BEST LINE: Pinnacle -1½ +121

Posted at 9:40 AM EST.

It hasn't taken long for Julio Teheran to live up to his lofty prospect status. Teheran posted a 3.20 ERA in 2013 in his his first full MLB season and all he's done since then is post an elite 1.89 ERA and 0.93 WHIP through 13 starts in 2014. There is some ERA regression coming because he’s a fly-ball pitcher but his strikeout and walk ratios are in great shape and his swinging-strike rate of 13% hints there could be a K boost in the very near future. He’ll now face a Rockies team that has lost 14 of 16 and that is without Carlos Gonzalez, Michael Cuddyer, and Nolan Arenado.

The Rockies pitching staff is a complete mess. They have allowed 16, 12 and 13 runs against in three of their past six games and their pen has an ERA of 7.02 over the past 10 games. With injuries decimating its starters, Colorado has called up Tyler Matzek to make his major league debut. Matzek is a replacement starter for Eddie Butler, who was just recently called up and pitched one game before landing on the DL. Matzek is not major-league ready. He’s an emergency starter that will be heading back to the minors after this one start. He came into the year as the #13 prospect in the Rockies organization and has done nothing to improve that ranking. He is always fighting the strike zone and ends up walking too many batters. When a walk rate of 4.2/9 is the best of your career it becomes a big problem. At this park at this level, falling behind in the count and subsequently being forced into throwing fastballs is a big problem that Matzek will not overcome here. In 106 career minor league starts, Matzek has struck out 508 in 537.2 IP and walked 360, which contributed to a cumulative 1.58 WHIP at the minor league level. In 12 games at Colorado Springs this season, Matzek posted a 4.05 ERA, a .265 BAA and surrendered eight jacks in 66 innings. Looks like another long evening for the Rockies.