Speaker 1: Welcome in to the Rockies Insider.
00:00:07
Speaker 2: I'm your Rockies insider Patrick Lyons previewing this Arizona Diamondback series down in the desert. I've got some Rockies notes on top of all of that, and some familiar Rockies faces reemerging down in Phoenix. But a couple notes about the Rockies right now. First off would have to be Audiel Amador back up in place of Tyro Estrada, who did hit the il during the Blue Jays series with a strained right hamstring. He has just been hampered in every which way so far this season, and you like what he's been able to do when healthy, but unfortunately hasn't been healthy and held more likely than not be back for next season, whether it's on the seven million dollar option for next year or they declined the option, and then he still has another year of control, his final year of arbitration, and maybe that becomes a little bit cheaper, don't know. But hopefully Ada Amador will get a much better opportunity here to start. I mean I think he will, because there are no other options right now, especially with Arcia manning the hot corner and Farmer really just being that veteran off of the bench. But Amador, when we saw him before Astrata came back up, I think that was in that I think that was in that window where Ryan Ritter first got hurt and the Strata was on the il and Omedor looked really good. You know, he worked, He fixed his toe tap just a little bit and was definitely performing at boosted that confidence a little bit. So hopefully this weekend we see a little bit more out of that confident young second baseman in Audio Amador. It's important to note that in the same week that Colorado sent down first baseman Michael Tolia, and in the same week that they signed Or is really the same day they signed first baseman Blaine Krim picked him up off of waivers from the Rangers. You also have another first baseman with the Triple A Albuquerque Isotopes. That's right, Kesten Hera last week was named the PCO Player of the Week nine for twenty two four to nine batting average with three doubles, one triple, three home runs, eight RBI and five walks, slashing three h three with a four to eleven on base percentage in five point fifty slug Since rejoining the Isotopes on June twentieth. So where and when is Michael totally going to play? The writing is on the wall. I don't know what Michael Tolly's future is going to be in Colorado. It does seem as if the Rockies have moved on from him. Not officially, He's still on that roster, but this offseason does he get designated for assignment?
00:02:57
Speaker 1: I think so.
00:02:59
Speaker 2: If there was a trade out there available where someone was offering the Rockies anything of interest or of value, I think the Rockies, you know, very well, would have taken it. But I don't know that there really were too many offers or really too many conversations that happened around Tolia. In fact, I can almost be certain that there really weren't many. I'd said leading up to the deadline. Who is Michael Tolia really going to help? And if it's contenders that are calling up non contenders for their best assets to add for the final two months of the season to make a push into October, no team is calling for Michael Tolia. If it's a team that is looking to rebuild, like let's say an Arizona Diamondbacks club who did pick up a first basement at the deadline. But someone of their ilk, they very well could have said, you know what, we do have some interest in Michael Tolia. But you would have had to have been creative, and you would have had to have led that phone call because the Marlins, let's say they could use a first baseman. They always can, seems like, but the Marlins aren't going to pick up the phone and.
00:04:08
Speaker 1: Call the Rockies.
00:04:10
Speaker 2: That's why the Rockies need to be more proactive on the trade front. They need to be more proactive in every which way. They are only reactive. Most of their decisions are a year late, which really means they are two years too late, because you need to be a year You need to make those trades a year before you should have made them, and you didn't. So they're almost always reactive, and had they been proactive and pick up the phone, they might have been able to get something for Michael Tolia for a team that wasn't contending but was still looking to add a really good piece. Now future is totally unclear for Big Mic. Also down in tripa A, Bryan Castillo, after a rough first outing with the Isotopes, has gone eight and a third scoreless over his previous five outings three hits, four walks, eleven k's pretty good. But at two seven to two ERA overall in the season with nine saves, do the Rockies need pitching well? After giving up seventy five runs in the six game homestand this past week tied for the most ever in any six game set for this franchise, not to mention twenty one home runs in those six games, most ever in franchise history. Yes, they absolutely need more pitching. And is Castill a homegrown player? Yes, since he was seventeen years old signed it to the Dominican Republic, So at twenty four years old. This is how quickly things can change in this organization in particular, and you kind of like it a little bit. You have to like it for the fact that they don't just totally