When Do We Worry about Charlie

Charlie Condon and the Worry Meter

Last night, in a 6-5 Yard Goats loss to Altoona, Charlie Condon struck out three times. In the large scale of a player’s season, one game with three strikeouts isn’t a huge deal. But Condon’s time in AA appears to be getting off to a rockier (ope) start than intended. His OPS in Hartford fell last night to a measly .686, he hasn’t hit a home run in two weeks, and he’s had just FIVE extra base hits since the start of July. All told, it’s enough to cause a bit of anxiety about the Rockies top prospect and his future in the big leagues. That combined with a move to first base has led to a drop in the belief of his future value with the club.

Now, all things on the table, Condon did suffer a wrist injury in spring training that sputtered his start and has been known to have lingering effects on power. Condon’s power tool wasn’t the thing anyone worried about when he was drafted so for that to be zapped seemingly out of nowhere, you’d find an easy connection to the injury he suffered in March. He wouldn’t be the first player to have something like that happen to him. It’s not just cope to believe we could just be watching a wash year in a future of home runs and doubles.

But, that still requires Condon bouncing back next season with a healthy wrist, a typical season buildup, and a normal spring. For those of us (like me) that believed Condon was on track to break camp with the club next year, this is an obvious setback to that expectation. It hurts more to see players taken after him succeeding in the same role like Nick Kurtz or at the least playing baseball in the big leagues like Jac Caglianone. So, maybe it is an injury and Condon’s bust status is still up in the air. But the former Georgia slugger is someone that I think it’s right to be worried about.

Prior to his call up to Hartford, Condon wasn’t bad in High-A Spokane. The power numbers were, again, nowhere to be found as his .850 OPS was mostly from his stellar on-base percentage. He hit a lot of singles and took a decent amount of walks. Which, just to be fair to Charlie here, was a LOT better than his cup of coffee in pro ball to end 2024. His call up was earned, but maybe not as stellar as you’d hope for a top prospect moving into the high minors. The point of all of this is to say, Condon has attracted more red flags than green flags thus far and you’d have to reach pretty far back into your mind to not worry a little bit about him.

If you use the above image as a gauge, let’s say Charlie is in the light orange, slightly frowny face area. Not where you want to be, but no tears yet. We can check in with Charlie at the end of the season and hopefully, it’s better. Or, it isn’t, and we spend all winter being anxious about it.

Connor’s Guys Update, An Update on Connor’s Minor League Guys of Note

Connor’s Guys will be an update on the Guys I want to follow through the Rockies minor league system. This won’t necessarily be the best prospects, don’t expect a top-100 guy here, but guys I find interesting. Every now and then we’ll add a new guy when I spot someone putting up an interesting line or having a unique profile to look into. Currently, Connor’s Guys are all pitchers. Sean Sullivan (AA), Welinton Herrera (AA), Brody Brecht (A), and Connor Van Scoyoc (AAA)

Our guy The Beef, Welinton Herrera, got thumped by the Reading Fightin’ Phils and suffered his first L of the season. Those three earnies count for 38% of his total earned runs this season. Everybody has one. Similarly, after calling out Brody Brecht for keeping the ball in the zone last week, the walks caught up to him in Fresno. Everybody has one.

I really thought this was our time with Connor Van Scoyoc. But the Rockies went with Dugan Darnell to make his MLB debut after the departures of Tyler Kinley and Jake Bird. CVS had a tough week in response and has given up eight earned runs his last three outings for the ‘Topes. That’s concerning but true believers will stand tall with CVS.

Sean Sullivan is probably worthy of an Albuquerque baptism at this point as well, speaking of call ups. I think he’s a real threat for the rotation next year.

Da Trade Deadline

The Rockies had…a normal deadline? After moving Ryan McMahon, they sent two aging relievers away in Tyler Kinley and Jake Bird. The moves cleared slots for young players like Palmquist and Darnell and brought in four prospects from the Yankees that could be impactful in the Rockies system. It’s difficult to not gauge Rockies deadlines on a scale. They usually screw up and/or not do anything. So here is a deadline where they made sensible trades that gave them room to give young players more opportunities in the big leagues.

Renee Dechert at Rockies Pitch had a longer evaluation of the moves over on that newsletter but the main point many outlets seem to be making is that it was nice to see the Rockies make any call at all on moving current assets. Holding on to Seth Halvorsen and Vic Vodnik may not have been the best call in the relief pitcher bonanza that was had last week, but the two players are team controlled for multiple more years. They will probably have another chance to move those two guys. In some ways, the deadline also may have represented a…dead man walking deadline. Schmidt cleared some obvious spots, kept guys that are probably worth more to a new regime, and largely kept the moves on the margins. If, like Renee says, the moves are more about clearing salary for Monfort, then it’s a different light. But, the owner has never played games like that before. Maybe it was just the moves Bill was able to make, maybe they were the only ones he was allowed to make. In any case, the Rockies actually did work on deadline day to improve their future prospects. It feels like congratulating a dad for not being a deadbeat, but hey, let’s take a dub.

The Rockies now have to focus on 12 more wins in their final 49 games. Quite doable and I would even wager likely. But not guaranteed.

49 to go