: : Sparks of Dementia :: Demented About Baseball

Photo Day Redux

2008-07-20T19:20:00.003-04:00

As with last year, we went to Photo Day again this year, and while it was again very fun, the presence of all the bandwagoners who hopped on after 21 Days meant that there were a lot more people there and we had a lot less time for actual conversations -- just chitchat. Also unlike last year, there was a definite sense of urgency for the players to get through all the crowds, instead of ambling along and taking their time like they were on June 2, 2007. But July 19, 2008 wasn't at all bad. We got photos of one or more of us with 15 of the guys, hitting up everyone we wanted and then some. Unfortunately, Greg Reynolds got demoted to AAA and Tulo was off on his most recent rehab assignment (enough with the injuries, bucko....) otherwise we would have gotten them too. But we DID get Atkins, Baker, Barmes, Buchholz, Cook, Corpas, Hawpe, Helton, Holliday, Iannetta, Jimenez, Smith, Spilborghs, Stewart, and Quintanilla, which I think you'll agree is not a bad haul. Also, as they did last year, the Rockies won the actual game 7-1, thanks to two RBIs each from Atkins and Quintanilla, along with sundry contributions from Torrealba (!) Hawpe, and Stewart. Not to be forgotten was Scott Podsednik's 4-for-5, 3-double night, which of course failed to win him another start today. It didn't matter, as the Rockies shockingly won 11-3 to finish off the four-game sweep of the Pirates. Winning at home has never been a problem for them, as they improved to 29-21 at Coors, but the road is still their Achilles heel. I'll believe that they can contend in the mild, mild West (still a possibility due to it turning back into the Worst) once they win more than one game on the road.

Anyway, about the pics. Various amusing commentary encapsulated beneath.

Me and Atkins. We didn't have much time to chat with Atkins, since he had to move along and is generally not the world's most talkative guy as is. But he did say, "No problem," when I told him thanks. Also, something that strikes me every year is that Atkins is a very large fellow. No seriously, he is.

That is technically my sister Gillian, Bake, and me, but thanks to my older sister's camera-challenged ways, Gillian got her head cut off. She is absolutely clucking about this, since she loves Bake and really wanted this picture to turn out well. I am starting to see her point. He is the world's nicest guy. He ambled up to us, went, "Hey guys, what's up?" and promptly put his arms around both of us. I put my arm around him too. Hey, he liked it. He gave us a big grin afterwards. Too bad we didn't get to chat with him the way we did last year, but at least he didn't ground into three double plays the way he did last year.

My sister Darcy and I with Barmes. You can't exactly see his face, thanks to the shadows, but it's actually him, not Yorvit in a mask. (Yorvit was kinda tagging along on Iannetta's coattails, doing the double-catcher picture thing. We only got Chris, not Yorvit).

Gillian, Bucky, and me. Bucky is so cute. I told him, "You're doing very well this year," (1.79 ERA, I think so) and Bucky, looking genuinely surprised and pleased, answered, "Oh! Thank you! Thank you so much!" as if it hadn't ever occurred to him. We were doing the typical sister-banter thing in front of him, which was making him laugh, and Gillian said, "Can you tell we're sisters?" Bucky just grinned and shrugged. Cute little lemur that he is.

Gillian, Cookie, and me. Cookie's mouth is open because he was probably in the middle of making smart remarks about our shoes. It was crowded all day, so getting near the guys required a lot of finesse maneuvering, and as we squeezed in for our turn to take a pic with Cook, he looked at our flip-flop-shod feet and remarked, "You know, if you wore real shoes, you wouldn't have to worry about people stepping on your feet." I shrugged. "Oh well, it's hot." (Must have been at least 100 in the sun). "I know," Cookie responded with a grin. Another very friendly and nice guy, although we again didn't have time to talk with him the way I did last year.

Gillian, Brad, Darcy, and me. I think this is a cute picture, and Brad himself is of course as adorable as ever. The lady behind me with the water bottle was prowling around looking for people who might be stepping on the grass.

This year's Todd shot! I love Todd. I brought this picture from last year to show him, and he looked at it and said, "Oh, awesome!" Then, of course, we needed this year's version of the Toddhug, which we got.

Me, Matt, Darcy, and Gillian. Notice two things: 1) That Matt is resting his Gatorade bottle on my shoulder, and 2) The baby just beyond Gillian's shoulder. Once we had gotten our Matt pic, her dad handed her to Matt for a shot, and Matt held her gingerly in both enormous hands, making a funny face as if afraid he would drop her or she would start crying. It was amusing. Since there was such a big bottleneck around Matt, I don't think he moved the entire time.

Darcy, Iannetta, and I. Iannetta is, as always, very quiet and serious, methodically going along the line and applying his superior brain to the difficult task of Photo Day.

Someone scanned this picture crookedly. Gillian, U-ball, and me. No, Uball is not as scared of us as he looks. And no, my head is not on his shoulder.

Another very crookedly scanned photo, this one of me and last year's stretch-run hero Seth Smith. Who is looking kinda hot in that scruff.

Spilly! And us. Gillian was wearing her fringed/specially modified Everyday is a Holliday shirt, which she has cut up in strips, and Spilly took one look at it and said, "Hey, that's a cool shirt!" Since most people think this modification is odd, Gillian has taken it as one more indication that she and Ryan are soul mates. (I kid). I also got to tell him that I liked his tattoo. Spilly is the man and he needs to come back soon. I'm just happy that he was there.

Me and a camera-locating-challenged Stewie, who is looking the wrong way. Although he did kind of stare at me beforehand and then caress my neck during the photo (although not in a creepy way). So that was nice. He's not bad looking in person. Actually kind of cute. That is the case with most of them.

That does it for my pics. There are others with my sisters in them, but above is a fairly nice sample of what we got. It was a fun game, we got to semi-hang out with them, and screw the crowds. Damn bandwagoners. We were there last year before it was cool to be a Rockies fan. Mwah. Also, I’m glad that the Rockies are still enough of a small-market team to be able to do cool things like this (although it was a little zooey). Can you imagine the Red Sox, Yankees, Cubs, or Mets (all of whom I hate virulently with the exception of the Mets) trying to do something like that? Eh, yeah. Pandemonium.

Kip Wells vs. Eric Stults tomorrow. This is probably not going to end well.

Fireworks and the Fourth II, Very Late

2008-07-11T17:35:00.002-04:00

Yes, I know the Fourth of July was a week ago, but at the rate I'm going, you should feel lucky that I even got around to it at all. Like last summer, I'm working close to full-time at Starbucks, worrying about whether I will ever get a raise (my last paycheck actually showed some improvement in my generally dire financial straits) and how in the hell I will ever afford Oxford this fall. I can't believe I'll be starting my junior year soon, and that I will be overseas for a year, but these are topics for another post, on my other blog. Click on my name if you're that curious.

In any case, my sister and I again decided to go to the Rockies' July 4th fireworks game since we had so much fun last year. (Click here to have the full report from 2007's fiesta. I see that I was only three days late that year, not seven). We also decided to get the tickets where you can legitimately get on the field, since last year we heard from a helpful friend that sections 148-160 got to go down onto the actual field for the fireworks. Of course, we had tickets in section 146, so we had to pull off a little subterfuge to get it to work, and it did. Well, not so this year. We purchased a pair of heinously overpriced single tickets in the left-field bleachers, sections 151 and 153 respectively, but had little to no intention of actually adhering to these inconvenient arrangements. When we got to the stadium late on a very hot July afternoon, Rockies hats and sunglasses doing their best to keep it out, we just decided that we'd keep moving around in the undoubtedly overcrowded bleachers until we found a pair of seats together. The Rockies were playing the Marlins, instead of the Mets as they were last year, and the pitching matchup was Greg Reynolds vs. the felon, Scott Olsen. As mentioned, we made it to Reynolds' first win, but he does have a tendency to be... mercurial. (That tendency would show up indisputably in a few hours).

I was wearing my Rockies NL Champs shirt, which, for a shirt with such good memories, has managed to serve as a lightning rod of bad luck for the purple-and-black poltroons. (Or maybe that's their own incompetence, not my clothing choices). I had decided to wear it since I didn't want to wear my Hawpe shirt again and my Atkins shirt needed to be washed, and clearly I was going to have to express my allegiances somehow aside from just my Tulo and Francis-autographed hat. (Not my other Rockies hat, which is signed by Atkins, Cook, Hirsh, Carroll, and Iannetta, but another hat, which I took along to the Mets game on June 20. The Rockies lost, but as mentioned, Tulo and Francis signed my hat and it was Tulo's first game back, so everyone gave him a huge cheer and the 'Tulo!' chant when he came up. He hit two weak ground balls, a liner right at David Wright, and got robbed of extra bases by Endy Chavez, who has a knack for doing that. Cook sucked. Jeff Baker hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the first and it went downhill from there -- the final score was 7-2 Mets. That was the second game I got to this season). But the third was the fireworks game, the Fourth, and I knew that I was taking chances by wearing such a jinxed piece of apparel. I decided that if the Rockies lost, I wasn't wearing the Champs shirt again until the offseason, where it would probably cause Dan O'Dowd to trade Holliday for a package of Double-A pitching prospects.

Gillian and I knocked around the stadium, said hello to our sister who works at the Diamond Dry Goods store, briefly reconnoitered with a fellow Purple Row poster and discussed chucking pieces of gum at George Frazier (who was sitting right above us doing the pregame show) then went into Section 151 and laid claim to one of the seats to which we were entitled. We sat there, enjoying the sunshine, until the game started. To which, I have to say, we did not enjoy very much. At least to start with.

Greg Reynolds left a sinkerball over the middle of the plate on his very first pitch of the game, and Marlins leadoff hitter/shortstop Hanley Ramirez hit it approximately 400 feet for a quick 1-0 Fish lead. This, however, did not settle Reynolds down, and by the time the inning ended, the Rockies were already behind 5-0. Pre-emptively, I blamed the unlucky shirt. But what the hell, there were still eight innings to go and it was a nice night. Aside from Reynolds' inability to pitch.

Fortunately, Scott Olsen wasted no time in proving that he wanted a bite of the fail pie, as doubles by Spilborghs and Barmes made it 5-1. Unfortunately, that was all the Rockies got in the bottom of the first, and by the time the top of the second was over, Reynolds had already been pulled with the Marlins' lead stretched to 7-1. But the Rockies weren't done scoring by a long shot. They added two runs in the bottom of the second when Spilly and Barmes struck back with a pair of RBI singles, and once they scored in the bottom of the third on a Baker RBI groundout, the lead had been cut to 7-4 and a comeback was starting to look manageable. Weirdly enough, however, when it was 7-1, I just had a funny feeling that it was someone else's turn to fail, and that maybe, maybe, no matter how improbable it sounded, we might win this one. I figured it would take a miracle. I was right, as it turned out later.

The Marlins, it seemed, had other ideas. Aided by a giant helping of fail from Cedrick Bowers and Luis "Should Pay Carbon Points For Taking Up Space" Vizcaino, they piled on six runs in an agonizing top of the fourth to push the deficit all the way back to 13-4. Gillian and I groaned and wondered how we were ever going to sit through this in time to get to the fireworks at the end. In the meantime, we were still playing seat roulette, moving from place to place in the bleachers as those who originally had claim to the seats came back and booted us. At one point right about now, it is worth noting that the woman sitting behind me tapped me on the shoulder and said, "Do you go to school in New York?" Surprised, I said, "Yes." She said, "Do you remember sitting next to me in Shea Stadium?" Even more surprised, I said, "Oh my God, I do!"

In another of my baseball escapades which naturally failed to get blogged about, I went to four or five Mets games this April while I was finishing up my sophomore year. At one of them, which I think was April 16 against the Nationals, my friend Mary and I ended up sitting in the upper deck next to, I swear, the only other Rockies fan in the place. She said she was out from Denver for the weekend, and since she actually didn't know that much about baseball, I spent the entire game educating her on the finer points of the best sport in the world. It was one of those remarkable coincidences that make you think, "Wow, small world," when, three months and 1600 miles later, she happened to be sitting one row behind me in the left-field bleachers at Coors. At least until Gillian and I moved again.

The Rockies, defying all our gloomy predictions that they were now certain to pack it in and try to speed through the rest of the game as fast as possible to at least get to the fireworks, instead showcased a remarkable resilience that hasn't exactly been their hallmark this season. After they inched to within 13-5 in the bottom of the fourth thanks to a monster concourse shot from Spilly, they exploded for four runs of their own in the bottom of the fifth. Holliday led off with a laser line drive of a homer, Atkins singled, Jeff Baker doubled, and after Hawpe and Tulo both grounded out, it was left up to Iannetta to deliver. Boy, did he ever. He hit one of the most mammoth homers I've ever seen in my life, another concourse shot, a three-run bomb that would have left Coors completely if the Toyota sign hadn't been in the way. This made it 13-9, the Marlins doing a marvelous job of squandering what had looked like a pretty ironclad lead. Gillian and I joked that the Fish were leaving in Olsen since they couldn't imagine the Rockies would actually clamber all the way back from a nine-run hole -- "He's not gonna give up thirteen runs, leave 'im out there!" (Imagine this said in stereotypical Bronx gangster accent with a lot of giggling. Hey, we had to amuse ourselves somehow).

The Marlins were uncomfortable with this turn of events, especially after Spilly hit his second homer of the game in the bottom of the sixth to bring the Rockies just three runs shy. After Barmes hit another double, Atkins had a long at-bat, fouling off a lot of pitches before he unloaded on one into the left-field seats -- coincidentally, just a few rows shy of us after Gillian had asked him to hit it to us. It was now 13-12 (Olsen was by now out of the game, but his replacement, Tankersley, wasn't faring much better) and a comeback was looking very feasible. The Marlins, I imagine, scrambled around the dugout looking for the panic button.

In any case, they decided that the best thing to do about it was to score more runs of their own. Jason "Gas Can" Grilli went badly to hell in the top of the seventh, as an intentional walk predictably backfired when Cody Ross lashed a bases-loaded single to score two and push the Fish advantage back to three again. (For the record, Cody Ross was an absolute monster for the series: 12-20, 15 RBI. Uh, if the Marlins want Yorvit, we'll take that guy. Spilly can start the road games and Ross can start at Coors). But that wasn't the extent of the damage, as although the Rockies managed to get two outs, old foe Luis Gonzalez tormented them again with another two-run single. By the time the top of the seventh was finally over, the Marlins' lead was 17-12 and the Rockies were really going to need to get the comeback mojo going.

They did, astonishingly enough. Quintanilla led off the bottom of the seventh with a double, and Spilly was intentionally-unintentionally walked. (Tulo was pulled in a double switch, and, as we found out later, wasn't too happy about it. In fact, he slammed a bat, lacerated his hand, had to get stitches, and ended up on the DL again... idiot). After Barmes walked as well, the bases were loaded with no outs, Coors was really starting to get into it, and Holliday was at the plate. Gillian and I, along with everyone else, were making a LOT of noise. In fact, I was already starting to lose my voice in the seventh, but I didn't really care.

Holliday went to a full count. I told him to do something good, since Coors was waiting for a chance to really explode, and boy, did he ever. He hit a rocket to center field that had the place going ape, he knew it was gone and punched his fists in the air as soon as he hit it, and he was right. 17-16, and the improbability continued. Atkins hit a single, but three straight strikeouts by Baker, Iannetta, and Hawpe ensured that the deficit stayed at one run. Neither team scored in the eighth (the first time all game that the Rockies hadn't scored at least one run in an inning) and after a nine-pitch inning by Bucky to get to the bottom of the ninth, the Marlins had completely exhausted their pen and had no chance but to put in Kevin Gregg, who had blown it the previous night (Spilly hit a two-run walkoff single in the bottom of the eleventh). All of Coors was on its feet and you had the sense it wasn't so much as if it was going to happen, but rather, how it was going to happen. Everyone was yelling, really keeping the energy level and the pressure up, and when Barmes started off the ninth by shooting a single into LF, you kinda felt it was actually going to happen. It was a pretty amazing feeling.

Holliday hit a flare that dropped, and Atkins hit a rocket into center field to tie the game at 17. Everyone was really losing it, and it felt like I imagine some of the Rocktober games last year must have. (Grr at missing those, but this almost made it up). After Bake hit a ball that looked like it might be two, Ramirez dropped the throw at second and everyone was safe -- bases loaded, still no out, and Iannetta at the plate. He delivered on the second pitch, grounding a bleeder past a diving Ramirez and into left field to bring the winning run home, and Coors really DID go nuts. Gillian and I leapt up and down, screamed ourselves hoarse some more, and high-fived everyone in sight. 18-17 win, Broncos over Dolphins. Go figure.

And that, of course, was even before the fireworks, which at one point looked as if they were going to have to be the main attraction. As it did last year, it took a long-ass time to get down on the field -- the game had gone four hours, and it was 45 minutes after it ended by the time Gillian and I finally stepped out onto the warning track beneath the lights, took off our sandals, and walked along happily on the damp dirt. Then we filed into the same place as last year, left field, not too far away from Holliday's little tornado of sunflower-seed shells, and collected both a few of those and some blades of grass. We did little dances on the grass barefoot, just for the hell of it, then lay down, thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, and just like last year, enjoyed it as the lights went out, we lay in the dark stadium, and fireworks exploded overhead. It was a pretty damn good show, if I say so myself.

This will likely be the last blog post until next Saturday, July 19th, which is something else I am very much looking forward to repeating -- Photo Day. (My biggest concern is that since Tulo, Todd, and Spilly are all hurt -- argh -- they won't be there. That would be ruinous. I'll just plan for that not to be the case). In any case, Holliday ended up being the starting right fielder for the NL in the All-Star Game since Soriano got hurt. But since Clint Hurdle is managing and there is little to no hope of ending AL domination, I wonder if I'll even watch the damn thing. The Rockies are in New York right now to close out their first half, and their record currently stands at a thoroughly underwhelming 39-54. But due to the NL West turning back into the NL Worst, and the Diamondbacks being a long, long way from the SuperTeam they were originally pegged as due to their scorching April, the Rox are still only seven games out. Still. When Glendon Rusch, Jorge de la Rosa, and Mark Redman are three-fifths of your rotation (dear god, I wish I was joking.... Cook and Jimenez are the other two, Francis is hurt, Morales got broken by our genius pitching coaches, Hirsh is struggling, and Reynolds got demoted) it's pretty hard to envision this team being taken seriously even in a joke of a division. I guess I'll have to be content with them winning 40 by the break, and since they're on the road, this will always be something of a challenge.

0-0 at the middle of the second. Aaron Cook vs. Oliver Perez. Go Rockies? Well, I've made it this far with them, even if they generally give me coronaries. Also, fire Hurdle and Apodaca. Plzthx.

A Comeback and a Coors Return

2008-06-08T13:32:00.001-04:00

At last, something worth reporting. I did finally make it back to Coors for a game last night for the first time in about 10 months (or 9 months give or take a week or two). My last game in person was August 24, my birthday, against the Nats, and then a whole lot of stuff happened. A lot of it was amazing and thrilling (21 Days, the Rockies' run to the pennant) and a lot of it was atrocious and terrible (the World Series, most of 2008 in general). However, the crap took a reprieve last night, and I actually enjoyed myself thoroughly. This after I had to stop watching their games during the latest incarnation of the Road Trip from Hell, this one a 2-8 swing through Philadelphia, Chicago, and LA. Some of the lowlights on this trip involved being blown out 20-5 by the Phillies and blowing a 9-1 lead against the Cubs (yes, 9-1. And that's the last I will say about that. Repress, ye all, repress). I kind of had a feeling before the trip started that it was going to be a disaster, and was unfortunately right. At least they managed to win the last two games against LA, and coming home, actually managed to pull off a stirring comeback against the Brewers, who had won 9 of 10 coming in. Down 4-1 in the eighth, the Rockies actually resembled themselves from last year and strung together a five-run rally. Highlighted with a Todd double, an Atkins two-run triple, and the big blow, a Hawpe two-run homer (and off a lefty) they managed to win 6-4. (Fuentes didn't actually blow it. Amazing, I know).

(I feel obliged to mention that of course as soon as I start writing good things about them, Francis goes back to sucking and is currently in a 1-0 hole in the first with one out, a guy on second, and a 3-0 count on Prince Fielder. Actually, scratch that, he just walked Fielder. Never MIND).

Anyway, at least last night was fun. They were giving out Tulo bobbleheads, and my sister and I met up with my friend Nikki and her mom to enjoy the game from sect. 148, in pretty much exactly the same seats we purloined when we snuck down to the field last July 4th. We watched Greg Reynolds secure both his first major league victory (4 hits, 2 runs in 6 innings, attakid) and major league hit (a double down the right-field line. He was IMMEDIATELY erased when Willy T, failing as usual, popped into a double play, but the effort was nice. He also got a shaving cream pie to the face later, but we missed that part). Meanwhile, Hawpe, who just got back from an injury rehab assignment, blasted a grand slam in the first inning, followed one pitch later by a monster Iannetta homer. In the fifth inning, Ian Stewart hit a ball to Boulder (actually, the third deck) for his second big-league homer, and despite the fact that I absolutely freaked the fuck out when it happened, Jorge de la Rosa did not blow it in the seventh. Nor did Jason Grilli in the eighth. (Yes, I swear, these are the kinds of "relief" we have in the pen right now). What was fun was that Taylor Buchholz got to pitch the ninth, which may be the last time we see him for quite a while now that The Viz (he of the 27.00 ERA) is back, and Hurdle, being the genius he is, has announced his intent to give The Viz more innings. Apparently Bucky's 1.67 ERA has escaped him. Most things do. Poor Bucky, he'll have to go sit back in the locked bathroom with Iannetta.

Speaking of Iannetta, can you guess which of these two stat lines belongs to our starting catcher:

A) .289/6/20/.358/.577/.935
B) .221/2/15/.260/.338/.599

If you guessed A), as most rational people would, you'd be wrong. Nope, Yorvit Torrealba, aka B) must possess incriminating photos of Hurdle or something to keep being named the starter. There was already enough clamor to replace Torrealba with Iannetta last year even when Iannetta was struggling too, and now that he's hitting very well, it's getting even more excruciating to watch him lose time to a generally inferior player. AND we have Yorvit another year. Groan.

Help, however, may be on the way. Holliday went 4/4 last night on his rehab assignment with the Sky Sox, Tulo should be back in another few weeks, Barmes won't be far behind, and hopefully Jason Hirsh will make it back as well so we don't have to have Glendon Rusch (yes, I'm serious) start another game for us. Jeff Francis sucks, so does Manny Corpas, and Aaron Cook is really the only outstanding starter we have. A four-game win streak, modest as it is, of course has everyone hoping they've figured something out, which of course is not very likely, but hey. At least I got a Tulo bobblehead.

An Update As Short As The Rockies Are Bad

2008-05-14T02:40:00.008-04:00

Yes, I am alive. Yes, the Rockies still suck great big hairy donkey balls. No, they have not done anything that I particularly wish to immortalize on the Internets, as relieving them in my scarred psyche is quite traumatic enough, thank you very much. Yes, in the very unlikely event that they sort asshats from teakettles and begin to resemble a MLB team again, I shall return to writing about them. In the meantime, all I do is piss, moan, complain, suffer, agonize, watch their games anyway and get angrier, bitch some more, question the meaning of life, and spit on small children, sunshine, old ladies, rainbows, and puppies. Which actually makes me a little like Philip Rivers, only without the Southern drawl and overwhelming aura of eau de douchebag. *

* Disclaimer: This is not true. I have not actually spat on anything and I have been doing quite well at life, mainly by pretending the purple-and-black poltroons do not exist. This is called repression and is the only way I can cope. Freud was onto something after all. I had coffee, worked some more on my latest book, and bought sweet new headphones today. That was good. I am done with sophomore year on Friday and go home on Monday. This is even better. Game against the Diamondbacks? What game against the Diamondbacks? Our sixth loss in seven games against the Diamondbacks? I'm sorry, this does not compute. Try another blog.

Well..... That's Just Wonderful

2008-05-01T18:22:00.001-04:00

Tulo could be out until midseason.

That's just really fucking wonderful. I mean, he was slumping and all, but he was Tulo. He started out slowly last year, then he turned on the jets. Now he was forced to rush into the lineup last night after Baker tore a blood vessel, and it looks he completely tore a tendon near his quad, leading to a 4-to-8-week absence. I don't even know what to say. Yeah, no more pixie dust. I am pretty peeved right now. To put it lightly.

I Cannot Believe The Words Are Coming Outta Me Mouth

2008-04-24T01:53:00.001-04:00

... but I'm on the verge of asking for Fuentes back as closer.

Thanks for a crapload of nothing, Manny. And against the Cubs. Fourth night in a row. Someone check the calendar, I think it's June 2007 again. And if we lose tomorrow, we'll go winless on this brief homestand.

Dear God.

Absolutely Pathetic

2008-04-23T01:45:00.001-04:00

I really don't want to waste words recapping it, but every time you think the 2008 Rockies have figured something out, they go off and do their damndest to show you that no, they are still as wildly streaky as ever. Win four, lose three, and do so in agonizing fashion -- by blowing a one-run lead in the eighth, the eighth, and the ninth, respectively. Our bullpen was the best in baseball three days ago. Then the Astros broadcasters handily jinxed it. It was 4-3 Rockies and then 5-4 Astros. It was 5-4 Rockies and then 9-5 Phillies. It was 6-5 Rockies and then 8-6 Phillies. Three winnable games that we will regret later, especially with the damned Dbacks looking well-nigh unstoppable. Instead of 12-8, we are 9-11. Great going, guys.

Sometimes I swear I hate this team more than I ever loved them.... Oy.

Love, Hate, Tolerate: The Lucky and the Luckless

2008-04-20T02:56:00.001-04:00

Something which I have been meaning to do for a while, if only for the sheer hell of it. I thought I would rank each team in Major League Baseball according to my personal preferences, as if this means a flying crap. But hey, we all have our vanity, and I'm bored on Saturday night after watching a Rockies win, which equals this staggering work of heartbreaking genius. The Rockies go for the sweep over the Astros, and a 6-3 record on a 9-game, 10-day road trip (well, actually, more like a 10.5 game road trip once you add in all the extra innings vs. the Padres) with Ubaldo Jimenez matching up with old friend Shawn Chacon. And by friend, I really mean, used to kick things and yell while he was haplessly attempting to ''close" games. He went 1-9 as a closer one year, and Hurdle kept trotting him out there. Oy.

Anyway.

The Fortunate Five

1. Colorado Rockies. Anyone who reads this blog needs no explaining as to why my purple-and-black boys top this list. I love them. Too much, I think.
2. Oakland A's. Used to be really into them, am not really so much anymore, but still enjoy watching their games and have a hat autographed by quite a few members of the team (at least circa 2006).
3. St. Louis Cardinals. Was thrilled when they won the 2006 World Series, have also cooled on them a little recently, but they still have Adam Wainwright. I love Adam Wainwright.
4. Milwaukee Brewers. They merit a spot this high on the list for all their help last September, which they squelched the Padres for the last two regular-season games in order to force The Tiebreaker. Tony Gwynn Jr. mentions that the Rockies themselves have thanked him for corking that triple off Hoffman, and I dunno, I've never found anything inherently loathable about the Brew Crew. I mean, it was a total sham that Braun got the ROY, but that was the writers' fault, not his. Also, Milwaukee and Colorado seem to be on good terms, and I like that.
5. New York Mets. I know, I know. It's embarrassing to have to even admit it. I am not a Mets fan, and when going to games at Shea, frequently root for them to screw up if only because the reaction from the actual Mets fans around me is always amusing. (Booing being a recreational sport in New York). But aside from Coors, I've been to the most games at Shea, and out of the two teams in my adopted hometown, they're the one I don't hate, detest, loathe, and wish to vanish into thin air. Not that I'm talking about anyone in particular, of course. But I have a pair of good friends who are Mets fans, we go to games together, and always have a great time. It was freezing the last two times we went (earlier this week) and I steadfastly stuck it out, for a team that I can take or leave (mainly because I just love baseball). So, oddly enough, one of the East Coast darlings actually does earn a relatively high spot on this list. Whether it's for them or not, I don't know, but there you go.

The Tolerable Ten

6. Cleveland Indians. Play hard and always seem to be good, which would be annoying if I was a fan of a team in the AL Central aside from them. Also, my parents swear up and down I used to go to Indians games with my sisters and a family friend (we used to live in Ohio) but I don't remember at all. Also, I have strong feelings about The Jake having its name changed to "Progressive Field" -- what a crock. I still wish we'd played the Indians in the Series last year, mainly because we'd probably have won.
7. Seattle Mariners. Lookout Landing, a top Mariners blog, is absolutely hysterical. I'm serious, it is absolute comic genius, I read it just to laugh, and the Mariners commercials (a tradition) are always funny as well. (You can check them out online). All that adds up to a high spot for the Caffeineheads.
8. Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Even though their insistence on being called the "Rays" now is mildly nettling (I therefore always call them by their proper name, heh) they remind me somewhat of the Rockies, Evan Longoria is good friends with Tulo, and any team that has a chip on its shoulder for the Yankees (aside from the Red Sox....) is good by me.
9. Florida Marlins. Poor Marlins. You can't really hate them. A-Rod makes more than their entire team, and any time anyone good shows up, Loria hauls them off and buys more children under 21 to staff the Baby Fish. Also, I rooted for them in the 1997 Series as a spratling of nine tender years, and it was a lot of fun. (Wow, that was a long time ago).
10. Minnesota Twins. They have a god-awful stadium (although that may soon be remedied, their new park may be built without a roof.... which equals April baseball in Minneapolis outdoors, which equals oof). Still, their players are likable, Justin Morneau should be commended for nabbing the AL MVP in 2006 ahead of That Man In Pinstripes, and if they ever get Francisco Liriano healthy, they could have Santana all over again.
11. Pittsburgh Pirates. I know almost nothing about the Pirates except that Ian Snell once thought the Rockies were stealing signs and therefore threatened to start beaning them. It didn't happen, and it makes me think that it was just Snell being Snell -- i.e. totally crazy. Also, the Pirates beat the Rockies 3 of 4 in August last year. That hurt. But they are the Pirates. Success is short-lived, therefore why bother hating them?
12. Cincinnati Reds. They have the pieces in place to be very good in a few years, but then went and sent that all to pot by hiring Dusty Baker. Cueto, Votto, Bailey, Bruce, etc. should have Cincinnati fans thinking that their days of doormatting it in the Central may be coming to an end. Downside: Say goodbye to the right arms of Arroyo and Harang.
13. Toronto Blue Jays. They swept the Rockies to start that horrible roadtrip that didn't happen (you know, the 1-9 one... OOF... back to repressing). But Dustin McGowan and Shaun Marcum are a strong starter duo, and hey, I always kind of pull for anyone in the East squashed beneath the 800-lb gorillas. You know, Thing 1 and Thing 2.
14. Washington Nationals. They try so hard. And then they fail. But it's kind of cute/pathetic to watch them giving it another brave stab anyway.
15. Texas Rangers. They earn this spot mainly on the strength of C.J. Wilson, their eccentric blue-gloved lefty reliever. In case I have not told you this recently, he is amazing.

The Dubious Decade

16. Houston Astros. Seriously, who likes the Astros? They have terrible management, they had Roger Clemens a few years, they went to the Series in 2005 and then boffed it all up. Don't hate them, but seriously, the Astros? Whatever.
17. Atlanta Braves. Nobody likes Chipper Jones, including Chipper Jones, but don't tell him that. We can save his existential crisis for when it would be more useful.
18. Detroit Tigers. I have to say, watching the Tigers fall flat on their faces out of the gate, after everyone had pre-emptively anointed them the AL Champs following their acquisition of Willis and Cabrera, was pretty damn satisfying.
19. Baltimore Orioles. The Orioles are so bad. And no matter how well they've started off this year, I am sure they'll realize that and go back to their usual climes of TEH FAIL.
20. Chicago White Sox. Have THE most annoying broadcasters in all of baseball, and it was more fun when they were cursed too. Although they do suck again, so cool.
21. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Stupid name. You are not the Dodgers. And you play in Disneyland. Bugger off and get some Mickey Mouse ears.
22. Los Angeles Dodgers. I don't precisely hate them, but there are certainly no fond feelings for them either. Their fans always leave early to "beat the traffic," they spend more than everyone in the West and don't have a whole lot to show for it, and Nomar? Seriously? Whatever. The Helton homer off Saito last September 18th was a defining moment of my life. Sheerly amazing. And then we swept them in four, right in the middle of the streak. Good times.
23. Arizona Diamondbacks. Purple Row and AZ Snakepit's posters have a good relationship with each other, and enjoy bantering and discussing their teams. I am good friends with several Arizona fans from there, and the Dbacks are much like the Rockies -- a team of young, talented, genuinely nice guys. That said, they are our biggest division rival and are getting annoyingly good -- sheez, Slytherin, lose a few. Plus they have Eric Byrnes and danced on our field like it was a big deal when they won the West. We got you back in the NLCS, suckers. (Although it is true I am trying to expunge details of our early-season meetings thus far from my scarred psyche).
24. Kansas City Royals. They played us last June for one of the most aggravating series imaginable, which Rockies Nation as a whole pretends does not exist, and always seem to play like the Worldbeaters instead of the Turfeaters against us. AND we have to play them again this year. Oh brother.
25. San Francisco Giants. They only earn this spot because I couldn't decide if I hated them or the Phillies more, and decided it was the Phillies. Nonetheless, the Giants richly deserve all the fail that comes to them.

The Terrible Tier

26. Philadelphia Phillies. Overhyped, overrated, and Jimmy Rollins. Swept in the NLDS by us, after all the pundits sagely figured this team (East Coast, remember, therefore better!) would sweep US. Revenge is sweet. Go cry in your beer, you bunch of hooligans who constitute "fans" in the "City of Brotherly Love."
27. San Diego Padres. Yep, the hate is pretty epic here. You know what? It doesn't matter if Holliday touched the plate, we still beat you. And then we beat you again in 22 innings. And we went to the playoffs because you blew chunks. Take THAT.
28. New York Yankees. It's actually pretty hard to decide who goes where for the last three spots on this list, since I hate the Yankees, Red Sox, and Cubs equally -- which is to say, with the force of an exploding star? Let's just say I find nothing at all lovable, likable, tolerable, or even mildly dislikable about this band of overexposed prima-donnas. In fact, you might say I hate them. That doesn't even sound strong enough, but you know what I mean.
29. Chicago Cubs. I asked a friend if the Cubs or Red Sox should go in the last slot on this list. His response: "The Red Sox. At least the Cubs have the decency not to win the World Series." Which I think is true, and the only thing keeping the Small Bears out of the cellar (hey, they'll get there on their own, given enough time. Cubsuck is a law of the universe -- it will be a constant). I hate their fans (especially their fans) the fact they're now a big-market and still-shitty team, and the fact that it's still "trendy" to root for them when they're nothing but a bunch of giant losers. Also, their fans. Did I mention their fans? Here's to another century of Cubs futility.
30. Boston Red Sox. I have hated the Red Sox for all of my career as a baseball fan, whether for one reason or another, and it was made about a hundred times worse by last October. The Red Sox are just evil, there is no other way to put it. There is nothing redeeming about this team. They are the incarnation of the Devil. Should I tell you how I really feel? Die, Red Sox, die.

Total Insanity, Total Awesomeness

2008-04-18T18:35:00.004-04:00

Wow. When the rubber match between the Rockies and Padres came about, a pitching duel might have been expected, but what everyone got was well and beyond the call of duty. Perpetual Cy contender Jake Peavy was starting against Colorado "ace" Jeff Francis (and ace is in scare quotes because although he entered the season with that designation, his first few starts were anything but). But Jeff lived up to his half of the billing, and for seven innings, he and Peavy threw zeros at each other. Francis finished with 7 innings, 3 hits, 0 runs, 1 walk, and 7 K's; Peavy with 8 innings, 4 hits, 3 walks, and 11 K's. Brian Fuentes pitched a perfect bottom of the eighth for the Rockies, and Trevor Hoffman only did the same for the Padres in the ninth thanks to his ridiculous park. Helton and Holliday hit back-to-back shots that would have been out of anywhere except the hitter's wasteland known as Petco Park, but since they were in Petco, they just went down as a pair of flyouts. With the score 0-0 entering the ninth, Taylor Buchholz came in and pitched a perfect inning to send it to the tenth, where Heath Bell pitched a clean inning for San Diego, so Buchholz came in and threw another one... are you by any chance detecting a pattern here?

