I don’t think it would be possible for anyone closely involved with a minor-league baseball club – be it a team employee, a season-ticket holder or, yes, a reporter in the press box – to not feel a connection with the players to some degree.

I knew I was watching something special as I watched Eric Young Jr. tear around the basepaths. So it’s fun to hear his new manager talk about him the way Jim Tracy did on Thursday. He talked about how speed kills, how Cincinnati bungled a play by trying to rush it because Young was racing down the line and how that started a game-changing rally.

Now I never hit a fungo in Young’s direction. I never helped set up his profile page in the media guide or even applauded one of his great plays. But I did talk with him on many occasions about his past, his future and about his unique abilities. I observed as he set team records and showed me the way blinding speed can change plays that change innings that change games.

I think I’ll continue observing as he tries to stick at the next level.

But Young wasn’t the only one who drew my interest.

I was legitimately happy for Mike McCoy when he was called up earlier this week. Here’s a guy whose career almost ended last year out of pure exhaustion as he and his wife struggled to care for newborn twins on a paltry salary while he endured the brutality of a minor-league schedule. Now McCoy is about to make somewhere in the neighborhood of $60,000 to live his dream for a month.

I didn’t get to know McCoy all that well, our conversations were mostly two- or three-minute talks about the game that just ended. I was usually on deadline and he was usually annoyed to talk to a small-town reporter. But I did see those little boys play in the clubhouse and on the field after games. I’m happy for McCoy that he’ll have the money to provide for that family and that for the rest of their lives those two little boys will be able to boast that their dad made it to the major leagues.

It was pretty cool to be around that.

It was also cool to see Carlos Gonzalez lay out his arsenal of skills one by one. First his speed, then his arm and finally his bat.

I reminded myself on a couple of occasions that his game might be elevated because of the elevation. But compared to everyone else playing on the same field he was simply different.

I talked with him about his frustration with being stuck in the minor leagues and how he couldn’t wait to get back up to prove that his failures a year ago in Oakland were not indicative of his talent.

So it’s been a treat to catch him on SportsCenter, watching him emerge as a star.

There were more personalities that I’ll remember, of course. Paul Phillips — before the frustrations of a late-season collapse — was gracious and very real, Joel Peralta was generous with his time and Matt Miller was just plain cool. Josh Fogg and Jason Hirsh were hilarious, Adam Eaton was delightfully strange and Alan Johnson seemed so afraid to fail. Brandon Hynick struck me as the kind of person who would be successful at anything, and because he chooses to play baseball I think he’ll find a way to make it work despite any perceived shortcomings in natural talent. Talking baseball with Sal Fasano reminded me of talking writing with my favorite professor at the University of Kansas in the way that both had a complete understanding of their craft. Fasano will be a manager in the major leagues one day.

I’m still not a Sky Sox fan, per se. I stayed impartial enough that my interest in the pennant chase went nowhere beyond wondering what my work schedule might look like for a few weeks in September.

What engrossed me were those stories, those players on the way up, on the way out or on the way to figuring out if they were on the way up or out.

So am I interested to see how these stories unfold? You bet. Does that make me a poor journalist? I hope not, because I can’t possibly imagine it any other way.

Jim Tracy is 62-32 with the Rockies this year.

Colorado manager Jim Tracy spent much of his postgame press conference on Thursday praising the Rockies’ minor-league system, which keeps providing him with reinforcements as key players go down with injuries.

Here’s some of what he said:

On the foresight of the franchise to load the system with a mix of veterans and prospects ready to help at the next level…

“It speaks volumes as to the depth and the strength of this organization and the job that was done, I would say, going back to the end of last season. When the season was over the they went back to work on putting things back together and addressing some things they weren’t comfortable with. I think you combine that with the additions we’ve made and on top of that I think you have to give a tip of the cap to our minor-league people – our coordinators, our managers, our pitching coaches and our hitting instructors in the minor leagues.”

On the way the players have accepted their roles…

“Here’s Matt Belisle who’s gone back and fourth a couple of times. The communication between here at the major league level and especially at Triple A and Double A. When you send a guy back I think they really feel that they haven’t been dropped, there’s just something they need to work on and eventually they’ll come back here and help us. But in order to do so, this is what you have to do to improve yourself to be more competitive at this level. That’s exactly what several of these guys have done and as a result of that you create depth. So when you get these bumps and bruises like we have over the last couple of weeks you create opportunities. Here’s an opportunity for you within the framework of your capabilities, we won’t ask you to do anything beyond your capabilities. And they’ve embraced that.”