stand by their guns. If someone starts knocking on that door, they will occasionally listen, especially when they need to listen. You know what, at twenty four years old, Brian Castell, I think we will see him debut in the final two months of this season for the Rockies. Let's talk about some speed, Braden. He's reached base in fourteen to fifteen games, over the past three weeks since his July first promotion to Triple a solid batting average, not a ton of slug but he is getting on base at a five hundred clip with a team leading fourteen stolen bases over this span, despite again being of this club for a very minimal amount of time. I think braidon Ward could be I think he's going to be a big leaguer. There's no doubt about it. Is it going to be with the Rockies. It's hard with that clouded and crowded outfield situation that they currently have, So for that reason, I don't know that it will end up being with Colorado. Maybe he is a player that does get to make his debut over these final seven eight weeks. Maybe if they need room, doesn't it for assignment. Maybe we're able to keep him around. But he is a guy that has a very important tool in that speed and the ability to steal bases. So Brad mort I think is going to be a big leaguer at some point here very soon. Cole Carrig, I mean, if you're following me on social media, you've probably already seen the clips at Patrick D Lions, at Patrick D Lyons MLB Cole Carig the number two prospect in the Rockies system according to MLB pipeline, number two behind Charlie Condon, not behind Ethan Holiday because Ethan Holiday not still on the list. And you know what, if you are a faithful listener of the Rockies insider, I'm very sorry because I did say at the beginning of one of the recordings this past week that I was going to tell you where these prospects that just got drafted where they would end up, and then I never did. Then the show just kind of started to run long, and I nipped it in the bud there. So do I think Ethan Holiday is going to end up being the number one.
00:07:52
Speaker 1: Prospect for the Rockies. I do. I do.
00:07:55
Speaker 2: I don't feel as confident about as I back in the draft when I was live on a draft show with Blake Street Banner make sure you check out those guys do a wonderful job Blake Street Banner over on YouTube, and I felt a lot more confident that Ethan Holliday would be ahead of Charlie Condon the next time they add the twenty twenty five draft picks, which you understand why they're waiting a little bit after the trade deadline. That makes it. It's just more of a natural shift. Yes, you're waiting close to a month here, but you can say, all right, now, you really want to know where these draft picks go, because if you do it before the trade deadline, they go in one spot and then they get shuffled all around after all of the trades, guys moving ahead of them behind them. So it does make sense be patient stretches out the content period for sure, but with how Will Condon's been playing, it does look a little bit closer. I think Holiday is definitely going to be the number one. I think Max Bellu maybe even eat Your's higher than the second pick for the Rockies JB.
00:08:59
Speaker 1: Middleton.
00:09:00
Speaker 2: So Rocky's farm system again got some quantity, but that quantity, while it's it's close in triple A, not getting all the opportunities it needs to. Cole Krrig is a player that, while it feels like he should be joining Kyle Carros in Triple A, not there yet. Even if he was there in Triple A, this was not going to be the year that he debuts. Even though you can argue, hey, what more does this guy need to do? I agree with that. But if you're following me on social media, you've seen some clips of Cole Carrig breaking the Hartford Yardgoats single season record. Stole forty bases, that's what he's up to now, and in the August first game from last week, stole second, third, and then straight steal of home in the same inning. Cole Carrig, keep your eyes on this young man. Also in double A Jack Mahoney, he has a two to one record with a one seven four ERA through four starts in July. Get used to that name. You should see him at Big League camp next February down at Salt Riverfield as one of those big starting pitcher arms that might be able to make an impact in twenty twenty six. So Arizona Diamondbacks. Let's preview this series. Could it go as poorly as the Jays series? There's no way, right, there's no way. Rockies gave up forty five runs, sixty three hits, and thirteen home runs in a simple three game series against not the last place team in the NL Central. Sorry, I know that comeback was wonderful on Friday Night. I'd take anything away from them, and yeah, they were able to win the series, take two out of three from the Pirates, but that was the last place team. They're playing the first place Toronto Blue Jays. And the fact that Colorado had given up forty five runs in those three games, it's actually the most since twenty nineteen when the Cubs scored forty seven runs against coincidentally, were not so much those same Pittsburgh Pirates. So I don't think there's any way that Colorado has that same kind of a series again because back to back almost record breaking performances in three game sets.
00:11:15
Speaker 1: No way, no way.
