Spilly & Willy (and Chris)

[BigRapidsJackass]

Everyone here knows I'm a big Spilborghs fan. But a lot of that was based on the perceived weakness of our other CF candidates, be it Willy T. or Cory Sullivan.

One good thing that's happened this year: Spilborghs just continues to get better.

'06: 768 OPS
'07: 848
'08: 919

Big change this year: increased BB rate. This year: 24 BB in 144 PA. Pitchers are being more careful with him (no doubt a function of his demonstarting that he can hurt them, as well as a function of the weak hitters around him in the batting order), and he's taking what they give him.

And I think we've seen enough of him to dub him as roughly average defensively in CF (and with a small sample, that's what the defensive stats seem to show), and somewhat above average in the corners.

All in all, he is a very fine player, and he needs to continue playing every day when Hawpe/Holliday return. He should be in CF against RH pitchers, and in RF (platooning with Hawpe) against LH pitchers. Hawpe has never really seen enough lefthanders for us to say definitively that he'll never hit them, but his platoon splits are pretty extreme. If Hurdle is ready to play for '09, then I guess there's something to be said for giving Hawpe exposure to every lefty. If we're trying to climb back to respectability right now, you've got to go with Spilly against lefties.

EDIT: How not to analyze the issue. Here's the RMN today (Ringolsby and Etkin both listed as writers):

They could send Seth Smith and Cory Sullivan back to the minor leagues, but both seem to fit well on the roster. Smith is an offensive threat and Sullivan is the best defensive outfielder on the team.

The other possibilities would be for the Rockies to see if there is a market for Willy Taveras and/or Scott Podsednik, with the idea Ryan Spilborghs and Sullivan could fill whatever playing time opens up in center field.

The problem is, Taveras and Podsednik are the only base-stealing threats on the Rockies roster.

Yeah, we're doing really great with all those anemic base-stealing threat nonproductive hitters! Don't change anything!!

Meanwhile: Willy needs to go back to the role he belongs in -- part-time outfielder, fine defensively (a typical late-inning shift would have him come in to play CF and Spilly move to RF), and a good pinch runner/pinch bunter to have around. We've also seen enough of him to know that he's not going to get better; in fact, I have a feeling that last year was a career year.

Likewise: Iannetta. 901 OPS this year. Career OPS: 753

Compare Yorvit's OPS during his years as a Rockie: 732, 699, 616

You used to be able to make a case for him as superior defensively, but I just can't see that that's true anymore. He may have a good rapport with a starter or two, but let's relegate him to his proper role: backup catcher. If Iannetta doesn't get at least 2/3 of the starts for the rest of the year, Hurdle deserves to be fired.

Actually, I'll go further than that: Hurdle tries hard to be a "player's manager." The one thing he did this year that shows that he's losing control of his team: he gave Iannetta that run of about 6 starts in a row, Yorvit complained, Hurdle and Yorvit had the old closed-door sit-down, and Yorvit emerged as the starting catcher again, complete with Hurdle comment to the press that "he's our starter." I think we all know what the Lou Piniella types would've said to him: "You start putting up a 900 OPS, I'll start playing you everyday."

A lot of us poke fun at the idea of a manager bringing "intangibles" to the team. There is nothing "intangible" about a decision to give a weaker player more playing time than a stronger player.

[rockieprogress]

If the Rockies are going to follow the tenet of developing their team via the draft, which needs a strong player evaluation/development focus amongst the coaching staff, then Hurdle is the wrong Manager for this organization.
He surrounds himself with coaches (Apodaca and Cockrell) that "tweek" veterans , and on a team like the Yankees that would be fine, but in the Rockies scheme of MLB we need the on-field coaching staff to have a working relationship with the younger players.

The answer isn't to send players down to, or keep them at, AAA because the team has identified "value" in someone like Glendon Rusch... The answer is to get the players brought up to show IMPROVEMENT.

Can anyone here honestly say they think Apodaca will get Corpas straightened out?
Or that the Rockies should've shown they correctly indentified that Ramirez had recovered from whatever mental/physical issue he had last year, so we don't send him out in a trade for de la Rosa, another substandard SP that we can put into the BP?

I don't care if the Rockies win the WS this year, Hurdle is the wrong Manager for this organization.

