Tracy Called Wrong Player Gutless

A day after Rockies short stop Troy Tulowitzki was plunked by a Ubaldo Jimenez fast ball I heard about the article that caused the event.  Mark Kiszla, of the Denver Post, wrote an article last week about the messy situation that was the Jimenez trade to the Cleveland Indians last season.  The article was Ubaldo's feelings about some of the behind the scene things that were rumored to be happening and his contract situation.  The article also featured Troy Tulowitzki's responses to Jimenez's comments.  Based on Sunday's 1st inning between the 2 teams, I guess Tulo should have kept his mouth shut.

In the article Ubaldo simply talked about how angry he is with the Rockies organization about how he was handled contractually and otherwise by management.  Tuo and CarGo (Carlos Gonzales) were signed to long term deals for a lot of money after a short time in which they had proved their worth.  Jimenez believes that he had proved himself as well when he became the teams ace by winning 19 games in 2010.  He, however, was not signed to an extension and was being paid less than 5 other pitchers on the staff.  I don't know what kind of money he was looking for, but it is safe to say that he was deserving of more than he was making.  There were rumors around Denver last season that Jimenez was sandbagging his season last year and not putting in the work to be what he was the year before.  He had a problem with those whispers and pointed out that he worked hard to get ready for every start and it is insulting to him to be questioned like that.  He had a big issue with the fact that he was forced to pitch on the day he was traded when both he and the organization knew it was going to happen.  He pitched for 1 inning and gave up 5 runs.  He left the bench right after his one inning of work and has been pissed with the organization ever since.

So, after Kiszla talked with Ubaldo he then talked with the Rockies captain and got his take one how Jimenez felt about the situation.  For some reason it appears that Tulowitzki took exception to the things that Jimenez said. Tulo said that he didn't understand the issue with Jimenez not getting a new deal and followed that up with, "He had signed his deal and had years left on it.  Why would we give him something new when we didn't see anything out of him?"  Did Tulo miss the first ever no hitter in club history?  Did he miss the 19 wins which should have been over 20 if the lineup that he was apart of could have delivered some runs later in the season?  Later in the article Tulo says that Ubaldo needs to "put this to an end to this, go pitch and help his team.  Now his new team is questioning him."  Classy, real classy.

I wonder what Tulo would say about Cargo if he ever leaves?

Did I miss the part of the article where Ubaldo ripped into Troy?  Did Jimenez once attack a player on the Rockies squad for anything?  Did he say that Cargo and Tulo didn't deserve the money that they made?  No, not once did he say a negative or throw out an accusation about a player.  Tulo, however, threw Ubaldo under the bus and called him greedy, unprofessional, and questioned his ability to pitch now with his new team.

Jim Tracey called Ubaldo throwing at Tulo gutless, the worst thing he has seen in the majors, and that he lost all respect for Jimenez.  First things first, Tracey had little respect for Ubaldo last year and proved it when he threw him out to pitch the day he was being traded so, it's hard to loose something he really didn't have in the first place.  Second, Troy Tulowitzki is the gutless one in this situation.  Tulo blasted a former teammate in the press for no reason.  Where is the guts in that?  He deserved to get hit by a pitch and he is lucky it wasn't aimed at his head.  Ubaldo may not have done the right thing in handling this situation, but at least he didn't hide in the press.  I just hope that Tulowitzki  learned his lesson and shuts his gutless mouth in the future.