Smith becomes strong candidate to land last bullpen spot

TUCSON — Mediocrity has a way of scrapping plans. Two weeks ago, manager Jim Tracy said he didn’t see a scenario where Greg Smith would be used as a reliever. That changed with the stream of uninspired outings by Justin Speier, Tim Redding and Juan Rincon. “Smith is definitely a candidate,” Tracy said. “I didn’t see that as a possibility when I talked about it before. But nobody has stepped forward. And with our closer out, we need to be flexible. I said all along that we are going to take the best team available to us on opening day.” Smith has allowed three runs in 18 innings as a starter. He threw four scoreless innings today. The reality is that the Rockies are leaning toward a lefty, which could mean Smith or Beimel? Why? Well, the Brewers’ best hitter is left-handed — Prince Fielder — and their entire bench is full of left-handers, including Jody Gerut, Craig Counsell and Jim Edmonds. In other moves, the Rockies opti...