Colorado Rockies week in review: March 23 - 29

March 29, 6:38 PMColorado Rockies ExaminerTravis Lay

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Atkins returned with some pop in his bat
(AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)

This past week the Rockies finished 3 – 4. Week full of highs (offense) and lows (pitching).

The biggest news of the week was the rumors of Jeff Baker possibly being traded. Will the Rockies deal him? I hope they do and I hope they get some decent starting pitching in return. Sweeten the pot with Yovit Torreabla if you have to, get another starter.

Garrett Atkins also returned to the lineup with a home run. He had been nursing a bad hip and in his return he hit a home run. He appears to be driving the ball to the gaps this year which is a good sign. We need a healthy hitting Atkins to drive in some runs in 2009.

Onto the good, the bad and the ugly of the past week.

The Good

• Todd Helton continues to torch the baseball this spring. This past week he had a .818 on base percentage – he got on base nine times in 11 plate appearances. Not only is he getting on base but he is also driving the ball, he had two doubles and a home run this week.
• The Closer battle. Manny Corpas had the leg up this week as he pitched two innings and did not allow a run. He did give up one hit and three walks in that time with only one strikeout. Huston Street pitched three innings and he gave up one run. Two out of his three outings were pretty clean. Hurdle needs to announce the closer soon. I have changed my tune over the past few weeks and would now go with Street over Corpas.
• As mentioned above Atkins returned to the lineup this week from a hip injury. He played the past two days and went four for eight at the plate with a home run, double and four RBI. Keep this up in April Garrett and Todd!
• Chris Iannetta continues to hit the ball and produce runs. He was seven for 13 this week with six runs scored and six driven in. He also walked four times to finish the very productive week with a .647 on base percentage.

The Bad

• The Rockies outfield. The starters on Opening Day figures to be some combination of Brad Hawpe, Ryan Spilborghs, Matt Murton and Seth Smith. This week they weren’t so good. They were 13 for 47 for a subpar .277 average. OK, so that isn’t too bad and throwing Hawpe into this isn’t really fair either. Hawpe only had one start this week due to injury and went two for two. The real offender was Murton who went two for 13. Still, we need more production out of this group.

The Ugly

• For the second straight week I am grouping the Rockies starting pitching as the ugly part of the week. Ubaldo Jimenez, Aaron Cook, Greg Smith, Franklin Morales, Jorge De La Rosa and Jason Marquis figure to all be a major part of the Rockies rotation in 2009. This week their total stat line looked like this: 33 1/3 innings pitched, 48 hits, 18 walks for a total of 36 runs (32 earned) and a whopping 8.65 ERA, 1.98 WHIP (walks + hits per innings pitched, 1.50 is OK and anything under 1.2 is real good) and a .324 batting average against. All horrid numbers. Lastly they only struck out 17 batters. A really good strikeout pitcher like Tim Lincecum or Johan Santana will strikeout at least one batter per inning and most good strike out pitchers will average at least seven strikeouts per nine innings – the Rockies barely had over 4.5 Ks per nine innings this week from their starters. Just an awful week.

The Rockies offense looks like it is ready to rock and roll. The Rockies pitching looks like it is ready to help opposing offenses rock and roll. One more week to get all in order. Bob Apodaca has his work cut out for himself.