitched well most of the game until running into trouble in the 8th where a couple mistakes by third baseman Ian Stewart loaded the bases for the Angels. That set up an RBI single by Bobby Abreu to bring home what would end up being the winning runs.

Former Rockies closer Brian Fuentes got the save for the Angels and is now tied for the league lead in saves with 20. The Rockies did manage to get a runner to 2nd in the 9th inning but Atkins and Barmes both struck out to end the rally attempt. In other news I have been watching the All-Star voting and have noticed Brad Hawpe is not in the top 15 so if you havn't voted get on and vote!!

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Rox Get Payback Look To Win Series Today

The Colorado Rockies (32-33) returned the favor to the Rays (35-32) beating them 5-3 to end their win streak. Aaron Cook won his 3rd straight game improving to 6-3 on the season, while his Rays counterpart David Price dropped to 1-1 on the season. Troy Tulowitzki cranked a 3 run blast in the 2nd inning and Chris Iannetta blasted one out of the park for his 9th home run of the season. Carl Crawford and Evan Longoria homered for the Rays.

The teams meet again today in a rubber match with each team trying to get to 7-2 in interleague play. Ubaldo Jimenez takes the rubber for the Rockies while the Rays counter with Matt Garza. Garza has been unable to get past the 6th inning his last two starts, while Jimenez is coming off a complete game victory over the Brewers. Troy Tulowitzki looks to remain hot as he's improved his batting average from .216 to .241 while hitting 4 home runs and driving in 9 RBIs his last 10 games. This will be the first time either pitcher has faced the opposing team and the Rays will be looking for their first ever series win against Colorado as they came in only 1-5 against them. Colorado is looking to get to the .500 mark for the first time since early in the season when they were 4-4.