RADIO
Kev Mahserejian looks at super prospect Brendan Rodgers, who was recently called-up and could make a big impact for fantasy baseball owners in 2019.
The right side of the Rockies' infield is in a state of flux.
When the season began, the idea was for Daniel Murphy to play first base full-time while Ryan McMahon and Garrett Hampson fight it out at second. Since then, Garrett Hampson has been sent down, Daniel Murphy has gotten hurt/lost playing time to Mark Reynolds (lol), Pat Valaika's been called up, Pat Valaika's been sent down, and finally, Brendan Rodgers has been called up.
I am not going to jump up and scream, "Hallelujah! The Savior is here" because this situation is very fluid given the Rockies' history. They are not ones to be patient with their prospects and will send them down at basically the first sign of struggle. It makes absolutely no sense to be so fickle with young talent and essentially baby the rotting veterans *cough* IanDesmondMarkReynoldsDanielMurphyCarlosGonzalez *cough*.
Good News and Bad News
Rodgers is a high pedigree prospect who is very talented with the bat. If he can get his offense going in the first week or so, confidence levels should be high in him sticking around. Thus far, it has been a little rocky as he is just one-for-eight with one RBI and four strikeouts. Fortunately, it has only been two starts and they have not had an opportunity to play him in Coors yet.
Rodgers has now sat in back-to-back games in favor of Ryan McMahon (meh). However, if Daniel Murphy continues to struggle, who is to say that McMahon wouldn't slide to first while Rodgers takes over second. Like I said, a fluid situation that is very dependent on each of these batters play. It's stupid, but it's the Rockies, you should be accustomed to it by now.
Rodgers was MASHING in Triple-A prior to this call-up. He produced nine home runs and 10 doubles in 35 games while batting .356. Of course, this comes with the caveat that Triple-A is experimenting with new balls but it is still impressive nonetheless. It would not come as a shock to see him struggle in his early exposure to the majors as most young players do, so a level of understanding must be achieved by those who picked him up or have the opportunity to.
(Here he is just crushing a ball to straight-away center)
Rodgers is a must-own player while he is up. The upside is that he can take a stranglehold on the second base job and hold onto it throughout the year while playing half his games in Denver with a very solid lineup around him. The downside is him getting jerked around in and out of the lineup and getting sent down later. Ride it out and hope for the best.