00:11:17
Speaker 2: But let's look at the whole homestand in general, where the Rockies gave up sixteen runs last Friday in that crazy comeback win. Incredible. Well that was that totaled up with I want to say five runs on Saturday, and maybe it was eight or nine on Sunday. It was seventy five total runs over six games. Again, if you follow me on social media, you've already seen this. But those seventy five runs that the Rockies had allowed during the homestand was the most in any six game stretch in franchise history. Incredible. And then I also had to look to see historically where that was and I believe it was tied for fourteenth most over any team's six, you know, six consecutive game games, and then the twenty one home runs that they had allowed most and Rocky's franchise history was tied for something like twenty first most in any six game set. Crazy, So they just have to be better than that, right, They've got to be. But here's the thing. We're talking about a club that lost two of their best relievers at the trade deadline in Jake Byrd and Tyler Kinley. You've got Herman and Marquez who went down from the rotation. That's how you get Anthony Molina and now the closer Seth Halverson might be gone for the rest of the season. I would wager that he'll be out for the entire year. I know there's some hope that maybe he could return, but once we get down to the final two even three weeks of the year, there's gonna be zero point to put him back on the mound. So I just don't see that happening. That's four critical pictures for a club that just doesn't have the depth in the upper miners. But like we thought, like I thought, I thought the depth was better and in some ways it, you know, it is as good as a lot of us had thought.
00:12:56
Speaker 1: I mean, look at Warming, Burne, Beelt, look at Braxton Fulford.
00:12:59
Speaker 2: These were not top thirty guys, but they were players who were almost begrudgingly given opportunities. They did their job in tripa A, but the door was closed to them. And once Warren Shaffer started to listen for those knocks, hey, the future looked a little bit brighter. We still don't know what the future of Warming Bernabel is going to be or Braxton Fulford, but if you can get every day regulars out of two players like that in your system, that's a good thing.
00:13:25
Speaker 1: That's a good thing.
00:13:26
Speaker 2: When Shaeffer took over, basically had enough for the veteran in Jacob Stallings, so Fulford got the opportunity, McMahon got traded.
00:13:33
Speaker 1: That opened the door for Bernabel.
00:13:35
Speaker 2: Kind of, they say, kind of, because Bernabel's not playing McMahon's position. He's reaping the benefits really of totally's demise and doing what he needs to do, what Bernabel needs to do in order to continue to get that playing time. Duken Darnell might be viewed by some of the org as a body, but he's gonna battle. He's gonna stay a big leaguer and try to put together a respectable big league career, and he very well could do that.
00:13:58
Speaker 1: He very well should do that.
00:14:01
Speaker 2: Now, some of the folks in the front office is they're saying for Colorado that you know, some of these guys just aren't ready, and I honestly don't know if they are or not. Many probably aren't ready. The ones that we were told to have the highest ceilings are the ones that you know are not getting those opportunities despite the fact that they're supposed to have the highest ceilings. And these guys that are the afterthoughts, like the Darnell's and the Fulfords and the Burnabells, they're the ones that are given this ceremonial opportunity since they're homegrown guys like I think Brian Castillo very well could be as I mentioned earlier in the show. But you know what, those guys are making the most of these ceremonial opportunities. They absolutely are, and I think that's fantastic. And I don't know how much that means for.
00:14:48
Speaker 1: The future of this franchise, but.
00:14:52
Speaker 2: I think if you know, you give some of these young players a chance, maybe you get something, maybe you have a lightning and a bottle. Red Doyle was not a wasn't he was, I think, on a fringy top ten prospect when he finally debuted in twenty twenty three. And while he struggled at the plate offensively, you look at what he was able to do at defense and you go, wait a minute, there's something here, And then you look at what he did in twenty twenty four. I mean Trevor's story was similar to that too. I mean he was on the fringes of being like the top five. He was somewhere within the top ten for the Rockies, but he wasn't this huge prospect. He's given an opportunity, earns the opportunity, and he makes the most of it, and just like that, the tides turn for a guy. So I think Colorado is definitely more willing. And in fact, Marin Schaeffer said that to me point blank when I asked him last weekend about these guys, And yes, the Rockies need to listen for those players who want those opportunities and are knocking. They might not be kicking the door down like Ryan Ritter was when he finally got that opportunity and did it really only happen because Tovar got hurt? I mean kind of, But it shouldn't take that kind of banging on a door to get an opportunity. When you're a franchise that has nothing to lose and is constantly losing, you have to look for those opportunities rather than trying to win games, singular games with veteran players. It's just not working. And the Rocket has been doing that for a very long time and it's starting to change. Schaeffer has definitely started that change. He's brought about that process and that's been a positive that's been welcomed.