The team went on swapping goose-eggs right up until the 14th, where, with the bases loaded and 2 out, Brad Hawpe worked a walk to make it 1-0. Of course, it wasn't destined to end there. The Padres had already wasted a golden opportunity in the bottom of the 12th -- Paul McAnulty hit a laser into the right field corner and had the bad idea to test Hawpe's arm. Hawpe fired a bullet to second baseman Barmes (yes, he's starting due to Nix's terribleness, and shockingly not embarrassing himself) and Barmes fired it on to Atkins, who applied the tag for the first out. Instead of having a runner at second and no out, the Padres had one out and no one on -- and when Randy Wolf (the same pitcher who two-hit the Rox a few nights ago) hit a single, it loomed even larger, as the game was still scoreless as that point and it could have been the winner. The Padres tried again in the bottom of the 14th, as Manny Corpas, who is still prone to the early-season wobbles, blew his second save in five chances and allowed Josh Bard to stroke the game-tying single. Tulowitzki threw Clark out at the plate on the next play to again escape the game-winner, and pinch-hitter Colt Morton grounded out to end it. Onto the fifteenth. And sixteenth. And seventeenth. And eighteenth. And nineteenth.

Both teams exhausted their benches around the sixteenth, leading to a number of relievers having to actually bat. The Rockies grounded into four double plays; the Padres into two. The Rockies left 16 men on base; the Padres left 14. The Rockies struck out 20 times, the Padres 17. Buchholz, Micah Bowie, and Corpas pitched two innings apiece, allowing between them 3 hits, but most unfortunately Corpas yakked up the tying run. Ryan Speier pitched 3 innings, allowing just two hits. And the game STILL wasn't over! Kip Wells came in for the 19th as the last available pitcher -- Cook and Morales had flown to Houston already, and Jimenez and Redman had pitched in the first two games of the series. Who knows who was going to pitch next -- Barmes? Helton? (He pitched in college). Tulo? (He can hit 94). I always kind of wish that would happen, but it didn't. In the top of the 22nd inning, Willy T reached on a Khalil Greene throwing error, stole second, and moved to third on Josh Bard's throwing error, ending up there with two outs and Tulo at the plate. Tulo has, let's just say, not looked very much like himself for the early going, and is still lugging around a .167 average. However, he redeemed himself for the moment, bouncing an RBI double into left-center to score Willy T with the go-ahead run, 2-1. Wells still had one more inning to get through -- he hit Greene with a pitch to begin the bottom of the 22nd, got Josh Bard to ground into a double play, and struck out Glendon Rusch -- yes, Glendon Rusch, hitting for himself since the benches were long since empty -- to end it, six hours and 16 minutes after it had begun on Thursday night. It was over early Friday morning at 1:21 AM PT. Wells picked up the win, pitching four innings with one hit, one walk, and three strikeouts.

This is 4:21 AM ET. And where was I? Sitting through every agonizing pitch. Did I have class tomorrow... er, later this morning? You know it. Was anything happening? No. Was it painful? As all hell. And yet there I sat, with all my fellow lunatics on Purple Row, getting goofy by necessity and fighting off exhaustion since I'm too much of a fanatic to give it up and go to bed. But it was amazing. The guys seem to have realized that they've been grinding too much (Tulo) and forgetting to have fun, so just having to sit through a game that we all seriously thought would never end helped loosen them up. Although I can't say I envy them, having to play again tonight only about 14 hours after the last game ended -- travel to Houston included. Hopefully everyone slept on the plane..!

Go Rockies!

Update: Still Shitty

2008-04-16T16:40:00.001-04:00

For once, my lack of blogging has nothing to do with my own questionable diligence, but rather at a failed attempt at un-hexing the deeply hexed, otherwise known as my beloved and currently very inept Colorado Rockies. They have been stop and go (mainly stop) this far, and are sitting at a not-so-pretty 5-8 mark coming out of the first few weeks of the season. (I think the Giants may have won more games than them, but I am afraid to look). Since they went on that losing streak right after I wrote the recap of their first game, I tried some preventive superstitious measures, such as not wearing Rockies gear and not writing about them, which worked in the course of a three-game sweep of the Braves in which they looked more like themselves. It failed again once they dropped 2 of 3 to the Diamondbacks (at least they didn't get swept again....?) and since they managed to stage their one win in convincing fashion at the end of the series (13-5) I had hope going into San Diego. Nope, they got two hits and got shut out by Randy Wolf while losing 6-0. Oy. Holliday did not touch the plate last night, whether disputed or otherwise, and nor did anyone else. Shit.

Clearly (hopefully) the offense won't be this bad forever, but they need some time to play every day and get into a rhythm. The bad part being, while they suck, it's pretty hard to endure this on a day-by-day basis. Not as if that has ever stopped me before, and likely won't be any detriment this time, but sheeez. Would a fast start kill you guys? Every time I think they really must have just played their worst game possible and therefore have to start their (ponderous) recovery, they outdo themselves, then I remind myself that a) it's early and we have time to come out of it, and b) we are the Rockies and failure is unfortunately a little more common than we'd like. Blah.

Fortunately, I missed the game last night, and will do so again tonight. I was off attending my first live games of the year, the deeply fascinating Mets/Nationals clash (note to self: be thankful we are not the Nationals). Odalis Perez vs. Mike Pelfrey isn't exactly the stuff of legend, but it was a lot of fun to take in my first game of the year, as I was with my wonderful friends Mary and Steve, who are really amazing people and always fun to go to a game with -- they pay for tickets, midnight diner runs afterwards, whatever, and seem to enjoy watching me have fun as much as I have fun. Something that's always struck me is how casually a game always starts, the quiet moment as the defense runs out and the pitcher throws a few warmups, and then suddenly all the pomp is over and the first guy is stepping in just like that, ready to go. It seems such a small thing. (Baseball philosophy 101. Sounds like a course I need to take. Do they have it here? Of course not). Since it was Jackie Robinson Day, they had his widow, Rachel, there to speak, which was pretty cool, and a gospel choir performed before the game began. (Although it was kind of frigid on an April night at Shea, so I spent the last half of the game bundled in an extra-large Mets jacket belonging to Steve. This does not mean I was one of them… I kept kind of silently rooting for the Mets to screw up, since it was amusing to watch the reactions. This did not happen, however).

Also:

Annoying Red Sox fan: “Rockies suck! Who do they have? The Sox have Ortiz and Ramirez!”

Me: “Ortiz? He’s batting .091 this year or something. Ramirez? Sure, I’ll give you that one. But what do you mean, who do we have? Ever heard of a guy named Matt Holliday?"

Sox fan: “Holliday can’t hit.”

Me: “Are you crazy? Have you even watched a game recently? Holliday’s OBP is close to .400, his SLG was up at .600, he hit .340 last year, he’ll hit over 30 homers and drive in well north of 100, he’s got the best hitting mechanics and work ethic imaginable, and he’s even improved on his fielding. He’s amazing.”

While this sounds as if it could easily have happened, it actually didn’t. That was a dream I had last night. I fear, I fear, I fear for my subconscious.

I am going to the Mets/Nationals game again with Mary tonight (although I think Steve has work). Matt Chico vs. John Maine, and it should be fun. I will remember to bring more Rockies-themed regalia to keep me warm, since Steve won't be around to let me borrow his jacket, and in so doing, I will be spared watching my team actually play. (Odd, I know). Since it is Mark Redman, I expect I will be excused in this sentiment.

WIN SOME DAMN GAMES, ROCKIES!

A Small Request To The Colorado Rockies

2008-04-06T22:14:00.002-04:00

Any time you're done getting swept by the Diamondbacks, hitting like crap, pitching like crap, playing like crap, looking like crap, making me feel like I've been stabbed, and otherwise generally embarrassing yourself in every facet of the game related to the playing of baseball at a (so I'm told) professional level, feel free to start your 2007 NL Champions title defense and/or the 2008 season, mkay?

I Fail To Find This Funny

2008-04-04T21:22:00.001-04:00

Seriously, I don't. What the flipping hell is wrong with the offense? We get schooled by Kyle Lohse, Todd Wellemeyer, and Brad Thompson. Then we get home and get REALLY schooled in front of a sold-out home crowd by the team we beat to win the NL pennant last year. Yeah, 4 games and there are how many to go? 158? I really think it's perfectly fine if we just sped up to the good part of this season, whenever the hell that feels like arriving. Redman was Redman, Holliday struck out 4 times, Tulo made an error and was saved from another by a charitable call from the blue. 8-1 is your final and I am not the happiest girl in the world right now; in fact that is a bit of an understatement and I know that that is a problem. Seeing as there are a damn lot of games left to go and it's going to hurt if this keeps up for even a few more days -- I have learned from past experience that I cannot go numb. I want last year's opening day loss -- we permitted the D-backs eight runs but at least we scored six.

1-3 and we look like crap. Can't hit, have a suspect starting rotation, and yeah. They're too good to be this bad forever but damn, it hurts when it does. And I think that my masochism switch is even more broken than usual, because I just sat through that whole fucking charade until the end. Somebody please find me a new hobby, at least one that will occupy two weeks and give me a chance to come back to my team when they look like a team.

I'd like a win tomorrow, but a win would involve scoring runs. I don't believe such a thing exists. Unicorns and Santa Claus, baby.

I'm now going to go do my poli-sci midterm, which sounds assloads more fun than what I just put myself through.

That Is More Like It

2008-04-02T01:58:00.000-04:00

Tulo thinks so too. Surprisingly enough, things went swimmingly tonight (well, almost, seeing as the offense sucked out loud). Kip Wells, of all people, turned in a solid effort against his former team -- 5.1 innings and 1 run, a solo shot by the guy on his face up there, Molina. New lefty setup guy Bowie got a key double play, Taylor Buchholz put two guys on but got a strikeout to end the seventh, Fuentes (SHOCKINGLY!) whipped through a spotless eighth inning, and Manny set down the Cards with similar ease in the ninth. In the meantime, Tulo got three hits but nobody else did squat, and the Rockies had been shut out by Kyle Lohse through five innings (zouch). But in the top of the eighth, Tulo got a single, Todd hit a ground-rule double, and Matt chopped one to Troy Glaus, whose off-balance throw to the plate went for an error and allowed Tulo to score. (As you might have guessed, this is the moment shown in the charming picture above. Oh Tulo. I love you). Then, with the bases loaded after Atkins' walk, it looked as if the Rockies weren't going to score the go-ahead run -- Hawpe and Torrealba both struck out. But rookie second-sacker Jayson Nix pulled a Toddfather (a bases-loaded walk) to push the Rockies up 2-1, and that was the way it finished. 1 down, 1 win, 161 more to go, Aaron Cook vs. Todd Wellemeyer tomorrow. The Rockies got a bad game washed out, the offense sucked today, and they still won, so if they can get the offense in gear against Wellemeyer, it'd be great. (Last time they saw him it was not good, as Jason Hirsh got his butt kicked and the Cardinals broke the Rockies' seven-game win streak).

Good way to start the season, fellas. Let's do it some more.

Rainout

2008-03-31T22:30:00.000-04:00

So yes, after storming all afternoon, today's game was officially called at 5:45 PM CT. This is kind of a relief, as the Cards were already up 5-1 and Francis looked as if his nerves were causing him to overthrow (he's probably just as happy to have the five runs and five walks expunged from the official record). The bad news: Los Kip gets his wish to be a starter, and he gets to do it against his old team, who are almost undoubtedly going to be thrilled that he's facing them instead of siphoning wins off them (I'm sure Cards fans have not forgotten the 7-17 season, including the 5-17 mark as a starter, he turned in for them just last year). Woo-hoo. I cannot summon myself to be thrilled about this prospect for obvious reasons. They really should just start Buchholz instead, but since he's gotten comfortable with the bullpen, they'll get finicky about not messing with his apparently very delicate psyche. He'll be facing Kyle Lohse at 6:15 pm CT/7:15 ET tomorrow, as the Rockies and Cardinals attempt to re-start their season, and guh yeah I cannot bring myself to liveblog a game that Kip the Gip is starting. It'll be bad enough watching it.

See you tomorrow anyway.

Liveblog: 3/31 Rockies Vs. Cardinals

2008-03-31T18:28:00.008-04:00

Lineups in the post below. I'm all set. And psyched.

Top 1st: Wainwright vs. Taveras, Tulowitzki, Helton

Taveras:
Fastball, strike
Curveball, ball
Fastball, SINGLE! Willy!!!

Tulo:
Pickoff attempt.
Fastball, ball. High inside.
Fastball, hit a very long way... nice catch by Schumaker, robs Tulo of a double (he scorched it). Blah. 1 out.

Helton:
Pickoff attempt.
Fastball, called strike. Questionable.
PO attempt.
PO attempt. Give it up, Adam.
Changeup, and Todd whacks it! Double down the line!! Willy T to third! And here comes Matt!

Holliday:
Slider, ball 1.
Fastball, ball 2. Inside.
Curveball, ball 3. Adam is scared of Matt. With good reason.
Slider, ball 4. Bases loaded, one out. Atkins up.

Atkins:
Fastball, ball 1.
Fastball.... OH Excellent, I see in play, runs(s).... groundout, everyone moves up, Willy T scores. 1-0 Rockies! Garrett with the club's first RBI!

Hawpe:
Curveball, called strike.
Fastball, ball.
Curveball, fouled off.
Fastball, got a little under it for a fly-out. But a nice start, and we lead. HELL yeahs.

Bottom 1st: Francis vs. Schumaker, Ludwick, Pujols

Schumaker:
Ball 1.
Ball 2.
Ball 3.
Ball 4.
FRANCIS!

Ludwick:
Ball 1. Jeffrey...
Ball 2. Come on Jeff, get rid of the nerves.
Ball 3. OH COME ON! All fastballs thus far.
Ball 4. Mound visit, please!

Pujols:
Ball 1. Fastball.
Ball 2. Slider. Um, is this NukeLaLoosh or Jeff Francis?
What? A STRIKE? 2-1. 2 on. 0 out.
Fastball.... scary out. Matt catches it. 2 on, 1 out.

Glaus:
Another ball. Somebody sort Francis out.
Ball 2. Ugh. Case of the nerves. Yorvit, talk to him in between innings.
Ball 3. Oy. Slider, for a change. Yorvit is sitting on the fastball.
Ball 4... bases loaded, one out. Not good.

Ankiel:
Ball. SOMEBODY TALK TO HIM! He was so sharp all spring.
Ball 2. Why am I not surprised? You will get no calls this way, Jeff.
Ball 3. This is insane! Jeffrey! Christ!
Fouled off. 3-1.
Fouled off again. 3-2. Get out of this inning as quickly as possible...
oh fuck... in play runs....
Double. 2-1 Cards lead. Ah fuck.

Molina:
Guess what for pitch 1.
Pitch 2: Slider, fouled.
Pitch 3: Off Helton's glove, into right. 4-1. FUCK!

Izturis:
Ball.
Ball.
Called strike. Get Izturis out, he sucks.
Fouled back, fastball. 2-2.
Didn't work. Base hit to center, Adam up. Francis, come ON. Nerves or no, don't embarrass yourself.

Wainwright:
First pitch: Infield-fly popout. 2 gone.

Miles:
Curveball, called strike.
Fastball, called strike.
Slider, ball. I really rather hoped we were past all this.
Changeup, hit at Nix, flips to Tulo for the force. Thank god THAT is over with. Blech. Now that's out of your system, Francis? 4-1 Cardinals. Kip Wells was in the bullpen, you inconsiderate bastard. KIP WELLS FOR THE LOVE OF CHRIST. Francis is usually GOOD against the Cardinals.

Top 2nd: Wainwright vs. Torrealba, Nix, Francis

Torrealba:
Fastball, swinging strike. Do not let Adam get in a groove.
Curveball, called. Eh.
Called out on a questionable "followthrough." Same old Yorvit, stupid umpires. 3-pitch K. 1 out.

Nix:
High and tight, fouled off. 0-1.
Curveball, ball 1.
Low, ball 2.
Pops out on a slider, 2 outs. This is the weak part of the lineup, but still.

Francis:
Redeem yourself, buster.
Ball 1, fastball.
Called strike.
Fouled off.
Curveball misses low, ball 2. 2-2.
Reached a little outside, fouled off. Count holds.
Slider, misses inside. 3-2. You need this kind of inning too, Jeff. That is, a fast one.
Seventh pitch.... taps softly to Adam, who throws to Pujols for the force. Ulp.

Bottom 2nd: Francis vs. Schumaker, Ludwick, Pujols

How about a re-do? EH?

Schumaker:
Ball 1. Nope. Same old same old. This may be a loooong game.
Fastball, in there for (don't faint) a strike.
Changeup, outside corner. Schumaker swings and fails to come up with it. Nice.
Grounded to Todd. That's more like it. 1 out.

Ludwick:
Ball. Maybe. I take leave to doubt it, but Francis has given the ump no reason to be generous.
Grounded to Atkins, 2 outs. Much more like it, yes.

Pujols:
A FIRST PITCH STRIKE WHATNOW
So he follows it up with a ball. 1-1.
Urp. Pujols homer. 5-1.

Glaus:
Ball.
Fastball fouled off. 1-1.
Fastball, ball.
Swinging strike. 2-2.
Ball, way inside. Full count. Jeff needs to shake this one off posthaste.
Fouled. Francis already at 50 pitches. Gadzoinks.
Misses with a changeup. Glaus walks. Four walks. Fuck.

Ankiel:
Called strike 1.
Fastball fouled off. 0-2.
Ball in the dirt. Yorvit has to block. 1-2.
Fouled off, still 1-2.
Changeup, fouled off again. No out pitch today. Count the same.
Changeup fouled off again.
Fouled off AGAIN! Goddammit Ankiel, go away!
Finally. Got him fishing at a curveball, K's. Not before more damage. Urgh.

Top 3rd: Wainwright vs. Taveras, Tulowitzki, Helton

Taveras:
Ball 1. Come on guys.
Called strike.
And.... out. Another long one to Schumaker. Arrgh! You started out so well! And go away, Schumaker.

Tulowitzki:
Fastball, ball
And... base hit to left. Take that, Schumaker. Let's get something going. Tulo on first, Todd up.

Helton:
Fastball down the pipe fouled off.
High up... and Todd's out. Popped out. 2 out. Tulo on first.

Holliday:
Please continue your reputation as a Cardinals-killer.
Ball, away. 1-0.
Ball, outside. 2-0.
Fastball down Broadway, Matt looks at it. 2-1.
High and tight, watch it there. 3-1.
Pickoff attempt. I wonder if Tulo's planning to run on Molina...
He is. Tulo steals, Matt swings through one. 3-2, Tulo on second.
And... called strike 3 on the hook. I am pretty peeved right now.

5-1 Cardinals.

Bottom 3rd: LaLoosh vs. Molina, Izturis, Wainwright

Molina:
Curveball strike 1. LaLoosh can do it too. Maybe.
Ball. Or not. 1-1
Fouled off. 1-2.
High and inside. 2-2.
Fouled off. Count leveled.
Flied out to Brad. 1 out.

Izturis:
Curveball, not close, ball 1. Seriously Nuke, Izturis sucks.
Two more of the same, except fastballs, bring it to 3-0. Good God, Nuke.
Gets the inside corner for 3-1.
Ball. Another fucking walk. 5 on the day for "Game 1 of the Series" Jeff Francis. I don't like this version. Why is it that the teams I root for never win on Opening Day?

Wainwright:

Never mind, rain delay. Please wash this one out.

Lineups: Colorado Rockies Vs. St. Louis Cardinals

2008-03-31T18:02:00.001-04:00

LINEUPS!

Willy Taveras, CF
Troy Tulowitzki, SS
Todd Helton, 1B
Matt Holliday, LF
Garrett Atkins, 3B
Brad Hawpe, RF
Yorvit Torrealba, C
Jayson Nix, 2B
Jeff Francis, P

Skip Schumaker, LF
Ryan Ludwick, RF
Albert Pujols, 1B
Troy Glaus, 3B
Rick Ankiel, CF
Yadier Molina, C
Cesar Izturis, SS
Adam Wainwright, P (Yes, one of LaRussa's funny ideas. Adam is a good hitter though)
Aaron Miles, 2B

Pregame festivities going on now. I am sadly TV-less, so it'll be Gameday and Purple Row for me. And here. I CANNOT EFFIN WAIT.

LET'S GO ROCKIES!!!!

Around the Horn: Bench

2008-03-31T16:29:00.004-04:00

I am back in New York on a gray, chilly Monday to finish out my sophomore year of college and (presumably) actually get some work done in achieving this. Further proving how starved for baseball I am, I seriously got impatient last night waiting for the Nationals/Braves game to kick off. I have zero emotional connection to either of the teams, AND I wasn't even watching on TV, I was resorting to my usual standard of Gameday. But I followed the damn thing, Ryan Zimmerman hit a walk-off homer to beat the Braves, christen new Nationals Park, and no doubt make all the Mets fans in this city who virulently hate the Braves very happy. But now it is time for real Rockies baseball, and I am bouncing myself off the hook waiting for 4:15 pm ET this afternoon (but once they get all the ceremonies done, probably more like 4:30 or so). In which the Rockies open their title defense in St. Louis against the Cards and Adam Wainwright (and yes, I still love him. And yes, I want the Rockies to sweep the Cards to get 2008 started right, as the Cards are kind of sad-sack this year and I'll root for them when they are not playing the Blake Street Sweepers. Like last year, I will likely be live-blogging the game and posting on Purple Row, so if you have to know second by second what's going on, I will have you covered).

In the meantime, I'm going to close out the team previews at the eleventh hour with a look at our bench. Scott Podsednik was officially named the fifth outfielder, Cory Sullivan got demoted to AAA yet again, and Ramon Ramirez got traded to the Royals for a Player To Be Named Later (who is a popular fellow). So, it's time to see who will be constituting the backup corps for the purple pinstripes, and Clint Barmes made it. Zoyyy.

Projected

OF Ryan Spilborghs
OF Scott Podsednik
OF/IF Jeff Baker
IF Clint Barmes
C Chris Iannetta

#19 R/R Ryan Spilborghs: Spilly, as he's affectionately known, is about as valuable and offbeat as fourth outfielders come. A colorful character who experiments with crazy hairdos and clothing, has his own TV segment on Rockies All Access, and otherwise is as outgoing and exuberant as he looks, Spilly is the life of the party and readily submits to all the (good-natured) ribbing he endures from his teammates (although not without giving as good as he gets). Spilly is a naturally funny person who can make comedy out of any situation, and people like him are good for the chemistry and to balance out the intense leader-types like Tulo, Matt, and Todd. Your basic clubhouse clown (he bought dancing robots last year) Spilly is also an extremely good option to have as a backup outfielder. Last time this season, I was kvetching, with just cause, that his talents were wasted in the Springs and Steve Finley was going to suck; I was proved quite right in this instance. Fortunately, they saw the light and promoted Spilly in May, and as far as I'm concerned, they need to keep him around -- they actually released him on December 21, 2005, and then immediately realizing their mistake, signed him back the same day. Spilly loves Denver, and has moved his entire family (mom, dad, and sister) with him from Santa Barbara so his mom can get the best medical treatment available. Fortunately, Denver loves him too; I've yet to find a Rockies fan that doesn't adore Spilly, and if they don't, then ignore the poltroon. They love his zaniness, or his ability to provide a spark, or generally the fact that he's the sort of guy you spend a long time recounting assorted off-the-wall stories about. (His debut on Rockies All Access this past week was a hit, especially when he, quote unquote, decides to "cook" Atkins' steak).

He's also an entertainment coordinator who bridges the gaps between players and organizes activities in all the cities the team goes to, so they don't just have to sit around the hotel waiting for the game to start. To wit:

“I know everyone here pretty well, so I’m always grabbing different people,” Spilborghs said. “I drag people to do stuff that they’re not going to do. We have a lot of fun.”

Like on the Freedom Trail in Boston. Spilborghs convinced Garrett Atkins, Matt Holliday and Troy Tulowitzki, to name a few, to go on a trek that wound through the city and visited different historical sites.

Baker and Jeff Francis were sitting at a Boston restaurant when they heard the group just before they rounded a corner.

“Spilly’s yelling at Tulo, Tulo’s yelling at Holliday, Holliday’s yelling at Atkins and me and Francis are dying laughing,” Baker said. “It was something I’ll never forget.”

(Not to mention that as inducement, Spilly promised everyone he'd buy them something every time they complained and they'd get ice cream at the end. He does know how to hold an audience).

The Rockies are eying the idea of using Spilly as their backup leadoff man, to keep Willy T fresh and to continue to provide a reliable catalyst at the top of the lineup. If Spilly's performance after he was called up in May and asked to do just that is any indication, they're in good hands. After Finley finally received his long-overdue walking papers, Spilly hit .310 in 22 at-bats in May, with 3 doubles and 5 RBI (I believe he got three of them in something like his first game, immediately surpassing Finley's total for the season). He kept humming right along in June, hitting .308 with 2 doubles, 3 HR, and 14 RBI for the month, but he really took off in July -- he hit .353 for the month, with 4 HR and 18 RBI, including a grand slam against the Mets on July 3 in a game that the Rockies won 11-3. When he was expected to take over full-time duty in August, Spilly scuffled slightly, as he hit only .250 for August with 3 HR and 8 RBI, but recovered in September alongside everyone else to hit .322 and play his part in guiding the team to a rampaging regular-season finish. Home or away didn't make a significant difference, as Spilly hit. 311 at Coors Field for the year and .290 on the road. Most importantly, he's also a major threat against lefties (.356) which was why he got a significant amount of platoon time last year due to Hawpe's continuing struggles with southpaws. He doesn't possess Willy T's speed (4 SB, 1 CS, but may have more opportunities) but has much more of a power stroke and a knack for seizing a situation. Whether it's dancing robots, bad cooking, interesting facial hair, or the timely hit, Ryan Spilborghs has got you covered. If they're planning to use him to spell Willy T, we may be seeing him get more regular playing time as well.

One more thing: Last year, the Yankees tried to get Spilly (AND Frankie Morales) in exchange for (drumroll please...) Kyle Farnsworth. Aside from the fact that Farnsworth isn't worth a half of these players, let alone both of them, poor Spilly would be miserable on the "25 guys, 25 cabs" Yankees. I somehow don't think they'd take well to him trying to organize expeditions on the Freedom Trail in Boston. In other words, Spilly was born to be a Rockie and to send him anywhere else would result in deep unhappiness for all parties concerned. I love you dearly dearly, Ryan, but shave the damn beard. Bake is right, you do look like a terrorist.

2007 Line: .299 AVG, 11 HR, 51 RBI, .363 OBP, .485 SLG, .848 OPS
2008 Proj.: .292 AVG, 13 HR, 53 RBI, .371 OBP, .476 SLG, .847 OPS
INC/DEC/LEV: LEV.

#22 L/L Scott Podsednik: Podsednik will be under a microscope in a hurry while with the Rockies. He hasn't been really healthy since 2004, when he stole 70 bases for Milwaukee, and 2005, when he was a big part of the White Sox' championship run. Since then, he has undergone sports hernia surgeries at the end of three consecutive seasons, and he's taking over the place of Cory Sullivan, who's very popular in the clubhouse and a member of the Rockies fraternity that grew up together in the minor leagues. Also not to mention, the last left-handed older outfielder to be brought in from outside the organization for pinch-hit and bench help was an unqualified disaster. Also, it causes people to ask if the Rockies are a) going to disrupt their remarkable clubhouse chemistry for winning, and b) whether or not this is a bad thing, and c) whether Scott Eric Podsednik can help them do this better than Cory Sullivan. But Podsednik came in determined to prove he could once again be a difference-maker, and on the back of a .302 spring complimented by strong defense, he swayed Hurdle to give him the final spot on the Opening Day 25-man roster. Still, Sullivan is one of the Rockies' best defensive outfielders, and diving catches aren't to be confused with stellar overall defensive ability.

Podsednik is 34, so he's no spring chicken, but he will be asked to be a pinch-runner late in games, a spot starter, and a bat off the bench, and he will also need to perform these roles with a great deal more success than his unfortunate predecessor, or else find Sullivan called up to take his job again. It was a question of organizational depth as well with the Sully vs. Pods deathmatch, as if Sullivan won the job, Podsednik would have asked to be released in order to find big-league employment elsewhere -- with his age and track record, he's not a minor-league scrub. But he will have to both stay healthy and be effective for the Rockies to justify keeping him around, especially since it's already going to be such a closely scrutinized decision. He's making $750,000 to Sullivan's $1 million, and Sullivan is both a better defender and a long-standing friend of the key group, so if he doesn't show a spark off the bench, it's likely happy trails sooner rather than later. If nothing else, we can hope that the Rockies learned from the Finley disaster and are much quicker to pull the trigger this time if Podsednik goes down the drain early. Sullivan will assuredly be back up, but it's Podsednik's play that will see if that's in September when active rosters expand to 40, or much sooner due to incompetence. Pods' OBP (and stats in general) from last year are not pretty. Let's hope he doesn't repeat.

2007 Line: .243 AVG, 2 HR, 11 RBI, .299 OBP, .369 SLG, .668 OPS, 12 SB, 5 CS
2008 Proj.: .277 AVG, 4 HR, 22 RBI, .331 OBP, .380 SLG, .710 OPS
INC/DEC/LEV: INC, or rather, returning to slightly nearer his normal production. If he's healthy and he has Coors on his side, he could turn out to be a very underrated pickup.

#10 R/R Jeff Baker: Bake, as he's not-so-imaginatively nicknamed, plays both corner outfield and infield positions, making him a valuable weapon to have, and now that he plays second as well, you can pretty much stick him anywhere except pitcher (I'm sure he could play catcher if he put his mind to it). He hit .368 in September 2006 after his call-up, fooling some Rockies fans, myself probably included, into thinking that he was the second coming of Dante Bichette and who could play a little third and first as well. Born in Bad Kissingen, Germany (hmmm! Is this a reflection on Jeff's osculating abilities?) and growing up as the son of an Air Force father, Bake is fortunately used to bouncing around. He'll be asked to do that with the club, as he failed to lock down his part in the platoon last season due to hitting only .222; he lost all the spot starts to Sully and Spilly. He DID get a spot start on June 2 (I remember that because it was Photo Day, and I personally asked him if he was starting, as it was during Atkins' horrible slump) ... and promptly grounded into three double plays, which is never exactly the way to make a good impression. As a matter of fact, it had been almost exactly 10 years since another Rockie did it -- Eric Young on June 1, 1997 against the Marlins.

This year, he may play some outfield if Hawpe needs a little time off, and he can also spell Atkins and Helton for starts at third and first. Baker could probably be a starter elsewhere, as he's flashed a power stroke on occasion, and consistent ABs could help him rediscover it -- but he's not going to get them on this club, blocked as he is by a raft of talent ahead of him. He's also going to need to learn how to pinch-hit, as that's also what he'll be used for, and he hit a miserable 9 for 46 (.196) in PHing duty. He was briefly in the second-base derby this year, and dropped 10 pounds and worked so hard there that he now rates his best defensive position as -- yup, second base, the one he just started playing, so he can also be used in the middle infield if the rookie Nix needs an occasional break. But Bake got 26 starts last year, the fewest of anybody on the Opening Day roster, and with his positions all capably filled, he doesn't figure to see much time as a starter again this year, unless (GOD FORBID) Helton or Hawpe go down. Bake himself knows a little about going down, as I was at the August 10 game in which he got drilled in the head by a pitch from the Cubs' Jason Marquis. As I mentioned at the time, it was kind of sick -- his helmet flew off and he just lay on the ground for several minutes while I just kept saying, "Come on, Bake, come on, stand up, be okay, come on." It's never fun to see anybody take one in the noggin, but fortunately, Bake is made of tough stuff and he came away from it with only a concussion. He missed 18 games, but made it back in time for the stretch drive, and in NLDS Game 3, he had the game-winning hit. The game was tied at 1 in the bottom of the eighth, Garrett Atkins singled, and with two outs and him standing on third, Bake came off the bench to deliver the go-ahead single into right field to push the Rockies up 2-1. Three outs and Manny Corpastime later, they were headed for their first NLCS, so the Rockies faithful remember Baker affectionately for this. I also remember him affectionately because he's a very nice and funny guy who took time to chat and hang out with us at Photo Day. (I think my sister Gillian now has a small thing for him due to this). I don't think he'll be quite as bad as he was this year, but nor do I think he's particularly above-average.

2007 Line: .222 AVG, 4 HR, 12 RBI, .296 OBP, .347 SLG, .643 OPS
2008 Proj.: .260 AVG, 5 HR, 18 RBI, .315 OBP, .358 SLG, .673 OPS
INC/DEC/LEV: Very slight INC.

#12 R/R Clint Barmes: By now I am sure you all know what I think of Clint Barmes. I understand he's a very popular guy in the clubhouse, humble, good team player, and close with the rest of the guys, to which I say -- all well and good. But Clint Barmes, while being a nice guy, is shockingly atrocious at baseball. This wasn't always so -- in 2005, he was hitting .400 to start the season, had an Opening Day walk-off homer against Trevor Hoffman (the first rookie ever to hit a walk-off on Opening Day) and looked like a surefire NL Rookie of the Year and the Rockies' shortstop of the future. Then there came a small incident involving deer meat, Barmes, and a little tumble down the stairs, to which he was granted the nickname "Venison" and a sudden and unfortunate end to a promising season. The broken collarbone that resulted from this sidelined him until almost the end of 2005, and he was never the same player afterwards. Defensively, he continues to be a wiz, but he is a bona-fide black hole at the plate. He hit .320 in 25 at-bats in 2003, .282 in 71 AB in 2004, and was an AAA All-Star this year at Colorado Springs, where he went .299/11/44, but Spilly replicated that line almost exactly at the major league level and Barmes, um, did not. In 37 AB, he hit a miserable .216/0/1, and I remember precisely when this occurred (It was on August 11 against the Cubs, in a game the Rockies won 15-2, and Barmes had been put in as a late-inning sub when the Rockies began to kill the Cubs relievers. Or was that when he hit a double and scored, still to my unending surprise? Whatever, I know it was in August).

Hurdle absolutely LOVES Barmes, however (is it the first name? And I know Hurdle likes nice guys, but still.... and NO, he does not like nice guys "like that," or is it just because I have a dirty mind that I have to disclaim this?) so he made the club after the Rox traded fan-favorite Carroll, and is still (it's taking a while) proving that he can be a productive big league player. I take serious leave to doubt that this will finally unfold, and it's just a sad fact that Barmes will probably never be the player he was before the dead deer attack. Still, he'll see time as a pinch-runner, late-innings defensive sub for Atkins, and possibly one or two appearances in center field as well, a position that he started learning last year in an attempt to find more playing time. This being Barmes, he'll have to really force the issue.

2007 Line: .216 AVG, 0 HR, 1 RBI, .237 OBP, .297 SLG, .534 OPS
2008 Proj: . 224 AVG, 1 HR, 7 RBI, .282 OBP, .302 SLG, .584 OPS
INC/DEC/LEV: LEV

#20 R/R Chris Iannetta: It's been an up-and-down road to the bigs for young backup backstop Iannetta. He's looked to as the Rockies' catcher of the future, and was thought to be a potential darkhorse Rookie of the Year pick going into 2007. It didn't happen, as Iannetta struggled with growing pains that eventually led to his demotion to AAA in August; he'd hit .158 in April, .222 in May, and .250 in June, culminating with a 1-for-8 (.042) July that sealed his fate. He is a very patient hitter (at times too patient) and he'd let himself get worked too deep into pitcher's counts, therefore limiting the number of good pitches he'd see in any given at-bat. A hard and dedicated worker, the serious and intelligent Iannetta (he graduated with a math degree from UNC Chapel Hill) took the demotion and worked with it, and on his return to the big leagues, he hit .357 in August and .308 in September. Still, Dan O'Dowd publicly announced this
spring that if Iannetta didn't show something, he'd risk being sent back to the Springs and have Edwin Bellorin be the backup catcher instead. Iannetta retorted that such an idea was "dumb" and marched out to prove it, showing that catcher will be (hopefully) a position of strength. He and Yorvit hit a combined .391 in Cactus League play, and in a game I watched last week against the Brewers, Iannetta hit a homer completely OUT of the ballpark. He has the ideal body for a catcher -- short, stocky, and very strong -- so once he does figure out how to get the ball and bat into the correct angle with each other for maximum velocity, he can definitely send them a long way. (I know from personal experience that he also has very big hands. Which is good for someone supposed to catch small speeding spheroids for a living, after all).

