For a guy that’s really only had one season where he was much better than average and that was 5 years ago.

I’d forgotten about Being There….have to search it down, is somewhere in the house, that was great music.

Being There

It can’t possibly be better than Yankee Hotel or Ghost, can it?

but he’s kind of gone downhill since then, I saw the Met’s production of Dr. Atomic (which Sellars directed and wrote the libretto too) last week (on PBS) and was disappointed, particularly by the tired stereotype of a Native American wise-woman in a 19th-century Buffalo Bill costume warning of the moral cost of building an A-bomb. Oh wait, you’re talking about the other one.., Sellers with an “e”. Yeah, Being There was great, I also like The Party for some of his best slapstick despite playing another unfortunate ethnic stereotype.

At any rate, Marquis doesn’t block anybody or at least not for long enough that it will make much of a difference. Smith’s not likely to be much, if at all, better as a starter, although he does also hit pretty well. De La Rosa will likely beat the rest of the competition for one starter slot along with Marquis for the other one, leaving Jason Hirsh, Greg Reynolds and Morales in AAA with Smith seemingly poised for a move to the bullpen. The thing is though, if any of that group are showing skills much beyond a fifth starter caliber, they will bump Marquis on to another destination.

The Rockies got Marquis to provide a stable baseline of performance at the bottom of their rotation, and for depth. Because Reynolds, Hirsh and Morales weren’t as ready as the Rockies thought in 2008, the team wound up having to go to Mark Redman and Livan Hernandez for 17 starts. Marquis isn’t great, but is he better than those two? I’d say so. In fact, there hasn’t been a better fifth starter in the NL over the last two seasons, regardless of the fact that the Cubs originally signed him to be more than that. Is he worth the $5 million premium on the Rockies prior salary level? Probably not, but not having to live through more of the torture we had to witness at the bottom of our rotation last season makes it feel like it’s almost worth it to me. Moving to Coors Field from Wrigley is only a slight downgrade for pitchers who let a lot of balls put into play, and is actually an improvement in conditions when it comes to giving up HR’s. Marquis’ GB rates were 16th best among qualified starters in the NL last season, 26th best in the majors, I think that still qualifies at least as something “resembling a groundball pitcher”.

Finally, as for his hitting, while he’s only a half win above an average pitcher, he represents almost a full win over an average Rockies pitcher in 2008, and a lineup projection with him gives the Rockies a little over 5.25 runs in his starts, compared to 4.95 were he to hit like our pitchers did last season. That’s a pretty important add-on for a player that figures on giving up somewhere around that location on the other side of things.

I understand where you are coming from. In the AL East or any other American League team, adding Marquis couldn’t really be construed as a positive, but in the NL West, where rotations are top heavy and lack depth, specifically Colorado, where free agent pitchers will only sign as a last resort, we take our upgrades where we can find them. Marquis figures to be a mediocrity at the bottom of the Rockies rotation, but mediocrity is all that’s required in this division.