Quick note on that: Not every Sky Sox player claimed to have the same level of communication that Tracy is talking about here. The prospects — even Eric Young Jr. before his call-up — had no clue how they fit into the club’s plans beyond what they could figure out themselves. And the same went for the veterans. Adam Eaton said the club told him nothing more than it was making decisions on an inning-by-inning basis after his brief callup late in August. He assumed he would be heading back up (where he was 1-0 in four appearances and drew a bases-loaded walk in the 14th inning against the Giants just before Ryan Spilborghs ended the game with a grand slam), but instead he was released after the Sky Sox season ended.

On the performance of Juan Rincon and Matt Belisle after recent stays with the Sky Sox…

“In the case of Juan Rincon and Matt Belisle, that’s as good as we’ve seen them all year long. I was so impressed and pleased to see the way the ball, the fastball, was coming out of their hand today. Both had explosive fastballs, both jumped out of their hands. Both were throwing strikes, both were getting after the bat right from the get-go and they just did a tremendous job. … I can’t say enough about the job that they did.”

On Eric Young Jr.’s game-changing speed…

“I was so intrigued by the way we jumped on a situation where we had two out and nobody on and the kid (Young) lays down a bunt for a base hit. I think if they take the ball cleanly there’s a good chance they can get him out, but speed kills. And that having to hurry up because of whose going down the line they didn’t get the ball cleanly and then things happened from there, obviously, we put five runs on the board in a hurry.”

Summing it all up…

“We’ve made some big strides, and our minor-league people have a hell of a lot to do with that.”

Jimenez

Rogers

The Rockies announced Thursday that Esmil Rogers will make a spot start on Saturday as Ubaldo Jimenez will have his start pushed back until Tuesday.

It’s a precautionary move for Jimenez, who tweaked his left hamstring while running the bases in his last start. The move to rest his legs might have a far greater benefit for his right arm, which has pitched six innings in 25 consecutive starts — the longest such streak in the majors.

Here’s a look at the innings Jimenez has thrown over the past six seasons between the major and minor leagues:

2004: 158.

2005: 135

2006: 159

2007: 201 (includes postseason)

2008: 198.2

2009: 195.1*

*- Jimenez could potentially start five more games this season — and that’s not including any postseason innings. So say he starts seven more times, throwing six innings in each outing. That would bring his innings to around 237 this year, a substantial leap for a 25-year-old who has become so important for the franchise.

So that brings us to Rogers, who spent the past 2+ months struggling for Colorado Springs.

Rogers, had been tagging along with the Rockies along with Texas League pitcher of the year Samuel Deduno (both are on the team’s 40-man roster but neither had been activated) since the Sky Sox season ended on Monday to gain familiarity with future teammates, but now the club is thrusting Rogers into action.

Fortunately for the converted infielder, his first start will come in San Diego against the worst hitting club in the league. More importantly it will come at sea level, far below the high altitudes that have wrecked havoc with his command and movement.

In games thrown in Colorado Springs Rogers posted a 9.58 ERA.

Rockies’ manager Jim Tracy pointed to Thursday’s victory over the Reds in which the Rockies used three pitchers to cover the final six innings after Jose Contreras left with an injury as a blueprint for how Rogers’ start will be approached. 

“His situation will be very similar to what you saw today,” Tracy said. “Just basically, keep us in the game. Keep us hanging around. With the additional bullpen people we’ve got if things aren’t working out we’ll move quick on it. It wouldn’t be fair to the kid to leave him out there if the situation looked like it might get out of his control.”

Rogers’ last two starts (one at home, one on the road) were by far and away his best with the Sky Sox, as he picked up two victories and posted a 3.00 ERA over 12 innings. His overall numbers were still pretty ugly: 3-5, 7.42 in 60.2 innings.

The Rockies clearly aren’t all that concerned by Rogers’ performance with Colorado Springs – possibly because of the very man he’s about to spell.

