Today the Colorado Rockies called upon Matt Belisle to pitch the seventh inning against Philadelphia. I can understand the “everyone should be ready” approach to managing but I found it curious that Rockies manager Jim Tracy opted to go to the 29 year old right hander.

This almost immediately took me down memory road. Since it’s the post season and we got nothing better to do I’ll go ahead and relieve Belisle’s career.

Now as far as highly thought of Brave prospects go Belisle is as highly paid as any. Actually only Jeff Francoeur ($2.2 million in 2002) has recieved a larger signing bonus then the $1.75 million Belisle received in 1998.

Drafted in the second round of the 1998 draft by the Braves Belisle performed well at the Single-A level.

It was at this time that Belisle began to be noticed on top prospets lists in 2001 and by the beginning of 2003 was working his way down the list thanks in part to a back injury that forced him to miss all of the 2001 season.

Upon returning from his injury he struggled and after a solid season in 2003 was traded by the Braves to Cincinnati for reliever Kent Mercker. While Mercker was having a fine 2003 season, it’s worth noting that the Braves saw little reason to keep Belisle in the organization which would have forced them to put him on the 40-man roster the following off season.

After struggeling at the Triple-A level in 2004, he won a job in the bullpen for the Reds in 2005. The following season he again was hampered by back problems but pitched well when he was healthy.

In 2007 he finally broke into the Reds rotation and things were ugly. In 30 starts he went 8-9 with a 5.32 ERA in 177.2 innings. Last season he was even worse, made his way back to the minors and eventually was converted into a reliever for the Reds farm system.

As pitchers down on their luck often do, Belisle signed a minor league deal with Colorado over the winter. After again pitching well in a swing role at Triple-A Colorado Springs he earned a call up to the Rockies pen.

It’s been an adventure since then. In 17 outings in the regular season he 1-1 with a 6.85 ERA in 22.1 innings of work. Frankly that the Rockies had no other options for their post season roster speaks volumes here.

If it seemed like I missed a few parts of his career I apologize. I don’t want to offend anyone but to sum up Belisle’s career it’s been a mixture of minor league dominance, back injuries and major league struggles.

To put Belisle in with the lead was a gutsy move by Jim Tracy. In the end he managed to pitch a 1-2-3 inning per serving the lead and what turned out to a 5-4 win by the Rockies.

I don’t know the Rockies future plans with Belisle or if he’ll even pitch again this post season but for one game Matt Belisle reminded me of the promise he once had while in the Braves farm system.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 8th, 2009 at 6:35 pm and is filed under John, Most Recommended, News Headlines, Right Column. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.