[jamus23]

Name          G  AB   H 2B 3B HR RBI  R BB  K  AVG  OBP  SLG SB CS 
A. Vasquez   78 328  98 17  0 19  66 54 21 57 .299 .348 .524  4  0
R. Thomas    74 322 126 16  0  8  54 58 16 16 .391 .424 .516 10  2
E. Bolling   77 320  83 23  4 17  70 63 41 43 .259 .343 .516  1  0
R. Diaz      74 286  94 18  0 18  53 54 26 27 .329 .387 .580  4  0
M. Phillips  75 267  71 16  0  4  41 50 53 31 .266 .396 .371  2  0 
J. Rumfelt   74 260  73 16  1  3  43 46 35 22 .281 .367 .385  2  0
L. Chappel   63 248  90 30  1 16  61 59 31 12 .363 .436 .685  2  0
A. Fuentez   61 239  82 25  5  7  33 56 27 15 .343 .419 .577 12  7
B. Romero    72 238  55 11  7  1  22 37 28 61 .231 .315 .349  9  1
M. Lore      44 156  52 13  0  4  29 19 17 23 .333 .399 .494  1  0
A. Mingo     34  95  24  7  1  1  18 14  7 11 .253 .304 .379  2  0
G. Lauritsen 22  67  21  3  0  2   8  9  4 12 .313 .347 .448  0  0
A. Navarro   29  63  12  3  2  0  11  8  8  9 .190 .278 .302  4  1
K. Christner  6  19   4  0  0  0   2  0  0  1 .211 .211 .211  0  0

First the good:

With the exception of two players, all of Denver's starting position players have performed up to expectations. One, Ruben Diaz, has exceeded those expectations quite significantly.

From the bench, Marvin Lore and Greg Lauritsen have performed very well, and Lauritsen held his own in the last two weeks while Lee Chappel was on the disabled list.

Next, the so-so:

Ellis Bolling, while still having a pretty good season, is nonetheless underachieving. His .859 OPS this year would represent the second worst of his career.

Adrian Mingo, while technically having a decent season by his standards, still isn't very good. Even though he's only a bench player, it would be nice to have somewhat more respectable numbers.

Finally, the bad:

While expectations for Booker Romero weren't really high to begin with, he has still managed to underwhelm. Romero's OPS's in his first two seasons with Denver were .694 and .693. In this league, I suspect that's close to replacement level, especially when you consider that those numbers were boosted by hitting in Denver half the time. So far this season, his OPS is only .664, and it's only that high because he did it pretty well in April, with an .821 OPS. Throw in the home park inflation, and he has performed very, very poorly this season. Romero was acquired two years ago because his predecessor, Javier Cordero, had reached a point where his good glove was no longer reason enough to keep his woefully inept bat in the lineup. With Denver's strong lineup, Romero doesn't need to be an All-Star hitter, or even an average hitter. But he should be able to contribute occasionally. At the moment, Romero seems headed in the same direction as Cordero...

Armando Navarro was a useful reserve outfielder the past two seasons, providing good defense, good base-stealing ability, and respectable hitting numbers. This year, his hitting skills seem to have disappeared entirely. Like with Romero, he may soon find that his glove and speed don't count for that much...


Moving on to the pitching:

Name          G GS  W L SV  ERA    IP  HA  R ER BB  K CG SH 
G. Buentello 16 16  9 3  0 2.63 119.2 113 37 35 24 70  1  1
C. Kirk      16 16  9 4  0 4.55 118.2 119 62 60 32 84  3  2
K. Pillsbury 16 16 12 2  0 3.07 114.1 106 45 39 23 91  4  2
R. Lockridge 16 16 10 6  0 3.19 113.0 108 48 40 18 98  3  2
R. Mcnett    14 14 10 1  0 3.68  88.0  82 38 36 22 75  0  0
J. Virgen    26  0  4 4 10 2.63  37.2  30 12 11  9 22  0  0
R. Gomez     27  0  1 0 11 2.17  37.1  25  9  9  8 40  0  0
J. Myatt      9  3  2 0  0 5.67  27.0  37 17 17 14 22  0  0
F. Lemire    16  0  1 1  1 4.91  18.1  20 10 10  8 20  0  0
L. Gwinn     11  0  1 0  1 6.23  17.1  26 12 12  1 15  0  0
L. Waltz     10  0  1 0  0 4.76  17.0  22 10  9  6 14  0  0
O. Lopez     11  0  0 0  0 4.80  15.0  19  8  8  3  9  0  0

The good:

The starting pitching has been excellent, from 1 to 5. George Buentello has performed much better than expected, while Kenny Pillsbury, Ray Lockridge, and Robert McNett are all also performing better than their career norms. Only Christopher Kirk has not exceeded expectations, however, he has still managed to meet them.

In the bullpen, James Virgen and Ramon Gomez have proved to be a tough tandem in the late innings for the Broncos.

The so-so:

James Myatt has generally been decent as both a starter and a reliever, with only one poor start causing his numbers to look bad. The problem is, he's not really getting much use as a reliever, and thus, his roster spot is somewhat of a waste. Given that the Broncos don't have a very big bench, a demotion of Myatt to add another hitter could be in the works.

Fred Lemire, Larry Waltz, and Omar Lopez have all been decent out of the bullpen, but none have quite met expectations. Without another reliable relief pitcher, Virgen and Gomez are likely to get overworked, which could be problematic. It would be a huge benefit to Denver if one or more of these three could step up a bit and ease the burden on Virgen and Gomez.

The bad:

Lyndon Gwinn wasn't great last year, mainly because he gave up too many homeruns. This year, in addition to having his HR rate nearly doubled, he has also been giving up way more hits than usual. Gwinn wasn't expected to be a dominant reliever or anything, but decent or effective should not have been too much to ask for.