I am starting to notice a trend in Colorado Rockies SS Troy Tulowitzki’s career.
In his rookie year of 2007, Tulowitzki went through the season healthy and the Rockies made the playoffs. In 2008, Tulowitzki went through an injury-plagued season (played in only 101 games) and the Rockies missed the playoffs. Last year, Tulowitzki stayed healthy, had an MVP season, and the Rockies made the playoffs.
Now in 2010, it looks like Tulowitzki is suffering through another injury-plagued season. Will the Rockies make the playoffs? We will just have to wait and see, but not having Tulowitzki in the lineup certainly won’t help the situation.
It was revealed over the weekend that “Tulo” will miss six to eight weeks because of a broken left wrist. Tulo broke his wrist when it was hit by a fastball from Minnesota Twins’ pitcher Alex Burnett in the eighth inning of Thursday’s game.
Obviously, this is a huge blow to the Rockies.
Not only is Tulowitzki having a great season, but he is also the heart and soul of the Rockies’ team. Tulowitzki was hitting .306/.375/.502 with nine home runs, 17 doubles, and two SB’s in 62 games.
The Rockies went into Sunday’s game just three games behind the first place San Diego Padres in the NL West, so it will be up to guys like Brad Hawpe, Carlos Gonzalez and Ian Stewart to keep the Rockies’ offense afloat until their leader comes back. So the question now is, what do the Rockies do at SS until Tulowitzki comes back?
For starters, they have a couple of internal options. Clint Barmes will move over to SS for a majority of the starts, I assume, until Tulowitzki comes back. In this case, Melvin Mora or Jonathan Herrera will play second. Another second base option is Eric Young Jr., who is still some weeks away from returning.
The second internal option they have is SS Chris Nelson. Nelson was hitting .311/.384/.508 with five home runs in Triple-A. Nelson was the Rockies’ first round pick (ninth overall) in the 2004 Draft.
In the days that Nelson is playing short, the Rockies can move Barmes back to second. The Rockies certainly have their options internally, but what about outside the organization? The Rockies have some options there as well.
Colorado could look into a free agent like Adam Everett, or they could look to make a trade. Shortstops or second basemen that could be available are Ryan Theriot, Cesar Izturis, Adam Kennedy and Ty Wigginton.
I think Wigginton would be a good fit in Colorado. While he is not the best defensive second baseman in the planet (-3.6 UZR), his bat should make up for any defensive deficiencies he might have.
You can follow The Ghost of Moonlight Graham on Twitter @ theghostofmlg
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com