The bullpen revolving door keeps on swingin'

Before yesterday's game, Ryan Speier got sent down to AAA, Denny Bautista called up in his place (in time to get the win yesterday, by the way.)  After the game, Bobby Keppel became just the latest victim, getting DFA'ed just eight days after getting the call from AAA (as did Speier, for that matter.)  In his place steps Alberto Arias, whose next major league appearance will be his first.

Assuming Arias actually pitches for the Rockies in what's likely to be a brief stint in the majors, what with BK, Rodrigo, and Ramirez all eligible to come off the DL this week, he'll become the nineteenth pitcher to make an appearance for the Rockies this season.  If that sounds like a lot, well, consider that the Rockies used 24 pitchers all last season -- and that's including September callups Hampson, Field, Jimenez, Bautista, Morillo, and Venafro; throw those out and the Rockies used 18 pitchers all last year.

With four pitchers on the DL, some of this is obviously due to injuries, which wasn't really a problem last season.  BK Kim missed the first few weeks of the season, and Mike DeJean missed virtually the entire season, but that was it.  About the only thing you can blame on "injuries" last season (pitching-wise) was the utter horror of seeing Zach Day in a Rockies uniform.  Then there was the problem of the Rockies abusing Matt Herges for a week, which forced them to make a move with him after only two games, and then Keppel and Speier having double-digit ERAs.  (Zach McClellan, though, has been fine in seven innings despite opponents hitting .333 against him.  That's a bit of a surprise.)

So now, it's Bautista and (probably briefly) Arias time.  Bautista was one of the best pitching prospects in baseball back in 2003, when the Marlins traded him to the Orioles.  Then it was discovered that he was actually two years older than he said he was (don't you just hate when that happens?)  The Rockies are already his fourth team, and he's just 26.  It's still too early in his career to affix the "Quad-A" label to him, but he's spent parts of the last three seasons in the majors and still hasn't stuck, with a career 6.48 ERA there despite a 3.84 ERA in the minors.  The book on him is pretty simple: straight high-90s fastball with little control.  Maybe this time he'll actually stick, I don't know.  Like I said earlier, he did manage to get a win yesterday.

I really don't have anything on Arias.  He didn't even make it in John Sickels' prospect handbook this season.  What I do know is that he's 23 years old and has spent the last two seasons as a "swingman" type at Modesto and then Tulsa.  He has pretty decent control and doesn't strike out a lot of batters.  He may not even see any action, with Ramon Ramirez due to come off the DL on Thursday.  In other words, this seems like one of those "we're required by MLB rules to have 25 guys on the roster" kind of moves.  It also might be a move on the part of O'Dowd to prevent Hurdle from using Keppel and his 11.25 ERA, I guess.  Anyways, like I said earlier, Arias probably won't be around for long, but while he's here he'll be wearing #44.

Back to my note earlier about Arias being pitcher #19 for the Rockies this season... how is it that we've already seen 19 pitchers and yet only fourteen position players have made an appearance?  Other than putting Kaz on the DL, the Rockies haven't made a single move involving a position player, while they've made seven involving pitchers.  Sure, outside of Corpas, Affeldt, Ramirez before he got hurt, and Fuentes (to a lesser extent), nobody in the bullpen has been very good, but the offense hasn't been good either.  Of course, most of the AAA hitters aren't off to a hot start, either.  Geez... it seems like such a long season already, and it's only April.