Catchers aren't usually power hitters, but Iannetta cranked 13 in 2005 (split between Class A Modesto and AA Tulsa) and 14 in 2006 (split between Tulsa and AAA Colorado Springs) so the stroke is definitely there; it's a matter of getting the average to consistently follow. He's hit .303 in his minor league career, so it's far from impossible. Iannetta is also quite good at catching baserunners stealing, as he has a strong arm and quick reflexes, and can just fire a bullet down to second for his buddy Tulo to lay the smackdown on the thief. (This is one area in which he easily beats Yorvit). He's also a good game-caller (no matter how much the pitching staff loves Yorvit) and has become something of Cook's personal catcher, since he recognizes that Aaron can throw pitches aside from fastballs. (Iannetta was behind the dish for Cookie's 74-pitch complete game against the Padres last year). Iannetta does have someone breathing at his heels, which is unusual for a prospect, but Michael McKenry has favorably impressed the Rockies brass and will be opening the year at High-A Modesto with a chance to move up faster. Still, if this is the year Iannetta can stand up and lay claim to the starter's job, he will see much more playing time than he did last year, and move into full-time starter mode as Yorvit's contract expires at the end of '09. He's already shown what's possible, now the trick is consistency.

2007 Line: .218 AVG, 4 HR, 27 RBI, .330 OBP, .350 SLG, .680 OPS
2008 Proj.: .266 AVG, 6 HR, 36 RBI, .344 OBP, .367 SLG, .711 OPS
INC/DEC/LEV: Slight INC.

Well, now that's finished, it's a little less than two hours until the Rockies open their 2007 NL Champs defense against the 2006 NL Champs (and World Series champs, which the Rockies sadly failed to get) Cardinals. I'll post lineups as soon as I see them and will otherwise liveblog.

LET'S GO ROCKIES!

Man, it feels good to write that and have it mean something.

Around the Horn: Outfield

2008-03-24T23:30:00.001-04:00

I have finally gotten new contacts, so in a miracle, I am now able to see. My eyes are not exactly used to them yet, but it's nice to no longer have my crappy glasses, and I definitely noticed the difference when I was playing football catch with my sister. I can also now see the Rockies in high-def better than ever, which always a plus, especially when it entails wins. One such was picked up today over our friends the Brewers, 6-5, but I'm more than a little worried about the state of our starting rotation. Cook got roughed up by the D-backs, Jimenez hasn't found a groove, Frankie's ERA is well over 6, Hirsh is hurt, and Francis can't do it all by himself, as after all he can pitch only once every five days. Wells has been officially relegated to the bullpen, so I guess that means MARK! All-Star! REDMAN gets to take over the fifth spot until Hirsh comes back. Fortunately, fifth starters generally aren't used too much in April, so hopefully we won't dig ourselves in too much of a hole. Ehhhh....

Also, Kip Wells' M.O.: Get demoted to the bullpen because you suck, and then whine that you want to be a starter. He's already annoying me a lot, and that has done nothing to endear him further. Listen, buster, you were 5-17 as a starter last year with an ERA above six (6.27 to be exact). Much as it may pain me to say it, you were ... slightly good as a reliever, 2-0 and 2.31 ERA. If you want to stay in the big leagues, which is a slender surety as it is, maybe you should shut your mouth and try helping the team. I have pretty much unlimited and insane love for each guy on the Rockies. Most of them, that is. You are noticeably exempt. You seem to think you were "entitled" to a starting spot, when you were epically awful as a starter last year and came in knowing it would be a competition. Argh. Please get off my team already.

Luckily, despite all these pitfalls of the pitching, the Rockies still have a stacked lineup to their credit. In some of these starts, they will be needing it. And with the exception of Willy Taveras, two of their chief cannons can be found in the expansive Coors Field outfield. The three starters get previewed today, and Spilly and whoever the fifth outfielder ends up being will be included with the rest of the backup corps in "Bench."

Projected:
LF Matt Holliday
CF Willy Taveras
RF Brad Hawpe

#5 R/R Matt Holliday: At last, the long-kept secret that is Matt Holliday is starting to get out to the world, mainly thanks to the play last October 1st that will go down as "The Slide." Barreling face-first into home plate and Michael Barrett's foot, hitting his head and dazing himself while bloodying his chin, Matt vaulted the Rockies over the Padres in the one-game playoff for the NL Wild Card and the club's first postseason appearance since 1995. If the Broncos have "The Drive," now the Rockies have "The Slide," as I think I can watch the bottom of that 13th inning over... and over... and over, and never get tired of it. Despite being the actual MVP, Matt was robbed of the award in favor of Jimmy Rollins, the East Coast media darling. Matt had better numbers all around, as this handy little chart shall show you:

AVG
Holliday: .340 (NL batting title winner). Home: .376. Away: .301
Rollins: .296 (in Citizens Bank Park, which plays like pre-humidor Coors) Home: .300. Away: .293.

HR
Holliday: 36
Rollins: 30

RBI
Holliday: 137 (NL RBI leader)
Rollins: 94

OBP
Holliday: .405
Rollins: .344

SLG
Holliday: .607
Rollins: .531

OPS
Holliday: 1.012
Rollins: .875

2B
Holliday: 50
Rollins: 38

3B
Holliday: 6
Rollins: 20

Hits/ABs
Holliday: 216/636
Rollins: 212/716 (he couldn't even tie with 80 more ABs)

Outs Made/Plate Appearances:
Holliday: 451/713
Rollins: 527/778 (LED THE MAJORS)

XBH (Extra-Base Hits)
Holliday: 92 (1st in NL)
Rollins: 88 (2nd in NL.... not even all those extra triples could get him by)

RC/G (Runs Created/Game)
Holliday: 9.0
Rollins: 6.9

SB
Holliday: 11
Rollins: 41

So basically, if triples and stolen bases outweigh all the other categories, then yes, Jimmy Rollins was the MVP. And proceeded to hit .182 with 1 HR and 4 RBI in the three-game sweep suffered by the Phil-Phils against Matt's Rockies in the NLDS. Whereas Matt hit .289 in the postseason with 5 HR and 10 RBI. But naturally, since everything in the baseball world happens on the East Coast, it was the "Coors Field effect," regardless of the fact that the Bank is even more extreme of a hitter's park than Coors now that the humidor has been installed. I already wrote a whole treatise as to how Tulo was robbed of the Gold Glove by Rollins and the ROY by Braun, and I wasn't REALLY intending to do so here, but I couldn't resist showing how much the deserving candidate did not get picked. Not that I have a pro-purple bias or anything.

Holliday is one of the hardest workers in the game. After an uninspiring minor league career (he never hit higher than .276 or 16 HR in a full season) he dropped close to 20 pounds, changed his diet, and works out every day with religious fervor (true story: Holliday was in Panama to play for Team USA, and refused to miss a workout despite the fact of his hotel lacking a gym -- he just used his luggage for curls and bench presses). He has a Tulowitzki-like will to continue to improve, and he believes that he'll be disgusted with himself if he's not still an elite player at age 35 or so. Born in Stillwater, Oklahoma, Matt was an All-American quarterback prospect coming out of Stillwater High, one of the highest-rated recruits in the nation, and the Kansas City Chiefs GM sent him a letter begging him to choose football over baseball. He dropped all the way to the seventh round of the 1998 draft since teams weren't sure which sport he was going to choose, and the Rockies were able to sign him in July of that year. Nobody knew it yet, but they were sitting on a gold mine -- nine years later, he wouldn't be a two-sport promising youngster but instead one of the best players in baseball, leading a previously moribund franchise to their first NL Pennant and their emergence from MLB's cellar.

This past offseason, Holliday received a 2-year, $23 million extension that will take him to his age-30 season and the end of his arbitration, and Rockies fans everywhere are adamant that he be re-signed, but his agent is the evil Scott Boras who will demand nothing less than top dollar. If Helton's contract expires around this time, there may be enough lucre to retain Holliday, who by then will be established as hands-down the best left fielder in baseball (and he was chosen as that already). A premier offensive talent and no slouch on the field (3 errors with 296 putouts, 7 assists) and 306 total chances for a .990 fielding percentage) Holliday is a fearsome middle-of-the-order bat who will be hitting cleanup this year and given plenty of chances to send runners in a homeward direction. He incorporates a signature high leg-kick and isn't the most patient hitter, as he'll be swinging on the first pitch almost all the time, but usually manages to hit it a Mile High anyway. Matt has increased his AVG, HR, RBI, OBP, and SLG every year that he's been in the majors, leading to the question of just how much higher he can go. Just repeating 2007 would be legendary. Going even higher? Well, the big man can do it. Here's something interesting for you: In 2007, Matt hit .338 off fastballs, .373 off curveballs, .331 off sliders, and .429 off changeups, and his RC/27 was 9.04, so nine Matts in the lineup would put you up about 9 or so runs a game. His BABIP (batting average on balls in play) was .380, so basically if he puts wood on it, you're generally screwed. Good luck finding a weakness, pitchers of the NL. I'd anticipate seeing Holliday in New York for his third All-Star game this summer.

2007 Line: .340 AVG, 36 HR, 137 RBI, .405 OBP, .607 SLG, 1.012 OPS
2008 Proj: .335 AVG, 38 HR, 135 RBI, .415 OBP, .620 SLG, 1.035 OPS
INC/DEC/LEV: Slight INC.

#3 R/R Willy Taveras: Willy T, as he's known, is a speed merchant that adds the fleetfoot element to Colorado's lineup of mashers. Willy T will never be mistaken for Holliday, as he's a slender, speedy, punch-and-judy hitter with a grand total of 6 career homers, but he does have 101 career stolen bases. With Kaz's departure, Tulo and Jayson Nix will both be running more, but Willy T remains the primary speed option -- assuming he's healthy, as nagging quad injuries limited him to only 97 games last year. He led the majors in bunt hits last year, but had to overcome a slow start and is looking a little anemic in spring thus far this year. He can use his speed to discomfit opposing pitchers, and with Tulo hitting in the #2 hole, it can limit the number of offspeed pitches he sees if the catcher needs to worry about Willy T stealing. Since Tulo murders fastballs, this is only to the better, and as long as Willy T doesn't come up gimpy, he'll likely be running wild on the basepaths. The problem is, that's really the only dimension to his offensive game, and he has trouble getting on base consistently -- last year's .367 OBP was by far the highest of his career, and he walked only 21 times to 55 K's. He doesn't have much power for extra bases, with 2 HR, 13 doubles, and 2 triples, but if he ever does get the ball into the green, he can push outfielders into making mistakes and take the extra base simply because he can outrace a speeding baseball. (No word on his ability to leap tall buildings with a single bound).

Defensively, Willy T had 223 total chances, 212 putouts, 7 assists, and 4 errors for a .982 fielding percentage, and he might have made the play of the year in NLCS Game 2 against the Diamondbacks. With two runners on, two outs, and the Rockies nursing a one-run lead in the bottom of the seventh, Tony Clark hit a laser into no-man's-land between right and center. It looked like extra bases, a Diamondbacks lead, and a win in that game for Arizona could have changed the entire complexion of the series -- but Willy T charged across what looked like a mile of Chase Field grass, extended his glove, and dove fully extended to come up with the ball and end the inning. Clint Hurdle, who had been heavily criticized for daring to put Willy T back into the lineup after the Rockies had already won 17 of 18, suddenly looked like a genius again, but Willy T didn't provide any offensive pop, hitting only .167 for the NLCS with 1 stolen base, 2 walks, and 5 strikeouts. Still, he's projected to be the starting center fielder, and if he gets injured or is too ineffective, either Ryan Spilborghs, Cory Sullivan, or Scott Podsednik (depending on whether Pods or Sully wins the fifth outfield spot) may spell him. 162 games is a long season, after all (as the players themselves like to remind us in their interviews) and Willy T barely got to 100 of them last year. And his speed isn't much of an asset if he can't get on base, but if he can a) replicate his moderate success on this front and b) avoid messing with his legs, which constitute basically his entire value as a player, he can provide the effective catalyst at the top of the lineup.

2007 Line: .320 AVG, 2 HR, 24 RBI, .367 OBP, .382 SLG, .749 OPS, 33 SB, 9 CS
2008 Proj.: .312 AVG, 2 HR, 27 RBI, .359 OBP, .377 SLG, .736 OPS, 37 SB, 8 CS
INC/DEC/LEV: LEV

#11 L/L Brad Hawpe: Brad, as long as you play him against righties, is an unholy terror at the plate. He hit .315/24/94 off righties, but a meek .214/5/22 against southpaws, and it's been his issues with lefties that have kept him from developing into one of the premier corner outfielders in baseball. (LET IT BE NOTED, however: Brad hit a 14th-inning, go-ahead and game-winning home run against the Padres on September 21, in the middle of the streak in which the Rockies literally had to win every game. This homer came off Joe Thatcher, one of the tougher lefty pen-men in the NL, AND in San Diego at night, in one of the hardest parks to hit it out of. He also hit a two-run blast off the Dodgers' Jonathan Broxton, another tough setup man, for a 5-4 Rockies victory on September 19). Brad hit .316 in September and October with 26 RBI, so he showed up when he was most needed, and hit .438 in the Rockies' vital last 12 regular season games. A patient but streaky hitter, Brad can go through stretches in which he'll absolutely crush anything near the plate and then stretches where he strikes out like Adam Dunn. (At one point last year, he went 26 straight games with at least one K). Still, a final line of .291/29/116 isn't at all shabby, and Brad was rewarded for his performance with a three-year, $17.25 million contract that buys out his arbitration years and his first year of free agency. If he can get over his lefty issues, it's not good news for the rest of the NL, but it IS good news for Rockies fans, who can enjoy watching Hawpe put that sweet swing on the other half of opposing pitchers as well.

Brad has firmly established himself as a fearsome run-producer, but in a lineup with Holliday, Helton, and Tulowitzki, he (and Atkins) tend to get overlooked. With a 2-6 that's among the best in the game (Tulowitzki-Helton-Holliday-Atkins-Hawpe) you can appreciate exactly how talented the Rockies are when they have a 29 HR/116 RBI man hitting in the sixth hole, Jayson Nix (.292/11/58 in AAA last year) hitting seventh, and, well, Yorvit hitting eighth, but still. Brad ranked sixth in RBIs in the entire NL last year, is a cleanup hitter on many clubs, and is on the tail end of Colorado's Murderer's Row -- that's food for thought about how strong the offensive cannonade here is. (They're going to need it as well....) Defensively, Brad can struggle when he has to go back on balls and doesn't have the greatest range, but what he does have is a cannon arm reminiscent of the days when Larry Walker was cutting down runners from the right-field corner. The pitchers know that Hawpe's arm will keep opposing batters from getting too cheeky on the basepaths, so as long as he can get to balls quickly, he'll keep them honest and only to second instead of constantly going first-to-third on balls hit to right field.

Coors Field helps, of course, but it should be noted in any disparate split of home and road average, that curveballs and breaking pitches act very different in Denver, humidor or otherwise, than they do elsewhere, and so every hitter has to recalibrate how he sees them on the road. Brad hit a perfectly serviceable .273/10/49 on the road, and to be honest, I get really tired of talking about the "Coors Effect" when discussing Rockies stats. If they signed elsewhere (God forbid, I love them too much to ever lose them) they'd adjust how they saw pitches and be just as good there. Good hitting mechanics are good hitting mechanics, and although Brad's swing is still a little long, it wouldn't be a great handicap elsewhere. Brad was responsible for 7.5 runs created on average in a game, and his RC/27 was 7.57, which means that nine Brads playing 27 outs (your standard nine-inning baseball game) would score about 7 runs. In his first taste of postseason action, Brad hit .282 overall, with 1 HR, 4 RBI, and a team-leading 8 walks, and since he's excited to be a Rockie and to play with this group of guys, all of whom are like family to him and the rest of the Rockies' close and dynamic clubhouse, I'm sure he'll have a chance to improve on those numbers soon.

2007 Line: .291 AVG, 29 HR, 116 RBI, .387 OBP, .539 SLG, .926 OPS
2008 Proj.: .295 AVG, 27 HR, 112 RBI, .390 OBP, .525 SLG, .915 OPS
INC/DEC/LEV: LEV

That concludes our extra-thpecial preview on the Rockies' outfield. The bench will be covered next, and despite my generally, um, interesting approach to scheduling, that will be the whole team before the season starts. YAY! I can't wait. Then I can get back to all my various fascinating ideas.

An Axe From Last October

2008-03-22T16:55:00.002-04:00

I just discovered from one of my online acquaintances that this blog was linked from Deadspin last October in the midst of the disastrous four-game series better known as the World Series. Well, the post they evidently linked to was taken down, as it a) offered nothing particularly valuable save my emotional reaction, and b) attracted a bunch of Internet buzzards who were generally eager to laugh at someone else's expense. Which, of course, is the way it goes with sports fans, but I should have guessed that the sudden influx of nasty commentators came from somewhere, as my modest blogging enterprise is usually scarcely enough to merit such distinguished attention. Perhaps the mistake was mine in putting something on the Internet after one of the worst nights of my life as a sports fan, and should have given the wound some time to heal overnight, but I still can't help but be extremely mad that of all the posts I have spent time on for this blog, that one was the one that the Deadspin sophisticates chose to highlight. Yep, I'm sure my misery was very entertaining for that crew, who audition to have the best jaded-cynic comments posted on every entry.

Disclaimer: I usually enjoy reading Deadspin. I get a chuckle out of a lot of their posts, and especially football-wise, it's extremely amusing. I just do wonder as to why they pick that to link to, and why everybody has to take it as their mandate to come over and make it worse. I was struggling pretty badly that October, as last semester in general was extremely hard for me, and I was dealing with a lot of emotional issues that started before the Series and were made worse by it. As my next post attested, I had to give it all up for a while because it was just not something I could deal with in my emotional state the way it was. Depression is something I have started to have to deal with, not necessarily welcomed, but last October's bout with it came at a particularly inopportune time. As my friends can tell you, and as I can tell you, I was pretty much a wreck. I was unhappy, homesick, lonely, isolated, and really struggling while 1600 miles from home, made worse by the ugly results of the Series, and... yeah, I am still angry about this, especially since it was bothering me since before I even knew where all the know-it-alls came from. I removed the offending post and the comments with it, and the result of that was that I banned anonymous users from making comments on the blog. Flame wars are fine elsewhere, but not here; that's simply not what this blog is for. I'm fine with feedback, not trolling.

As for all the Red Sox partisans that came along to sneer at me for being such a fool for even daring to support the Rox: I am a fan of my team, the same as all you. What am I supposed to do, fly the white flag pre-emptively and sigh, "Oh no, the mighty East Coast juggernauts are going to destroy my overmatched Munchkins? I can't believe I'm so foolish as to think this small-market Western team that's just won 21 of 22 can have any chance against these ESPN darlings! Oh... the Sox are going to win in three, the Rockies are just completely doomed, it was all a fluke, Red Sox Nation 4Ever!" No. You believe, I believe, we all know how it turned out, you were justified, yadda yadda yadda. You're certainly not doing much for your perception as some of the most loutish fans in baseball. If you want to come along and engage in some friendly debate, I'm always up for it. If you want to troll, you will find your comments deleted. 18-1.

One of the anonymous posters did have the grace to come back later and apologize, which I am grateful for. And since this is five months later, I doubt that anyone who came here then will see this now, but it still bothers me and I figured I wanted to air some of my left-over resentment from that. If you by some chance HAVE come here from Deadspin, or anywhere else, after the long-past history of the 2007 World Series, welcome. You will find various interesting featurettes, most of which showcase my probably inaccurate predictions, insane love of my team, and general anticipation for 2008. Most of which, remarkably, are probably sentiments you share. I am, remarkably, more than a bad reaction to a bad game, and if you'd like to look around, do so. Thanks.

Around the Horn: Infield

2008-03-21T21:07:00.011-04:00

Just finished watching the Rox school the Cubs 7-3 (the Cubs can never lose enough, which makes it more annoying that they beat us yesterday) and a few observations:

- Corpas looks good in recovering from taking the loss yesterday. 1-2-3, pitches crisp, and a few feeble ground balls were all the Flubs could get off him.
- Typical Brian Fuentes outing. Two quick outs, then a 3-1 base hit and a 5-pitch walk before a laser off the bat of Mark De Rosa is turned into the end of the inning thanks to Spilly's good read on it, instead of a double.
- Atkins, of all people, hit a triple. He's had a relatively quiet spring (0 HR, 4 RBI) so it's good to see him flash a little power. Also, it's always kind of amusing to watch him rumble around the bases. Atkins is a big fella and not exactly a speed demon, as everyone made sure to point out to him when he hit the inside-the-parker last year.
- Tulo is locked in. Every time he was up, he hit a bullet, and although he did get picked off once, he made up for it with an easy steal. Someone is ready for the season to start.
- Big man Mattie, however, looks a little asleep at the moment. 0-4 with a pair of K's, but he had a bad swing on his last at-bat and still almost managed to hit the ball out of the yard. As you can tell by looking at his arms, the man is freakishly strong.
- "Angular velocity" had me laughing all afternoon. George Frazier, one of the TV analysts, started it by having the sideline reporter ask Jeff Francis (a physics major) what it was, supposedly for his daughter's school project. Francis laughingly demurred and protested he didn't want to look like a nerd on camera, but could explain it later if need be. Undeterred, the FSN RM crew therefore made a habit of asking every player they interviewed after that what it was. A few of the best:

Matt Herges: "I think you'd better ask Jeff. He probably invented it."
Jeff Baker: "Whoa, dude, I'm a hitter, not a pitcher. I dunno."
Jason Hirsh: [long pause] "Back to you!"

That's what I love about spring training -- even though it's winding down and everyone is focusing on preparing for the season and securing jobs, they can still have fun and joke around. Gah, I love this team, and yes, it is always extremely annoying that I have to leave spring break and go back to TV-less New York just a few days before the season starts. On April 4, the home opener, I will be in class, giving a presentation about something I am passionate about -- which not so coincidentally will be baseball -- and the instant it's over, I shall grab a dinner to go and flee back to my computer to watch it. I can't wait.

In the meantime, it's time to preview the Rockies' deep and talented infield. Yes, two consecutive posts, 'tis miraculous. Also, I'll only examine the five projected starters here (including catcher) and everyone else will get their due in "Around the Horn: Bench."

Projected
1B Todd Helton
2B Jayson Nix
SS Troy Tulowitzki
3B Garrett Atkins
C Yorvit Torrealba

#17 L/L Todd Helton: The elder statesman of a team that's no longer Todd and the Toddlers, Helton's long and distinguished career, and patience with a pretty awful set of seasons in the early oughts, was finally rewarded last year with the Rockies' miracle run to the Series. One of my favorite memories ever is of Helton catching the throw from Tulowitzki to end Game 4 of the NLCS, with Byrnes on his face in the dirt, and then just throwing up both fists and screaming, dancing across the infield, as giddy as a schoolboy. Close on its heels is the image of him tossing off his helmet, screaming like a wild man, and flinging himself into the arms of his euphoric teammates after his unbelievable walk-off homer against Takashi Saito and the Los Angeles Dodgers on September 18th. I've memorized the call for that play, and the sight of Helton, mad with joy, stage-diving into a mob of arms, still gives me chills after the dozens of times I've watched it. No longer rumored to be on his way out, Helton seems to be thrilled to be where he is, his love for the game rekindled, and 2007 was a great starter gift to give a guy who's been through hell and high water with the club since the beginning of his career. But he, and everyone else, wants to get to the very highest peak this year, and you can bet that everyone in the organization was thinking particularly of Helton when they were celebrating last year. Still, champagne fades. Todd wants back, and he's going to set an example with hard work to get there.

One of the acknowledged clubhouse co-leaders (Holliday and Tulo being the other two) Helton is still a force at age 34. His days of .372/42/147 monstrosities are behind him, but he's still a solid line-drive hitter who will wear a pitcher out with his remarkable patience. Helton has an outstanding idea and awareness of where the strike zone is, and a typical at-bat for him takes at least five or six pitches before he finds something he wants to square up on. He hasn't hit below .300 since his rookie season of 1997 (.280) and his remarkable patience leads to lots of walks, which means his OBP is well north of .400. (He walked 116 times last year against 74 strikeouts). Helton is the only player in history with 10 straight seasons of 35+ doubles, and he'll likely continue that this year, as the balls might not be making it over the fence, but there's plenty of room for them to roam in the spacious outfield of Coors. He sets a great example for the team's many youngsters; when your longest-tenured, most recognizable (although Matt and Tulo are making inroads) franchise player is also your hardest and most dedicated, team-oriented worker, there are good things afoot and it's a key to the Rockies' remarkable close, loving, goofy clubhouse chemistry. Helton is about as far from Bonds as you can get, in his element when he can display his killer dry sense of humor on others, who can then freely dish it back. The Rockies constantly say that there are no egos in the clubhouse, and it's true. Maybe a Giants rookie would quail in fear before attempting to prick His Bondsness with a jab or two, but a Rockies rookie can feel perfectly confident teasing ol' man Helton a little. Of course, you get what you give, as Todd is faster with a quip than just about anybody.

Fielding-wise, it was a total travesty that Helton did not get a Gold Glove last year. He made only ONE ERROR ALL YEAR for a .999 fielding percentage, is one of the best in the game at picking out low throws from across the diamond (saving both Atkins and Tulowitzki throwing errors) and yet somehow got passed up for Derrek Lee, who made 7. I don't get that, and I'm still slightly rankled about the Rockies being shut completely out of postseason awards, no matter how much they themselves insist it doesn't matter. He won't get to all the balls he did a few years ago, since he's not going to be doing bellyflops in the infield at his age, but he's still a key component of the Rockies' defense, which, oh yeah, was the best in all of baseball last year. (And yet failed to rank in the top ten in the MLB '08: The Show video game. The talking heads STILL haven't caught up to the Rockies yet. No matter, Todd will be at the forefront of leading the calvary charge to a repeat this year, whether it's in getting the timely hit, inspiring the youngsters, or patiently answering the same questions about how the hell the Rockies made it back to October again).

2007 Line: .320 AVG., 17 HR, 91 RBI, .434 OBP, .494 SLG, .928 OPS
2008 Proj.: .315 AVG, 18 HR, 89 RBI, .440 OBP, .480 SLG, .920 OPS
INC/DEC/LEV: LEV.

#4 R/R Jayson Nix: Nix has had a long slow climb to the majors. The Rockies' top pick in 2001 (44th overall) he's the brother of the equally y-misplaced Laynce (now with the Brewers) and has spent seven years toiling away in the minors. He's played a year apiece at Rookie, A, and Advanced A, and two years apiece in AA and AAA. Since he was 18 when he was drafted, he's still only 25, but the time it took for him to get to this level have raised questions about his ability to contribute to the big-league club. Nix has also been pedestrian with the bat in the minors, never a good sign, but then again, a guy named Matt Holliday didn't have a standout minor league career and got himself to where he is by working his ass off. Of course, Nix, at a relatively slight 5'11" and 185 lbs, doesn't exactly compare to Holliday's massive 6'4"/230 lb, but it goes to show you that if you set your mind to it, you can do it (now I sound like the song "Heart" from Damn Yankees).

Nix hit .294 at Rookie-level Casper his first year, but dropped to .246 the next year at Class A Asheville. He rose back to .281 at Advanced-A Visalia, but struggled through a pair of off-years in AA Tulsa -- .213 and .236, nonetheless making it to AAA Colorado Springs in 2006. He only hit .251 that year, but enjoyed a surge in 2007, finishing with his highest average since Rookie ball -- .292 for the Sky Sox, with 11 HR and 58 RBI, strong numbers for a second baseman, who's generally given leeway to be more of a glove guy than a bat guy. Nix definitely is a glove guy, as Holliday claims he's stopped in the middle of batting practice to watch Nix vacuum up ground balls in the infield, but the hitting has been off and on. He was named MVP of Team USA this past offseason and came to camp with the inside track in filling the positional vacancy left by Kaz Matsui's departure to the Astros. (For the record, I think that that decision will end up being rued by both parties. Kaz benefited from Coors Field and a terrific lineup hitting behind him in a town where he had come to resuscitate his career after a disastrous stint with the Mets. The Astros have no such power, play in hot and humid South Texas, and overpaid badly -- $16.5 million over three years -- for a guy who hit .249 away from Coors. (My internet is being maddeningly slow again... arrgh, so that's a guess, since nothing will load for me).

Nix faces some competition from Jeff Baker for the official nod, but Hurdle has evidently liked what he has seen and the six-man second base derby (between Nix, Baker, Ian Stewart, Clint Barmes, Omar Quintanilla, and Marcus Giles) seems to have drawn to a close with Nix the last one standing. He'll face challenges in proving that he can adjust to Major League pitching and not be a Barmes-esque hole in the lineup, but will have the benefit of hitting seventh or eighth behind a Monster's Row of Tulowitzki-Helton-Holliday-Atkins-Hawpe. His sterling glovework will help to form an airtight seal up the middle of the infield, but honestly, with Tulo out there, we only need a league-average second baseman, as Tulo will probably be fielding a lot of those anyway. Nix is better than that, but the hitting needs to follow suit. He can also provide speed at the bottom of the order -- he's stolen over 10 bags every year since Casper and swiped 24 for the Sky Sox last year. With Tulo and Taveras both running (assuming Taveras is healthy) Nix will help them add the dimension that was lost to some degree with Kaz's departure.

2007 Line (AAA): .292 AVG, 11 HR, 58 RBI, .342 OBP, .451 SLG, .793 OPS
2007 Proj. (MLB): .270 AVG, 7 HR, 37 RBI, .335 OBP, .415 SLG, .750 OPS
INC/DEC/LEV: Hard to say with Nix, as he's never had a big-league cup of tea before.

#2 R/R Troy Tulowitzki: What can you say about Tulo? I have absolutely unshakable confidence in him, and every time someone expresses concern that the Rockies might fall back to earth in 2008, my response is always, "Don't worry, Tulo won't let it happen." A fantastically confident and mature rookie who blasted into stardom in his first full year on the team and was rewarded with a six-year, $31 million contract, Tulo is the real thing. He famously announced last year after the team's 18-27 start that he had never played for a losing team before and wasn't keen to start -- at the time, he was just 22. Some might have looked down their noses at a rookie trying to take on a leadership role, but Tulo craves the spotlight and has never been shy about letting everyone know that hang-dogging, self-pity, lackadaisical, or losing play just doesn't fly. He has ice in his veins and a cannon arm, and some of the plays he makes deep in the hole are positively Ripkenesque. Tulo is big for his position at 6'3" and 205 lbs, but he dropped 10 or 15 pounds this past offseason and is leaner and meaner than ever. Besides, when you're a ball-Hoover the way he is, it doesn't matter what size you are. Tulo wears #2 as a tribute to his boyhood idol Derek Jeter, but at this point, I'd take him in a New York minute over Jeter. A cartoon in the Rocky Mountain News made a bold prediction for the Rockies: "Tulowitzki plays infield all by himself. Rox win NL West." This is a joke, of course, but when you have the range that Tulo does, and are always determined to get to even more balls, it's sort of true. Tulo led all shortstops in fielding at his position (.987) and somehow managed to get gypped out of the Gold Glove to effing Jimmy Rollins, who also stole Holliday's MVP. Not to mention, he now holds the NL record for homers by a rookie shortstop with 24, breaking Ernie Banks' record, and is second overall behind Nomar Garciaparra's 30 in 1997.

Besides all this, Tulo possesses an absolutely out-of-his-head drive to win and improve, and I continue to believe that he had the lion's share of credit in smashing the resigned to losing mentality that existed in the clubhouse before he got here. Hitting .195 in the postseason rankled with him, and continues to rankle with him -- he lost sleep over it and is determined to bring the team better and go farther this year, which isn't something you see in everyone. Tulo has become a superstar-in-the-making -- his at-bats are accompanied by a chant that goes "[Nine claps] TU-LO!", his jersey is worn by everyone from toddlers to middle-aged men, and needless to say, he's got a bit of a following among female Rockies fans as well. College guys paint his initials on their chest and he continually gets big cheers wherever he goes. Last year at this time he was driving a plebeian SUV; this year, he's the proud owner of a $117,000 black Maserati GT, a car he claims to have lusted after since high school. (A Rockies commercial this year shows the Tulo! chant in every phase of our dashing young hero's life -- whether it's in the beeps of his alarm clock, the thuds of a jackhammer outside his apartment, the click of cash register keys when he's buying new sunglasses, or the bang of kitchen utensils when he decides to hit a restaurant with Atkins, who elbows him and grins slyly while Tulo looks rather pleased with himself). He could easily hit 30 HR and 100 RBI this year while providing stellar defense, aside from wanting to chew down brick walls to win games. He is only going to get better and sorry Ryan Speier, if Tulo would like me to have his children, you're out of luck, postseason IOUs or otherwise. With Clint Hurdle managing the NL in this year's All-Star Game in New York, it wouldn't surprise me one bit if Tulo was going with him in July. Show those blowhards what they're missing, especially those who insist there's a "steep dropoff" at shortstop after the (NL East) trio of Rollins, Ramirez, and Reyes. Tulo could use work on cutting down the strikeouts (130 to only 57 walks) but he's displayed an uncanny knack for clutch hitting and does his best work under pressure. I am thrilled to have him on the team and wait to see how high he goes.

2007 Line: .291 AVG, 24 HR, 99 RBI, .359 OBP, .479 SLG, .838 OPS
2008 Proj.: .310 AVG, 27 HR, 102 RBI, .370 OBP, .488 SLG, .858 OPS
INC/DEC/LEV: INC. The stars are the limit for this guy.

#27, R/R Garrett Atkins: Atkins is the only member of the core group that has not yet been signed to a long-term deal. Holliday's new deal takes him to the end of his arbitration, Brad Hawpe and Manny Corpas just got 4-year extensions, Tulo has his shiny new contract, but Atkins, conspicuously, has not. The Rockies claim it's because they did, in fact, make long-term overtures last winter but couldn't come to terms on the financial particulars. Atkins is a very money-savvy player who has managed and invested his income well, and he knows his worth and is more pragmatic than romantic about it. Also, he alone of the major role-players has a prospect pressing him from within -- Ian Stewart, the Rockies' top pick in 2003, has long been considered the third baseman of the future, and Atkins himself was once thought to be a stopgap until Stewart was ready. 67 homers and 320 RBI over three seasons will put a stop to that kind of speculation in a hurry, and now it's Atkins who's incumbent and Stewart who's challenging to win the spot. Atkins still has three seasons left before he can test free-agency, and he is under contract for $4.4 million for this year and has said he's comfortable going year-to-year for the rest of his arbitration period. However, his future might not be the only one at stake. He and Matt Holliday are so close, ever since 2002 when they were teammates and roommates in the minor leagues, that Atkins lives with the Holliday family during spring and has been known to babysit Matt's two sons. Matt himself has said in an interview with the Denver Post that Garrett's future will affect his own, so if the Rockies are thinking about retaining their MVP candidate long-term, they may also need to keep his best buddy. (Hey, every superhero needs a sidekick).

It's a testament to Atkins' pure baseball skill that he went .301/25/111 last year, and that was an off-year due to his horrendous May; at one point his average had dipped as low as .219. He batted a ridiculous .349 after the All-Star break, however, and was tops in all of baseball with 79 RBIs in 81 games from June to September. He has a smooth, sweet swing that would seem slump-immune, but he's gotten off to a slow start in March -- not as if you can read too much into spring statistics, but he will need to avoid a season-opening slump such as the one he suffered through last year. (Then again, the whole team will need to avoid that as well, so he's just one of many). Atkins is a converted first baseman who has never been the best at fielding the hot corner, but he has a strong arm and has worked on improving his range (although with Tulo to the left, you can give him a little leeway). His right side can still use some work, as it seems that he won't get to anything hit down the line, but he played outstanding D in the postseason and was no slouch in keeping up his end of the Rockies' top-ranked defense overall. His fielding hit a rough patch when his hitting did; in general, May just wasn't that kind to him. It's unlikely he'll start out in that kind of funk again, and although it's also unlikely he's going to show any marked improvement, a .300+ average with 25-30 HR and 100+ RBI doesn't leave a whole lot wanting. If Stewart can't force the issue at third this year, he may be dealt to bring in one of the top-flight arms it's looking as if the club may need, and if that happens, Atkins will likely get his long-term deal. In a perfect world, so then will Holliday.

2007 Line: .301 AVG, 25 HR, 111 RBI, .367 OBP, .486 SLG, .853 OPS
2008 Proj.: .305 AVG, 23 HR, 115 RBI, .372 OBP, .495 SLG, .867 OPS
INC/DEC/LEV: LEV.

