An All-Star Summer
July 1st, 2017
W - 40 / L - 35 / 3 Game Lead
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The Rockies say goodbye to Rosario
It was a good month of June for the Colorado Rockies but also a sad one as they said goodbye to Catcher Wilin Rosario. Rosario came up through the Rockies farm system and had a great couple of years for the Rockies after he got his first big contract. While he was starting to pick it up at the plate it was his play behind the plate that actually earned him an all start selection this summer throwing out nearly 50% of baserunners which is incredible. In all reality though his contract was due to run out after this year and the Rockies would not be able to afford to extend him at his $8,000,000 per year current price. We will go into the details of the trade soon but first looking at the month for the Rockies they compiled a 14-8 record to jump out in front of the San Francisco Giants in the division behind good offensive production and some slightly improved pitching. The Rockies also made another surprise move this month with the details of their roster moves this month.
On the 13th of the month the Rockies made 2 trades, the first came as quite a surprise as the Rockies traded star pitcher Ryan Verdugo who was at the beginning of the season ranked as one of the top 20 pitchers in the major leagues but has since fallen out of that due to a rough year. At the time of the trade he was 2-6 with a 6.25 ERA and some experts feel that his low groundball percentage is what really made things hard for him in Colorado. He was traded to the Miami Marlins along with 27 year old LF Kyle Parker who has been a bench player for the Rockies for a couple of years now. In return the Rockies got a good young LF in 24 year old Glenn MacKie. Mackie in 21 games with Miami had hit .318/.388/.591 with 2 HR and 7 RBI. Also coming over in the trade was 24 year old minor league 3B Gioskar Amaya who could provide depth for the Rockies in coming years. He hit .257/.314/.402 with 7 HR and 29 RBI in AAA for Miami this year.
Also on the same day was when the Rockies traded Wilin Rosario and 22 year old minor league SP Connor Jones to the Pittsburgh Pirates. Jones was a 12th round pick for the Rockies and was 2-4 with a 3.80 in high A Modesto for the Rockies organization. In return the Rockies 24 year old minor league LF Yasukazu Tsuchiya who was the #62 ranked prospect in MLB circles and hit .300/.390/.510 with 5 HR and 14 RBI in 26 games for the Pirates organization. There have been whispers this year around the league that the Rockies may not resign LF Carlos Gonzalez due to his high price combined with his recent injury history as he has spent almost a full 1 1/2 seasons on the DL recently.
In combination with these moves we saw one of the Rockies recently acquired top prospects, C Stryker Trahan make his Major League debut. While Trahan is obviously going to take time to adjust as noted by his early .226 average he has shown promise. In the 12 games he has played in he has hit 3 HR and knocked in 14 runs including an 8 RBI game last week in which he hit a 2 run home run as well as a grand slam. As for Ryan Verdugo being traded the Rockies were expected to promote top prospect and #13 overall prospect Bryant Reed who is 10-3 with a 3.53 ERA in AAA but instead they stated they wanted to give him a little bit more time to work on his control. Instead they promoted Wilmer Font who was claimed off waivers in the offseason from the Texas Rangers. Font has started just one game so far giving up 2 runs in 7.1 innings and getting the win.
Top Team Performances
MLB Hitter - 2B Marco Hernandez - .447/.510/.682 2 HR 10 RBI 16 RS
MLB Pitcher - RP Jose Suarez - 12.0 IP 0.75 ERA 0.75 WHIP
AAA Hitter - C Matt McBride - .316/.349/.520 4 HR 13 RBI
AAA Pitcher - RP Seth Willoughby - 12.1 IP 0.73 ERA 0.65 WHIP
AA Hitter - RF Carl Thomore - .287/.387/.525 4 HR 18 RBI
AA Pitcher - SP Andrew Mitchell - 2-1 1.89 ERA 1.50 WHIP