[TheIncredibleRox]

If Hawpe were hitting a little better (and he still certainly has a chance to get hot before the trade deadline), I'd say he's our best deadline bait. Spilly and Smith can cover those shifts quite well. Long-term, those are guys you want in CF as much as possible. But it ain't hard to find a good, cheap bat for RF (or at least a very good half of a platoon).

I think we've tossed it around before, but Hawpe for Ronny Cedeno and a prospect (the Cubs have some good live arms) would be an obvious choice.

Is there anyone who would take Torrealba? Someone has to be as dumb as we were to sign him.

[wolf213]

I think Willy is heading toward clubhouse cancer territory very quickly. Quote from this Article: The Official Site of The Colorado Rockies: News: Spilborghs might play more in center

"It's not a competition for me; that's not why they traded for me here -- it was to be the everyday leadoff and center fielder, and hopefully they still need it," said Taveras, who battled injury last season but finished with a .320 average,.382 slugging percentage and .367 on-base percentage, all career bests. "If the future is not here for me, it might be somewhere else.

and this

"It's happened to me before; I've been traded before. But I'm ready to do whatever they want. They want me to steal bases, and I want to be hitting better so I can steal the bases they want. I'm going to keep working hard. But I'm not going to compete for a job and just get numbers."

With a little reading between the lines, he thinks the Starting job should be his no matter what because thats what he was brought in to do, and if he's not starting he wants to be traded.

Its time for a little reality check... if .382 is your career high sluggin percentage, and in that same season your OBP was .367 (which is also a career high) at Coors field... your worthless. If you are a lead off hitter and you arn't getting on base above a .300 clip... your worthless.

Its time to dump this guy before he gets much worse and causes problems in the clubhouse... while your at it we can get rid of Yorvit too... he's been know to throw temper tantrums this season as well when he wasn't getting playing time.

[BigRapidsJackass]

I've got to say it: Willy and Yorvit are both problems now. Both of them seem to have a sense of entitlement to starting jobs. We all know what happened when Yorvit complained to Hurdle about Iannetta starting 5 games in a row: Yorvit was restored as the starter -- where he remained for about a month until his pathetic production finally caused Hurdle to go back to Iannetta again. Willy is now trying the same trick on Hurdle, only worse: he's taken it to the press.

Anyone else get the sense that Willy's base stealing attempts often seem more aimed at stat-padding than at actually helping the club? How about his 2-out steal of 3B a couple games ago with (I think) Helton at the plate. I'm sure the stat guys would tell us the risk of getting thrown out and ending the inning clearly exceeds the win probability added by having a very fast runner on 3B with 2 outs rather than a very fast runner on 2B with 2 outs.

I don't think Willy would bring much in a trade, but he does have value: excellent baserunner, covers a lot of territory in CF, superb bunter. In other words, an excellent role player for a good team. If he thinks he's going to start somewhere else, well, the Astros have already given him away, and they seem to be the only other team out there that thinks that base stealing ability alone (Bourn) earns you a full-time role.

As for IR's comment: I agree that Hawpe is an obvious candidate to be moved. Despite his recent success against lefties, I think we have to assume that he's always going to be best suited to a platoon role. And he is pretty poor defensively. Although his arm makes up for some of the weakness (maybe half), right now he rates as having the worst range in baseball in RF. So far I haven't seen much to like at the plate from Stewart, but you've got to assume that RF is probably his position of the future (unless Atkins is moved). If Willy stays and Hawpe goes -- and assuming Hurdle won't use Spilly full-time in CF -- you'd lose nothing offensively against lefties (Spilly in RF), you'd lose a lot offensively against righties (Seth Smith or Stewart or Spilly or someone else in RF), but you'd be significantly better defensively against both lefties and righties.

But I'd still like to see Willy go first ...

[BigRapidsJackass]

Spilborghs' potential puts others on bench - The Denver Post

Well, the lineup I've been waiting for for 2 years now is almost a reality.

Spilly
Tulo
Holliday
Helton
Atkins
Hawpe
Iannetta
Baker/Stewart/Herrera/Barmes
Pitcher

I don't even care what order they bat in. Let's hope everybody gets/stays healthy. With the warm summer months just starting, this lineup could produce a lot of fireworks.

[GerryInCS]

Here's is what is so sad about Saturday's game and Willy's 5 steals. He stole 3rd base three times and his teammates couldn't even bring him once. F-ing pathetic.