#8 R/R Yorvit Torrealba: Yorvit was thisclose to becoming a New York Met after signing a $14.4 million, 3-year deal with them, but the arrangement fell through at the eleventh hour and he returned to Colorado, where he's comfortable, where he's developed an excellent rapport with the pitchers, and where he hopefully will be able to throw out a baserunner to save his life. 32 of 34 baserunners were successfully able to steal during the latter half of the season, which Yorvit attributes to a cranky shoulder, and insists it'll be healed this year. His ability to speak Spanish with young pitchers Morales, Jimenez, and Corpas is also a plus, and the rest of the staff raves about his game-calling. He's not going to light the world on fire offensively, but did have a key home run against the Diamondbacks in Game 3 of the NLCS, and has sometimes shown a knack for producing big hits in key times. Not necessarily last year, as he hit .201 with RISP and generally excelled at producing weak ground balls to the left side instead, but it's something he has done before. If healthy, Yorvit will hit around .260, high single digits in homers, and 40-50 RBI, but if he can help tutor the valuable young Latin arms that the club is counting so highly on, I may be persuaded to overlook it.

2007 Line: .255 AVG, 8 HR, 47 RBI, .323 OBP, .376 SLG, .699 OPS
2008 Proj.: .259 AVG, 7 HR, 48 RBI, .321 OBP, .366 SLG, .687 OPS
INC/DEC/LEV: Slight DEC.

All right, that's finished -- took me a few hours, but now I feel moderately productive. I'll examine the outfield and bench next, then I have a few fun ideas: "The Ultimate Rockies Playlist" and "30 MLB Teams: Love, Hate, Tolerate" are among the things I have in mind. Mainly, I want baseball back. HOW long now?

Around the Horn: Relievers

2008-03-21T01:56:00.007-04:00

As always, I'm behind. But since I'm home in Colorado and on spring break, with a week to burn before my sister gets off on her break and we can then have fun, I figured I might as well turn my attention to finishing the Rockies' previews. Naturally, I would have more time if I kept to a schedule, but since I don't, and write when the mood strikes me, there you go. But it's time to take a look at the Depths of Possible Doom known as the Rockies' 2008 pen. Closer Manny Corpas got re-signed for four years, Human Blowtorch Brian Fuentes is still around due to O'Dowd's puzzling refusal to even consider trading him, and the club brought in Luis Vizcaino from the Yankees to take over LaTroy Hawkins' spot (Hawkins, ironically enough, went to the Yankees, so they basically just switched suspect seventh/eighth-inning guys). The beartrap-in-waiting is Mark Redman, Kip Wells, and Josh Towers, all of whom are bad and all of whom may end up in the bullpen, or worse the rotation, there to firebomb games on a regular basis. This is always a dicey subject. Let's examine.

Projected:
RH/CL Manny Corpas
RH/SO Luis Vizcaino
LH/SO Brian Fuentes
RH/LR Taylor Buchholz
RH Matt Herges
RH Ramon Ramirez (or RH Ryan Speier)
LH Micah Bowie

#60, R/R Manny Corpas: Last year at this time, Corpas was a valuable but untested commodity, a fireballing young Panamanian righty who was expected to compete for a slot, but definitely not assured of anything. Fast-forward a season later, and he's the Rockies' unquestioned, postseason-hardened closer with a new four-year contract under his belt and ready to improve on what was a sensational showing in his first year of big-league duty: a 4-2 record, a 2.08 ERA (lowest ever in a full season for a Rockies reliever) 19 saves in 22 opportunities, and 58 strikeouts. Corpas came out of nowhere to take over the closer job when Fuentes (and my mental health) went to hell in June, and he stuck. His five postseason saves tied countryman Mariano Rivera for the single-season record, and if the Rockies had won just once in the World Series (oy) he would have broken it. Manny throws in the high nineties with a nasty slider, and is working on adding a changeup, but when you can throw that hard, you can stick to what works and still be a very effective and underrated closer. I trust him much more than I ever did Fuentes, and I expect higher things from him this year. With a full year in the closer's role, and a re-energized team that's going to be giving him plenty of opportunities, Manny should thrive.

(Interlude while I get totally distracted by Rockies songs I discover and download. New theme song: "Rocktober" by Thomas Tha Franchise. I'm all over it. Click that link, click "Save Page As" to get the MP3 file, and you will have it on repeat such as I do, augmenting my "Rockies" playlist).

2007 Line: 4-2 W/L, 2.08 ERA, 78 G, 19 SV, 22 SVO, 20 BB, 58 K
2008 Proj.: 4-1 W/L, 2.25 ERA, 82 G, 30 SV, 33 SVO, 24 BB, 69 K
INC/DEC/LEV: INC

#51 R/R Luis Vizcaino: Brought in from the AL, he returns to the NL, where he had his most successful season (2006 with the Diamondbacks). He'll see plenty of Arizona this year from the other side of the ball, and hopefully Hurdle doesn't use him as much as Torre did when he was with the Yankees. Vizcaino ended up with an 8-2 record, a 4.30 ERA, and 62 strikeouts while seeing action in 77 games and 75.1 IP. He hasn't impressed thus far this spring, and injury issues have been complicating the picture, which of course could be a result of all the work he's seen. He and LaTroy Hawkins have traded places and teams, and while Vizcaino is supposed to do his best work with runners on, I just figure he'll be Hawkins Redux -- which is to say, effective if used in the seventh inning or so, definitely no later, and DEAR GOD NOT AS an interim closer. Two years, $7.5 million is a little steep for a guy who's essentially a clone of the guy he was replacing (Hawkins was evidently surprised, with good reason, to hear that they wouldn't up him a couple hundred grand from his $3.25 million club option, but then would shell out twice that for the same part). The problem is, the Rockies are already envisioning using Vizcaino in the high-leverage, late-innings role, and that might be a problem if he shows anything like what he has thus far. Spring stats may be total bollox, but then again, they have to come from the player's own ability. I got to the point of warily trusting Hawkins if he came in for the seventh, figured he'd give up a walk or a hit, but would probably get out of it. If I can get to that same place with The Wiz of Viz, I'll be cool with that. Vizcaino was awful at Yankee Stadium (5.94 ERA) but good on the road (2.77). Of course, humidor or no humidor, Coors remains a hitter-friendly park, so he's definitely going to have to sharpen his jam-escaping skills. He walks too many (43) in comparison to strikeouts (62) which means that he will likely have to Houdini his way out of messes of his own making. Oy.

2007 Line: 8-2 W/L, 4.30 ERA, 77 G, 0 SV/3 SVO , 43 BB, 62 K
2008 Proj.: 3-4 W/L, 4.45 ERA, 70 G, 0 SV/2 SVO, 39 BB, 57 K
INC/DEC/LEV: DEC.

#40, L/L Brian Fuentes: If you read this blog last year, especially last June, you will know what kind of heavenly wrath I was calling down on Fuentes after the Road Trip That Shall Not Be Named, an agonizing 1-9 swing through Toronto, Chicago, and Houston on which the Rockies would have gone a perfectly decent 5-5.... were it not for Fuentes turning into a really awful pitcher at a really awful time for it. The patterns were eerie. In each of the games -- each of the games -- Tulo hit a late go-ahead homer, Fuentes would come in, and look like he was going to nail it down. But whether it was one out and nobody on, two outs and nobody on, he would then proceed to send it all to hell in rapid fashion. His most impressive performance was in Houston, when, with two outs and nobody on... he managed to give up a game-winning GRAND SLAM. I just about sold my soul to the Devil, fell on my knees to give thanks when the eight-game losing streak was broken by Francis, and got the "Baseball isn't everything, you know..." talk from my sister. I was in a terrible funk -- breaking things, being horribly depressed, losing my will to live, etc. (I think this was the third time, and I unwisely assumed it would hurt less the next time... nope, hurt more). In any case, that episode led to them "discovering" Fuentes was injured and summarily relieving him of the closer's role; ironically, he went to the All-Star Game the next week.

Proponents of Fuentes like to point out that he has been to the Midsummer Classic three times, but I do not necessarily think that means a whole lot. I am also afraid it may have shot my trust in Fuentes for good, especially after he single-handedly erased any chance of a Rockies comeback in Games 3 and 4 of the World Series. Like Clint Barmes, this is another player that O'Dowd perplexedly refuses to hear trade offers for; hopefully Fuentes can have a good first half and then be flipped for a high-upside prospect arm. Brian is just incubating the hot seat until 22-year-old Casey Weathers, the Rockies' top draft pick in 2007, is ready for the Show (he's likely to start the year at Double-A Tulsa, since his showing in Spring Training proved he's got a ways to go yet). He's still a sidewinding lefty reliever, which in itself means he has trade value, and the Tigers, Yankees, and Phillies have all inquired about him recently. I'll accept Fuentes, of course, and pray that he does well since I know how agonizing it is when he doesn't, but sooner rather than later, he should be thanked for his good service to the team and given his walking papers. Hopefully Weathers will be pressing him by the end of this season or the start of '09.

2007 Line: 3-5 W/L, 3.08 ERA, 64 G, 20 SV/27 SVO, 23 BB, 56 K
2008 Proj.: 2-3 W/L, 3.34 ERA, 60 G, 2 SV/4 SVO, 25 BB, 49 K
INC/DEC/LEV: DEC.

#35, R/R Taylor Buchholz: Bucky, as he's known, is a shamefully underrated and underused part of the Colorado bullpen. He was acquired with Jason Hirsh and Willy Taveras in the Jason Jennings trade (still highway robbery on our part) and was originally tabbed to be a starter, but struggled in that role and was moved to the bullpen for the first time in his pro career. He found an instant home there; he had gone 1-3/5.98 as a starter, but went 5-2/2.70 as a reliever and declared himself perfectly content with his new role. He has a sub-3 ERA this spring and has always been a reliever that I trust implicitly ... when he got to play, which wasn't a whole lot last season. However, the brain trust seems to have finally seen the light, and will be giving Bucky more innings this season, something which I am perfectly fine with. He uses a fastball and curve, mixing in the occasional changeup and slider, but having only two main pitches probably hurt him as a starter. Quiet, soft-spoken, and intelligent, Bucky always seems to be the forgotten man (a running joke in my house last season involved him and Chris Iannetta being locked in a bathroom due to their lack of playing time) but if he keeps pitching this way, he won't be any longer. With both Hirsh and Willy T suffering injuries (Hirsh has a rotator cuff problem that will keep him out of the opening of the regular season, and Willy T played in only 97 games last year) Bucky has emerged as the most stable of the trio, even though Hirsh was the Astros' top pitching prospect and the key to the deal. Bucky allowed only 8 HR in 93.1 IP, showing that he can control the fly-ball tendencies that will burn any overly generous pitcher in Coors. But Bucky did better at home (4.03) than on the road (4.41) which is something you expect of Rockies hitters, not of their pitchers. He figures to serve as the long man this season, which means he'll probably get a lot of work until Redman/Towers/Wells get the heck off my team.

2007 Line: 6-5 W/L, 4.23 ERA, 41 G, 0 SV/0 SVO, 20 BB, 61 K
2008 Proj.: 5-1 W/L, 3.89 ERA, 57 G, 1 SV/1 SVO, 29 BB, 67 K
INC/DEC/LEV: INC.

#34 L/R Matt Herges: Herges enjoyed something of a Well of Youth resurgence last year, going 5-1/2.96 -- presumably without PED's, as he was busted a big one in the chops with the release of the Mitchell Report, but swore he was clean in '07. Since he is 38 and has a career 3.82 ERA, I wouldn't be expecting him to duplicate that performance this year, especially since he got lucky with a lot of that. Still, he did provide a steadying presence out of the pen, allowing 4 HR in 48.1 IP and turning in some stellar performances in key games down the stretch. However, I'd look for him to be noticeably more wobbly this year, just because it evens out and he's an aging reliever off the juice. He was tough on righties (.184 BAA) and still hard to hit against lefties (.216 BAA) but the Rockies might have to look for a stretch of time without him, as it all depends if the toad in the Commish's office gets off his duff and hands out punishments for those fingered in the George Mitchell Power Hour Mudslinging Cabaret. Herges has apologized, naturally, and regrets setting a bad example, so I doubt he's going to make the mistake of going back to it. I wish I could trust him to do as well again as he did in 2007, but that was a magical year in a lot of ways and it remains to be seen for the team as a whole if they can keep the dance going and the pixie dust flowing. Last year was their proof that they can, in fact, be a winning club; the challenge in 2008 will be to demonstrate that they can do it on a consistent basis, as they were driving the car crazily and sometimes were dogging along and sometimes were laying on the gas. Herges, like everyone else and more so than others, will have to just keep the Rockcar purring on steadily down I-25, dodging the traffic of the rest of the West. If he can put together a season even remotely close to the last one, he'll be their hidden weapon. If not, he'll probably land on the Giants by the end of the year.

2007 Line: 5-1 W/L, 2.96 ERA, 35 G, 0 SV/2 SVO, 15 BB, 30 K
2008 Proj.: 3-2 W/L, 3.57 ERA, 40 G, 1 SV/3 SVO, 17 BB, 35 K
INC/DEC/LEV: DEC.

#61 R/R Ramon Ramirez: Ramirez is a bit of a wild card at this point. He was solid in 2006 (if my internet would stop being slower than Bengie Molina, I'd tell you the exact numbers, but it's having a problem at the moment.... five minutes later, no exaggeration, I discover that they were 4-3/3.46, but that's all I'm going to get, as I accidentally closed the wrong window and will now have to wait another five minutes before it tells me anything more). Last year, Ramirez was almost as dysfunctional as my aging and well-loved laptop, going 2-2 with an 8.31 ERA after suffering injury problems, but the team is hoping he can rebound this year and again be a solid contributor to the pen. He had an unsightly 1.56 WHIP and .313 BAA in '07, allowing 2 HR, 6 BB, and 15 K in 17.1 innings, often getting helped out by his defense (in just one example, I watched him pitch against... the Diamondbacks, I think it was, in which Willy T made a great catch to keep an RBI single to a sac fly, and Holliday charged down a sinking liner in the corner to end the inning and stop a double). To be honest, I'm not entirely thrilled about this prospect, but with Hawkins and Affeldt off to greener pastures, the team does need warm bodies in the pen. If Ramirez doesn't suck, he's welcome to pitch a few innings. If he does, the Cubs can have him, they always can use bad pitchers.

2007 Line: 2-2 W/L, 8.31 ERA, 22 G, o SV/0 SVO, 6 BB, 15 K
2008 Proj.: 0-1 W/L, 5.20 ERA, 20 G, 0 SV/0 SVO, 11 BB, 23 K
INC/DEC/LEV: LEV

#23 R/R Ryan Speier: Speier may be a casualty of the process, as he impressed down the stretch but still has minor-league options left, so he may be the odd man out and therefore relegated to start the season at Colorado Springs again. I have not forgotten, however, that I did promise to have his children after he closed out Game 2 of the NLCS against the Diamondbacks after it had gone into extra innings and Willy T had worked the game-winning walk against a wild Jose Valverde. So if the second Ryan S on the roster makes it back to Denver, he can take me up on this offer if he so wishes and Tulo hasn't gotten there first, as might have happened. If so, he will be out of luck, as he will be in regards to his prospects of making the big-league club, which he would certainly like better. He weebled and wobbled all over the damn place early on, but like everyone else, took it to the next level when it counted and Purple Row (where I post under the name Silverblood) decided that he was the "Ace in the Pen." If Ramirez blows chunks, Speier could find himself ticketed for Denver in the relatively early going. A sidewinding 6'7" righty, he spent a good deal of last year as the Sky Sox closer, had a few bumps on his first stint with the Rox, but made adjustments and was an integral part of the (and I cannot believe I am typing these words) lights-out iron curtain that was the Rockies bullpen in the playoffs. I wouldn't mind seeing him back, and if I do end up having his children, I hope they don't inherit his facial hair.

2007 Line: 3-1 W/L, 4.00 ERA, 20 G, 0 SV/1 SVO, 8 BB, 13 K
2008 Proj.: 2-1 W/L, 4.12 ERA, 24 G, 0 SV/0 SV0, 10 BB, 17 K
INC/DEC/LEV: LEV.

#44 L/L Micah Bowie: If Vizcaino is Hawkins, than Bowie is Affeldt. His most recent employer was the Washington Nationals, but the Rockies extended him a chance to attend camp as a NRI (non-roster invitee) and he's made the most of it. Thus far, in six Cactus League appearances, he's yet to allow a run in 7.1 IP, with three walks and four K's. Since his career ERA is a rather untidy 6.01, however, it may be a little much to hope that he's finally figured something out; I should take this opportunity to note that Kip Wells had a 1.16 ERA in camp last year and we all know how that turned out. Your basic journeyman type, Bowie has counted the Braves, Cubs, Athletics, and most recently Nationals among his employers, and the most games he's ever pitched in is 30, set last year in Washington. He pitched a career-high 57 innings, and it should also be noted that his second-highest total, 47 IP, came appended to a 2-6/9.96 (OY!) season with the Cubs in '99. In Colorado, he'll be counted to fill the void of LOOGY left in Affeldt's wake, and if he can be trusted to come in for one or two outs and retire dangerous lefties, that's all he needs to do; he doesn't even need to finish the inning if you just insert him judiciously here and there. He did have a 1.37 ERA in 2006 (19.2 IP) with the Nats, so limited exposure is evidently the key here. Overuse is a ticket to a blowup, probably when we least need it, seeing as that is a general rule of thumb. He did start 8 games in 2007, and if our fifth starter situation gets any worse... well, no. Let's hope it doesn't.

2007 Line: 4-3 W/L, 4.55 ERA, 30 G, 0 SV/0 SVO, 27 BB, 42 K
2008 Proj.: 2-3 W/L, 4.47 ERA, 24 G, 0 SV/0 SVO, 20 BB, 46 K
INC/DEC/LEV: LEV.

Other names you might see in the picture: Jose Capellan (talented but erratic, acquired from the Brewers, injury problems in the early going and hasn't seen much work, may be installed at some point) Zach McClellan (had a brief stint, interested in returning when healthy, which he currently is not, nothing particularly special) Juan Morillo (fireballer, not the greatest at control, needs more time in the minors, but power pitchers are always attractive) Josh Towers (bad) Mark Redman (still bad) Kip Wells (three-letter word starting with "b") the Grim Reaper (hey, can't be worse, and would have the benefit of making opposing batters quake in fear instead of anticipation).

Kip Wells' Cactus League ERA: 5.14
Josh Towers' Cactus League ERA: 7.20
Mark Redman's Cactus League ERA: 9.24

Holy hell, that is a lot of pitching incompetence. Can somebody tell me how we had "improving the team" in mind when we signed that junk?

Anyone? Anyone?

Thought so.

Ahem. I will do my best to get another preview done in sequence tomorrow, much as it may stun those of you well accustomed to my suspect scheduling. In which case it'll be the infield, and hopefully I won't have to write six different blurbs for the second base spot. The competition looks to be down to Nix and Baker, with Nix having the inside track if he gets over the stiff back that will sideline him for the next few days.

Around the Horn: Starters

2008-03-01T20:40:00.004-05:00

At last, I'm back in the baseball blogging saddle. It took me a while, but spring training games started a few days ago and despite how excited I was to start the (fake) season again, it was a little difficult to get back in the habit. I've finally kicked some rust off, kept blogging football over at Gang Gridiron while reading baseball blogs madly, and although it's still a dadgum 29 days until Opening Day, am already more than ready for the season to start. MLB.com Gameday, which I have to use until I get home in May, is good in the regular season, but slow as hell in spring, so basically I get a quick summation of each inning if I'm lucky and it doesn't freeze completely. Which at the moment it is doing.

Onwards and upwards. We explore the starting rotation today, and the preview is followed by my deeply unscientific projections for their 2008 season. I don't run zillions of simulations or number-crunching; I just pick reasonably and mark whether I expect an increase, decline, or level from their 2007 performances (INC/DEC/LEV).

Projected:
1. Jeff Francis
2. Aaron Cook
3. Ubaldo Jimenez
4. Jason Hirsh
5. Franklin Morales (failing that, Mark Redman/Kip Wells/Josh Towers, but I prefer not to think about that possibility)

#26, L/L Jeff Francis: The 27-year-old Canadian lefty is now being hailed as the ace of the staff after a 17-9/4.22 record last year and starting three games in the playoffs. At this time last year, Aaron Cook had taken the Opening Day starter label, but it'll be Francis facing off against Adam Wainwright in St. Louis come March 31. Francis doesn't have typical ace stuff -- which to say, him hitting 90 on the radar gun is a rarity. He switches sides of the plate, has a crafty changeup, and relies on offspeed and deception. He's not going to blow anyone away, but when he's mixing up his stuff, he can be as good as anyone in the game. He's always prone to having to work through traffic, and still can give up big innings, but he's mastered the knack of Coors (home ERA is lower than his road ERA) and will be looked to as #1. For a time, though, as the kids develop, they could easily be threatening to steal his position. Francis, the ultimate humble team player, won't be kicking up much of a fuss. He has said it doesn't matter to him if he wins zero games, as long as the team wins 90-95. That's part of the mindset that makes the Rockies so fun to root for. Francis comes into 2008 looking to fulfill heightened expectations and not take a disappointing step backwards after maturing as a pitcher last year.

2007 Line: 17-9 W/L, 4.22 ERA, 34 GS, 215.1 IP, 63 BB, 165 K, 1.38 WHIP, .278 BAA
2008 Proj.: 17-10 W/L, 4.15 ERA, 33 GS, 220.2 IP, 59 BB, 157 K, 1.34 WHIP, .272 BAA
INC/DEC/LEV: Slight INC.

#28, R/R Aaron Cook: His campaign was shut down prematurely by an assortment of injuries in August, and although he was heralded as the ace by default coming into 2007, he was instead unseated by Francis and in fact didn't complete the season. Coming back in the fourth game of the World Series, he pitched well, 6 innings and 3 runs (but the Rockies lost, of course, and that is the last I hope to talk about what was a rather traumatic experience for me) leading to hopes that he'll be effective again once healthy. The front office certainly thought so, rewarding him with a four-year, $34-million contract extension that Cook will certainly set out to justify, since Rockies giving pitchers fat contracts in the past has worked out badly. (No, not thinking of anyone in particular, why?) His best pitch is his heavy sinker, which when located consistently low in the zone, produces groundballs galore. (However, you'd never know that from watching Torrealba call pitches, as Yorvit loves the fastball, fastball, fastball). Cook also has a curveball and slider, but will generally stick to the sinker if it's working and Yorvit remembers to call it. His biggest issues coming into 2008 will be proving he deserves the new contract and rehabilitating from the injuries that have plagued him in the past. He also could use work on improving his BB/K rate.

2007 Line: 8-7 W/L, 4.12 ERA, 25 GS, 166 IP, 44 BB, 61 K, 1.34 WHIP, .279 BAA
2008 Proj.: 13-8 W/L, 4.17 ERA, 30 GS, 189 IP, 56 BB, 95 K, 1.29 WHIP, .274 BAA
INC/DEC/LEV: LEV

#38, R/R Ubaldo Jimenez: This time last year, Jimenez was a highly regarded prospect making inroads at AAA Colorado Springs, but struggling with control and just hoping for a look-see at the big-league level. My, how things have changed. He still struggles with control, but is entering this spring penciled in as the Rockies' #3 starter and possessed of the most typically ace-like stuff of the bunch. Able to throw as high as 100 mph and regularly registering in the very high nineties, Jimenez fits the typical power-pitcher mold and is their bona-fide flamethrower. He uses his other pitches mainly to complement his fastball (the curve, in particular, still gives him trouble, and it's hit or miss as to whether he has his breaking stuff on any given day) but unlike the Francis type that can get into trouble if he doesn't have his offspeed, Jimenez can make up for it by rearing back and unleashing smoke. The problem is that he still walks too many (averaged 1 BB per 2 innings at one point last year) and is only 23. He was battle-tested down the stretch last year and in the playoffs, and managed to contain the thunderous Red Sox offense, as he was the starter in the game the Rockies lost 2-1. If he can get his wildness under control and continue to zip the flames in there, we could be looking at the start of a special career. I'll have to play it totally by ear when estimating his 2008 line, since he hasn't had a full year in the big leagues yet. But he has the talent to make it as far as the team, and he, can go.

2007 Line: 4-4 W/L, 4.28 ERA, 15 GS, 82 IP, 37 BB, 68 K, 1.30 WHIP, .228 BAA
2008 Proj.: 10-5 W/L, 3.87 ERA, 25 GS, 175 IP, 69 BB, 199 K, 1.20 WHIP, .224 BAA
INC/DEC/LEV: Strong INC.

#48, R/R Jason Hirsh: He was a dominating pitcher in the Minors, but the edition the Rockies got didn't quite fit the mold. After a few excellent early-season showings, he got absolutely hammered in the summer, up and down. He suffered an ankle injury against the Mets on the basepaths, came back, and then took a liner off the leg on August 7 (I was at that game) breaking the right fibula. The silly man stayed in and pitched six innings on it anyway, picking up the win, but that was it for him for the season. He consequently missed being able to participate in the Rockies' pennant-winning drive, although he got to cheer them on from the dugout. Returning this year, he's determined to get a chance to experience it on-field as well, and to get back to the success he displayed as an Astros prospect. Last season, he was pitching more in the Francis mold -- trying to use his curve and changeup before going to his fastball -- and since that's not the sort of pitcher he is, it didn't work. The pitching brain trust has convinced him to use his fastball as a primary pitch and then introduce the offspeed stuff from there, which is also the difference between going directly after hitters and trying to guile them into biting. At 6'8"/250 lb, he has plenty of size and can use that to go after the David Ecksteins and Ryan Theriots of the NL, and a few of the larger specimens as well. His injuries last year were mainly the flukish type -- line drives right back at the box are a total wildcard -- so he hopefully shouldn't have any major issues with staying healthy this year. This will be only his second year as a full-time starter, so he'll have to continue to learn the ropes. Mark against him: He worked for the San Diego Chargers this offseason and loves the team. BOOOOO. Jason, you're a Colorado resident now, at least for half the year, so consider switching your football alliances.

2007 Line: 5-7 W/L, 4.81 ERA, 19 GS, 112.1 IP, 48 BB, 75 K, 1.34 WHIP, .244 BAA
2008 Proj.: 11-8 W/L, 4.25 ERA, 24 GS, 157.2 IP, 55 BB, 120 K, 1.28 WHIP, .239 BAA
INC/DEC/LEV: INC.

#56 L/L Franklin Morales: Morales is a stud prospect -- a 22-year-old lefty with dazzling stuff and just as much heat as Jimenez. He commands a full repertoire of pitches and has the ability to become something else as well, but he is young, prone to wildness, and can get flustered easily on the mound. Once he can control his nerves, along with his pitches, look out. The team wants him to fill the #5 slot, but also wants him to earn it, with ~~terrifying evildoers~~ replacement plans Kip Wells, Josh Towers, and Mark Redman waiting in the wings. Wells went 7-17 with an ERA well north of 5 for the Cardinals, Towers went 5-10 with an ERA well north of 5 for the Blue Jays, and Mark Redman is, well Mark Redman. None of those options inspire particular confidence, and putting even one of them in the bullpen could be a bomb in disguise, but the Rox are hoping that their track record of rehabilitating wash-ups can continue. Oy vey. Anyway, about Morales. Since this is his first full year in the bigs, he'll be eased in, but they're counting on him to play a larger role, as he did have experience down the stretch last year and made his debut in the heat of a pennant race, on the road in Los Angeles, in a game the Rockies eventually won 7-4 in extra innings. Morales pitched 5 innings, allowed 1 run, and added one himself with the bat, as he's a converted outfielder, it's possible he still might remember how to hit. Cook is probably the best hitter among the Rockies starters, Francis occasionally stumbles into a double, and Jimenez is terrible, but his arm is far more important than his bat. Hirsh got a pair of hits in the Mets game he injured himself in, but otherwise isn't much to speak of, so maybe Frankie can chip in a few well-timed singles here and there. He had a strong 2-inning outing today in relief of Hirsh, allowing one hit and striking out two with little trouble, so if he can claim the #5 spot from the get-go, the team can avoid the win-hemorrhaging they might develop with Wells/Towers/Redman sucking up starts.

2007 Line: 3-2 W/L, 3.43 ERA, 8 GS, 39.1 IP, 14 BB, 26 K, 1.22 WHIP, .241 BAA
2008 Proj.: 8-4 W/L, 3.75 ERA, 20 GS, 144.2 IP, 42 BB, 115 K, 1.25 WHIP, .235 BAA
INC/DEC/LEV: INC.

Next come the relievers. Tomorrow, hopefully, but you never know.

GLORY BE

2008-02-15T17:35:00.000-05:00

Baseball baseball BASEBALL base-ball baseBALL BASEball Baseball Baseball BASEBALL BASEBALL almost almost almost smellin' springtime pitchers and catchers reporting today workouts Saturday spring is coming BASEBALL the great slump is over soon it will be better but now it's good, we're gettin' there, we will survive, almost almost almost!

Yes, that is all I have to say.

Dammit, It's Almost Spring

2008-02-05T18:55:00.000-05:00

Warm, gray, and rainy here in New York as the Giants get their parade, and with that, the football season officially comes to a close (the Pro Bowl, while fun in the same way as the All-Star Game, doesn't count). With that, we can now turn our attention back to baseball, and when one of my friends pointed out to me yesterday that the Rockies' pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training in 10 days, it was like water to a man (woman) coming out of the desert. 10 days?! That's all?! Position players in two weeks?! AMEN. Thank ye Jeebus, the offseason is long, football is great, but baseball is still supreme, and it feels like damn-well forever since we had a little action on the diamond instead of the gridiron. Very soon, the trucks will be rolling into Arizona (and Florida), there will be workouts under a spring sun, bats and balls, green grass and palm trees, and the world will be right again.

Still not much news on the Rockies front, as the team has taken the tact of "do nothing except sign some filler pieces" as the beginnings of their NL Champs defense (I will never get tired of writing that). For the first time in a very long while, they will take the field with expectations, and even if due only to Tulo, losing will not be acceptable. Should be fun.

The team is in negotiations with Garrett Atkins, Brad Hawpe, and Brian Fuentes (good geebus) on arbitration-year contracts (for the former two) and a possible extension (for the third). Why we are so dead-set on keeping Fuentes I don't know, as we'll have plenty of bombs in the bullpen if (gulp) any one of the terrible triumvirate of Wells, Redman, and Towers end up in there, let alone two or more. (Please be ready for the fifth-starter job, Franklin Morales). All-Star lefty.... um, All-Star selections are completely meaningless, as Fuentes went (or didn't, since he was injured) to the Midsummer Classic exactly a week after shitting all over four straight save opportunities. He doesn't have the greatest mental makeup either, as far as I can tell, but maybe the less-intense role of setup man will take some of the pressure off him. Thankfully, Hurdle has seen the light and has announced that it will not be a competition for the closer's role -- that job is Manny Corpas' to keep. Good.

Once Spring Training starts, I'll be writing previews -- maybe I'll give the NL a crack, since I got all the AL and none of the NL done last year -- and doing Around the Horn position featurettes for the Rockies. And guess what? It's still not here. The few weeks in between the Super Bowl and spring training are a sadistic wasteland.

AAAAAH.....

Holliday Signed, Tulo in Talks

2008-01-19T19:05:00.000-05:00

Finally, some Rockies news, and naturally I'm a few days off on it, but that's better than I've been recently. Matt Holliday signed a 2-year, $23-million contract that buys out his last two years of arbitration eligibility -- I'm sure Scott Boras wouldn't let him sign anything that covers any of his free-agent years. Said Dan O'Dowd, "We hope the deal is a bridge to a longer-term agreement." Perhaps there's hope yet, since Holliday will be just 30 when this contract expires after the 2009 season, but if he continues to perform at this level, the Rockies will be hard-pressed to cough up the kind of mongo-bucks that Holliday will want (and deserve). Still, I'm satisfied with this deal if only so we don't have to go through the whole process next winter with him, and I'm trying not to imagine how much it'll hurt if we don't re-sign him. The contract is for $9.5 million this year, upgrading to $13.5 mil next year. Hopefully Holliday's mammoth offensive performance will duplicate itself; if it does, $23 million for the close runner-up (and in my mind, the actual) NL MVP isn't much to pay.

There is one other long-term contract in the works right now, and that's the pact being discussed with rookie sensation Troy Tulowitzki. Tulo, who has proven himself so well that the front office is bandying the idea of a six-year contract with an option about a player entering his second season, was the chief reason for the Rockies' newfound winning mentality and is a natural talent; I love watching him play. Whether turning slick double plays or ripping the timely hit, Tulo's natural skills are prodigious enough that the proposed contract would lock him up for the six years of club control, plus an option to cover his first year of free agency. Basically, the Rockies would be insane to ever let him go at all, since he can only go further up from here, but that's the way the management goes.

Tulo doesn't yet know who his double-play partner will be, however. The Rockies have a whole flock of candidates in the mix -- Jayson Nix, Marcus Giles, Clint Barmes (oy) Omar Quintanilla, Jeff Baker, and Ian Stewart, with Nix appearing to be the front-runner. Giles hit only .229 for the Padres last year, but a mammoth .526 at Coors Field. A solid performance for Team USA helped raise his stock after an average minor-league career, and Barmes and Q are solid glove-men but their hitting can charitably be rated as very bad to nonexistent. Ian Stewart is a third-base prospect who could be converted. Baker is a corner infielder and utility outfielder who hit .368 in September 2006, leading everyone to hope that he could duplicate this performance in '07; he did not. My personal preferences would be Stewart or Nix, maybe Giles if he can keep hitting the way he did earlier, and don't really think Baker, Barmes, or Quintanilla can cut it full-time. They may be AAAA players (too good for the minors, not good enough for the majors). Nix has been inconsistent aside from one good performance, so his hitting skills are also in question. If Stewart can make the transition, we'd have a power-hitting second baseman, which would be nice.

Still not spring, but I've been writing a lot of football at Gang Gridiron. If that's your bag, check it out; otherwise, the Around the Horn position-by-position previews will come just as soon as the Super Bowl is over and spring training starts. In other words, not just yet, sadly.

How I Spend The Time Until Spring

2008-01-15T15:05:00.000-05:00

... aka, this is my latest bloggery project. Yes, after spending an entire offseason watching football fanatically, I now feel (naturally) as if I want to start writing about it, and I don't want to mix my audience (haha.... like I have an audience) up too much. The last post dipped only briefly into football waters (and yes, I realize it has been a month since then, but with an extremely slow offseason for the Rockies coupled with my fervent desire to avoid reading about the Mitchell Report, there is little to say about the great old game). So, if you feel the desire to extend my special brand of sports-related insanity to your football passions as well, please check out:

Gang Gridiron

(tanta ta ta tan-ta-tah!)

If you are still out there, bless you. Baseball will start soon, and then I'll be back to work. I think I'm going to start writing "Around the Horn" featurettes such as they do on the main Rockies site, one for each player, but with that particular brand of wit and inaccurate predictions that make me so endearing. Ho ho.

The Mitchell Witch Hunt, Offseasons Suck And So Does My Computer, Haren to D-backs

2007-12-14T23:35:00.000-05:00

As you can see, clearly I should blog more often so I don't have to cram all these subjects into one post, but I expect I'll be forgiven if I say it's only one more week to go in semester and I'm more than ready to go home and have it be Christmas already. Also, my computer has been possessed by demons at a particularly inopportune time, and now the r key is completely broken -- I have to copy/paste it in -- and if I so much as touch the empty socket where it used to be, it goes crazy, inserting very long lines of the letter while I vainly attempt to stem the flow and edit it out. Fortunately, my computer has relented to let me at least use it, which it wasn't doing last night and making me very nervous about finishing/editing term papers, etc. Therefore, I might as well blog because I currently have nothing better to do.

Of course, as I'm sure everyone's aware, the Mitchell Witch Hunt came out yesterday and named 60-80 players that the feds have busted for illicit steroid use -- or at least the ones who used the same supplier (an ex-Mets clubhouse attendant named Kirk Radomski, who apparently was the nucleus for steroid supply during the juiced eras of the '90s) and were stupid enough to write checks from their personal accounts, which of course got traced back to them by the valiant efforts of sir Mitchell. One current Rockie did get fingered -- reliever Matt Herges, who apparently used PEDs in 2005, went 5-1/2.96 last year, and who we just re-signed for the 2008 campaign. It'll be interesting to see what sort of punishments get handed down... Selig, the ball-less wonder, has said that he'll punish players according to what sort of rules against PEDs were in place at the time of their infraction, which makes sense -- no use punishing them now for something that wasn't illegal then.

