Colorado Rockies set position players and starting rotation

On Sunday morning, the Colorado Rockies announced the following position players will break camp with the team:

Additionally, the rotation is set as such:

The most interesting note was that RHP Chase Dollander will begin the season with the Rockies, but he will start off in the bullpen.

On Feltner, Schaeffer had this to say:

“Looking at this spring is a part of it. When Feltner did get ahead, he was our best pitcher in camp [while] ahead. It was just a matter of getting him there, and there’s been a commitment to that. We also liked Feltner’s track record of success in the big leagues.”

Schaeffer explained the Rockies thinking in moving Dollander to the bullpen:

“We want Chase to develop at the big-league level, too, and feel like facing big-league hitters on a consistent basis is going to lead to his development better than it would in Triple-A at this point.”

That said, they don’t necessarily see Dollander in the bullpen as long-term.

“We see Chase Dollander as an eventual frontline rotation guy,” Schaeffer continued. “The path there right now – the best path for him in our minds – is to be a length guy in the bullpen. That’s where we’re going to start the season. We’re going to evaluate and move forward as we go, but we believe we’ve got something really good with Feltner as the fifth guy and Dollander in the bullpen.”

Here’s what Schaeffer had to say about the other moves:

Brett Sullivan over Braxton Fulford

“Brett Sullivan had a very, very good camp. He swings left-handed, and swung the bat well, but also just the overall game with the interactions with the pitchers plus the offensive camp led to go with Sullivan.”

He noted that Fulford had a good camp as well but felt it would be best for him to get daily at-bats in Albuquerque.

Additionally, Schaeffer said that Sullivan will not see a lot of DH at-bats as a left-hander.

“It’s really hard to roll with two catchers in the game at one time, and we’re going to do it a lot with ‘Goody’ DH-ing, so to do it the other way around doesn’t make much sense for us.”

“The overall quality of his at-bats on a consistent regular basis showed us who he is and lined up with what he’s done in the past in Triple-A for the Yankees. But seeing it on an everyday basis was impressive. The way he controls the zone, the way he gets a swing off, the damage he can do, the walks he can take… just on a consistent basis, the quality of the at-bats. And he played well defensively, and I think just his overall game – he’s a high-level player.”

“It was obvious [that he was ready]. Then the wherewithal that we all have that he has not had a ton of minor league seasoning. That was talked to him about before camp started, and that this wasn’t a lock for him. He had to go do his thing. We were going to watch him, and it became blatantly obvious that he’s ready to play third base in the big leagues on both sides of the ball.”

“Expect all year for Willi to have a different role. His role is to play a lot – you saw him play first base. There’s definitely right-handed at-bats for him at first base. It’s great that he’s a utility player that can play everywhere and switch hit. I mean, you talk about value, that’s huge for our team. And that value wouldn’t mean anything if he wasn’t willing to do everything – like, legitimately willing to do everything – for the team. He’s a super guy, a team guy, and so you’re going to see him in a lot of different places. But Kyle Karros is here to play third base the majority [of the time], so I think it’s safe to say you’ll see a lot of second base out of Castro.”

“I loved his ability to come into camp and compete for a job, and add new things to it – which is not an easy thing to do at all – and be really good at it. He played left field at a high level, in my opinion, from first jumping out there and he’ll only get better. I’m really impressed with what ‘Ritt’ did. There was some really, really high competition there with him – Chad Stevens, really good player; Nicky Lopez, really good player. So for ‘Ritt’ to go win that battle was a big deal.”

“You’re going to see Eddie Julien against right-handers a lot. I like guys that get on base and he does it a lot. So there’s DH at-bats there, there’s second base, there’s some first base for him. So he’s going to be a big part of this team.”

On the general depth of the roster

“I like it. I hope that you see that. The splits are way better, versus right and versus left. Our team is going to be lined up with better matchups overall. We had to option some really good ballplayers today, and I feel for them because they all played really well. Honestly, there were a lot of position players in this camp that played well, so it made a lot of decisions difficult, but it does lend to our depth. I like our 13 guys plus I like the guys in Triple-A. I like what we’ve got. It seems to be a really good starting point for us. And they’re meshing as a team, and I’m excited to see what they’ve got.”

In addition to setting half of the roster, the Rockies also announced the following moves:

The Rockies made some expected and unexpected moves today. Which ones were the most surprising to you?

The bullpen will be announced tomorrow. Who do you think will make it?

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