Bob Ryan discusses Theo Epstein's departure
De La Rosa Down
The Colorado Rockies’ Jorge De La Rosa is the latest to join the baseball infirmary, as he is likely headed for the operating table for Tommy John surgery after tearing the ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching elbow.
May 26th, 2011
The injury bug has been one of the biggest storylines of the Major League Baseball season roughly one third of the way through. It has rampaged through clubhouses and dugouts mercilessly in April and May, leaving question marks and crushed hopes in its wake and landing marquee players like Joe Mauer, Chase Utley and David Wright on the disabled list. It has hit pitchers particularly hard, as guys like the Cardinals’ Adam Wainwright, the Phillies’ Brad Lidge and the Mets’ Johan Santana have all joined the 60+-day DL, with Wainwright out for the year as he recovers from the dreaded Tommy John surgery.
The Colorado Rockies’ Jorge De La Rosa is the latest to join the baseball infirmary, as the left-hander completely tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching elbow in a 12-4 win against the Diamondbacks Monday, a game which he was pulled from early. He is likely headed for the same fate as Wainwright—the operating table for Tommy John surgery—which means he’ll be out for the rest of the season at least.
You may not have heard of De La Rosa, as he hasn’t yet received the same kind of widespread name recognition like his teammate Ubaldo Jimenez, who had a breakout 2010 season in which he went 19-8 and started the All-Star Game for the National League.
But he had significant potential to bolster the Rockies’ pitching rotation for 2011 and had already been proving his worth in the first couple months of the season, going 5-2 with a 3.34 ERA, the best of any of his counterparts in Colorado’s starting five. He was the ace of the Rockies’ staff thus far given Jimenez’s early struggles that he has yet to fully shake off and the team’s only left hander aside from reliever Matt Reynolds.
If you look solely at his numbers, you probably won’t be blown away be De La Rosa, a thirty-year-old who made his Major League debut in 2004 with the Milwaukee Brewers and has not posted an ERA lower than 4.00 so far in his career.
But since coming to the Rockies in 2008 and securing a spot in the starting rotation, De La Rosa’s numbers have gotten consistently better. With at least twenty games started each year since then, his ERA has gone down from 4.92 to 4.22. 2009 was arguably the best year of his career, as he went 16-9 with an ERA of 4.38 and close to 200 strikeouts in 185 innings pitched. Although he missed much of the beginning of 2010 due to an injury to his left middle finger, he still continued to post decent numbers with an 8-7 record, the afore-mentioned 4.22 ERA and an average of 8.4 strikeouts per nine innings pitched. It was enough for the Rockies’ brass to sign De La Rosa to a contract extension this offseason of two years and $21.5 million with an option for a third year.
At this juncture it looks like right-handed reliever Greg Reynolds (0-1, 2.77 ERA) will take De La Rosa's place in the rotation, but really there is no replacing his presence given his success and promise for the rest of 2011. It puts even more pressure on Ubaldo to settle down and return to his ace-like form of last season, as well as turns up the heat for the young Jhoulys Chacin (5-3, 3.09 ERA) to continue pitching decently since he is now (on paper, based on 2011 to date) the best starter on the mound for the Rockies. Colorado's rotation will likely consist of Jimenez, Chacin, Jason Hammel, Clay Mortenson and the afore-mentioned Reynolds. Aaron Cook (fractured finger) is due to return from the 60-day disabled list soon and could therefore be in the mix for a starting spot. His stats from last year, however, (6-8, 5.08 ERA) could make the team hesitant to plug him back in such a significant role, at least right away.
The Rockies will have to hope that Reynolds and anyone else who they throw into the rotation will be able to plug the gaping hole left by De La Rosa’s injury. They can look to the St. Louis Cardinals as an optimistic model for how things could turn out; despite losing Wainwright and having Albert Pujols still mired in a slump at the plate (a la the Rockies with Troy Tulowitzki as of late), they are 30-21 and sit atop the NL Central.
It’s only May, and Colorado has a penchant for late-season surges (the 2007 NL Champion team). If they can stay afloat in their division (which shouldn’t be too much to ask, given the Dodgers’ tumultuous ownership situation, the fight for cellar-dweller between the Diamondbacks and Padres and the Giants’ loss of their best everyday player in Buster Posey), they can fill De La Rosa’s position with an outside acquisition before the trade deadline if need be.
The loss of De La Rosa certainly stings, but it’s not a devastating, season-crushing blow by any means. But now more than ever, the Rockies will need to lean on their trio of Tulo, CarGo and Ubaldo and hope that everything else falls into place as the marathon that is the baseball season continues.
Written by: Julia Reis
Julia Reis is the National League West columnist for Chalk Them Up and the co-managing editor for University of California Santa Cruz's campus newspaper City on a Hill Press. Prior to that she wrote and edited for City on a Hill's sports desk for one year, during which time she won first place at the California Collegiate Media Association's 2010 Mark of Excellence Awards in the categories of best sports column and best sports story for the weekly newspaper division. She has held internships with KPIX sports and KNBR in San Francisco as well as with the online newspaper San Francisco Appeal. She plans to graduate in March 2012 with a bachelor's degree in modern literature.
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