SURPRISE, Ariz.
— No surprise in Surprise. Alec Zumwalt did not pitch on the Ides of March.
Zumwalt is not somewhat in the Rockies’ plans to be the fourth or fifth starter this year.
But, unlike the four who are, Zumwalt didn’t have a defective outing this week. He never took the mound, so he gave up 38 fewer hits and 27 fewer runs than Kip Wells, Franklin Morales, Mark Redman and Josh Towers combined.
On Wednesday, Wells was touched for nine hits and five runs in five innings. The Rockies lost.
On Friday, Morales was torched for 10 hits and nine runs in 2 2/3 innings. The Rockies lost.
On Saturday, Redman was thumped for 11 hits and seven runs in 4 2/3 innings.
Later in the game against Texas on Saturday, Towers was thwacked for three hits and three runs in three innings. The Rockies lost. Beware March 15.
Panic, though, has not set in, in the manager’s eyes, voice or mind.
Clint Hurdle doesn’t seem disappointed or frustrated.
“Neither. I have no control over the situation. They get the ball. They pitch. We know what they can do. They’re all trying. You have to keep it in context.”
What? Him worry?
“Spring training is what it is.”
In just over two weeks, what it is will be the regular season. By then, Hurdle will have to choose.
And the four candidates for two spots at the bottom of the rotation currently are in a dead heat on a merry-go- round.
After four starts for all, and with two starts left for each, Redman has a 9.24 earned-run average, Towers a 7.20 ERA, and Morales is at 5.40 and Wells 5.14.
It didn’t have to be this way with these guys. Josh Fogg, who was a serviceable 10-9 last season and would occasionally slay dragons, wound up in Cincinnati — primarily because the Rockies didn’t make a firm offer, and his agent played a fool’s game. And Jason Hirsh, who fractured his right fibula last August, now has a strained shoulder and likely won’t be a factor when the season opens, Hurdle said Saturday. “It would be tough for him to pull it off.”
The Rockies won’t need five starters the first turn of the screw, but will need No. 5 on April 9 against Atlanta.
What? Us worry about the fourth and fifth starters? Well, there’s not many questions this deliriously happy spring training for the Rockies?
Who will be the second baseman?
Who will be the fourth and fifth starters?
Who is Alec Zumwalt?
I can answer No. 3. Zumwalt was signed out of a Kingman, Ariz., high school by the Braves in 1999 — as an outfielder. He became a pitcher in 2003 and has compiled a disappointing and frustrating 14-19 record in the minors before joining the Rockies this spring. I bring up Zumwalt only because he was listed as one of five available Rockies pitchers on Saturday in Surprise, and nobody had ever heard of him.
The second-base topic is for another day.
So we’ve got the fourth and five starters, which, Hurdle says, is more a press issue than a pressing issue.
Each of the nominees is flawed, and I’m not talking politics.
Wells lost 17 games with St. Louis last year. He is agonizingly slow at work, Armando Reynoso deliberate — as if he’s being paid by the hour — which makes fielders’ minds wander. And he has walked a Rockies-high seven hitters in 14 innings.
Redman we saw at the end of last year, and the former all-star was an adequate grab out of the recycle bin. The 14-year veteran left-hander isn’t too thrilled with his roller-coaster spring. “It’s frustrating, but . . .” and he began to explain release points and such. “I’m not an overpowering pitcher, so I’ve got to have my control and keep the ball down.” He served a buffet to the Rangers on Saturday.
Morales is like the little boy with the curl. The kid will excite you, then incite you.
Towers is intriguing. But after winning 13 in 2005 with Toronto, he has only seven victories in 20 decisions lately.
“They’ve been inconsistent,” Hurdle said. “We’ve got to find two of the four to go with our three” — Jeff Francis, Aaron Cook and Ubaldo Jimenez.
There have been bigger mysteries in previous camps. The Rockies didn’t have a solid 4 or a fab 5 or a 1 or a 2 or even a nice 3.
Zumwalt would have been an improvement over some of those kumquats.
Perhaps these four aspirants, or half-aspirants, don’t feel sufficient pressure yet, and they certainly don’t understand damage control yet.
My belief is the Rockies will end up in April with Wells and Towers in the rotation, Redman in the bullpen and Morales in Colorado Springs.
But we’ll always have Surprise.
Woody Paige: 303-954-1095 or wpaige@denverpost.com
