TUCSON — The Rockies’ inability to make it through the first week of games without pitching injuries underscores the importance and fragile nature of their rotation.
There are 22 days until the season opener, a date more anticipated than any other since 1993. Hope is a memory. This team expects to win the National League West. With anything less than a playoff berth a disappointment, the starters are both encouraging and worrisome.
The talent is decent — breathtaking if Franklin Morales breaks camp — but lacks predictability. The variance in performance is remarkably high beyond Jeff Francis. The staff ace will win between 14 and 20 games. Always has. Always does. Will have to.
That’s because Aaron Cook has never won 10 games. After dropping 15 pounds this winter, he has taken on a leadership role this spring. But he must put together a full season of brilliance to prove he’s not overpaid and miscast.
Ubaldo Jimenez posted four scoreless innings Saturday, conjuring up memories of his September diary of havoc. Jimenez is effectively wild. Teams will exercise patience against him, which makes his goal of working deeper into games more challenging. Jimenez could win eight games or 18. He’s that good — and that green.
Inconsistency from the top three spots would place more pressure on the final two starters. As it stands, the back of the rotation is Jell-O chilling in the refrigerator. You can see the potential, but it hasn’t settled.
Manager Clint Hurdle correctly pointed out last season that a team must be adequate from its final two slots to thrive. In games started by Josh Fogg, Jason Hirsh and Morales last season, the Rockies went 32-25.
They could exceed that this season if Morales blossoms. He’s a rookie of the year candidate waiting to happen, the Rockies’ version of Francisco Liriano. But he’s 22 and still struggling to repeat his delivery. If he regresses — and he wouldn’t be the first young pitcher to do so — the burden increases on three pitchers (Josh Towers, Kip Wells and Mark Redman) who went a combined 14-31 last season.
These aren’t your same old Rockies. They can’t just fill out their rotation. They need performance, which in the second week of March is a proposition both intriguing and unsettling.
La Russa takes shot at Rox.
The Rockies’ opener at St. Louis on March 31 could feature a tinge of animosity. Cardinals manager Tony La Russa took a veiled shot at Dan O’Dowd for what he believed was the general manager’s stance on the Mitchell report.
It was incorrectly relayed to La Russa that O’Dowd would not sign or acquire any player connected to Mitchell’s investigation. That prompted La Russa to say, “Are you telling me those people truly believe they have no one within their organization who may be involved? I have a real hard time with that one.”
O’Dowd explained his position to The Post on Saturday.
“I never said we wouldn’t sign a player or acquire someone mentioned (in Mitchell report). What I said was that if we were aware of a player’s past use based on facts (in the report) and that player took no accountability for his actions, then we wouldn’t have interest in them at this time,” O’Dowd said.
Reliever Matt Herges and coach Glenallen Hill, the only two active Rockies linked to the Mitchell report, admitted taking performance-enhancing drugs and issued apologies.
Footnotes.
Fowler’s Luke Hochevar has been impressive in Royals camp as he bids for a rotation spot. “He has aptitude and competitiveness. That’s a great combination,” Kansas City pitching coach Bob McClure said. . . . Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez offered to buy iPods for all players as a way to reduce the noise of clubhouse music.