Consider this odd parallel:

In 2006 Ubaldo Jimenez went 9-2 with a 2.45 ERA in 13 starts with Double-A Tulsa before a promotion to Colorado Springs, where he stunk up the joint with a 5.06 ERA and .589 walks per inning. He finished his year in Denver where he appeared in two games for the Rockies and made one start.

In 2009 Esmil Rogers went 8-2 with a 2.48 ERA in 15 starts with Double-A Tulsa before a promotion to Colorado Springs, where he stunk up the joint with a 7.42 ERA and .581 walks per inning (if you take away a pair of horrific home starts Rogers’ ERA would have been 5.40). He’s going to finish his year in Denver, where he’s now schedule to make one start for the Rockies.

The next season Jimenez (who never did conquer pitching at Security Service Field, posting a 5.51 ERA over 32 starts) was an important cog in a postseason run that ended in the World Series.

Jimenez was 23 when he helped the Rockies to the wild card. Rogers was 23 until three weeks ago.

The similarities run pretty deep for the pair of Domincan-born pitchers, the Rockies are obviously hoping that continues to be the case.

Note: A shorter version of this last appeared in a story in the Gazette on Wednesday, but I thought I’d add to it just a bit.

Fast start

The Sky Sox won their first three games and didn’t slow for four months. They went 14-6 in April and reached their high-water mark above .500 in July at 49-33.

Perfection

Brandon Hynick threw the first perfect game in team history with a seven-inning gem June 30 against Portland. It was the ninth perfect game in the 107-year history of the Pacific Coast League.

Another no-no

The Sky Sox became the first PCL team in eight years with a pair of no-hitters when Jhoulys Chacin, Joel Peralta, Juan Rincon and Randy Flores combined to blank Oklahoma City on Aug. 18.

Place in the pipeline

Carlos Gonzalez was leading all minor-league players with 59 RBIs when the Rockies promoted him June 4. Gonzalez is one of 15 Sky Sox players to join the Rockies this year. Seven Colorado players rehabbed injuries in Colorado Springs.

Timlin’s time runs out

Only six pitchers in major-league history have appeared in more games than Mike Timlin (a list that includes Dennis Eckersly, Hoyt Wilhelm and John Franco), but his run in baseball probably ended with handshakes and hugs in the Security Service Field clubhouse when his brief comeback in the Rockies organization came to a close with four relief appearances with the Sky Sox in August.

EY runs to records

Leadoff hitter Eric Young Jr. set Sky Sox season records for stolen bases (58) and runs (118) and was the first Colorado Springs player to be voted PCL Rookie of the Year. EY’s speed electrified throughout the season as he ran out infield hits, scored on short sacrifice flies and a dazzling inside-the-park home run in one of his last games in Colorado Springs.

Giambi’s cameo

Fans in Colorado Springs were treated to a six-game look at one of the more professional hitters in baseball when Jason Giambi tuned up for September with the Sky Sox. He didn’t disappoint, hitting .444 with a pair of home runs and six walks. Most impressively, to me at least, was his willingness to fulfill every autograph request after each game. He gave the younger players something to emulate both on and off the field.

Hit makers

Despite little power, the Sky Sox finished tied for third in the 16-team PCL in runs scored and second in hits and batting average. Remarkably, the team cracked out 10 or more hits 74 times in 142 games. Only two teams finished with fewer home runs than Colorado Springs, which was led by Matt Murton’s 12.

Attendance back over 300,000

The Sky Sox eclipsed 300,000 in attendance for the second year in a row with 300,185, but that number missed last year’s team record and was again last in the Pacific Coast League. In the team’s defense, Colorado Springs is one of the league’s smallest markets and through last year the Sky Sox led the PCL in percentage increase in attendance per year over a four-season stretch.

Collapse

A 5-11 finish allowed Tacoma — aided by a nine-game win streak — to erase a 7½-game lead in 2½ weeks and leave the teams tied. Tacoma advanced on a tiebreaker.

If anything stood out to you about the season, feel free to shoot me an email at brent.briggeman@gazette.com or just leave a comment on the blog.

Randy Ruiz

After a little build-up through this blog and a video about the Pacific Coast League MVP candidacy of both Matt Miller and Eric Young Jr, I realized I never updated how that race turned out.

The award was given last week to Randy Ruiz, of Las Vegas, and it’s easy to see why.