But all this shows was how badly Selig and his cronies dragged their feet on getting an effective testing policy implemented in the game and how long he turned a blind eye as the 'roid-fueled monsters blasted 70+ home runs in the juicy summer of 1998 and interest in the game was peaking -- all for profit. He let Jeffrey Loria kill the Expos and now he's letting him kill the Marlins... no, I am no fan of the man at all, but at the same time, this isn't all on his shoulders. Those (dis)honors also go to Radomski (thinking that this toad was happily complicit in the shaming of my favorite sport ever, just to make money, makes me want to kill something) and of course all the players who decided that their natural talent wasn't enough and had to get an unfair advantage over those who played fair. There has to be a few -- while rampant 'roiding was the name of the game in the late '90s, I refuse to adopt the position of the pessimists who insist it was everybody. Also, I've read a good deal of the 409 pages of the Mitchell report, and while it turns up a few hard-to-refute juicers (Roger Clemens is going to have to do some extremely fast talking to reserve his previously cast-in-iron spot in Cooperstown, so naturally his technique is deny, deny, deny) it also seems to rely too extensively on hearsay. The entry on Jack Cust, I kid you not, has to do with the fact that he had a locker next to Larry Bigbie (a self-admitted juicer) and they once had a conversation about steroids...

However, the report does kick the last feet out from under the Barry Bonds apologists who point to the fact that the so-called home run king has never failed a drug test -- he had extensive advance warning for them, and besides, Bigbie was on HGH during 2004 and MLB's medieval pee-in-a-cup policy naturally failed to turn anything up. Bonds and Clemens, to no one's very great surprise, are given the biggest black eyes, but the report also turns up a bunch of thoroughly mediocre players (Adam Piatt, anyone?) which proves that steroids, while enhancing your natural gifts, can't turn you from zero to hero overnight. Sad that Bonds and Clemens were some of the most gifted players of their era and then, seeing it as somehow "not enough," had to turn to shady pharmaceutical shenanigans just for a few more shiny stats. It will also definitely be interesting to see what happens in 2012, which, assuming neither of them plays again, is the first year that they'll be eligible for the Hall of Fame. Ask Mark McGwire how that's working for him...

I'm personally relieved that none of the Blake Street Bombers past or present got named, but that doesn't mean they're clean. I hate this culture of suspicion in which everybody is guilty until proven innocent, and you can't go around pre-emptively attaching the juicer tag to absolutely everyone; you'll just drive yourself nuts and hurt the innocent players who have kept their noses clean in a difficult era. The Mitchell Report, however, is just the beginning, and everyone has promised that more names will surface as investigations continue. After all, that despicable weasel Radomski can't have been the only supplier.

I want to emphasize that this does not change my feelings for baseball one bit, and I think those that swear off the sport forever are just indulging in Chicken-Little-style histrionics. Did MLB handle the drug problem badly? Yes. Is Bud Selig an industrial-grade tool? Yes. Are the players and suppliers complete jerks for doing this? Hard to say. Suppliers, yes, there's no excuse. Get a real job instead of dealing drugs. As for the players, it's more complicated. It's never all right to cheat, and while some of them do it to flash their "skillz," some of them certainly were faced with the tough choice of either staying clean and fading away in the minor leagues or getting on the "stuff" and realizing their lifelong dream of making it to the Show. Or they were injured and genuinely wanted to rehabilitate faster and come back to help their team. It's their own fault that they exercised poor judgment in how to go about this, but to paint every steroid user with the "Total cheater, should be banned from baseball for life" label is an ugly and unfair oversimplification. They're certainly there, of course, and it's easy to sort out the self-righteous douchenozzles from the rest of the bunch. Peer pressure, wanting to keep your job, thinking that you needed to take them to keep up with the rest of the league, the difference between financial uncertainty and being set for life -- there are a lot of factors in play. But this too shall pass. The great old game is still the great old game. Watch it anyway. There are good apples and bad apples in the barrel, and when spring comes around again, there are blue skies, palm trees, workouts, and the ever-minted new hope of another season, this will hopefully cease to matter.

Which reminds me.... boy, is this damn offseason long. My newest pursuit is football, and I've been watching a lot of it, in an attempt to while away the long winter months. I know you're astonished, but this post will briefly dabble in football instead, and if I get really bored, I'll turn it into a Broncos blog for the last few weeks before spring. Watching the Broncos is eerily like watching the early-season Rockies, actually. They have the young, talented core, a head coach who may or may not be a total idiot, and a frustrating inability to get it going all at once. I know I missed the boat on the Broncos being good by about ten years, but what the hell. Jay Cutler, Brandon Marshall, Elvis Dumervil, Tony Scheffler, Brandon Stokely, et all (with the exception of Todd Sauerbrun... do not kick to Devin Hester, you asshat) form a talented nucleus with occasional glimpses of greatness interspersed with moments of total brain-fartery.

Still, they're naturally my team, I enjoy watching them, and, being spoiled by the game-a-day schedule of baseball, impatiently await Sundays every week so I at least have a sport to follow. They're usually quite fun. (Thursday's game notwithstanding.... 31-13 loss to the Texans puts the nail in the coffin for all intents and purposes, but I think it was unfair to talk about the playoffs with this unit anyway. They clearly need another year to mature and mesh, and then we'll see. Cutler ranks fourth in the NFL in terms of yards per attempt (7.92) just behind such luminaries as Brady (8.60) Romo (8.58) and Favre (7.96), coming in ahead of Super Bowl MVP Peyton Manning (7.90) He's got a cannon of an arm, quick feet, a good head for the game, but is still 24 and as such tends to make rookie mistakes. Also, can he please break a tackle when trying to scramble out of the pocket.... (four sacks last night) Still, he's completing over 64% of his passes, his QB rating is 90.8, and he has 18 TD passes to 12 picks -- while #6 may not yet be #7, he's working on it. Brandon Marshall is also showcasing great potential, and while Cutler/Marshall may not yet be Brady/Moss, it's definitely going to be something to watch. Now that The Carcass Which Was Jake Plummer has vacated Mile High (I don't care if they call it Invesco, nobody in Colorado does) and if Shanny ever got a clue and Sauerbrun stopped doing stupid things like running off his mouth, kicking to Devin Hester, and getting arrested, we could be seeing the start of something again.

Okay! Back to baseball. That was my first foray into football blogging ever, and now back to my familiar ground. Today, the D-backs made the biggest move of the NL West by landing Dan Haren from the A's. Haren, 27 years old, under an extremely reasonable contract for the next three years, and the 2007 AL All-Star starter, is now going to team with Brandon Webb to form an extremely scary 1-2 punch at the top of the 'Zona rotation. His price was six prospects -- Carlos Gonzalez, Brett Anderson, Greg Smith, Dana Eveland, Aaron Cunningham, and Chris Carter (to which you probably said, "Who?" to every name) and at first blush, it looks as if Billy Beane was going for quantity over quality. Every prospect has potential, clearly, and that's two A-level (Gonzalez/Anderson) and four B-level (everyone else). Still, this will be either the Mark Mulder trade (total thievery) or the Tim Hudson trade (total debacle) for the A's, and I am somewhat baffled as to why Beane made this trade for these parts. What with the big-market teams furiously competing to get Santana and viewing Haren as a safety net, Beane the famous extortionist should have been able to play on that and get at least one ML-ready player (Justin Upton, Chris Young, Stephen Drew, etc) from the stacked Snakes system. Not entirely sure what he sees here to entice him to give up the most valuable commodity in the game -- a young, cheap, durable ace -- for a package of possibility.

I am also admittedly not pleased that we didn't make a comparable offer -- our farm system is also comparatively rich in talent -- and get Haren out of the AL West and onto the right NL West team. Haren/Webb, with Doug Davis, Randy Johnson (if he's healthy) and double-edged threat Micah Owing (he pitches and hits; won the Silver Slugger for a pitcher) is not a fun thought to entertain as we scope out the competition in the West next year. What have the Rockies done? Signed Kip Wells (7-17.5.20/total suck in '07) Mark Redman, and missed out on Tad Iguchi (no Barmes as second base starter. Just say no. Just say no.... Why can't we ever get a proven star-quality pitcher instead of a possibly-decent, possibly-catastrophic retread....? It's not going to get any easier in the West next year and it makes no sense to stock up with gasoline cans if every other team is going to bring the matches.

This has already been a long post and my psychotic r key is starting to go insane again, randomly inserting endless and random r's, which I'm getting tired of curtailing. More later....

Further Evidence I Suck at Predictions

2007-11-19T00:00:00.000-05:00

but in my defense, nobody really saw this magical year coming for Colorado. In fact, as late as September 16, it looked like the same old story and they'd be lucky to finish a few games above .500 (in my preseason predictions, I gave them an 81-81 split and that was about all I was hoping for before the late-season surge kicked into gear). Now it's time to review my individual player predictions, some of which I was close on and some of which I completely missed the boat on (Tulo and Jeff Baker coming to mind). Also note that I only compare predictions with those players who started and finished the year on the team, to spare us the pain of reliving the John Mabry/Steve Finley/Tom Martin experiments.

COLORADO ROCKIES: REVIEW

Jeff Francis, LHP
Projected: 15-10, 4.05 ERA, 201 IP, 135 K, 32 starts
Actual: 17-9, 4.22 ERA, 215.1 IP, 165 K, 34 starts
Result: My Nostradamus skills weren't too bad here. Jeff eked out two extra wins and got bailed out by the offense on the occasion of a few poor starts to keep the loss total south of double-digits, and discovered a strikeout knack to bump him about 30 K's north of the figure I estimated, but in general, this is a close prediction. Kudos to me. Hit.

Aaron Cook, RHP
Projected: 15-12, 4.12 ERA, 215 IP, 95 K, 32 starts
Actual: 8-7, 4.12 ERA, 166 IP, 61 K, 25 starts
Result: Cookie was sidelined by injury again, cutting back on his numbers quite a bit further than I estimated. He definitely didn't come close to the record total I envisioned (but I did hit the ERA nail on the head, go me). He also came 40 innings shy of 200, so I definitely got it wrong on the IP total and gave him too many K's. Miss.

Rodrigo Lopez, RHP
Projected: 8-14, 5.31 ERA, 170 IP, 101 K, 24 starts
Actual: 5-4, 4.42 ERA, 79.1 IP, 43 K, 14 starts
Result: Er, clearly, I miscalculated on this one. Lopez wasn't the 9-18 horror I'd been steeling myself for from the 2006 Orioles, and in the early going he even looked good, but then he made the ill-advised choice of trying to pitch through elbow problems and got blown up. Shut down in August and became a free-agent, may not pitch until August of next year. Miss.

Josh Fogg, RHP
Projected: 10-15, 5.24 ERA, 165 IP, 85 K, 30 starts
Actual: 10-9, 4.94 ERA, 165.2 IP, 94 K, 29 starts
Result: Fogg discovered a way to be good, or at least not bad, in select spots this year, earning the moniker "Dragon Slayer" for his tendency to beat other teams' aces. Still, a world-beater he isn't. I gave him too many losses and an ERA slightly higher than what he ended up with, but nailed win total and IP and came within 9 on the Ks and 1 on the starts. Hit.

Jason Hirsh, RHP
Projected: 7-4, 4.05 ERA, 93 IP, 56 K, 10 starts
Actual: 5-7, 4.81 ERA, 112.1 IP, 75 K, 19 starts
Result: I didn't foresee Hirsh earning a starting spot when I made my predictions (of course, a few weeks later, he got the #4 job). He had moments of brilliance, especially early in the season against the Padres and a six-inning shutout of the Mets in July, but at other times got completely bombed (especially by the Cards) and missed most of the second half of the season due to an assortment of freak injuries. Still projected to be a key contributor next year. Miss.

Taylor Buchholz, RHP
Projected: 3-4, 4.65 ERA, 75 IP, 32 K, 4 starts
Actual: 6-5, 4.23 ERA, 93.2 IP, 61 K, 8 starts
Result: Another one of the pitchers the Rox acquired in the Jennings deal, Bucky was supposed to be a starter, but didn't impress in that role and found a solid and reliable role as the pen's long man. I missed on the win/loss total (although got it right that there was one more than the other) came within the ballpark on the ERA, but muffed IP/K/starts. Miss.

Brian Fuentes, RHP
Projected: 4-2, 3.15 ERA, 31 SV/37 SVO
Actual: 3-5, 3.08 ERA, 20 SV/27 SVO
Result: Oh, Fuentes, I may never forgive you. You've etched yourself into the same unfortunate category as Jose Jimenez, Shawn Chacon, and Jose Mesa, first with your choke job in June and then almost single-handedly destroying the Rockies' prospects for a comeback in Games 3 and 4 of the World Series. Off on the win/loss, quite close on ERA, and predicted six blown saves; he blew seven, and each of them were agony. Hit.

Jeremy Affeldt, LHP
Projected: 1-1, 6.04 ERA, 1 SV/3 SVO
Actual: 4-3, 3.51 ERA, 0 SV/4 SVO
Result: So I underestimated Affeldt; for most of the season he was a decent seventh/eighth inning guy out of the pen before hitting a major wall in September. Still, he wasn't as shitaceous as I was grimly expecting him to be (come on, he's an ex-Royal like Mark "All Star" Redman). Miss.

Manny Corpas, RHP
Projected: 3-2, 3.34 ERA, 2 SV/3 SVO
Actual: 4-2, 2.08 ERA, 19 SV/22 SVO
Result: Clearly, I did not foresee Corpas becoming Studly McStudlerson at closer after Fuentes turned into Choky McChokerson, but so it happened. Manny became a legit flamethrower and a true ninth-inning guy with the mental toughness needed to make everyone feel really confident when he got the ball to close it out. I'll happily take a Miss on this one.

LaTroy Hawkins, RHP
Projected: 1-1, 4.77 ERA, 2 SV/ 5 SVO
Actual: 2-5, 3.42 ERA, 0 SV/5 SVO
Result: He's LaTroy Hawkins, what can you say? He comes to pieces if you attempt to use him as a closer or in any inning later than the eighth, but as a seventh-inning guy, he's generally useful. We can bring him back, maybe, if he takes a pay cut and is used in his proper role. Miss.

Note that I don't have any numbers to toss around for late-season studs Ubaldo Jimenez, Franklin Morales, Ryan Speier, etc. They opened the season in Triple-A and weren't marked for promotion, and when Speier was first up, he sucked, so he was quickly sent back. Elmer Dessens, Mark Redman, Ramon Ortiz, et all, aside from being names that I hope I never have to hear in conjunction with the words Colorado Rockies again, were late-season additions. Tom Martin was FINALLY given his walking papers after being as bad as everyone, including me, predicted ( 2-3, 5.64 ERA were my choices, 0-0, 4.91 was the actual). But Jimenez and Morales figure to play a big role next year, and Speier will be back if they don't retain Affeldt/Hawkins et all, and may be back on his own merits as well. 2008 will definitely be an interesting season... as long as Dan O'Dowd does not shoot himself in the foot first by re-signing Shawn Chacon and/or signing Brett Tomko (seriously, I heard he was thinking about that). In what universe and under the influence of what drug is that improvement, Dealin' Dan?

Okay. Now for the hitters.

Todd Helton, 1B
Projected: .318 AVG, 21 HR, 90 RBI, .430 OBP, .490 SLG, .920 OPS
Actual: .321 AVG, 17 HR, 91 RBI, .434 OBP, .494 SLG, .928 OPS
Result: Man, did I nail this one. I called the resurge in average, maintained the crazy OBP, gave ol' Todd a few too many homers, but other than that, I came within a few decimals on everything. Hit.

Jamey Carroll, 2B
Projected: .301 AVG, 2 HR, 27 RBI, .363 OBP, .390 SLG, .753 OPS
Actual: .225 AVG, 2 HR, 22 RBI, .317 OBP, .300 SLG, .617 OPS
Result: Okay, so in case I was thinking I was getting good at this from the success of Todd, here's Carroll to bring me back to earth. He hit at a miserly rate, had a terrible OBP/SLG, but oddly enough, I did get the power numbers right. Fell back to earth after a flukey 2006. Do not let him be the starting 2B next year with the likely departure of Kaz (to the Chicago Muthafriggin Cubs, who I hate with a passion unmatched... except for the Yankees). Miss.

Kaz Matsui, 2B
Projected: .262 AVG, 3 HR, 30 RBI, .327 OBP, .436 SLG, .763 OPS
Actual: .288 AVG, 4 HR, 37 RBI, .342 OBP, .405 SLG, .778 OPS
Result: I'll say I came closer to a hit than a miss on this. I underestimated the strong season Kaz would put together on the rebound in terms of batting average, but HR total, RBI, OBP, SLG, and OPS were all fairly close to what I called, his higher OBP and lower SLG equaling out to quite close on the OPS. Hit.

Clint Barmes, "SS"
Projected: .237 AVG, 7 HR, 27 RBI, .270 OBP, .330 SLG, .600 OPS
Actual: .216 AVG, 0 HR, 1 RBI, .237 OBP, .297 SLG, .534 OPS
Result: Dear God, Clint Barmes. He makes me shudder. When I gave him these generous totals, I was assuming he might, due to Hurdle's maddening love for him, take away playing time from Tulo. Instead, he was even more nauseating than my underwhelming numbers, which says a lot about that Miss. Do not, in the name of all that is holy, make the Rockies brass think that he will be an even barely acceptable fill-in for Kaz next year.

Troy Tulowitzki, Zeus
Projected: .282 AVG, 8 HR, 45 RBI, .330 OBP, .340 SLG, .670 OPS
Actual: .291 AVG, 24 HR, 99 RBI, .359 OBP, .479 SLG, .838 OPS
Result: Erm... hem... HOO BOY. I was wow-really-sorry-Tulo-let-me-bear-your-children-in-apology off on this one... I have learned my lesson. Purple Baby Jesus is the truth. And no Team Jesus jokes. Thank you. Clint Barmes-esque Miss.

Garrett Atkins, 3B
Projected: .331 AVG, 33 HR, 130 RBI, .400 OBP, .567 SLG, .967 OPS
Actual: .301 AVG, 25 HR, 111 RBI, .367 SLG, .486 SLG, .853 OPS
Result: I overvalued Atkins, but he would have come quite a bit closer to my totals if he hadn't spent the first two months of the season in a horrid slump -- he got untracked after that and hit something like .340+ after the All-Star Break. Although not the MVP-caliber I thought, still a solid season. Miss, but only due to May.

Brad Hawpe, RF
Projected: .301 AVG, 27 HR, 95 RBI, .399 OBP, .530 SLG, .929 OPS
Actual: .291 AVG, 29 HR, 116 RBI, .387 OBP, .539 SLG, .926 OPS
Result: I actually came fairly close on dear ol' Brad. I clearly should have called that average for Atkins, and Hawpe didn't ever make it north of .300, but I was within 2 on the homers and extremely close on OBP/SLG/OPS, only undervaluing him on RBI. Hit.

Jeff Baker, RF
Projected: .312 AVG, 14 HR, 46 RBI, .385 OBP, .477 SLG, .862 OPS
Actual: .222 AVG, 4 HR, 12 RBI, .296 OBP, .347 SLG, .643 OPS
Result: Holy flying Batman underpants. I guess the fact that Baker hit .368 after his 2006 call-up blinded me to the fact that he is not, in fact, Dante Bichette reincarnated. Seeing as I was expecting him to play much more than he did, and to be a whole lot better than he is, it makes sense as to why I Missed fairly badly here.

Ryan Spilborghs, RF/CF
Projected: .270 AVG, 5 HR, 25 RBI, .330 OBP, .415 SLG, .745 OPS
Actual: .299 AVG, 11 HR, 51 RBI, .363 OBP, .485 SLG, .848 OPS
Result: Yet another case in which I'm perfectly happy to be wrong. Spilborghs arrived and provided an immediate spark, although he faded badly down the stretch when he had to play every day. Still, he's a very valued part to have-- good fourth outfielders are underrated, and I'll again be fine with taking a Miss here.

Cory Sullivan, CF
Projected: .272 AVG, 3 HR, 31 RBI, .317 OBP, .375 SLG, .692 OPS
Actual: .286 AVG, 2 HR, 14 RBI, .336 OBP, .386 SLG, .722 OPS
Result: Sullivan did slightly better than I gave him credit for in all categories, and provided singles-hitting skills off the bench if very minimal power. I really missed in RBI/OBP, but otherwise the projection is close enough that I'm going to call this a Hit, dammit.

Willy Taveras, CF
Projected: .260 AVG, 1 HR, 17 RBI, .314 OBP, .323 SLG, .637 OPS
Actual: .320 AVG, 2 HR, 24 RBI, .367 OBP, .382 SLG, .749 OPS
Result: I undervalued Willy T, but it didn't look like I had at first; he had an awful start to the season and couldn't get on base to save his life. Then came a 5-for-6 April 25 game against the Mets (which I happen to have attended) and he was off and running, literally, as his biggest impact came on the basepaths (33 stolen bases). Still, he needs to find a way to a) get on aside from beating out bunts, and b) stay healthy. His speed does us no good if he keeps getting something wrong with his legs. Miss.

Matt Holliday, LF
Projected: .339 AVG, 38 HR, 125 RBI, .390 OBP, .600 SLG, .990 OPS
Actual: .340 AVG, 36 HR, 137 RBI, .405 OBP, .607 SLG, 1.012 OPS
Result: Called it. Holliday's transformation from middling minor-league maybe-shoulda-played-quarterback prospect to legit MVP candidate (who won't get it, judging by the way the Rockies have been robbed blind this offseason) is complete. He was almost completely in line with what I called for him in February, and dear God, can Scott Boras just go away so we can re-sign him? (Yes, I also enjoy beating my head on brick walls). Hit.

Yorvit Torrealba, C
Projected: .250 AVG, 6 HR, 44 RBI, .299 OBP, .405 SLG, .704 OPS
Actual: .255 AVG, 8 HR, 47 RBI, .323 OBP, .376 SLG, .699 OPS
Result: Yeah, my prediction looks pretty similar to the actual production, and until the deal fell through at the eleventh hour, the Mets were actually prepared to pay 3 years/14.4 million for this. Also, he let 61 of 76 runners steal... good lord. Redeeming factor: Great with the pitchers, especially all the Latino youngsters. Still, time to move on. Hit.

Chris Iannetta, C
Projected: .270 AVG, 8 HR, 50 RBI, .375 OBP, .387 SLG, .762 OPS
Actual: .218 AVG, 4 HR, 27 RBI, .330 OBP, .350 SLG, .680 OPS
Result: Yeah, I missed it, but Iannetta was given only a minimum of playing time and seemed unready in the early going. However, he matured during the season and after a brief demotion in August, hit .348 the rest of the way down the stretch, proving that he is capable of learning at and playing at this level. Still only 24 and looked to as the Rockies' catcher of the future. Which means they'll sign some crappy veteran Kendall/Barrett/et al to take his place again. Poor Ian. Pretty face. Miss.

Overall: I came quite close on some, missed badly on others, and, like everyone else, didn't foresee the 21-of-22 surge or the fact that they actually won the NL Pennant before getting creamed by the Red Sox. Still, it was quite a thrilling and magical season that I'm extremely glad to have been a part of, and I eagerly await 2008. *

* Now if Chacon/Tomko/et all get signed, or Carroll/Barmes/Quintanilla is dubbed the starting second baseman, I reserve the right to change my opinion...

** Oh what the hell. If I wanted to jump off, I could have done so before now...

*** Although as everyone knows, being a Rockies fan is hard.

**** Shut up, Charlie/Dick Monfort.

Tulo vs. Rollins/Braun -- WHAZZA?

2007-11-13T01:50:00.000-05:00

Anyone who has followed baseball on more than a superficial level for the past few years can name you a list of the sport's perpetual doormats – the Cubs, the Royals, the Cubs, the Devil Rays, the Cubs, the Rockies – or not. Hold the phone, at least on the last two. While the comically inept North Siders are still waiting to cash a world championship check for the first time since 1908, the Royals are held in the thrall of David Glass, and the Devil Rays are hoping that a long-term rebuilding plan with young stars Scott Kazmir, Carl Crawford, B.J. Upton, and Evan Longoria propels them from zero to hero in a brutal AL East, the Rockies are finally reaping the rewards of their own retooling plan.

The Rockies, brought to baseball's exclusive fraternity in 1993, won a wild card in 1995 on the strength of the Blake Street Bombers – Castilla, Walker, Bichette – and their helium-inflated statistics, taking advantage of a home park that played like a pinball field to offset suspect pitching and raise fans' hopes for a glorious future for the toddler franchise. Unfortunately, the promise never materialized, and watching their brothers in expansion, the Marlins, capture a championship two years later stuck in their craw. It must have required the Heimlich when the Fish did it again in 2003, earning a World Series MVP performance from some kid named Josh Beckett and upsetting the heavily favored Yankees in six games, Aaron Boone's previous ALCS heroics notwithstanding.

While the Marlins were building a winning product and then promptly dismantling it, the Rockies were struggling to build anything at all. They clambered over the ledge of respectability exactly once after 1995, carving out an 82-80 ledge in 2000 back when Coors Field was still Coors Canaveral and pitchers dreaded entering the thin air for the inevitable 10-9 slugfest. The problem was that the Rockies lacked any good arms of their own, a deficiency they attempted to remedy after 2000 by two of the most justifiably mocked free-agent deals in history, ludicrous 7-year/$120 million and 5-year/$51 million pacts to Mike Hampton and Denny Neagle, respectively (two names that cause Rockies fans to exhibit a Pavlovian twitch, close seconds being Lance Painter, Shawn Chacon-as-closer, and Jose Mesa).

Unsurprisingly, the deals failed; nobody could pitch in Coors, or at least not well. After the 2002 season, the Rockies attempted a new solution, storing their baseballs in a climate-controlled humidor to stop them from shrinking, drying out, and consequently traveling 400 feet over the outfield fences (the deepest of any park in baseball for this very reason) if connected with a bat. This solution worked at least in theory, but it didn't matter if nobody on the team could throw them past said bats. Signing free agents to big deals in the era of overspending had left the Rockies' farm system shallow on talent and offering no quick fixes for a team destined to bottom-feeding in a weak NL West (dubbed the Worst after the Padres nabbed a playoff spot in 2005 with an 82-80 mark).

2005 was a year significant for other reasons, although the organization didn't yet realize it. With their seventh overall first-round pick in the June amateur draft, they took Long Beach State shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, who had fortunately dropped low enough on the table for them to pick him up; the Seattle Mariners were seriously considering him and passed at the last minute, taking catcher Jeff Clement instead. At 6'3" and 205 pounds, Tulowitzki was a big shortstop in the vein of Cal Ripken. He'd later prove that this was an apt comparison in more ways than one.

Tabbed as a decent-to-good MLB player sometime in the future, Tulowitzki took every expectation and ran with it. He spent the shortest amount of time in the minor leagues of any Rockies player, ever, never played an inning at Triple-A Colorado Springs, and first arrived in Denver in August 2006 for a late-season showing, hoping to unseat incumbent Clint Barmes for the starting shortstop job. Tulowitzki hit .240 with one home run and six RBIs in 96 at-bats over August and the remainder of September; not completely terrible, but highly touted prospects had certainly done better, leading manager Clint Hurdle to announce that it was a "competition" for Tulowitzki and Barmes coming into Spring Training 2007.

Barmes himself had once been heralded as the shortstop of the future after starting 2005 (again, a significant year) batting .400, but after the unfortunate and much-mocked "deer meat" incident where he broke his collarbone returning from a hunting trip, he was a ghost of his old self and barely cleared the Mendoza line on his return to the big leagues. But as soon as camp convened in Tucson the next year, it became clear that he was the one headed to Colorado Springs, not Tulowitzki. The 22-year-old impressed with his poise, maturity, intuition, and raw skill, and broke camp as the starting shortstop.

Unfortunately, both rookie and team started out in their accustomed rut; Tulowitzki hit sub-.200 for the first few weeks of the season and the Rockies languished to 18-27 out of the gate. Then Tulowitzki, a rookie never afraid to play the role of a veteran, let his teammates know that the losing which they'd been so used to was no longer acceptable.

The result? The best record in the NL, and second-best in baseball to the Yankees, from May 22 (70-49). The best team batting average in baseball (.280) at the end of the season, now with the humidor cutting down on the cartoonish video-game numbers. The best ERA (3.65) after the All-Star Break. And a phenomenal rookie shortstop centering the middle of the infield which became integral to the best-fielding team of all time – the Rockies' cumulative .989 fielding percentage edged out the short-held record (by the 2006 Boston Red Sox) by a few decimals. Surely Tulowitzki would be rewarded with the NL Gold Glove (despite a long-held bias against giving it to rookies) or the NL Rookie of the Year against top competition Ryan Braun.

The result? He got neither.

The Gold Gloves failed to recognize Tulowitzki's stellar glovework up the middle, instead awarding it to Jimmy Rollins. While Rollins became something of a media darling for his self-assured pronouncement that the Phillies were the team to beat in the NL East (and then making good on it – while aided largely by the Mets' spectacular collapse reminiscent of Philadelphia's own team in 1964) he was an inferior defender to Tulowitzki, who pioneered the spinning, across-body throws ala his hero, Derek Jeter, that routinely landed him on SportsCenter.

Not convinced? Let's take a look at the numbers. Rollins started every one of the Phillies' 162 games at shortstop. He had 717 total chances, handling 706 of them cleanly while recording 227 putouts and 479 assists and turning 110 double plays with second baseman Chase Utley. This was good for a .985 fielding percentage (third in the NL behind Tulowitzki and San Francisco's Omar Vizquel) and a 13.23 range factor (measuring the balls outside of his numerical range that he reached instead of the third baseman or the second baseman). He had a zone rating of .824; all in all, a solid defender and a key component of the Phillies' defense (which made 89 miscues for a .986 overall FP). But Gold Glove? Not if you believe the award should go to the best defender at every position.

Tulowitzki started 155 games at shortstop, missing one or two during his early-season woes and when manager Hurdle decided to give old stalwart Barmes a shot. Despite this, he had 834 total chances, 117 more than Rollins, handling 823 of them cleanly – in other words, he made the same amount of errors in almost 13% more opportunities. Tulowitzki recorded 262 putouts, 35 more than Rollins, and had a whopping 630 assists, beating Rollins by 151. He was part of 139 double plays with second-sacker Kaz Matsui, edging Rollins/Utley by 29, and in all these categories, he was tops in the NL. His .987 fielding percentage in the hole again led all of baseball at his position.

And if this wasn't enough, his range factor beat out Rollins again; Tulowitzki reached close to 16% (16.16) of the balls that weren't in shortstop territory. His zone rating was .866, bettering Rollins by 0.042. And oh yeah, there was that fact of the best-fielding team ever (the Rockies made 68 errors for a .989 FP. In an equally egregious oversight, Todd Helton, who made 2 errors all year for an almost-stellar .999 mark, was somehow passed up for the Gold Glove in favor of Chicago's Derrek Lee, who made 7).

And yet, no Gold Glove for the mantelpiece for the rookie sensation. In a text message to the Denver Post, Tulowitzki shrugged it off, jokingly asking if he'd won the Silver Glove and pointing out that the Rockies captured the NL pennant while the Phillies watched on TBS after being upturned in three during the division series. But he still had a shot to claim postseason hardware in the NL Rookie of the Year category, considered a two-horse race between himself and Milwaukee third baseman Ryan Braun (early favorite Hunter Pence dropped out of sight after a midseason wrist injury).

Tulowitzki lost.

True, it was in one of the closest ROY votes in history (winner Braun edged Tulowitzki by two votes). It's hard to ignore the 23-year-old Braun's epic offensive season; called up on May 25, he hit .324 in 451 at-bats, with a .370 on-base percentage, a .634 slugging percentage, 34 home runs, 97 RBIs, and 26 doubles. He scored 91 runs, walked 29 times and struck out 110 times.

In contrast, Tulowitzki hit .291 in 609 at-bats, with a .359 OBP and a .479 SLG. While setting the NL rookie shortstop record for homers, he hit 24 of them, with 99 RBIs and 33 doubles, scoring 104 runs. He walked 57 times and struck out 130 times; while he had a tendency to chase, as evidenced by the high K rate, his eye was clearly better than Braun's. If judged purely on offensive merits, this was Braun's award; Tulowitzki was good but Braun was better, a pure hitter who seemed only primed to improve.

The problem was that this is an award who should recognize the most complete player, and that's where the complications begin to develop. To use the word defense for what Braun did at third base was charitable. Tulowitzki's stellar glovework has been covered; Braun, in contrast, made 26 errors in 112 games at third base (in 248 chances) for a historically bad .895 fielding percentage. To show how poor this is, consider this: Gary Sheffield fielded just under .900 with the Marlins in limited duty as a third baseman in 1993, but the last regular position player to field under .900 was 1978 Red Sox third baseman Butch Hobson at .899. And before him, you have to look back to 1916 and third baseman (there seems to be a trend) Charlie Pick of the Philadelphia Athletics, also .899. And Braun was lower than all of them. He was the worst defensive every day third baseman in a long, long time.

Consider these numbers: a 6.34 range factor and a .697 zone rating for Braun, who was routinely taken out for a defensive replacement in close games with the Brewers ahead, no matter the offense lost with his bat. And then there's this: the plus/minus rating system to judge the difference between defenders. Braun had a -41 rating, the worst for any player in baseball, which meant that he made 41 fewer plays than the average third baseman. Tulowitzki's was +35, the highest at his position again – he made 35 more plays than the average shortstop. That equals out to 80 plays and almost 50 runs a year. Braun is a player made for the AL and the fielding-shielded designated hitter.

And then again, there's this. The Brewers folded up the tent in the second half of the season, allowing the miserable Cubs to take the Central (and be rolled three-and-out by the Diamondbacks in the opening playoff round). All the Rockies did was make history with an unprecedented 21-of-22 run, at one point winning 11 in a row before having their win streak snapped by Brandon Webb on September 28 to put them in the position of having to win their last two games (and have the San Diego Padres lose their last two – and most coincidentally, against the Brewers) just to force a one-game playoff.

That night, Tulowitzki hit a grand slam and the Rockies rolled to an 11-1 win over the Diamondbacks and edged out a 4-3 victory the next day. The Brewers beat the Padres that night and then again, setting up a showdown between Colorado and San Diego on October 1 at Coors Field.

The Rockies fought valiantly for 12 innings with the score tied at 6, having a home run taken away from Garrett Atkins and incorrectly ruled a double, and then they put in Jorge Julio, who promptly served up a two-run homer to Scott Hairston. The Rockies seemed destined for a disappointing exit. Then came the bottom of the 13th inning, facing a do-or-die situation against all-time saves leader Trevor Hoffman.

Kazuo Matsui led off with a double. Tulowitzki shot another one in between Scott Hairston and Mike Cameron (who, playing with a broken hand, likely couldn't have corralled it anyway) to bring the Rockies to within 8-7. Very shortly, he scored the tying run on Matt Holliday's triple, and a few minutes and a disputed slide later, the Rockies were the NL Wild Card winners at 90-73, one year after finishing a dismal 10 games south of .500 at 76-86. Don't get the Rockies wrong, they appreciate the Brewers' contribution – but Tulowitzki brought fire, skill, intangibles, a never-say-die attitude, and raw presence to the team, and yet couldn't be rewarded with anything for it? It's a shame.

Goodnight, Season

2007-10-29T02:21:00.000-04:00

Congratulations to the 2007 World Champion Boston Red Sox. That sentence stings to type, but it's true. At the end of the day they were the better team -- they pitched better and hit better, and that's the formula that wins you championships. Our Cinderella story wasn't enough to get us over the hump over a team that's us in 2 or 3 years -- a finished product with the right mix of experience and youth. Perhaps the layoff did affect us after all, as I do not think we played the way we are capable of playing, but it's true that the Red Sox were just better.

This Series hurt and wasn't much fun to watch. I can't say I enjoyed it. But nothing can take away from what we did this year, not even slavering Sox fans and mediots claiming this proves their point about the superiority of the AL. It's still been an almost even trade-off between NL and AL for championships. AL, NL, AL, NL, AL, AL, NL, AL.

How odd it is to love a baseball team. How strange and tender I feel now... just tired, sad, and relieved, slightly hollowed out, in undeniable pain, in relief to have it end, despair of the offseason and hope for next year. Strangely enough, I love the Rockies more than ever, my devotion to them becomes fierce, my love completely untested and part of me forever. Defeat does not break me. The gloating might bother me (as I may have mentioned, the most annoying person on my campus is a Red Sox fan and I do not think that is by accident). Brian Fuentes may have single-handedly killed the last two games for us and it's time for him to be shown the door (once a season-killer, always a season-killer). I've heard tantalizing rumors about us pursuing Ian Snell. And nothing came of it, but that eighth-inning home run by Atkins still made me want to bear his children.

I find myself wondering what it is, over and over, what makes us tick as baseball fans. Pain and pleasure alike have been a big part of October, as is always. We lost the war, but we won this battle; we are the NL champs and nothing can take that away from us. What we did was unprecedented and I look forward to building on it next year. The day after the World Series is like the day after Christmas. Such a letdown... time to bring on the hot stove and see if we can improve upon the pieces we have in place. Our kids have postseason experience and hopefully won't be deer in the headlights. And we didn't choke. While admittedly not playing our best by a long shot, we just ran into a team that was hot at the right time and did the right things.