00:16:28
Speaker 1: All Right.
00:16:29
Speaker 2: The probable starters for this weekend, very hot weekend. I think it's going to be one to twelve on Friday. Oh my god, is that is crazy. I know it's summertime, but it's just not inhabitable, right, How can you live like that? I mean, shoot, it's great the other you know, four or five months of the year, but I don't know, man, when that sun hits the pavement. I've been there in October and it feels like I shouldn't be outside, like I'm on another planet and I might die at any second. I just don't trust it.
00:17:02
Speaker 1: It's wild.
00:17:02
Speaker 2: So Friday seven late start Austin Gomber against Zach Gallen.
00:17:08
Speaker 1: You like that matchup.
00:17:09
Speaker 2: Despite both guys being far from their best. You could argue that Gomber has been closer to his best than Zach Gallon. Gomber six one eight year a not good. But Zach Gallon, the guy who's a perennial cy Young candidate right five four eight in his free agent season two. I think the reason why Arizona did not trade him because the offers were not as good as what they more likely than not will get back as a compensation pick when they give him a qualifying offer. Whatever that number is, twenty two million dollars, you can pay him twenty two million dollars with a greater than five year eight. Yeah, because it's Zach Gallon, he'll he'll figure it out.
00:17:48
Speaker 1: It's only one year.
00:17:49
Speaker 2: There's no such thing as a bad one year deal, and for a guy that's been such a stalwart in that rotation, it's worth it. So we'll see if Gallen returns, takes that contract for one year, or if he goes down in a free agency and hey, you know what, Diamondbacks are able to get a compensation pick, maybe even they lock them up. Maybe they can get someone of the long term deal. We'll see Saturday six ten. A little bit earlier, you got Bradley Blaylock against Eduardo Rodriguez, and then on Sunday two ten, a later day game on Sunday to be determined against Brandon Fought. Is this where we finally get Chase Dolander to get a start. Is it going to be somebody else? Remains to be seen Right now. The Rockies are really just trying to find bodies to give opportunities to.
00:18:38
Speaker 1: We'll see Diamondbacks.
00:18:40
Speaker 2: They have lost two in a row entering this series, three and seven over their last ten, and yet they'll have three of their best on the mound this weekend. They haven't really played great at home or on the road, better at home, but by like one game twenty seven and thirty at Chase, you'll get a chance to see some of the players that they acquired at the trade deadline, most notably first baseman Tyler Lockler, second round pick by the Mariners in twenty twenty two, was putting up a monster season in TRIPLELA before Seattle dealt him for a third basement Euhenio Suarez, and then Andrew Hoffman, who came over from Kansas City. In that Randall Gritchick trade a simple one for one six years of team control over Andrew Hoffman for two months of Randall Ritchick. Hoffman is not a world beater, but guess what, he's a solid right handed reliever with upside. Nicely done by GM Mike Haysen to get something for what would have been nothing very very soon. You have to do that with expiring assets. And then finally, there's also two other ex Rockies. I don't know if you noticed the roster, if you've taken a look, this is just a flurry of deals. I feel like every three days there's another player that I hear and does such and such for the Rangers, and I think, wait, did I know that that that guy had gotten traded over there? I just I didn't recall that deal like Willie Castro. I keep forgetting that. Oh yeah, I know he got traded for the deadline like on the earlier side, But oh right, it's the Cubs.
00:20:19
Speaker 1: I keep forgetting that.
00:20:21
Speaker 2: But two ex Rockies going to be down in the desert playing against the Rockies. One actually did suit up for Colorado three games Connor Kaiser, and the other one did not. He was at camp this spring and triggered an option, saying, Hey, you have to put me on the forty men, I'll go play elsewhere. Jake Woodford in the Diamondbacks bullpen. Check out the Rockies Insider newsletter. It's a real special one. I think you're gonna like it totally free. Check that out of Patrick D Lions dot substack dot com at Patrick D Lions, at Patrick D Lions MLB and all those social media platforms. Rocky's Insider as well over on YouTube. Appreciate you dropping by and giving me some stupendous moment but fortunately that momentum can only be as good as my next
00:21:03
Speaker 1: Show, So of course I'll talk to you tomorrow.