Ruiz led the PCL with 106 RBIs while hitting .320 with 25 home runs. The Sky Sox learned his value firsthand when he hit a walk-off, three-run home run to beat Colorado Springs on July 22.

The Blue Jays called up Ruiz, 31, in early August and he’s had a productive month at the next level with six home runs, 12 RBIs and a .284 average.

While Ruiz was, in retrospect, a fairly obvious pick, I believed his age (voters might want the league MVP to reflect both a solid season while also predicting a solid career to come) and the fact that he played for a poor team (the 51s finished last in the Pacific South) were working against him. I learned that at least one vote was being cast for Eric Young Jr., but I knew a case just as strong could be made for Miller.

Anyway, as it turned out both Miller and Young were named to the postseason PCL All-Star team (both were midseason selections as well) and Young was voted Rookie of the Year. So the Sky Sox certainly weren’t without some postseason accolades.

Stu Cole seemed genuinely excited for an all-or-nothing four-game series at Tacoma that starts Friday night. Perhaps it’s because the last time he went into a series like that the Sky Sox manager emerged as a champion.

“In Double-A the first-half championship came down to a series between us and Springfield and that was an outstanding series,” said Cole, recalling his time in Tulsa. “We ended up winning the last game and winning the first half.

“This kind of reminds me of that.”

With Tacoma trailing late against Salt Lake right now, it appears the Sky Sox will take a two-game lead into their season-ending series against the Rainiers. If that gap holds, two wins would guarantee a championship for the Sky Sox. One win would lead to some confusion, as the league hasn’t announced yet if the teams would actually be tied as the Sky Sox would actually have a better winning percentage (they played two fewer games because of rain).

The league has said it will announce a decision on Friday.

Here are a few notes on the upcoming series:

* The Sky Sox are 6-2 against the Rainiers in Colorado Springs and 1-3 in Tacoma, but the teams haven’t played since June 1 when the Sky Sox roster included Carlos Gonzalez and Eric Young Jr. and Cole was not yet the team’s manager — so past performance probably isn’t worth considering.

* The Mariners called up just two Rainiers as rosters expanded: 1B Mike Carp (15/64/.271) and starting pitcher Jason Vargas (4-3, 3.14 ERA).

* The pitching matchups are as follows: 

• Friday — Sky Sox’s Greg Smith (1-1, 5.96) vs. Rainiers’ Chris Seddon (8-8, 4.55).
• Saturday — Sky Sox’s Adam Eaton (4-3, 2.95) vs. Rainiers’ Garrett Olsen (2-3, 4.79).
• Sunday — Sky Sox’s Esmil Rogers (2-5, 7.95) vs. Rainiers’ Brandon Morrow (5-2, 3.71)
• Monday — Sky Sox’s Russ Ortiz (0-1, 7.07) vs. Rainiers Gaby Hernandez (8-9, 5.62)

For the second straight year and the second time in franchise history the Sky Sox season attendance was over 300,00.

The team reported that 300,185 spectators passed through its turnstiles this year (4,351 per the 69 openings), just off the record 303,048 that saw the club a year ago when the team had the same number of total home games but didn’t struggle through as many rain delays and overall subpar weathers.

The Sky Sox rank last in the 16-team Pacific Coast League in attendance after ranking second-to-last a year ago — above only Tucson, which saw its franchise move to Reno. In the team’s defense, Colorado Springs is the league’s third-smallest market, ranking ahead of just Des Moines and Reno.

Click here for full league attendance numbers.

Jason Hirsh

It looks like all Jason Hirsh needed to revive his career was a trade out of Colorado.

In five starts with the Yankees’ Triple-A affiliate Scranton/Wilkes-Barre since a July 29 trade for a player-to-be-named, Hirsh is 4-0 with a 1.37 ERA. In 26 1/3 inning he has struck out 21 while walking just six.

The numbers are a vast departure from what he posted for the Sky Sox this season, where he was 6-7 with a 6.66 ERA in 101 1/3 innings. He struck out just 59 compared to 35 walks for Colorado Springs and opponents hit .310 against him. They’re batting just .232 against him in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

“There was a dark time earlier this year when baseball wasn’t all that fun for me,” Hirsh told the Scranton Times Tribune (click here to read the entire blog entry).  ”But now that I’ve kind of changed my mental approach and I’ve had more success on the mound, baseball’s a lot more fun.”