Let nobody disparage this Colorado Rockies team for how it ended. They were a part of the last game of 2007. They've climbed the peak for the first time, and I don't expect them to be content with mediocrity, now that they've had a taste of rarified air. They will be back. If nothing else, Tulo won't take this.

I love them brutally, so much that it does things like this to me. Next year can't come soon enough. I want to be back there, I hope that what they've done this year will entice others to come as well. The year is over now, I feel very sad and upset about its close, and of course I wish it could have ended differently, but if anything else, this has intensified the deep love that I will and always bear for my Colorado boys.

See you next year, Red Sox. Goodnight, season. Come soon, spring training. The offseason is dark and cold.

I submit my resignation

2007-10-26T18:34:00.000-04:00

from Purple Row, this blog, and associated other mediums, at least for the next few days. I just cannot do this anymore. After struggling with depression over the summer, I managed to boot it when I went back to school, but it's coming back now with a vengeance (before the Series started, I might add) and I just have zero emotional energy to spare for the arguing, attacking, wrangling, weaving rollercoaster that this is putting me through.

It's sucked all the life out of something (Rockies baseball) that I love more than just about anything, and I have other things that need to be dealt with instead. Staying in bed until 3pm because I have no desire to get up, always feeling tired, depression, loneliness, homesickness, et all are the tip of the iceberg and that's all I really care to say because I'm tired of fighting about that as well. Tired of hearing that something I'm passionate about is somehow inferior, wrong, twisted, broken, not up to par, etc. Nothing against you all, but it's time for me to step back. I may watch the games, I don't know that I'll post. Happy trails.

Ouch

2007-10-25T02:45:00.000-04:00

I disdain saying more, except: It has to get better from here. 0-1. Pah. Nothing. We'll go back to Coors 1-1 and it'll be okay.

That said, tonight felt like being sodomized with a broken bat and a fistful of tacks.

I make no apologies for that mental image.

Night all.

Well, Now We Know

2007-10-22T03:18:00.000-04:00

And frankly, once the Indians lost Game 5, I wasn't too surprised. They had a chance to close it out at home with their ace on the mound, and choked, then went to Fenway and lost again with their other ace on the mound, and neither of them impressed at all. You just kind of knew the Sox were going to win tonight, no matter how much you hoped otherwise, and well, they did. The Boston Yankees, I should say. Arrogant fans, arrogant jerkwad players, buying up everything they need, no longer the lovable underdog, they're just the Evil Empire redux. May they be pwninated in four.

I'm sure everyone and his brother will pick the Sox in four or five. Hell, I hope they pick the Sox in "three" -- we know how well that worked for the Tigers last year. Because they're the big, bad, AL, because ESPN loves that one of their media juggernauts made it, because they have Josh Freakin' Beckett. Well, anybody bother to check the stats? Seems to me we outscored the Sawx 20-5 at Fenway in June, put a world of hurt on Schilling and Beckett, and took two out of three. See, we've been playing well since BEFORE September.

A few reasons the Rockies are going to rock the Sox:

-- Since May 22, we've had baseball's best record at 79-45; we just had to turn on the afterburners for that final hump into September.

-- We were 21-12 against the AL the past two seasons, a .636 winning percentage, and that was before we were razing everything in our path.

-- The Red Sox play in the AL, sure. They also play in the East. I bet we could have won 96 games if we got to face the Blue Jays, Devil Rays, and Orioles (the first one mediocre, the latter two totally inept) 50 or 60 times a year.

-- The Rockies have lost exactly one game since the middle of September. Why are we going to lose four in a week and a half?

-- We have better speed and defense.

-- The Red Sox aren't equipped to play at Coors. Manny in the cavernous left field? Ortiz at first base? Wakefield's knuckler isn't going to break in the thin air, and Dice-K will be thrown off by pitching at altitude. Let's not tell him about the humidor.

The one problem: the hitting. We have a .242 average in the postseason and we're going to need to turn it on against the Beantown Bombers. Hopefully, the pitching can continue the trend of damping the fuse against high-octane offenses, but the hitting is going to need to bring the sticks. But all year, and especially in October, they've found a way to get it done, however and whenever. National League Champion Rockies sounds surreal enough, but it's not the final stop for the Purple Express. I expect they'll drop the first one against Beckett (but then again, who knows?) then turn on the jets, rip off four, and win the damn thing at home in a game that Denver will always remember.

Rockies in five.

This Is Where I Wish I Was Last Night

2007-10-16T22:17:00.000-04:00

to see this:

I wish I could teleport.

Colorado Rockies: 2007 National League Champions

2007-10-15T04:15:00.000-04:00

It's downright crazy. I don't know that I believe it. My reaction was rather subdued; I must be dreaming. Matt Holliday getting hit by a pitch and turning into the Incredible Hulk the next at-bat, as he did tonight, crushing a monster three-run blast to make it 6-1 after Seth Smith had a pinch-hit, two-run double and Kaz had an RBI single. Of course, if I thought it was going to be easy from there, I was wrong. The shakes and the hyperventilating from when Bad Brian Fuentes reared his ugly head to allow a three-run homer to Chris Snyder in the eighth -- making it 6-4 -- are barely subsiding. Especially after that, Fuentes allows a triple, Manny Corpas comes in, strikes out Tony Clark, and for the top of the ninth -- groundout, double, popout (on 3-0) and groundout, from local goat Eric Byrnes, to punch the Rockies' ticket to their first World Series ever.

I need to not go broke on NL Champs gear. I love them all. I want to read everything about this magical night. I want four more wins and a parade through Denver. And no, I don't think this is too much. We just may be that team of destiny, and I've waited for this. And nothing will ever stop me from wishing passionately I was in Colorado, screw school and everything else. I yearn to be on 20th and Blake with all the other fans who love this team the way I do.

COLORADO ROCKIES.

2007 NATIONAL LEAGUE CHAMPIONS

Let that one settle in for a while. I sure need to.

Come On. You Knew It.

2007-10-07T05:30:00.000-04:00

So the Rockies, a few weeks ago, were one strike away from being eliminated in a game they weren't even playing in. Trevor Hoffman against Tony Gwynn, Jr. The son of arguably the most famous Padre ever delivered the tying triple, the Brewers went on to win, and since then, the purple power has bordered on the absolutely insane. And yet again, they proved it tonight. High-scoring offenses? Hitter's parks? Slugfest predictions? Phillies in 5? Screw 'em all. The Rockies won 2-1 tonight, on the back of an RBI triple from Kaz and a pinch-hit, tiebreaking RBI single from Jeff Baker (not to mention an absolutely stellar performance from Ubaldo Jimenez, in the game of his life) to sweep the Phillies and advance to a NLCS matchup with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Say it. Believe it. The Colorado Rockies, with four more wins, will be the National League champions.

Wrap your mind around it. The morons at TBS, aside from openly shilling for the Phils the whole time, certainly couldn't.

Breathe that purple air. Dream in a violet haze. Love your team. Believe in them. I have to say, we're looking an awful lot like destiny right now.

A lot of things can change between now and the four days some idiot decided to allocate in between the NLDS and NLCS. The Wild Wild West is no longer the Worst, it is the Best. D-backs vs. Rox, an NL winner I can get behind in the Series either way. This is crazy. I can't describe what they're doing. It's amazing, and I love it.

And I don't want to hear anything about the Phillies choking this series away. They showed up to play and they got beaten by a better team. Give them credit, it actually does happen. The Rockies were the ones that managed to stay hot following their incredible late-season surge, and to jump through hoops to avoid giving them credit and insisting the Phillies beat themselves is just lame. The Rockies hit, pitched, and played defense, and that is how you win championships.

Rocktober, baby. Keep the faith.

Add Another Chapter to the Cinderella Story

2007-10-05T20:35:00.000-04:00

This Colorado Rockies season has already progressed beyond believability for even the cheesiest, schmaltziest sports movie. Come on, they're the (possibly, depending on your proclivities and/or geographic orientation) lovable underdogs coming into the 2007 season, their only playoff appearance a distant 12-year-old memory in which they won exactly one game before being four-and-out to the eventual Series champion Braves. They were generally picked to finish last, and I gave them a five-game improvement to a break-even 81-81 mark. (In my preseason predictions, I also really, really underestimated Tulo. I am so sorry, Troy. Call me, and we'll get an arrangement worked out for me to bear your children. Wait, what? [whistles]).

Anyway, this year, they start off 18-27, making all the naysayers look pretty much dead accurate. Then, from May 22, they have the best record in baseball second only to those damn Yankees. They never lead the Wild Card all year and on the last day of the season they manage to scratch into a tie. They play a tiebreaker at home, go down 8-6 in the bottom of the 13th against the all-time saves leader, then win on a play at the plate that will likely go down in postseason lore as The Slide (as compared to Jeremy Giambi, which was The (Non) Slide). Then they win the wild card and meet a similarly hot team in the Phillies, who went 13-4 down the stretch to blow over the hollow-men Mets. Then they win the first two on the road in front of the notoriously (un)friendly Philly crowd, including getting a grand slam from their second baseman Matsui, who hit four homers all year and whose Major League total stands at a whopping 17. Now they go home to a Coors that will be on fire, sold out, and ready to cheer their boys onto their first-ever NLCS (knock on wood).

Let's not get ahead of ourselves, of course. 2-0 is great, but it's not 3-0. We're still nine innings away from the Pre-Pre-Promised Land (Championship) series, 36 innings away from the Pre-Promised Land (the NL pennant) and a further 36 innings away from the Promised Land (World Series victory). What the team has done in terms of bearing down and focusing on each game at a time, instead of trying to comprehend the fact that they've now won 16 of 17 to close the season and charge into the spot they're currently in, cannot be understated. This is a group of young guys playing with maturity and focus beyond their years, a group that finished .5 games behind the D-backs (if both teams can hang on to their respective 2-all edges, they'll be on target to collide in a Wild Wild West NLCS, probably the sports networks' worst nightmare) for the best record in the NL. A group led by a wily veteran (Helton) up-and-coming mashers who are finally getting the attention they deserve (Holliday, Hawpe, Atkins) and a true rookie superstar (Troy Tulowitzki) they are also a supreme example of class, grace, and dignity off the field.

Here's why: The Rockies voted, unanimously, to allocate a full playoff share to Amanda Coolbaugh, the pregnant widow of AA coach Mike, killed July 22 while coaching first base for the Drillers, their minor-league affiliate. This is made even more touching and heartbreaking by the fact that Coolbaugh only joined the organization a few weeks before he died, and only a few players personally knew him, yet they are stepping up to help out those he left behind. Amanda, aside from expecting her third child any day now, has two pre-school-aged sons; Joseph, 5, and Jacob, 3. You can imagine that an AA coach isn't making very much, and the players receive 60% of the gate take for each playoff game. If they go on to the World Series, this amount could be as much as $362,000. For comparison, Atkins makes $400,000 -- that's almost doubling his salary.

And yet this group of young players, without telling the media, without being prodded by management to repair their image, quietly chose to give it to someone who needed it more than they do. For comparison, the Rockies' payroll is $54.4 million, and 30% of that ($16.6 million) is going to Todd. A fair number of them are making the league minimum, and the second-highest-paid player after Helton is Holliday, who's making $4.4 million (the potential and deserving NL MVP, folks). It is so incredibly rare to hear about players voluntarily turning down more money and giving it to someone who doesn't have as much, in a time of great need, that it's just an amazingly classy gesture by a team of not just players, but friends, fellow community members, and men. These players directly passed on padding their own pockets like so many of their peers, and it shines a spotlight on the quality of the character in that clubhouse.

Contrast this to the main Broncos story, which features Travis Henry getting arrested again for marijuana possession and the revelation he has nine children by nine different women. (Wow, the football version of Elijah Dukes). The Rockies are not only winners, they are the epitome of humbleness, class, and selflessness. I could simply not be more proud of them (but I'm sure that if they kept moving up, it might be possible...) To judge from the comments on ESPN, the Rockies not only pulled off a miraculous late-season run, they are winning the hearts of America by reminding us that not all professional athletes are lowlife thugs. It is a refreshing and truly touching change. I salute them.

One other thing, in case you're having different ideas about where this altruism stems from: You may have heard a lot about the erroneous "Team Jesus" article that got published in USA Today, suggesting the Rockies only draft Christian players and that their clubhouse is some weird version of Bible camp, where Maxims, Playboys, and sexually explicit music are banned and they spend all their time praying and reading Scripture. I feel as if I have to refute this misperception at every turn, so here we go again: That article was a factually incorrect exaggeration based on the beliefs of the front office and a few of the players. And even those players (Cook, Helton, Holliday) aren't happy at all with that story and how they were portrayed.

Fact is, despite the great diversity of backgrounds and ethnic origins, there is no schism among the guys whatsoever; as Cook puts it, "I've never even seen a Bible out in the open in the clubhouse." And far from proselytizing every chance he gets, Holliday, who is religious, likes to keep it quiet and doesn't think it has to do with baseball. The guys in the clubhouse love each other and pull for each other hard. And we look for players with character as well as talent, just so we don't end up with Kyle Farnsworth-like @$$holes on the team (and if even that was so important, how did Jose Mesa end up here for one brief and deeply forgettable season?) Not necessarily religious. There are a few guys who are, as there are on any club, but it's by no means the "Team Jesus" that certain bloggers would have you believe. We're not sanctimonious holier-than-thou missionaries, we're a diverse blend of young guys having fun. Jason Hirsh, who is Jewish, was asked about the supposed Christianity bias in an interview with MLB Trade Rumors a while back, and said he hadn't noticed a thing, and had never played with a nicer and more welcoming group of guys. He was excited to be a Rockie, and this was well before our fairy tale run, so all the more power to him...

Anybody and everybody is welcome in the clubhouse, which is fantastically tight-knit and supportive of all comers. Not all the guys are Christians, and those that are are the best kind, of outreaching, supportive, genuinely nice and humble individuals instead of narrow-minded, vitriol-spewing bigots. Those that are religious are not unduly dragging it into the public eye. You should wikipedia the Rockies and read their response to the article, published in the Denver Post, and if you watched the Rockies Spotlight on Holliday, you'll see him roll his eyes and refer to the USA Today reporter as "that guy." This is not some sort of exclusive "good ol' boys" club.

Hopefully we got that straightened out; I'm tired of having to refute it at every turn. And no matter what started it, the gesture to a grieving widow was a fantastically classy, mature, and professional thing to do, and hopefully the boys can go out in front of a fanatically supportive home crowd and finish the job in three, moving on again with their fairytale season. Coolbaugh's two sons will be throwing out the first pitch -- how more Hollywood can you get?! -- and since Denver has gone deep purple with Rockies fever, it would be great to nail the thing down on the first crack. God, so nervous.

P.S. Colorado niceness has to go out the window. I want people above the 'pen razzing Jamie Moyer during his warmups, and I want Rollins to be as viciously treated as Holliday was in Philly. We're real baseball fans now, not just people going to a game to spend an evening, and it needs to be recognized. Besides, if we lose Game 3, Mark Redman is starting a potential Game 4, and the last thing we want is to send the series back to Philly tied and Cole Hamels on the hill for the clincher. Beating him once was great, but let's not count on having to do it again.

GO ROCKIES!

Purple Fever Believer

2007-10-02T05:58:00.000-04:00

Jesus Fucking Tapdancing Christ on a Toaster.

It's 3 am and thank God I have no class tomorrow, because I doubt I can sleep. The adrenaline is kind of wearing off. Kind of. After waking up on the heels of 4 hours of sleep for morning class, feeling too apprehensive to eat anything except from a croissant in the morning and some chicken fingers and an apple in the evening. I went to class in the morning. I didn't eat lunch because I felt too sick with nerves. I almost passed out with exhaustion in my afternoon class, and my focus wandered badly as we finished up the last leg of 2 hours of psychology. Knowing I was going to need all the fortitude I could muster for the night's forthcoming tilt, I went home and slept for three hours or so, from 3:45 until 6:45. I woke up at dusk, feeling so nervous I could barely breathe, and added the Rockies jersey and hat to my shirt, necklace, and jacket. Then, scared but hopeful, I sallied forth to find my friend Nick and the TV he had promised to purloin for us. We chased off, or briefly assimilated, certain annoying Red Sox fans who wanted to hijack it to watch Monday Night Football (the Pats won again, of course, and who the fuck cares about them? This is my team fighting for October, people).

Game started. I was whooping, rooting, cheering, and cursing like a sailor. I was pleased as hell to see the two runs off Peavy in the first inning on a deep sac fly by Mr. Rockie Todd Helton and and an RBI single by Garrett, was stunned (but in a good way) when Yorvit actually hit a homer, and then felt like axe-chopping something when Dragon Slayer Josh Fogg lost his sword and gave up a grand slam to Adrian Gonzalez. Another run on a forceout made it 5-3, and with Peavy on the mound, you might think this was a problem.

It was not. Peavy was mortal. He yielded a solo shot to Helton in the fourth, and then a combination of ROY double/MVP single tied the game in the fifth. In the bottom of the sixth, pinch-hitter Seth Smith blasted a triple and scored on Kaz's sac fly; thanks to another defensive miscue by replacement Pods center fielder Brady Clark, Tulo hit the second triple of the inning, but failed to score when Holliday struck out. Every time he was up, however, the whole stadium was chanting, "M-V-P." It was amazing, chill-inducing, and insane.

In the bottom of the seventh, the umps blatantly missed a call on Atkins, ruling that his ball that went over the wall, hit a chair and bounced back, was a double instead of a homer. Poor Garrett has been fucked out of two homers this year, and yet again, the Rockies couldn't go for the jugular, sitting on a 6-5 advantage into the eighth. Brian Fuentes came in, admittedly got into a little trouble, and should have gotten out of the inning intact, but Holliday completely misplayed a Brian Giles fly ball and let it go over his head for a double. I slapped my hand to my face and moaned, as all the while the morons broadcasting the game on TBS salivated and continued to ride Padre jock hard enough to leave carpet burns. The Rockies couldn't come through in the eighth and Manny Corpas blew through a six-pitch ninth inning; that should have closed the game out in regulation, but since the umps had, of course, fucked poor Garrett out of his homer, it dragged on, and on, and on, close to five hours of a grueling emotional marathon. Matt Herges wriggled out of jams, the Rockies couldn't touch a ridiculous Padres 'pen, and when Jorge Julio came on for the thirteenth, I groaned aloud.

Sure enough, Julio bore out my bad feeling, walking the first hitter he faced before allowing a two-run homer to Scott Hairston, for the love of Christ. It made me sick to see the Padres whooping it up in the dugout, and I admit it, I could not bear to see the season ended on a such a bitter note, losing a winnable game in front of our raucous and screaming home crowd, silenced forever and left to wonder what could have been. I left the TV room and began the long walk back to my dorm, feeling brutally upset and bitter, broken, hollow, and empty. Basically like shit, in other words, cursing the umps for missing Atkins' homer, Matty for missing the flyball, and Jorge Julio for existing. I flung down my stuff on my bed and naturally turned on Gameday, just to see how it would end. Ramon Ortiz, of all people, came in and snuffed the rally in the top of the thirteenth, and then Trevor Hoffman, he of the all-time saves record, came in to try to put the finishing touches on a monstrously aggravating and heartbreaking loss.

He didn't. Kaz Matsui fought off tough pitches and ripped a double deep into the left-center field gap. Coors began to make some noise again, after being deadened by the Hairston homer. Then the Rookie of the Year came up and set the torch to them again with a matching blast, scoring Matsui as he rolled into second with a double. And then...

Matty had been somewhat of a scapegoat earlier in the night for blowing the flyball and striking out twice with runners in scoring position. With one swing, he sent Coors off the edge. I'm not kidding. I was watching this on Gameday, but I saw the video and... the noise the crowd makes when he lights into that ball is unbelievable. It and Brian Giles bang off the right-field scoreboard, the place is in pandemonium, Tulo scores to tie it, and Matty is safe at third with a triple. As you can imagine, my phone began ringing right now, and the first call I fielded was from Nick. He made no bones about it, "GET BACK HERE! NOW!"

Another friend called as I tore down the stairs, fumbling for my keys. I sprinted across campus back to the TV room, and I went belting up the stairs in time to see a mosh pit on the TV -- Jamey Carroll, placed in to pinch-run for Atkins after it was a "double," came through with a shallow liner to right field, Holliday charged home, dived face-first, swiped the plate with his hand as Barrett dropped the ball (dodgy call, but hey, it was karmic justice, the game should have been over in regulation) and came up bloodied and dirtied, probably feeling the best he had in his life, as his team, his city, and his mates went absofuckinglutely berserk. I screamed and threw myself on Nick. I shook. I launched myself across the room to hug his friend, who I don't even know that well. I shrieked at the top of my lungs. My legs would not support me, I fell down. A few people came up the stairs to ask if I was all right, since I was screaming bloody murder. Nick was like, "The Rockies made the playoffs, it's cool."

I screamed. I threw myself in Nick's arms again. I held on. I fell to my knees. I had earlier promised to freak out on an epic level if the Rockies won, and they did. The Holliday call was justice for screwing Atkins out of the game-winning HR, and holy shit. Holy. Fucking. Shit. I have no classes tomorrow, won't be in bed before 4 and may sleep all day, have homework to do that's not getting done as I live and die with my team, and I don't care. This is amazing. The Colorado Rockies are one of four NL entrants still standing with a run that defies explanation. We didn't even lead the NL wild card. We weren't tied until yesterday. And we beat the best pitcher in baseball and the all-time saves leader. I swear, you can't script this. Even Hollywood would reject it as too corny.

I don't care if Holliday supposedly didn't touch the plate. We won. He lay there dazed, Tulo flung himself over Matty, then jumped into the mosh pit. Fireworks went off. A town believed. A team fulfilled a destiny. 90-73 and a wild-card spot into the postseason and a first-round matchup with Philly. Two strong offenses, two suspect pitching staffs, the first stop on the way to immortality.

Jeff Francis vs. Cole Hamels. 3 ET Wednesday.

See you in October.

GO ROCKIES!!!!!!!!!!!

D-Day

2007-10-01T15:05:00.000-04:00

T-minus six hours, and I am a jumping, twitching, sick-with-nerves wreck. Can't eat, could barely sleep (I got about 4 hours, partly because of being too amped to lie down, and partly because some idiots with mowers decided 7:45 AM was the perfect time to do landscaping outside my window). Nervous as hell, already wearing my Rockies shirt, jacket, and necklace, with jersey and hat to be added at gametime. I'll be watching that with my friend Nick, and I'm pretty sure I'll have a coronary before it's over. I need to get off the Internet and stop reading about it; I know what it is, what is at stake, and I want it more than I've wanted anything, which is saying a lot. The Rockies are playing baseball in October but they need one more win, albeit off Jake Peavy with Josh Fogg up against him, in front of a sold-out, amped, raucous crowd that has the purple fever and just won't stop believin', to really play baseball in October. This is the third shot for the Padres, and the Rockies have been lawn-mowing everything in the way. Peavy may be pitching, but I think we still have the advantage.

I believe they will do it. I am dead set they will. That doesn't stop me from dying along the way.

GO ROCKIES!!!!!!!!!!

Whoof Hee Hooba

2007-09-30T21:40:00.000-04:00

OMG. Jesus. Wow. Need cardiac unit. Need it.

Yesterday:
The Brewers, down to their last strike against Trevor Hoffman in Milwaukee, which would give the Pads the Wild Card outright and eliminate the Rockies, pulled off a pretty improbable rally. Tony Gwynn Jr., in the mother of all ironies, hit a game-tying triple to force extra innings, and in the bottom of the eleventh, Vinny Rottino's RBI single brought home Ryan Braun to seal a 4-3 win for the Crew. Still, it didn't mean anything unless the Rockies won; a Pads win or Rox loss would boot my boys out for the 12th straight season.

The Rockies did not lose. Led by a 4-run first and a sixth-inning grand slam from tROY Tulowitzki (if he doesn't have that thing wrapped up, it's highway robbery) they assaulted the Diamondbacks 11-1 and lived to play another day.

Today:
But they faced the same situation today -- they had to win, and the Padres had to lose, just to reach a tiebreaker. The Padres chose to pitch Brett Tomko and save Jake Peavy for a Monday start in the tiebreak, while the Rockies tabbed talented 23-year-old Ubaldo Jimenez. They were opposed by Jeff Suppan and Yusmeiro Petit, respectively, and the Padres went up 3-o early. It looked as if the Rockies were going to go down without being able to lift a hand in their own defense, which sucked.

Then Tomko began to pitch like the 4-11 pitcher he was, the Brewers capitalized, and went up 5-4, stretched it to 6-4, and didn't look back with Gabe Gross's bases-clearing triple making it 9-4. They tacked on a few extra, fended off a ninth-inning threat from the Friars, and made it an 11-6 final.

U-ball and Petit came out of the gate dueling, and Jimenez was amped; his first pitch clocked at 98, and he no-hit the D-backs through five complete innings while racking up 10 Ks. His control goes to hell around 95 pitches, and usuallly in the seventh inning. He walked two, Hurdle put in Julio for some reason best known to him, and naturally, he permitted an RBI single to tie the game at one. (Atkins' single and Hawpe's triple had led to a 1-0 advantage for the Rox an inning earlier). Hurdle fortunately yanked him and installed Fuentes, who came up with two huge strikeouts to end it, and managed (after two walks) to repeat the performance in the top of the eighth as well.

Bottom of the eighth. Tulowitzki reaches on an error, Holliday reaches on an infield single, Tulo to third, Helton walks. Atkins comes through with the tiebreaking RBI single, and then, with Coors going berserk, Hawpe delivers the two-run double to push them to 4-1. Torrealba struck out, naturally, and Cory Sullivan grounded into a double play, to squash their chances of getting more.

Onto the ninth. Usually reliable Manny Corpas has been looking wobbly lately, and allowed a single and a double to open the inning; a run scored on a sacrifice fly. He then induced a groundout, but an RBI bloop single made it 4-3. I was pretty much dying. Rocking. Squeaking. Hyperventilating. Moaning. Crazy.

Stephen Drew chops it back to the box. Manny fields it off-balance and flings it to Helton, who beats Drew by half a step to the bag. Coors goes off the handle and so does Helton, who skips around madly and flings himself into Tulo's arms. The Rockies did what they needed to do. They won 13 of 14 to set up the playoff game tomorrow, which will be Jake Peavy vs. Josh Fogg (not good, admittedly, but who had us winning 13 of 14? Who had us in this position, tied for second place in the NL West at 89-73, one game behind the D-backs? Playing in front of a sold-out crowd with the purple fever?

Here are the playoff spots:
NL West: D-backs
NL Central: Cubs
NL East: Phillies (yes, the Mets tanked, and I'm afraid this will cost Holliday the MVP in favor of Rollins)
NL Wild Card: Padres or Rockies (pending outcome of the game tomorrow)

AL West: Angels
AL Central: Indians
AL East: Red Sox
AL Wild Card: Yankees

Matchups:

NLDS 1: Wild Card vs. Phillies
NLDS 2: Cubs vs. D-backs.

ALDS 1: Angels vs. Red Sox
ALDS 2: Yankees vs. Indians

I'm pulling for a Rockies/Indians series. And I do believe that the Rockies are going to win tomorrow. They've defied every odd so far, they're going to make this one as well.

GO ROCKIES!!!

..... Wow....

2007-09-27T04:05:00.000-04:00

Yeah, that's pretty much anyone can say. 11 in a row. 11 in a fucking row. 76-72 to 87-72, one back in the Wild Card, two back in the division (My God, can we ever get any help?! 11 games won and we're still not in the lead?!) and the first unbeaten multi-city trip in franchise history. 10-4 brooming of the Dodgers, homers from Garrett, Brad (back to back in the fourth) and Todd (to provide a crucial insurance cushion, to 6-3 from 4-3). After that, my baby Brad came through again with a three-run double. And.... wow. We did it. We did it. We swept the Dodgers again and head home to what will be a packed, rollicking, screaming, and wildly supportive Coors Field for a season-ending showdown with the D-backs. Win 0 of 3 or 1 of 3, we're toast. Win 2 of 3, we tie for the division. Win 3 of 3, and we sweep, win the division outright, and finish with the NL's best record.

Let me repeat that. The Colorado Rockies, if sweeping the Arizona Diamondbacks at home this weekend, will finish with the National League West crown and the best record in the league.

Amazing. It gives me chills to think what Coors will be like this weekend. I wish I could be there. I wish. It will be an experience for a lifetime. For the first time ever, we have roared to life, we will have a sold-out crowd screaming deliriously for us, and the last three games will be fraught with meaning. We are not playing out our string. We could do this. We could.

So, I have a dilemma. The Mets are in free-fall. If the Phillies pass them and win the East, we don't have to worry about them in the Wild Card, and the Mets losing (and a few losses from the Padres, dammit... help us out, Brewers, and learn how to freakin' field, while you're at it) would substantially clear our path to the Wild Card. But, if the Mets somehow hang on and the Nats beat the Phillies and the Rox claim the WC (you think this is complicated, try reading the tiebreaker scenarios) then the Rox and Mets will play each other. Aside from being favorable for the Rox (Mets backing badly into the playoffs on a terrible swoon) it then means I would be able to go to an actual Rockies playoff game here in New York, probably with Mary and Steve (the latter would protect me from any too crazed fanatics). And yeah, I'd be booed mercilessly instead of being among a sea of purple brethren, but I don't care. I'd take it. I'd take it and more to see my Rockies, my deepest and most beloved Rockies, in a NLDS game. October baseball for all the chips.

Three days to go in the season and while the AL playoff spots are all sewn up (snore, I hate the AL, I can only hope the Indians get to the Series because any of the other entrants make me vomit) absolutely nothing is settled in the NL. We could be facing up to four days of tiebreakers.

And my Rox are, finally, enjoying a winning season. More than that, they are winners. They have an amazing camaraderie, they enjoy playing together, they enjoy winning together, and now, finally, they expect to and have shown us what they can accomplish. Even if they fall short, 2008 is going to be amazing.

I live for this.

Go Rockies.

What Does Not Kill You Will Make You Stronger

2007-09-26T04:45:00.000-04:00

Jesus. H. Christ. It's 2:25 AM, I have class in seven hours that requires me to be awake again after six of them, and only now is my adrenaline high wearing off enough for me to think about sleep. What a crazy night. The Phillies lost to the Braves (good!) the Padres stunned the shockingly shitaceous Giants (fuck!) and the Rockies themselves just kept up the good times, logging a 9-7 win over the Dodgers for, coincidentally, their ninth straight win. And boy, did they do it in a wild, roller-coaster, completely draining way. Now that I've resigned myself to the fact I'm not going to get a lot of sleep tonight, it's time to put this down so hopefully it will be out of my head and I don't lie awake hyperventilating for another hour.

What. A Game. And as I say, whatever doesn't slay you must toughen your resolve for the playoff games (I BELIEVE!) that will come. By my (admittedly inexpert... c'mon, I go to a liberal arts school) calculations, the lead changed hands or the game was tied five times. Kaz Matsui got the scoring started; Sullivan hit a single, Matsui did as well, and both scored. Confused? I'm sure the Gameday operator was as well. It featured the Rockies running wild on Juan Pierre's joke of an arm in center and Russ Martin throwing a ball into center field. End result, both Sullivan and Matsui scored in what must have been a very bizarre play to score indeed. 2-0 is a good edge to jump out to, especially in a must-win game (they all are) against Brad Penny in a forbidding Chavez Ravine that has been brutally unkind (4-12) to the Rockies. But the rollercoaster had just gotten going.

Ubaldo Jimenez had been dominant against the Dodgers in two previous starts, but forgot his lucky charms tonight, allowing a two-run homer to Chin-Lung Hu. The very next inning, the Rockies pushed across two runs on a RBI single and a botched DP ball. In the bottom of the inning, James Loney cracked a three-run homer to put the Dodgers ahead 5-4 -- dizzy yet? It also featured the unusual combination of strikeout-double play-strikeout, as Martin struck out but beat the wild pitch to first. Andre Ethier lined into a double play which featured lightweight Cory Sullivan gunning Jeff Kent down at home to prevent him from scoring; Torrealba redeemed himself for letting Martin's ball get away with a perfect block of the plate. Then Andy LaRoche struck out, leaving Ryan Speier successfully having gotten four outs.

The next inning, Kaz (the Purple Dragon) and the Iceman swungeth for the Rockies yet again. Troy Tulowitzki, long may his godliness grace us, hit a two-run shot to left to push it to a 6-5 lead. Visibily pumped, Tulo skipped and punched the air as Rockies fans had orgasms and heart attacks simultaneously. After Scott Proctor hit Holliday in the seventh (making a successful return from oblique injury, he didn't hit any bombs, but got two singles) Helton got his third hit of the game (he smells the postseason and you can bet to hell he wants it) to make it 7-5. The cavernous drought that is Dodger Stadium's center field stole a three-run shot from Atkins (it was out of any park except the hitter's abattoirs known as the Ravine and Petco). Matt Herges, having already gotten through a successful sixth, did the same with the seventh.

Then the real heart attacks started, better known as the bottom of the eighth. Brian Fuentes threatened so badly to revert to June form, Hurdle actually thought about putting Julio in. (Thank GOD he did not). Fuentes allowed a run, walked the bases loaded twice, and then let Matt Kemp hit a low, slicing liner into center field. In any other year, any other day, perhaps, it would have dropped for a two-run single, devastating a two-run lead for the Rox into a one-run deficit. But not in this day, this age, this moment, this charmed season that perpetually hangs on the edge of a knife. Ryan Spilborghs made a sliding catch and saved it. More simultaneous heart attack/orgasms for Rox fans. I was pretty much dead by this point.

The Rockies went to the ninth. Torrealba doubled. Mr. Clutch, Spilborghs, came through with the insurance double, and Jamey Carroll, in as a defensive replacement for Atkins, cashed him in with a single. 9-6 going to the bottom of the ninth, and usually lights-out Manny Corpas wobbled, allowing a one-out solo jack to Delwyn Young, getting Martin to ground out on the first pitch, and then allowing a double to Andre Ethier.

I was rocking, whimpering, shaking, crossing my fingers, unable to stand up and totally drained by this point. I didn't know what he was going to do if Manny didn't get the next out -- but he did. Groundout. Game in the bag. And one totally exhausted, completely euphoric, never-did-finish-reading-her-politics-assignment-so-what fan, who almost collapsed in her computer chair and took a while to get up the focus to take a shower, much less anything else.

It's almost 3 AM. I'm still awake. As one of my friends reminded me, Rockies playoff race > everything else. I have taken up a 24-hour Rockies representation -- I have worn my Hawpe shirt for the past three days, and now I am sleeping in my Atkins shirt. Nine in a row ties the franchise record and leaves us still one behind the Padres (ARGH! FUCKING GIANTS! Try not sucking for once in your life! Goddammit! Yes, a lot of frustration here... we could have been tied if they'd just hung onto a 4-2 lead in the ninth!)

Peavy vs. Misch for the Pads/Giants tomorrow. That's bad. Fogg vs. Lowe for us, not great. Tim Hudson vs. Kyle Lohse for Braves/ Phillies, good. And not to mention... I believe. I do. I do. This is a Rockies team that is hot and hungry like you would not believe.

I have learned my lesson.

I will never doubt them again.

I may never sleep, either. Or get anything done in a timely fashion.

One thing I will not do is stop loving my Colorado Rockies. Ever.

GO ROCKIES!!!!!

Eight Straight

2007-09-23T03:45:00.000-04:00

Holy shit, that's about all I can say. Everybody in the world, myself undoubtedly included, wrote the Rockies' obituary after they lost two of three to the Marlins to follow up a disappointing split in Philly, painful experiences that I am sure you are already well aware of if you've been following their season or reading this blog. And while Baseball Prospectus still puts their playoff odds at a disappointingly far-away 5%, what the Rockies have done defies explanation. They said they needed a sweep to be talked about at all, and a sweep they got. Their convincing 7-3 victory today featured an absolutely ace-like performance on the back of Jeff Francis (8 innings, 7 hits, 2 runs, 8 K) to improve to 17-8 and tie Kevin Ritz and Pedro Astacio (yes, he's following a dubious precedent) for the all-time franchise single-season victory rotal. Adding to the oddity was an inside-the-park-homer from Garrett "Fankles" Atkins, whose sprinting lumber barely beat the throw home after Cameron and Bradley collided on his deep flyball to center, and Brad Hawpe turning into Mad Hawpiday after Mad Mattie MVP had to sit out (boo!) for the second straight day with an oblique strain. After having the game-winning homer in fourteen innings, he followed it up with a 4-for-4 performance in the middle game of the series and another multi-RBI performance, and another HR, today. So proud of my boys I could burst -- and I will be wearing my Hawpe shirt around SLC for the foreseeable future.

Speaking of which, doing my homework on Sports Sunday (football and baseball, the Rockies won and the Broncos got their asses kicked by the Jaguars) didn't work so well. Good thing I already read Adam Smith, now I was supposed to read Karl Polanyi as a counterpoint, and now I really should be in bed since I have a busy day tomorrow (politics lecture, neuropsych class, Mets game with Mary and Steve YAY) but I'm staying up late talking to my friends, reveling in the Rockies' glory (84-72, 1.5 back of the WC, 8 wins in a row) and trawling laboriously through page by page of Polanyi and really getting worried that it will not be done in time. Who cares?! The Rockies rule!

Oh man. My love for my sports teams is going to get me into so much trouble. But it's amazing the way you can feel for them. At the close of the Rockies game today, I cried. It was in joy, in disbelief, in hope, perhaps, relief, gratitude for them for giving me this ride and this amazing resiliency and talent. This team is for real. I love them deeply enough to forego homework, and if you know me, you know that's something.

They begin their final six games of the season -- three against the Dodgers starting on Tuesday, three at home against the D-backs -- with a chance to stun everybody and complete this comeback. And you know what? I believe they can. There is no quit in them. It's time. They can. And that's what a fan's prerogative is. I can't let go of them, not now and not ever.

Go Rockies. Yours forever.

Don't Stop Believin'

2007-09-22T05:40:00.000-04:00

Cue the Journey. I wrote their epitaph, and yet... it has gone down to the wire. It may be. I can believe. 3.5 back of the Padres with 8 games remaining to play. A dramatic 14th-inning victory against the Friars culminating with Brad Hawpe's 27th HR of the year, hit off a lefty, as he did all the offensive lifting and Matt Herges closed it after Manny Corpas blew his first save since July. Baseball is amazing and unpredictable and I love this game and my Colorado Rockies forever, no matter how this ends. That is all.

In Which Some Goes Wrong and More Goes Right

2007-09-19T17:15:00.000-04:00

The Rockies confound me. Not that I think they'll really make the playoffs, that coffin was pretty much nailed shut by the disastrous umpiring and Jeff Francis's horrible start in Philadelphia, and their playoff odds currently stand at an oh-so-overwhelming 2.5%. After struggling to a split in the City of (Not-So) Brotherly Love, they went home and promptly lost two of three to the Marlins, who entered the series 20 games south of .500 to pretty much put the kibosh on any talk of pulling out a last-minute wild card. Then they faced their direct combatants in the standings, the Dodgers, who entered a four-game series at Coors (making up for a July rainout, the teams played a doubleheader last night) with a 13% chance of making the playoffs. So if the Rockies couldn't make the playoffs themselves, at least they could spoil it for the Dodgers, who have confounded them all season and have been responsible for their fair share of purple-and-black woe.

The Rox won the first game of the doubleheader in traditional fashion -- a strong performance from ace Francis (winning his 16th game of the season to tie for the franchise record, and setting a personal best of 10 strikeouts -- one-upping his 9-K performance from June 20 against the Yankees). They got RBIs from big man Matt Holliday and Todd Helton, and Brian Fuentes the much-maligned and the amazing Manny Corpas finished off the game by retiring the final six Dodgers batters in order. (Manny is 15-for-15 in save chances since taking over for Fuentes, who is fine as a setup guy but completely lacks the bulldog mentality needed to finish off save chances, especially in tough situations). This is a very patchwork bullpen showing signs of fatigue and overuse -- Matt Herges lost his rabbit foot and pixie dust, probably in unison, to explain his sudden nose-dive, and Affeldt has an ERA over 6.00 since the All-Star Break. Julio was serviceable earlier, even good, but the grind of the season caught up with him as well and he's now giving up runs like a sieve every time he's out there. Four or five months' worth of rest will be good for everyone, my mental state included. Boy, it's hard rooting for (and watching the hijinks of) this team day in and day out, but hey, it's not like I'm going to stop now.

Game 2, the nightcap, was far more dramatic, a thrilling, agonizing, and ultimately glorious see-saw of a battle. Fill-in starter Mark Redman naturally permitted three first-inning runs before the Rockies roared out of the gate against David Wells and got them right back to tie it at 3. Redman wasn't content in that state and had to turn it into a deficit again; the Rox went down 4-3 and stayed that way until the bottom of the fifth, in which Mad Matt Holliday struck again. After being rewarded for his insane play (six homers in seven days, 11 RBI) by being named the NL Player of the Week for the second time this season (at least he now has an extra luxury watch to give as a present) he went out and did it again, bashing a no-doubt moonshot of a two-run homer to edge the Rockies ahead to 5-4.

The lead didn't last long. Herges, now notably lacking his lucky charms and/or lucky underwear, immediately permitted a game-tying homer to James Loney in the top of the sixth. After he allowed the next two batters to reach via walk and single, Affeldt came in and managed to get two outs, falsely raising hopes that he would get out of it unscathed. Not so; the man is a former Kansas City Royal, after all. He coughed up a two-run triple to Tony Abreu, yanking the Dodgers up 7-5, and while the damage was minimized (for that inning, at least) it wasn't a good sign. Every game, as mentioned, is now must-win territory for the Rockies, and they've made it very hard on themselves by consistently losing to teams they should beat, while confoundingly beating teams they should lose to. In fact, they seem to play to the level of their competition -- they can look insipid, lifeless, and flat while dropping 3 of 4 to the Nationals (getting shut out in each of their losses) only to turn around and score 34 runs in the course of a three-game sweep of the Mets. It happens all the time. Some teams' fans look forward to the cupcake portion of their schedule, yet we as Rockies fans actually want them to be facing the stronger teams since they seem to play better when they do.

But never mind the digression. Jorge Julio came in for one inning, miraculously escaped, and then for some bewildering reason (he's already overworked and ineffective) was left out for a second one. He promptly yielded a solo shot to All-Star catcher Russell Martin to stretch the deficit to 8-5 going to the bottom of the eighth, and the Rockies had a tough task ahead of them in trying to crack Jonathan Broxton and Takashi Saito. Broxton has been solid as a setup man for the Bastards in Blue, and closer Saito's numbers are unworldly -- before last night, 39 for 42 in save chances, a 1.21 ERA, four homers permitted all year, and five games, and five saves, against the Rockies, who were 0-for-14 against him. You shall soon see the point of this numerology, but in the meantime...

The Rockies started the bottom of the eighth on a high note when Garrett Atkins fought off seven pitches and cracked a clean single to center. Then Ryan Spilborghs the super-sub stepped up and followed with his third hit of the night -- this one just happened to leave the yard and push the Rockies to within 8-7. Unfortunately, they couldn't get more that inning, as pinch-hitters Brad Hawpe and Yorvit Torrealba struck out, and after a quick and clean top of the ninth from a suddenly rejuvenated Ryan Speier, they headed to the bottom of the frame down one run against an elite closer who'd owned them all year.

Omar Quintanilla hit a hard shot, but unfortunately right at Saito, who snagged it for the first out. Troy Tulowitzki was called out on a questionable strike for the second out, leaving the bases empty and the Rockies down to their last gasp. But they had the big men coming up -- there was still a hope, even faint and flickering, and Holliday's fourth hit of the game, a sharp single to right, brought up Todd Helton, who's playing meaningful games in September for the first time in his long and illustrious career. Despite hitting well through the stretch, he had been 0-4 that night with a rally-killing double play, and his power numbers have taken a swan dive in general -- he only had 14 HR coming up to that at-bat.

Saito started with a ball; Helton fouled off pitches twice before lighting into one of Saito's nasty sliders and sending it over the scoreboard in right field, keeling Coors into delirium and Todd sprinting around the bases like a kid in little league. As he rounded third and headed for the plate, he ripped off his helmet, let out a roar of jubilation, and stage-dived into a mob of ecstatic teammates who hopped up and down, hugged, and thumped madly -- I have never seen Helton, the reserved veteran, so absolutely psyched. He'd just hit 300 career homers earlier, but No. 301 had to top them all -- it was a moment that Holliday, who jumped in the air and pumped both fists as the ball left the yard, said he'd never forget. It was an amazing finish, almost as great as their comeback on my birthday, an amazing moment for a veteran who's ground through so many disappointing and empty Septembers, to hit one that meant so much.

My sister was at this game with our friend Betsy (I have never been so jealous) and she said the atmosphere was amazing. Everyone was screaming, leapt to their feet when the ball left the yard, and she said she hugged Betsy, high-fived a complete stranger, and did a little dance as she was leaving -- the crowd roared and treated Helton to his second career curtain call, the other coming earlier this week. Outside the stadium, people were yelling, screaming, high-fiving as well -- if nothing else, even if this year closes like all the other ones, it is not the same. The Rockies have proven what this nucleus has the capability to do, and they have gotten the city of Denver to fall in love with them again. It has been (and still is) Broncos country for so very long that the Rockies, once they stopped being the new thing in town, failed to draw 60,000+ a night, and started all the abysmal seasons, were an afterthought, occasionally parodied or despaired by an ever-dwindling fanbase. But the city is genuinely excited about and in love with its baseball team again, and that just makes me so happy -- the thought of all this gives me the chills. Ah, September. Fall baseball. It's a beautiful thing.

On another Rockies note, as we thank the guys for this great season and eagerly anticipate 2008, the team has announced their intention to try super-prospect Ian Stewart at second base. I, for one, am fully behind this idea. The one (well, actually, two) problems being a) Stewart hasn't played second base since Little League, and b) at 6-3 and 215 lbs, is a big guy and only getting bigger. If he actually did make the conversion, he'd be the biggest 2B in the league, beating out Jeff Kent (6-2, 210) by an inch and five pounds. Although this probably isn't going to work, I find myself rooting very hard for it to somehow come through. First, it would give us an in-house solution to the second base vacancy, as Kaz Matsui may or may not be re-signed, and secondly, it would allow us to keep Garrett Atkins' bat. Atkins' defense at third is an iffy proposition, and since he's a natural first baseman, you'd have two defenders out of position in the infield -- Atkins at third and Stewart at second. However, the infield would have absolutely astronomic offensive totals (Helton-Stewart-Tulowitzki-Atkins is a serious helping of firepower) and would find a way to accommodate Helton, Stewart, and Atkins at once, which otherwise isn't possible; Atkins or Helton would have to be traded this off-season.

I regularly defend Atkins (or at least his offense, as his defense makes me roll my eyes too) and it's important to note that .290/23/103 is not chump change. Stewart replicating that in his rookie season would be a feat for the ages (not everyone is Tulowitzki here, people ;) ) and for next year at least, there would be a significant offensive drop-off with a still-aging Helton and a newbie Stewart. While Ian is certainly capable of this production, it may not come for a few years, and by that time, Holliday will have hit free agency and the Devil will have garnered him some insane contract with a high-profile East Coast team. If the Rockies really want to compete, 2008 and 2009 may be their best shots to do so if they keep the talented nucleus intact. They still need all that offensive cannonade as long as they keep playing in Denver and their pitchers hiccup accordingly, humidor or not, and there is no doubt Atkins knows how to hit. Damn, this Stewart-at-second is such a pipe dream... but please work. Please?

The other drum I must beat regards the candidacy of Matt Holliday and Troy Tulowitzki for Most Valuable Player and Rookie of the Year awards. If they don't win, or at least finish in the top three, then it's a blatant act of highway robbery that yet again focuses on the popular markets instead of actual talent. The field of potential winners is deep, there is an elite crop of talent to deal with this year, but the numbers stack up every which way (and Tulo should get a Gold Glove as well, leading his position in fielding metrics).

Matt Holliday (season to date)
AB: 597
H: 202
BA: .338
HR: 33
R: 109
RBI: 126
OBP: .400
SLG: .601
OPS: 1.001
2B: 48
3B: 5

That is a monster season. Those numbers you see are good for first in the NL for batting average and RBI, third for slugging percentage, fourth for homers, OPS, runs, and eighth in on-base percentage. Not to mention that he's drastically improved his defense in left field. He leads the NL with 281 putouts, ranks third with a .990 fielding percentage (three errors in 291 chances) and second with a .912 zone rating, which measures how many balls a fielder is able to get to. If you don't believe me, just check out all the defensive video highlights he has this year -- it used to be all homers and they skated over the iffy fielding stats. He is a complete player, not at all a product of Coors (and that drives me nuts. How about bandboxes like Cincinnati, Arlington, and Philadelphia -- where Holliday hit four homers? Do those somehow count less?) You'd think, and yet people discount Rockies players out of hand because they play in Denver. Take a look at the numbers, people. Holliday received the most votes by his fellow players to the All-Star Game. They know what a wrecking ball he is, even if the fans at large haven't caught on yet.

And as for Tulo, his chief competition appears to be Ryan Braun, who has him beat in precisely two categories, home runs (30 to 21) and batting average (.323 to .295). Everywhere else, the numbers point to Tulo in a walk. He has more doubles (27 to 22) more runs scored (89 to 78) more RBIs (89 to 83) and half as many errors. Tulo has been a catalyst for the team after starting sub-Mendoza, set the NL record for homers by a rookie shortstop, and plays Gold Glove-worthy defense. His howitzer of an arm leads to regular swollen thumbs for first baseman Helton, and he can hit 90 with regularity on blistering throws from deep in the hole; it's just a joy to watch him play. Braun's defense, by comparison, can charitably be rated as poor. He has 22 errors, a sub-.900 fielding percentage, and achieves the difficult task of making Atkins (13 errors) look like Brooks Robinson. BBWAA writers, and ROY voters, love the surface offensive numbers, and it's true that Braun can mash like nobody's business and came up on May 25, instead of starting the season like Tulo has. However, if you want to rate the complete player, the true sparkplug and young star of a contending team, it's Tulo. And I'm not even saying this because of my permanent purple-colored glasses (or maybe I am). Troy puts in tremendous work each and every day, will go above and beyond the pale to get a win, and refuses to settle for losing or mediocrity. Simply put, he's the fire and inspiration the Rockies have been lacking for so long, and deserves to be rewarded for it.

I know this has been a long post already, but I would like to close by noting that since I am unable to attend Rockies games (clearly) I have made up (sort of) for the lack by attending two games, one Mets and one Yankees, since my return to school. (I will also be going to either one or two Mets games next week). Both times I went with a guy friend, and I tell you... I've been generally indifferent about the Mets, but the Yankees are seriously enough to make me almost actively like them. I can root for the Mets without feeling unclean (and I had to, since the one game I was at, they were playing Philly, and lost anyway.... the Mets are following the 2006 Cardinals script for the postseason by choking and threatening to squander it all before backing into the playoffs). The Yankees and their fans, however, are all such douchebags. They have an astounding arrogance and ignorance, strut around like they own the place (yeah, yeah, we've already heard about your 26 fucking championships, want to talk about the years since you've won your last one? 2004, for example? God, I hope there's a Curse of A-Rod or something that will prevent them from winning for another 79 years... such poetic justice, they could suffer through every inch of the agony that the Red Sox did).

I went to the Yankees/Orioles games with my friend Nick, and while we admittedly asked for it by sitting in the bleachers, the fans sang "Why Are You Gay?" to him to the tune of "YMCA," and incessantly chanted, "Ug-ly shirt!" pointing at his Jeremy Guthrie T-shirt. (I was wearing my Rox stuff -- Atkins shirt, Rockies jacket and hat, and was hoping so very much that they'd heckle me about rooting for a bad team, but they probably don't even remember that the Rockies exist, and maybe had enough sense to realize that I could, you know, point out that we swept them). Don't get me wrong, both of us found the heckling very amusing, but only in the way you find an irretrievably stupid person funny; because they just think they know so much and know actually nothing at all. Perhaps it's a rite of passage, but they are stupid, aggressively stupid, and strut around like they're still the kings of the world. The late-90's Yankees dynasty has passed, people, and besides, you root for the Evil Empire/Chevy/GMC of baseball, headed by an asshole owner and fronted by a calvacade of "twenty-five guys/twenty-five cabs" overpaid primadonnas. Oooh. Don't get me onto the topic of the Yankees, clearly; there is so much hatred here. Don't try to justify liking the Yankees to me. I understand that you're from New York so they're your hometown team, and they win a lot and it's fun to root for a winner, but that's it. And what about all the Yankees "fans" that have never even been to NY? They don't have an excuse at all. They are shameless front-runners, and should be ritually crucified as a warning to all others. (Same goes for non-resident Red Sox and Cubs fans as well. Besides, I don't even get why you'd want to root for the Cubs if you were from Chicago, much less anywhere else. See my diatribe against Cubs fans below).

In contrast, the Mets seem like more fun, have a few players that I could even like, and even though planes roar overhead every half-hour, their much-maligned Shea is less of a dump than the historic but shitty Stadium. Not that I'm going to suddenly start rooting for them, but if you had to make me pick a sports team from my adopted home state with a gun to my head, I'd take the Mets in a (New York) minute. I'm looking forward to going with Mary and possibly Steve (remember them?) next week, and will probably clap for the Mets since a) I'll be in Shea anyway, and b) who the hell wants to cheer for the Nationals? Even those from D.C.? Seriously.

Okay. Long post over. I feel a little better now. Or maybe I don't. I hate the Yankees. Oh well. I fiercely adore my Rockies, even though they shave years off my life, inflate my blood pressure, and ruin my emotional state, and so that shall do. Josh Fogg vs. Brad Penny tonight (Fogg always seems to draw the toughest assignment from the opposing team) as the Rockies try to find their oft-missing killer instinct and put the finishing smackdown on the Dodgers.

Go Rox!

An Interesting Phenomenon Is Observed

2007-09-11T21:44:00.000-04:00

Less than twenty-four hours after the brutal, backbreaking, extra-innings loss to the Phillies that most probably ended the Rockies' fledgling postseason ambitions, here I am, watching the second game of the series, Franklin Morales vs. Adam Eaton. I will probably be even watching tomorrow's game as well, which features the hair-raising fact of Denny Bautista taking the ball to inaugurate a "bullpen" start. Mark Redman, All-Star, will probably be in there as well (it can't be this cold in New York, it's still warm and unpleasantly sticky, so that must have been the freezing breath of foreboding).

I am in a neuropsychology class. You think I could read my brain books and find out what's wrong, right?

Weird.

Also.... Whatever your opinion of the political skullduggery, partisan mud-throwing, and general incompetence and turmoil that followed the terrible events of that Tuesday six years previously, the fact remains that the events themselves have, indeed, been catastrophic and life-shattering for everyone involved. The war, the grim outlook, the rampant xenophobia, the fact that you can’t board an airplane without five hours of TSA scrutiny and signing, the equally repugnant posturing on both sides, and well.... a lot of things, and a lot of innocence, broke on that day. Please offer your prayers, or whatever your personal spirituality is, to those who lost friends and loved ones in the attacks.

Pretty Much Just Shock and Disbelief Here, Folks

2007-09-11T00:40:00.000-04:00

Rockies season: April 2, 2007 -- September 10, 2007.

Ended later than most. Was lots of fun along the way. Nice job, fellas. Love you dearly, except for Hurdle, Barmes, Julio, and Affeldt.

Requiescat in Pacem.

Life (School) & Life (Rockies)

2007-09-11T00:05:00.000-04:00

Everything has gone swimmingly at the outset of the new school year, ever since my belowmentioned trip from hell. I got the classes I wanted, which are: a politics lecture (The Legitimacy of Modernity) a psychology seminar (Narrative Neuropsychology, which is so interesting that I've already read about half my course texts voluntarily) and a writing workshop. It wasn't my first choice, but it'll be interesting anyway; it focuses on the craft and art of writing as much as the actual act, and features four novels to be read and analyzed, which is just fine with me; I'm starved for new reading material (one of the reasons I tore into my psych books like a ravening wolf) and look forward to having a new professor offer perspective on my work. Classes started today, and I am as happy as the proverbial pig in slop. I got up with no complaints at 8:30 (which I generally consider too early) to trot off to my politics lecture, and really enjoyed the first day of studying. Around 4 pm, after I'd finished with both my lecture and my seminar, I found myself in the library, happily reading Hobbes' Leviathan and taking notes about it from the discussion questions. I am the very rare breed of college student who actually enjoys studying (although I suppose that's easy to say at the start of semester, and my assiduousness will probably go down as time goes on) but I am thrilled to be back in the swing of things.

Now, about my Rox.... Pretty much every day is do-or-die time for them in the stretch run, the first time September baseball has mattered since 1995 (coincidentally, their last postseason appearance). Even Todd Helton's annual milestone (in this case, his 35th double for the tenth straight season... the only player to ever do that, congratulations) was relegated to a footnote by the fact that the team is still in the chase. By beating the Padres 2 of 3, including one game in which they used a franchise-record 10 pitchers (and won 10-4) and one game in which they won at Coors with four hits or less for the first time in their history (fortunately, two of the hits were homers, one by Atkins and one by Holliday) they have positioned themselves 3 back in the Wild Card with 20 to play and open a four-game set with the Phillies tonight. The Phils are one game ahead of them, so with a series victory, the Rockies could establish themselves as a down-to-the-wire contender and seriously make the NL wild-card race a last-second affair. There is no drama in the AL, as the Yankees, Angels, and Red Sox have their spots sewn up (heeerurgh, the only AL entrant I can root for is the Indians) but the NL figures to be interesting, especially the wild wild West and the fact that we have to start worrying about giant flaming balls of fire if the Cubs get anywhere. Despite their meteoric plummet, the Brewers are still in first by the skin of their teeth, but they need to do the world a favor and save it from the destruction that would occur if the other Chicago entry became world champs.

The Mets look to have their second consecutive East crown under their belts, but nothing else is certain in the NL. Far more interesting, I like the Senior Circuit better anyway, and everything is still in flux. The Central, West, and wild card could literally be decided on the last day of the season, and I'm rooting for the NL in the postseason anyway; I'm tired of AL arrogance, stupid rules (DH) and dominance. There is no one NL likely entrant that I hate with the bloody vitriol I reserve for the Terrible Trio entering on the AL half, so I'll just have to hope that my support (yeah, like that's the deciding factor) will spur the NL on to victory.... Unless.... Oh my god, what if it's Cubs/Yanks, Cubs/Sox, or something equally awful? My head will explode. I don't mind the Mets, but living in NY, I expect I'd get tired of hearing about them. At least my friends who are Mets fans will be happy, and it would rub the Yankees' face in the fact that the city is holding a championship parade NOT FOR THEM, and it's been seven whole years since they won the Big One. (Oh, please let them never win it again. A-Rod, Giambi, Farnsworth, and Damon preening with a championship ring would make me lose my lunch).

There is one other thing which I'm noting in particular this year, and that is that the umpiring is worse than ever. Recently, the box on Gameday which denotes the strike zone has disappeared, and this has come on the heels of several players and managers airing their (warranted) frustration with the abysmal standard that the calls have dropped to. Baseball is the only major sport in which the referee is directly involved with every play, and the umps have been a constant source of antagonism this year. If one hothead player on one hard-luck team is letting out some dirty laundry, you can't take him seriously, but when a number of veteran players on contending teams are expressing their displeasure with the works (Chipper Jones being the most recent example to come to mind) it's time for MLB to take a look at the situation. I don't care about hurting umps' feelings, QuesTec has to be installed in parks to further accountability. I don't care about the baseball purists who grumble that it takes the human element out of the game to have a machine recording balls and strikes -- baseball is a game that evolves with the time and no need to keep it in the Abner Doubleday era when consistent mistakes are being made. You can bet that with some umps, it's a power thing, showing up the batter and pitcher, and authority complexes make for difficult people to deal with. I want the strike zone in the book, not that as interpreted by a forty-pounds-overweight egomaniac who can be more concerned with ensuring everyone knows he's in charge. I'm sure they do know. I'm fairly sure that the disappearance of the strike zone on Gameday came at the request of the umpires' union, because I can't think of any other reason it would, and this makes me think that they know they aren't cutting it.... it pisses me off.

Watching this Rockies/Phillies game is going to give me heart failure. All things considered, the Rockies have exactly six losses left this season if they want to win the Wild Card, and they used one of them on Saturday, spoiling a 8-inning, 2-run performance by Jeff Francis, so everything is in must-win territory now. They went up 5-2 in the top of the seventh on the back of a monstrous two-run shot by Holliday off their former problem Jose Mesa, but then their current problems Hawkins, Affeldt, and Julio combined to give up three runs on a backbreaking homer by Pat Burrell. Then, with the winning run in scoring position with two outs in the eighth, Hurdle let Omar Quintanilla, who hadn't gotten the ball out of the infield all night, hit; the result was predictable. Hurdle is pulling out the idiot stops tonight, further proving why he is unsuited to manage in big games and that the pressure of a pennant race isn't something that he can cope with, having dealt with mediocre to flat-out awful teams during his four-year tenure. This will likely be the last season that he has such a talented nucleus intact, as the Monforts' skinflintedness will mean that one of Atkins, Hawpe, or Helton will probably be moved in the offseason (with likely money on Atkins in addition to Brian Fuentes. So sad... I really like Atkins). And we get him until 2009? Joy.

More bad umpiring. 3-1 on Hawpe, two on, top of the ninth, two outs. The first call was questionable, but the second call was nowhere close; Wally Bell called the exact same pitch a ball on Utley before the Burrell home run. The count goes to 3-2 when Hawpe should have walked to load the bases, and he grounds out instead to end the inning. This umpiring is making me sick.

The slender thread of hope may be waning, but it's still there... at least my boys still are playing meaningful games in September. Go Rockies...

Travels and Travails

2007-09-04T22:30:00.000-04:00

One of those dreaded updates in which I veer into real life.... (Well, just for reference, the Rockies won both before and after my cross-country flight from hell, which was very considerate of them. Now, about the aforementioned flight from hell and the commencement of my sophomore year...)

So basically, everything that could go wrong on my trip back to school did so. I had to leave Colorado on a 11:55 pm flight on September 2nd in order to make it back in time for registration on September 3rd. Naturally, I got to the airport with plenty of time -- 10 pm, so I had almost two hours in which to satisfy the TSA with all the necessary bag-checking/security scanning/waiting etc. Then, for some reason, they inform me that the flight is oversold and I, of all people, have to go standby. Aside from the fact that I don't have a clue where they got that, as I have had a confirmed reservation for about two months, this freaked me out since there was no way I was able to miss the flight -- I had to get a connector in Philly and head onwards for NY, and being late or re-routing was not in the program. So I, uh, implored insistently for them to make sure I got on the plane. After the ordeal of watching everyone else with confirmed seats who had not gotten stand-by (stand-byed?) get on the plane, I was allowed to board and dashed down the jetway; I got hung up at the end of the queue but ended up in a window seat anyway.

Flight out of Denver wasn't much; just long, dark, uncomfortable since as you know there is no leg room in economy class on commercial airlines. My rear end got numb, I shifted vainly to find a feasible position, and my headphones kept fritzing out and annoying the heck out of me since only one side would play. I got to Philadelphia around 5:15 am ET, wandered around a largely deserted suburban airport, killed time, ate an unremarkable sandwich, and finally boarded my connector to New York, a small (and noisy) turboprop jet, but even this was not free of drama; for some reason, my boarding pass apparently showed that I hadn't paid for the ticket (WTF?) and while desperately convincing the airport attendant that I wasn't a crook or a terrorist so she would let me stay on the plane, she took my Frontier claim checks to prove that I had had another boarding pass (and, presumably, a paid ticket). When this snafu was over, we were finally on our way to LaGuardia. The damn turboprop was so loud that I couldn't hear myself think, and the only good thing about this flight was that it was short and we were soon descending into New York. I got off the plane normally, headed for the baggage claim, and of course, my luggage had failed to make the trip with me. Seeing as it was the first time this had happened to me, combined with everything else, I was on the hairy edge of freaking out and paced back and forth by the carrousel muttering obscenities as it failed, and failed, and failed to appear.

Once I had determined that my bags had in fact pulled a vanishing act on me, I managed to control my panic and get to the baggage service office, conveniently located right alongside the carrousels for flustered travelers such as myself. One of my bags miraculously turned up in the hold area, so I just had to go through the teeth-pulling business of filing a missing-bag report minus a claim check. Fortunately, the guy at LaGuardia was really helpful and promised to get my bag delivered once it turned up. White slip in hand, I sallied forth to the bus stop, waited for a while since I'd missed the bus I was originally scheduled for, and then departed for Grand Central. At least, this was the plan, and we spent a while caught in airport deadlock before actually moving. Nothing, at least, went wrong here, and I headed into the terminal, checked the schedule like a New Yorker without needing to ask when the next train to Bronxville was, and wasted some time until it departed at 11:23 am.

When I got there, I hauled my assorted heavy bags up a hill, in the hot sunshine, to school and arrived very tired and ready to just sit down for a while. I had to go through registration, get my packets, room keys, meal plans, etc. Then, with all my stuff safely sequestered in my new room (a single, loads of character, more on that in a minute) I headed back out across campus to find my friends. I was able to fall into their arms for big hugs and bitch about my bad flight, which was very nice; I was so happy to see them. I ran to Bronxville and bought some things, spent about freaking $100, and was able to finish (mostly) unpacking, before crashing around 11 pm; I looked at the clock, thought, "Oh wow, I haven't slept in 36 hours," and fell into bed.

I was woken up around 7:30 by my cell phone ringing, missed it the first time, thought it was the room phone, and was just about to go back to bed when it rang again. I answered, very sleepily, and was informed by SLC security that I had a cab waiting. When I expressed ignorance as to why a cab would be there, he amended that it was a suitcase delivery, and I almost fainted in relief. I scuttled down the twisty spiral staircase of my new dorm in pajamas and flip-flops, waited outside for the delivery, and then hauled it back UP aforementioned twisty spiral staircase. I yanked the extra pillow out of it and went back to bed, slept for another two hours, and when my alarm went off at 9:30, I first reset it and then decided that my fabulous day of faculty interviews could hang on for a bit; I was so sleepy that I just lay in bed and dozed for a while as another beautiful day matriculated outside. Once I was done regaining my senses, I rolled out, got dressed, and headed off to get my course schedule approved and in order.

At SLC, you interview professors before signing up for their courses, so naturally I spent the last leg of my 36 hours without sleep picking out all my courses and writing down all the pertinent information. My schedule, if I get what I want, is: Narrative Neuropsychology (a fascinating-looking psych course) The Legitimacy of Modernity (a political science lecture course) and a fiction workshop, which, of course, is the reason I am at SLC in the first place. Hopefully I get them all, as students are placed into at least one of their first choices and sometimes have to settle for alternates if all the spaces in their desired classes are full. I need the lecture course for requirements, so I'll probably get it, and I asked the psychology professor to place me on the priority list, so I'm guessing I get two. Hopefully. I'm excited and look forward to resuming my studies. Yes, I am weird like that.

My new room is also excellent. Apart from being located at the top of a staircase that would do some old Victorian proud (very steep, very twisty) it has wood floors, slanted roofs, a four-paneled bay window that I can sit in, and strange angles. I have papered the walls with all my Rockies photos, pennants, tickets, and cards, and since I am the only one in the room and don't have to contend with roommates (hurrah!) I am free to go to town with my fanaticism and I did. I'll probably take pictures eventually, as I have a mother and several friends asking to see where exactly I am living for the next year. There is a large Rockies sticker and this photo on the door, and inside is equally plastered with assorted purple, black, and silver tokens of my love. What the hell. At least the boys considerately won for me yesterday, kicking Matt Cain's ass in the process (always satisfying) which I needed after the hijinks of my travel arrangements.

Now that my suitcase is home and all I need to do is trust the post office to safely convey my boxes to me (I shipped them parcel post a week ago, and weekends/Labor Day/post office transfers will take extra time, so I'm not too worried) I'm really happy to be back at SLC in all my places and spaces, with my friends and my interests, ready to get back into classwork and get a few part-time jobs to supplement my always unfortunately-dwindling income. In addition to designing posters for College Events, I'll most likely get a job at the Bronxville Starbucks (I heard that if you have experience, they hire you, and I'm already trained and whatnot). Future reaffirmed, sophomore year begun, excitement high, here we go, and return you to your regularly scheduled Rockies blogging. Thank you.

A Birthday Blast

2007-08-25T18:48:00.000-04:00

Well, you know, the general Rockies-related news recently has not been that inspiring, to say the least, as they fell on their face and lost 3 of 4 to the Pirates. Yet again, they've put their own backs against the wall and need some kind of miracle run to get back into contention -- with the D-backs appearing to have a stranglehold on the division, it looks as if the only way the Rockies will taste that playoff savor is if they somehow make a sustained push for the wild card and leapfrog all the teams logjammed ahead of them. As I have noted previously, I am not sure that this will happen, but I'd settle for a winning season at this point. Still, all I wanted for my birthday was for them to win, especially since I had been planning to attend a game on this day ever since the beginning of the summer, when I discovered Gillian's friend's father could aid us in getting prime free tickets. (The last time we used them was on May 30 against the Cardinals, but we've had this game on the schedule since I came home from school. In other words, high expectations).

Well, for starters, yesterday was my 19th birthday and I had an excellent time. Got a day off from work, got to sleep in, then got up and enjoyed a nice morning. I was briefly shanghaied into being used as brute labor by my mother, who had to haul a load of books to the middle school (and just stepping into that building made me unspeakably grateful that I am a college student). Then I picked up my sister, and we headed down the hill to spend an hour or so at the Colorado Mills mall, where we lustfully eyed assorted Rockies paraphernalia in the hundred or so sports stores (no, we don't have a problem at all). We ate pretzels, wandered into accessories stores, bickered like, well, siblings (but all in good fun) and then departed for Coors Field. Upon arrival, we headed straight to the Diamond Dry Goods store, where I was given $100 ($80 from parents/sister and $20 from aunt/uncle) to pick out my birthday presents. I ended up picking out a light jacket, a blanket, an autographed baseball (well, not real, but it has copies of the whole team's signatures on it, and Gillian and I spent quite a while trying to decipher who was who) and a pennant; I now have so much Rockies stuff, which will be posted in my dorm room, that it's rather ridiculous. Someone will walk in and go, "Uh... you don't like the Rockies, by any chance?" I'll go, "No, really, how'd you guess? What tipped you off -- the two pennants, the flag, the stickers, the posters, the tickets, the photos, the blanket, the ball, the cap, the jersey, the shirts -- " At which point they will tune out and contemplate how sane, exactly, I am to be rooting for this team, which is something I myself indulge in on occasion. I am looking forward so much to getting back to NY and having my own space, filled with all my stuff, mementos of things I love and an awesome summer. :)

Still, after the shopping was concluded, Gillian and I headed to the sidelines along the first-base side. We had theorized that the combination of a) the Nationals b) the Rockies sliding recently, and c) a weekday night would lead to rather less autograph-seekers than there usually are, in which we were correct. We were hanging out, still trying to work out who was who on the ball, when guess who? -- Jason Hirsh showed up. I was very surprised to see him, as he's still on the DL, and hadn't expected him to be kabitzing around Coors on such a pretty late-August evening. Sure enough, however, there he was in the flesh; you know that he's one of my favorites and I was planning to ask him to sign my ticket "Happy Birthday." When he actually got to us, I chickened out and handed it to Gillian to ask him instead; she did, he did just that and wished me happy birthday, I asked him how it was going, he said it was good, and I stood there grinning like an idiot as he moved on down the line, patiently answering questions about when he's going to get off the DL (for the record, Jason thinks it'll be a few weeks). Then Jamey Carroll, the other frequent signer, showed up (and I swear he has to know us, or at least recognize us, by now, with all the time we spend down there). He also wished me a happy birthday, and by this point we didn't have much time left before the game. We watched the usual suspects come out and warm up, a routine that is always amusing because a) Tulo runs like a pigeon, and b) Atkins has his own personal stretcher guy who maneuvers him into various uncomfortable-looking positions while Gillian and I snigger. And assorted sundry other amusements, but we got back to our seats (sixteen rows back, Section 132) with plenty of time.

It is worth noting that the "amusements" included the fact that it was "80's Night," and all the Rockies' scoreboard mugshots had been doctored to alter their appearance to the best (worst?) of the eighties. I fortunately managed to get photos of most of them (up later) but they were, shall we say, most amusing. Some of the highlights included: Tulo sporting a sweatband and a 'fro paired with a poofy orange bomber jacket, Atkins transformed into a unibrowed monstrosity adorned with a sunflower, Holliday turned into a truly revolting used-car-salesman type with a combover and a porno-stache, Hawpe given flowing brown dreadlocks and a sleeveless top, and Helton rocking the big hair with a penguin suit. (Stewart had a mullet and a golden jumpsuit, while Spilly had long shaggy bangs. Extremely amusing). Also, it is a discovery of some interest that Jeff Francis somewhat resembles Atkins while wearing what appears to be an orange toilet plunger on his head -- what this intimates for either party concerned, I shall refrain from speculating. Still, most funny, and I'll post the photos in a subsequent entry.