The Yankees didn’t include Hirsh in their list of September callups, but if the 6-foot-8 righty who was once named Houston’s top prospect by Baseball America can continue to throw like he has recently, there will be a big-league suitor somewhere ready to give him another shot.

If the Sky Sox end the season knotted in the standings with Tacoma there’s no clear-cut decision on what would happen next.

The major issue arises because the teams won’t technically be tied, as the Sky Sox would have played two fewer games (both lost because of rain). The Pacific Coast League bylaws don’t specify what a tie is, that is, if it is simply based on games back or if it includes winning percentage.

If the teams finish “tied,” the Sky Sox would actually have a better winning percentage.

The league has been informed of the situation and has yet to come down with a ruling.

Beyond that the tiebreaking system is as follows:

1. Head-to-head (the Sky Sox currently hold a 7-5 advantage over Tacoma)
2. Record within the division (Tacoma holds a one-game lead in that category)
3. Conference record
4. If none of the above can settle the tie, a one-game playoff is to be played with a coin flip determining home team.
5. Strength of schedule (just kidding, this isn’t college football)

A tie is hardly out of the realm of possibility. The Sky Sox are currently two games ahead of Tacoma. If that margin stays the same over the next two days and Tacoma takes three of four when the teams meet for a season-ending series, that’s exactly what we’ll have.

Hynick

Contreras

Brandon Hynick can juggle fire. I’m not kidding.

I asked him about his rare talent a few weeks ago and he casually turned around and pulled out the three torches he kept tucked away in his locker at Security Service Field.

In trading their fire expert, the Rockies might’ve gotten burned.

Colorado general manager Dan O’Dowd, in a move that wreaks of desperation, sent Hynick to the White Sox late Monday night for the shell of Jose Contreras. The Rockies had apparently been trying to land Jon Garland throughout the day — the deadline to acquire players and include them on the postseason roster. When Garland ended up with the Dodgers, the Rockies pulled the trigger on the Contreras deal.

It sure seems like they’re mortgaging a lot for Contreras, a “37-year-old” pitcher who has an ERA of 5.23 over his last three years – including a 7.66 mark over six starts in August. I’m sure Denver’s altitude will do wonders for those numbers.

In Hynick, the Rockies had a brainy, 6-foot-3 prospect who has displayed a keen understanding of pitching at each level of his development. His strikeout numbers were never particularly impressive, but everything else about his game was. The 24-year-old former eighth-round pick walked just 119 batters in 580 minor-league innings and posted a 3.83 ERA in the hitting haven that is the Pacific Coast League.

He’ll be best remembered for throwing the first perfect game in Sky Sox history, a seven-inning masterpiece against Portland in late June.

Altitude kills some pitchers, Hynick seemed impervious (opponents were hitting .257 against him at home, .257 on the road). Even his perfect game came here in the Springs, a thousand feet above Denver.

This ability to pitch in the thin air — where breaking balls lose their bite and location is at a premium — should not be taken lightly. Jhoulys Chacin and Esmil Rogers, a pair of prospects rated higher than Hynick, have not shown a knack for retiring hitters at altitude. In 36 combined innings in Denver and Colorado Springs they are 0-6 with 34 walks and a 10.50 ERA.

So while Hynick may never set the world on fire, he seemed a perfect fit for this organization.

All that potential is now at the disposal of the White Sox organization as O’Dowd made a move that seems to go against everything that has helped him build a contender at Coors Field.

Starting with Todd Helton and working down through the likes of Garrett Atkins, Brad Hawpe, Troy Tulowitzki, Ian Stewart and Dexter Fowler, the Rockies are a club built on talent mentored within the organization. The same is true for much of the pitching staff, as Aaron Cook, Ubaldo Jimenez, Manny Corpas and so many others came through the pipeline that often runs through Colorado Springs.

This formula has worked. It landed a World Series appearance just 23 months ago and had the team positioned for another postseason run this year.

This one deal won’t ruin the organization, but the kind of recklessness O’Dowd showed in his haste to dust off a relic of a pitcher could send the whole plan up in smoke.

(Click here for Gazette columnist David Ramsey’s take on the trade)