The game got underway, Jeff Francis (in the first inning at least) seemed determined to suck, and after Tulo helpfully chipped in an RBI single in the bottom half of said inning, the offense went AWOL. They left runners on third with one out two innings in a row, but Francis managed to limit the damage and keep the Rox in striking distance, trailing 2-1, until for some inexplicable (cough, Clint Hurdle, cough) reason, he was sent out to start the seventh, having already amassed 109 pitches and never really having gotten into a groove all night. Well, Hurdle learned in June that it is a Bad Idea to pull Francis early, so now he just leaves him out there too long. Predictably, Francis went nuclear, helped out with some shaky defense, and after a failed force play at second left the bases loaded for Ryan Zimmerman, who is quite scary for being a National, and who had hit the homer that made it 2-1. That was all for Francis, as Taylor Buchholz (5-1/2.31 as a reliever before last night) was summoned from the pen. He promptly yielded a 2-run single to the pestilential Zimmerman to push the Nats' advantage to 4-1, and by the time the bottom of the ninth hit, Buchholz had also given up a solo homer to Wily Mo Pena(Wily Mo Pena?) to stretch it to 5-1. Thus started the ninth with Chad Cordero summoned out of the 'pen to face Tulowitzki, Holliday, and Helton, and while this is the meat of the order, I felt little hope. I could not believe that they were actually going to lose on my birthday, the bums. But I put on my rally cap and hoped for the best.

It started off well. On Cordero's first pitch, Tulo laced a single into right field. On Cordero's second pitch, Holliday took him downtown to the Rockies' pen for a two-run blast to shave the deficit to 5-3. I began to ramp up the yelling intensity, just since I had had no excuse to do so all game. In this case, however, it wasn't over. Helton shot one deep into the hole, Jimenez overthrew, and he was safe at first. The stadium was on its feet, cheering, yelling, clapping, really getting into it, and it was great to feel that spark of shared energy and excitement.

Still not over. Atkins belted one into the left field corner that rolled to the wall for a double. Coors was yelling itself berserk, joined in heartily by Gillian and myself; we were screaming, whooping, jumping out of our seats, practically on the edge of them on the rare occasions that we sat down. Brad Hawpe worked a walk and that was enough for Manny Acta; he came to retrieve Cordero and summoned Jon Rauch instead. Yorvit Torrealba was up, the whole stadium was behind him, and Yorvit rewarded them for their loyalty by snapping a two-run single into right-center. With Coors going apeshit, Cory Sullivan bunted the runners over into scoring position for only the first out, and Spilborghs came up. Right about this point, Gillian and I were going hoarse with all the screaming we were doing, fervently and madly rooting on whichever current hero in the purple pinstripes was up there. All previous dislikes or biases put aside, we loved them all, and the fact that Spilly eventually grounded out did not deter us. There were still only two outs, after all.

Then Kaz came up; he had a single and a triple already in the game and we were going berserk (along with everyone else who had stuck it out). Kaz hit a ground ball to short, Jimenez couldn't come up with it, and there wasn't even a throw to first as Hawpe crossed the plate with the winning run and everybody jumped up and down, thumped each other on the back, and whooped it up. It was an amazing finish, I was completely euphoric, and I woke up this morning with a sore throat from all the yelling and still feeling that kind of dizzy, drunken happiness (but no actual alcohol involved, thank you very much) that settles in you and makes you grin. And as you know, I really needed that due to how down and unhappy I've been recently. As a matter of fact, I had to wake up at 6 am for work, which really did suck, but it was okay. The fact that I have a killer blister and a sore foot that makes it rather difficult to walk dampened my ardor only slightly, and what I really need to do now is start packing (including all the Rockies stuff I've somehow accumulated over the summer... no idea how that happened...) in preparation for my relocation back to NY and the start of my sophomore year. I really am looking forward to getting back to my other life, but after being in "home: Colorado" mode for four or so months, it'll just be odd (at first) to switch back to "school: New York" mode. It's transferring everything, after all.

But it will be fun. Very, very fun. My summer (mainly thanks to the Rox) has been pretty kick-ass. Now it's time to start up the New York segment of things. Which means I should get started on the packing (I have several boxes I need to ship, since the fact that I am going out alone and relying on the bus/train to get me back to school means that I am limited to bringing on the airplane only what I can schlep up the hill to SLC. Ah well). And my birthday party isn't really even over yet, since I get dinner, cake, and a few extra presents tomorrow night (Sunday being the only day we could all get off). Hooray.

Standing By My Boys

2007-08-21T00:45:00.000-04:00

Well, the Rockies lost tonight, 4-2 to the Pirates, after LaTroy Hawkins coughed up the game-tying homer in the eighth and then usual suspect Brian Fuentes blew it in the top of the eleventh. It's become pretty obvious to me that this isn't their year; that they have made improvements in some phases and are standing still (or going backwards) in others. And don't get me wrong, it's not as if I am all right with this. I hate losing and can't stand the pain of watching something that I give so much to give me nothing in return. But as long as our bullpen remains a sieve, Hurdle misuses it, our offense can't collect hits against bad pitchers, and Garrett Atkins can't play defense, we aren't going to make a serious push for the wild card, let alone the division -- it's as simple as that. And as odd as it sounds, I've finally come to terms with that. The Rockies have given me a very, very magical summer in which my passion for baseball has escalated to unhealthy heights (yeah, believe it or not, I wasn't always this much of a fanatic). And for that, I'm grateful.

I can't always support what the organization does. The management on a number of levels drives me insane. I feel absolutely wretched watching the team fail in important situations. So.... why do I stick with them? Because they are my boys forever and that is what being a sports fan is about. I will never abandon them. And for the record, 2008 is shaping up as pretty exciting.

Thanks guys. Now win at least two from the Bucs, just to salvage your dignity.

In Which I Am Partly Justified

2007-08-19T19:35:00.000-04:00

Yeah. Huh. No sense in ending the road trip with an inspiring come-from-behind win to take two of three from the Dodgers, right? A night after Jorge Julio blows it with a little non-help from the defense, giving up two runs, Hurdle puts him in in the eighth, where he blows it without any extra outs from the defense; he does get helped by Jeremy Affeldt deciding to completely suck at the worst possible time. After Affeldt gave up five runs without recording an out in San Diego, in a game that the Rockies lost 11-9, he does the same thing in Los Angeles, giving up a two-run single to RAMON MARTINEZ, who is hitting, for the record, .173/0/18. Great job, Jeremy. Great freaking job.

The Elmer Dessens experiment did not work; the Franklin Morales (!) flyer might have. The 21-year-old lefty went 5.1 innings, permitting only one run, in his MLB debut, in a game that the Rockies eventually won 7-4 in 14 innings. They lost two of three to both the Padres and Dodgers, going a heartbreaking 2-4 on their six-game crucial West swing. At least two of those losses are attributable to Affeldt becoming Affuentes at the least convenient juncture. Yeah, I know that playing on 100-loss teams in Kansas City didn't really prepare you for the heat of a pennant race, buddy. Just go away.

And now for the brief foray into real life issues: I am not okay right now, with the Rockies only comprising one of many reasons. I am trying to work through the anger and depression and get my head back on track, as I've been in a serious emotional swoon for the past few weeks and need to exorcise the blues. I'm having a pretty wild self-esteem and self-knowledge crisis, I suppose you could say, and I have difficulty letting that side of me out; so naturally it all caught up and nervous breakdowns really aren't to my taste.

Still trying to recover, today's travesty didn't help, and sometimes I feel like I am hanging on by my fingernails. I am so tired and so down and the blues are taking over me. I have no creativity and ambition. I can’t write, novels or blog or anything. I want to sleep forever and work is becoming more of a chore than ever. I want to go back to school, I’m actively looking forward to it, and at the same time I hold back and want to stay home, which is odd, because I know I love it in New York and want to go back there; maybe it’ll be good for me. It’s the end of the summer and I am mired in a serious emotional swamp. Slipping off the edge. Clawing back. Crystalline shards beneath the fingernails. Dealing with family, with self, money, ambitions, images, life. Splintered mirrors, shifting shadows. Going slightly crazy, clearly. I am too old to be this confused; I may be only 19 (well, in five days) but I am very mature for my age. I know what I want in life and I am generally content. This slide came out of nowhere and it really sucks. I keep pretending that I am fine, and that's what I say when anyone asks, but I am not. This has more to do than just baseball. Everything seems to be teetering on the brink just now. It'll get better, I hope.

I need something to hold onto. Who knows what it’ll be?

It Is With Great Regret I Announce the Demise of the '07 Rox

2007-08-15T19:45:00.000-04:00

Yeah, I know. It sucks to have to write a sentence like that. But the truth is, the injury bug that the Rockies had been so fortutiously dodging all season has caught up with them in a major way -- Aaron Cook is now headed to the DL as per the Rocky Mountain News. This means that Cook, Hirsh, and Lopez are all unavailable, leaving an already suspect rotation in even worse shambles and causing the Rockies to look to players like Ramon Ortiz (acquired from the Twins in exchange for AAA infielder Matt Macri) and Elmer Dessens (salvaged from the D-backs scrap heap and rushed into duty) to patch a suddenly fast-sinking ship.

Add to this cornucopia of crap the fact that ace Jeff Francis was shelled for eight earned runs last night, and the Rockies were shut out by the Pads in the opener of a crucial set, and you can see why I am beginning to accept the fact that we may just be done for this season. We hung in there a hell of a lot longer than we normally do, but with three-fifths of our opening-day rotation unavailable for duty and the cracks chinked by less-than-replacement-level garbage, there is very little reason for hope in the Mile High City. Sure, they could be a sports movie, but they're not. The only way they could hope to stay out of a season-killing tailspin is by using a quick hook and relying on the suddenly good bullpen and usually-potent offense to correct the goose eggs the starter will be laying (and not in a good way). Please, O'Dowd and Co., call up Franklin Morales. Just let him have a shot -- our number-two starter is now Josh Fogg. Good god. Francis has zero margin for error now -- last night's debacle had better be the last of the season as well. I still advocate that I'd feel more comfortable with Buchholz and Morales instead of Dessens and Ortiz -- Dessens and Ortiz, for the love of Christ. The next few weeks are going to be very brutal to watch.

To add further to the misery, Ubaldo Jimenez, he of the hitting-a-wall-in-a-major way, goes tonight against Chris Young, who has a 0.73 ERA at home. Yes, 0.73 in the spacious dimensions of Petco, compared to a more-mortal 3.30 mark on the road. Besides, Jimenez has absolutely imploded in his last few starts and desperately needs to show Rockies Nation something, anything to cling onto. If we have no rotation at all, despite the presence of five breathing guys suiting up for the task, our last pipe-dreams of contention are gone. Even the vaunted offense scored precisely zero runs in said important game last night.

You shall notice that the "Axes I Grind" sidebar has been updated accordingly. Oy vey.

You Know Who I Don't Like? The Cubs

2007-08-12T18:00:00.000-04:00

No really, I don't. I've never seen the allure of being a Cubs fan to start with -- is it fashionable to be a loser and wear blue, sit in the stands at opposing parks, and annoy the hell out of everyone else with your completely unwarranted arrogance while cheering for your pack of toerags -- not to mention splashing beer on people, standing up and doing frat-boy fist pumps every time a spawn of your hapless brood happens to make it as far as first base? True-blue Chicagoites who have seen their team through a lifetime of misery are not included in this diatribe, but I must say, there seems to be an awful lot of Cubs fans who have never even been to the city and just decided to root for the Lil' Bears because... why, exactly? "America's Team?" Because Haley's Comet has passed the earth twice since they were hoisting a championship trophy on the North Side? Because it sounds chic to say that you're a Cubs fan, as if you really "know" baseball and truly "support" a comically inept team? Because one day you hope that your bunch of assclowns accidentally stumbles into respectability and causes the world to end? Do you want that on your consciousness? Then again, you are a Cubs fan, so you have nothing better to do. So, really, is all you can do to sit at Coors Field one seat away from me and posture and preen like you really had something to celebrate? Billy Goat. Steve Bartman. Kerry Wood. Ron Santo, Ryne Sandberg, and no championship rings. Sit down, you porky son of a bitch.

As you may be able to tell, I certainly wasn't addressing that above venting session to anybody in particular. Not at all. I didn't even slip his friend a Rockies sticker to slap onto the back of his Cubs jersey or anything insidious like that. In fact, if I happened to encounter a particulary annoying Cubs fan of any stripe, it was purely coincidence, as they were popping up like poisonous fungi all over my beloved ballpark. They certainly weren't driving me berserk with their beer-fueled bellows and their endless chants of "Let's Go Cubbies!" as if they had forgotten that their ignorant rears had been removed several hundred miles from Chicago and were now unfortunately located in Colorado instead; their stunted intellect could most likely not process this development, so they carried on turning it into Wrigley Field West anyway. The cheers whenever the Cubs happened to get as far as first were absolutely insane. If I was not smarter than your average Cubs fan, I would think that I was the one in Chicago instead.

Now, look. I'm not an entirely unreasonable person. If these people would like to purchase tickets, swell the Rockies' coffers with a hope that this money will be put to a reasonable purpose (Monforts, a Holliday contract extension, for example?) and come out to root on their team, they are perfectly welcome to do so, even if said rooting happens to drive me out of my tree with their consistent and moronic yelling. What I cannot get is why the Cubs have so many fans in the first place. However much I loathe the Yankees, I understand why people root for them; it's easy to support a winner. On the other hand, the Cubs have done nothing but lose, have done so with truly remarkable incompetence, and yet everyone seems to love them anyway. I know, I know, I'm a Rockies fan, I can't talk, but.... hey, at least the Rockies have only been bad for 14 years, with flashes of promise here and there. I also happen to be from Colorado, have been to many many games at my home ballpark, have an encyclopedic knowledge of my team, and don't go to other parks purely to annoy the opposition. The Cubs have been terrible for 99 years and counting (may the curse never end) and they specialize in promising false hope and yanking it away. Lucy and the football. Buy your kids a Bears or a Bulls hat and get done with it. The Bears made it to the Super Bowl, even if they lost to Manning and the Colts and still have Rex Grossman. The White Sox have returned to their customary climes of outrageous suckitude this year, so I guess there's just not a lot of choice if you're born in the Windy City. And let me emphasize, if you're actually from there, then go ahead and root, try not to be such douchebags in our house, and try shutting up for once in your life. If you are not, then don't even show your mug.

There is another reason I hate the Cubs at this point: They appear to either be actively trying to kill the Rockies or just have a bunch of shitty pitchers who can't keep the ball in the zone. Jeff Baker was drilled in the head on Friday night by Jason Marquis, which knocked his helmet off and left him stunned in the dirt for several minutes; he had a concussion and facial bruising and was released from the hospital today. I was at that game (the same one where I didn't meet any particularly annoying Cubs fans) and it was sick; the entire stadium gasped when he went down. He had no time to duck at all and it was as violent and scary as it gets. A few innings earlier, I'd been soundly ragging Baker for throwing an easy double-play ball into center field and wishing that Helton was back for defensive purposes; then he went down and I was just wishing he'd get up or start moving or something. Fortunately, Baker was all right, just a bit worse for wear, but the plunking didn't stop there. Rookie Ian Stewart, called up to play third while Atkins slid to first in the event of Helton not being able to go, took a pitch off the helmet, but payback was sweet when JAMEY CARROLL of all people launched a pinch-hit grand slam. Today, Holliday took a sharp low curve off the foot, and after the Cubs' intentional walk of Matsui predictably backfired when Tulo blasted a two-run double, they threw behind him. Not to mention, there have been near misses on Spilborghs, Taveras, and Helton, just for a start. There has been a lot of ducking to avoid getting drilled, and maddeningly, none of the Cubs have taken it in the ribs yet. Only one inning left. I'll bide my time.

Also, due to extenuating circumstances, the Rockies had Tim Harikkala starting today. Yes, Tim Hur-ick-uh-luh, aka Tim Hara-Kiri, who predictably failed to be good when making his second major league start ever (the last one came 11 years ago when he was with Seattle. Uh, yeah, we're low on options). Now, it's not as if Jason Hirsh (15-day DL, fractured fibula) and Rodrigo Lopez (out for the rest of the season, torn elbow tendon) are world-beaters, but at least you could count on them to go out there every fifth day and give you a decent five or six innings, sometimes even seven if you asked nicely. Now, since they're gone, the Rockies' rotation consists of Jeff Francis, Aaron Cook, Josh Fogg (somehow weaseling his way into being the third starter when calls for his departure, usually from myself, are made often) and a lot of spit, smoke, mirrors, and glue. Rookie Ubaldo Jimenez has allowed fifteen earned runs over six innings (yes, hair-raising) in his last two starts, and if he's hit a wall, we're in trouble. Taylor Buchholz pitched five one-run innings out of the bullpen during Jimenez's most recent debacle, but has looked bad as a starter since he uses only a fastball and curve with any effectiveness; his changeup is, to put it charitably, a work in progress and he doesn't seem to have a decent feel for his slider. Young lefty phenom Franklin Morales, a combined 19-5/3.24 in the minor leagues this year, may attempt to follow Jimenez up if the Rockies can't get the rotation sorted out. So, they're playing Tim Harikkala, who might as well have come from the AARP as from AAA, and who -- shockingly! -- sucked, going 3.1 IP/3 earned runs. This heralds a very worrisome return to the Denny Stark/Scott Elarton/Shawn Chacon days, which I am not happy about. Hopefully they find the right buttons to push, Jimenez re-transforms from a pumpkin into a coach, and perhaps Morales can be given his shot. Tim Harikkala. Cold shudders.

On the bright side, the Rockies did win today. In one of the more befuddling managerial moves in history, Lou Piniella intentionally walked Kaz Matsui to load the bases and face ice-in-his-veins Tulowitzki, who loves clutch situations and already had a solo homer in the game. Tulo did not disappoint, missing a grand slam by about two inches and settling for a two-run double to break a three-all tie. Matt Holliday added an RBI groundout (after they threw behind him, grr, aargh) to make the score 6-3, which ended up being the final tally. The bullpen did not allow a runner from the top of the fourth until Manny Corpas permitted a one-out walk to Jason Kendall in the top of the ninth. All in all, a good day for the Blake Street Bombers v. 2.0 as they improved to 61-56, stayed two games arrears of the Pads in the Wild Card, and now head out west to take on an absolutely crucial set of games versus San Diego and Los Angeles, which could make or break their fledgling postseason ambitions.

Go Rockies!

Déjà Vu All Over Again

2007-08-07T14:55:00.000-04:00

Last year on August 2nd, my sister and I attended the Rockies/Brewers game, the last one we would be able to make it to for the 2006 season, and enjoyed a very special time that evening -- it was the last night of summer for us, and we generally had a religious experience with how much we'd gotten to know and love the Rockies. It was lots of fun, was bittersweet because I was leaving for my freshman year of college in a few weeks, and made us very eager to get back to Coors this year. (If you are interested in further reading about this subject, please consult this entry, which details how I fell for the Rockies as well as offers a recap of the August 2nd game).

It was a great way to cap off the season and a fitting way to bid adieu to our new boys for 2006. Therefore, when the 2007 schedule came out and we saw that they were playing the Brewers on August 7, we immediately made plans to go, hoping to repeat. Unfortunately, my sister was doing the Aerial Dance Festival in Boulder, the same commitment that made August 2 the last game for us last year, but there was no way that I could be kept from it tonight -- as it was, several of my friends from Purple Row agreed that the date worked for an "Internet People Get-Together Redux," and I met three of them (four counting a Cubs-fan friend who was along to root against the Brewers). We had a fine time at the park, sitting in Section 206 just like last time, and it rained during batting practice, just like last time. Since the Rockies also won the August 2, 2006 contest they played, I was hoping that the deja vu would extend that far.

Chris Capuano was starting for the Brewers, and I, for the record, have saved him from ninjas. (Well... not exactly. See, the thing is, during my freshman writing seminar, we were asked to write about our best experience of the summer, so I wrote about the August 2nd game. Then we had to give it to one of our classmates, who would try to introduce a thread of conflict into it. The classmate that received my piece knew nothing about baseball, so she had to resort to having a pack of ninjas attack Coors Field. In the course of this little adventure, I saved both my sister and Capuano from them before the marauding pirates showed up. Ask me later... man, I should see if I still have that). So, I was hoping he'd repay me for his life by giving up runs to the Rockies, but unfortunately, until the bottom of the sixth, he was not getting with the program and had been shutting them out on three hits. Since the Brewers were 21-33 on the road coming into the game, and had lost 12 of their past 15 away from Miller Park, this did not seem like such a tall order to ask for, but the Rockies have a puzzling habit of pummeling good pitchers and making bad pitchers look like Cy Young.

Fortunately, they got with the program in the bottom of the sixth, starting with Tulo's leadoff homer, continuing with Atkins' RBI single, Spilborghs' double, and Sullivan's infield hit; Jamey Carroll added the last tally of the inning with a fielder's choice. In the bottom of the seventh, Helton hit his first homer of the game to push the advantage to 6-3, the bullpen had a couple of nice tidy innings, and then the offense went to work again ruthlessly in the bottom of the eighth, highlighted by Helton's second homer, a three-run, 430-foot shot just beneath us. (Side note: There was an incredibly annoying Brewers-fan kid behind us, saying stupid things all game, and when Helton was up with two out and two on, Holliday having missed a three-run jack by the skin of his teeth, the kid said, "It's the third out, it's Todd Helton." Well, sure, Helton's lost his power stroke a bit, but it made me mad; you do not insult my boys in front of me. I guess Todd thought so as well, because seconds later he launched it and shut the miniature dipshit up in a hurry. He was still possessed of the opinion that the Brewers were going to make a comeback, down 11-3 in the ninth, which they did not. Also, of course Helton had to hit a homer -- he hit one during the 8-1 win last year. I told you it was deja vu). And by the way, since when have the Brewers had so many fans (there seemed to be a disproportionate amount of them here tonight, or maybe they were just loud?) They were a losing and footnoted club for the past 15 years, one good season and there they are... but I guess I shouldn't be complaining so much. I seriously doubt the Rockies had this many fans for the last few years either. Good for the Brewers for finally pulling out of their decade-and-a-half tailspin, and if the Cards won't win the Central, I'll take the Crew to do so, although they can wait to return to their winning ways until they get out of Colorado. If the Cubs get into the playoffs, never mind win anything, I'll start being very seriously concerned about the end of the world. We dodged a bullet in 2003... can you imagine? The Cubs, Red Sox, and White Sox all in a row? We'd be melting in nuclear fallout right about now.

It's just fun to go to Rockies games this year. Unfortunately, that may be the third-to-last game I make it to (I'm going on August 10th and 24th, the latter being my birthday, but then I won't be back at Coors until May 2008.... a thought that makes me incredibly sad). The crowd gets into it, they cheer loudly, the electricity is great, and it's not just a bunch of bored people out at the ballpark to talk on their cell phones and eat hot dogs, if they bother to show up at all. This is a good young club finally getting some attention from the national media, Denver is supporting its Rockies again (which warms my little heart) and thirty-thousand-odd fans turning out for a Tuesday night game against the Brewers is very respectable indeed.

The Rockies go for the sweep tomorrow, and they've got the right man on the mound -- Jeff Francis, 12-5/4.01, who hasn't lost in a very long time and seems to be able to inspire his team to do likewise. They've won 15 of 22 starts made by young Jeffrey Franchise, and he looks to be turning into a bona fide ace. Even when he has his rocky outings, the offense seems able to pick him up, something they'll have to do again against Yovani Gallardo (4-1, 2.55) who shut them out for 4 1/3 innings the last time they saw him, in Milwaukee a few weeks ago. A series win is nice, but a sweep would be better. With their victory tonight coupled with the suddenly free-falling Dodgers losing to the Reds and the D-backs being dropped by the Pirates, the Rockies moved into third place, four off the pace in the West and three behind the Wild Card-leading Padres. Believe it or not, they're actually in a pennant race, and although they may not get there, it's been a blast to be along for the ride. Well, usually; Brian Fuentes' little, ahem, hiccup not qualifying. (I keep trying not to imagine what our record would look like.... I know I mentioned that, but seriously, he doesn't have to throw another pitch this season for my team as far as I'm concerned).

Go Rockies!

Iannetta Optioned; The Cracker Barrel Rockies

2007-08-06T22:05:00.000-04:00

Yes, naturally, I reneged on my dubious promises to bring you my incorrect insight about how the second half might shape up for the NL, but is anyone really surprised? At least I never got around to making predictions for the Senior Circuit in the first place, aside from the Cards and Rockies, so I don't have to retract any of them yet. Well, it seems as if all my Worst Case scenarios for the Cards have played out, and the Rockies are about what I gave them credit for, except they're definitely better than the Giants (hahahaha, couldn't happen to a nicer team). They're still, remarkably, playing meaningful games in August, and sport by far the best record of the teams that I follow, but 5.5 games (division) and 4 games (wild card) is a tough task to make up, and they have a logjam of teams ahead of them that they're going to have to miraculously leapfrog if they plan to remain in contention much longer. Plus, Clint Hurdle. You know.

But the main point of me returning to the blogosphere, if only briefly, is to note that Chris Iannetta got the somewhat-expected boot to Triple-A Colorado Springs today. After opening the season as the starting catcher, he could never clear the Mendoza Line afterwards and had one hit in his last 29 at-bats at the time of the demotion. I did my fair share of pimping him earlier in the season, but have to admit that Yorvit Torrealba now deserves the lion's share of the playing time he now receives. He's the hottest-hitting NL catcher behind the Dodgers' Russell Martin, and his defense is certainly good enough to warrant trotting him out there on a daily basis. The one problem with Torrealba is that he consistently, and sometimes habitually, calls for fastballs, and while this works with starters like Ubaldo Jimenez (who can throw 98) or Jason Hirsh (who needs to use that pitch more often) it runs into a snag with Aaron Cook, who relies predominantly on a sinker/changeup as well. Iannetta actually recognized that Cook could throw other pitches and as such called for them, guiding Aaron through a hot streak of quality starts. He'd become Cookie's personal catcher of sorts, and it does make one wonder how Cook's outings will look if Torrealba returns to catching him.

Yorvit won't be without backup, of course, as the Rockies promoted Edwin Bellorin from the Springs to replace Iannetta in the role of spare catcher. Bellorin looks good on the outside (.326/9/45) but most of that comes in the thin, un-humidored Colorado Springs air, where he hits .358; the number is significantly lower on the road. He's also hit a recent swoon, as he started the season on fire (.480 in April) but has hit only .250 for the month of August. Still, whatever he can provide will probably, and unfortunately, be better than Iannetta. I like Chris and remain convinced that with some extra time to season in AAA, he may prove to be more than he's shown thus far. I also think that Hurdle's mismanaged him, doesn't even seem to really like him (he has a predilection toward crusty and crappy veterans, after all) and a change of scenery and a return to a more familiar level may help out with his swing. Iannetta will probably be back up in September when rosters expand, along with Sean Barker, Jayson Nix, Franklin Morales, Ian Stewart, Joe Koshansky, Seth Smith, Omar Quintanilla, and (groan) Clint Barmes, so we can see if it helped his swing at all. Good luck to him.

As for the second topic of discussion, the Rockies (surprisingly) resisted making any deals at the non-waiver July 31 trade deadline. If you check out the packages they were offered, it's pretty easy to see why (Hurdle, for once saying something that I agree with, termed the offerings "coal for gold nuggets.") To get Jose Contreras, he of the 6.60 ERA, the Rockies were asked to give up Morales (their top pitching prospect, recently promoted to AAA) and Stewart (their hotshot third-base prospect, hitting .302 with 14 homers). To get Kyle Farnsworth from the Yankees (come on, KYLE FARNSWORTH?) the price would be Morales and Ryan Spilborghs. The Twins kicked the tires on Garrett Atkins and offered.... Juan Rincon (5.89 ERA) as the centerpiece of that deal. Come on, Major League Baseball. Show us a little respect. We are not a farm club for you to pick and eviscerate as you like, and you cannot have all our good young talent for the dregs of your system. At least Dealin' Dan O'Dowd, who earned a reputation in the past as being all too ready to wheel and deal and pick up prospects for proven talent, resisted the impulse and kept the nucleus of his young club together.

There really are no gaping holes, and dismantling might prove counterproductive. Sure, we wish our rotation was better... but Francis/Cook/Jimenez/Hirsh/Fogg is average to decent, even if Fogg is like a foot fungus that just won't go away. (Unfortunately, with Rodrigo Lopez having torn a tendon and probably a wash for the season, he may be staying there). Sure, we wish Brian Fuentes would go away and never come back... but Manny Corpas will hopefully continue to impress so that even Hurdle will get the picture. (Hurdle, depressingly, has announced his intent to slot Fuentes into the closer's role upon his return from injury. I keep trying not to imagine what our record would look like if Fuentes hadn't catastrophically blown those four straight saves, but man, it's difficult... 60-50, 1.5 back in the division, probably in the Wild Card lead... OY, that's painful, I'll stop). If our season goes to hell, at least we know who to blame, right?

Either way, I'm still watching, on the rare opportunities that I can. (Money is nice, but I'm starting to be quite sick of work and ready to go back to school). Therefore, I sneak in games when I can, and the thought that I may be attending only two or three more in person made me quite sad. I know I'm going to the game on my birthday, August 24, and that that will probably be the last Rockies game I see for the season. Man, depressing.

On a final note, you may notice that my list of axe-grinding has been cut significantly. Tom Martin is finally gone (hallelujah!) and Iannetta is in the Springs, plus, Spilborghs is now the starting right fielder against lefties as Hawpe still has trouble hitting them. Now just get rid of Hurdle and Fogg, and we'll be good...

Go Rox!

Midseason Reviews, Part I

2007-07-27T00:09:00.000-04:00

I meant to do this at the All-Star break, but naturally, I had only one day off and that was during the Home Run Derby. I came home around 9 PM and the last thing I had energy for was writing about baseball. By this time I'd usually had quite enough of reality and all the attendant irritants that go with it. I'm so disgustingly perky at Starbucks that no one knows I am in reality a cynical introvert who lives largely in her head and is prey to a flotilla of disturbing obsessions. (Some of my friends know some of them, I refuse to divulge the rest). So I decided that writing fiction about baseball was better than writing about real baseball, as I have detailed in preceding posts. Explanations over, here are my one-paragraph summations of the 30 MLB teams' season to date, and a look at how badly I suck at predicting things. They are outlined in standings order, AL East to NL West, and will probably be split by league.

I also have three days coming up this weekend, even if the great majority of the time will be occupied with sleeping. Hey, people, I had to get up at 4:45 this morning. Don't judge. Also, I'm having a royally, royally rotten day, am consumed in bitterness and misery, and will try to tone down the venom.

AL EAST

Boston: I predicted their usual second-fiddle finish to the Yankees in a top-heavy division, but instead they're burning up the league, leading everybody at a ridiculous 61-40 clip, just edging out the Tigers for the best record in baseball and enjoying a margin that's been as wide as 14 games, even if it's been whittled to 6.5 at the moment and making the Beantown fans sweat it out again. Second Half: Although their fans have been conditioned to expect collapse, it would be fairly surprising indeed if the Sox turned into the 1978 versions of themselves and let the Yankees come all the way back... but you never know.

New York: I bowed to the mojo, even if I hate them violently, and figured they'd be setting the tone atop the East again, but they've looked extremely mortal for large portions of the season. They briefly put together a hot streak, winning 11 of 12, then came to Colorado and got swept by Todd and the Toddlers (proudest moment of my life) , skidding aimlessly into the break and looking like a done deal. Of course, then they began winning games against weak opponents and trying to find their own Bucky Dent, attempting to build on a 54-46 record and chip away at the Sox lead. Second Half: I hate the Yankees (I may have mentioned this) but I can't deny that they bear an unnerving resemblance to a cockroach or an earthworm (in more ways than one). If anybody has learned anything, it's that you can't count George Steinbrenner's Traveling All-Stars out completely.

Toronto: I thought they'd at least be competitive, and predicted that they'd make at least a few fans in New York and Boston sweat, but instead, the Blue Jays haven't done that much (not that they ever had a realistic shot of cracking the Sox/Yanks stronghold, and at least I tabbed them to end up in third, the slot they're currently inhabiting). Despite the Rocky Mountain News' readers bewilderingly naming Toronto as the majors' best team, they have a strong offense (Wells, Glaus, Thomas, and an emergent Rios? Yikes) and yet can't mount enough of a push. They currently stand at 51-50, one game clear of the break-even mark -- and ergo, not bad, not good. Second Half: Barring an intercessory act of God, there's little chance Toronto clears their accustomed spot. They should pick out curtains and a wallpaper pattern for third place.

Baltimore: Peter Angelos, recently (and deservedly) named in Jon Heyman's SI.com article as one of the worst owners in baseball, still has his talons embedded in this floundering franchise, so until then, there's not a realistic chance that somebody will perform the overhaul needed to transform the Orioles from pretender to contender. MLB K leader Erik Bedard is a pleasant surprise, establishing himself as an ace on anybody's staff, and youngster Jeremy Guthrie has also stepped it up. Sam Perlozzo, to nobody's surprise, was fired and was replaced with interim manager Davey Trembley, who has skippered the O's to nine wins in 13 games coming out of the break. Still, they're 47-53, and they have more of a chance to win the East than I do of marrying Jason Hirsh. (And don't ask me about that, I'm still upset). Second Half: Not much of interest. Have hot streaks, have cold streaks. Finish in fourth again.

Tampa Bay: Unpopular opinion time: The Devil Rays are given far, far too much credit. Everyone talks about how they're a tough young team, how Maddon will pick up Piniella's slack and lead them from doormat to sudden contender, but let's face facts: Rocco Baldelli stays healthy for five minutes at a time. James Shields has turned back into a pumpkin. Scott Kazmir and Carl Crawford can't do it alone. And as long as the Tropicana Juice Box attracts 5000 fans a night (8000 on promo days) the Devil Rays are going to continue to play exactly the way their 38-63 record suggests. Second Half: More of the same.

AL CENTRAL

Detroit: I expressed skepticism that they'd be able to follow up their Cinderella run with another successful season, but they're doing just that, ripping along at a 60-41 mark and just behind the Red Sox for the best record in baseball. They're actually better on the road than they are at home (34-20 vs. 26-21) and despite Joe Morgan's bewildering insistence that Gary "Loudmouth" Sheffield is the sole reason for their offensive prowess (Joe, A) they were a good-hitting club last year, and b) have you, uh, heard of Magglio Ordonez) their strength still lies in their pitching. Rogers went down and they didn't miss a beat, as Justin Verlander is turning in a sterling sophomore effort and already has a no-hitter to his credit. Second Half: If the Tigers can fight off the marauding Indians, they should make a return playoff visit. They'll have their work cut out for them to get back to the Fall Classic, though, let alone win it.

Cleveland: I underestimated them, figuring they'd resemble their 2006 selves more than their 2005 selves, but I was wrong yet again, and they're fighting the Tigers tooth and nail, currently only one game arrears of the Motor City Kitties and sporting a shiny 59-42 record. Cleveland is usually a solid club, and is making a very real push for the AL Central title. Detroit lost it (thanks to the Royals) in the final few days of the season last year, so nothing's impossible. Second Half: My previous pick to click in the Central, the Twins, uh... didn't live up to it, so I'll jinx the Indians by picking them. Apologies to Tribe fans.

Minnesota: The Twins made a sweep of the major awards last season -- Cy Young for Santana, AL batting title for Mauer, and MVP for Morneau (who has 28 HR this season and is trailing only Alex Rodriguez -- I think -- in the AL). So why are they so bad, or at least, not that good? (51-50 as of this writing). Answer: No one after Santana in the rotation, His Johanness looking mortal, not enough hitting, and just plain bad luck. I thought they'd be the team to beat in this division, but overestimated them while similarly undervaluing the Tigers and Indians. Second Half: Unless they can snatch out the Central title with hours on the clock like they did last year, the Twins really don't have a realistic shot at unseating the leaders.

Chicago: Man, what a meteoric plummet. I guess the White Sox realized that although they've gotten off the World Series schneid, they're still supposed to be a bad team. They've fulfilled that billing admirably, waffling along ten games under .500 and only two ahead of the Royals for possession of the cellar. The offense I talked up in the beginning of the year has taken a season-long catnap and GM Kenny Williams has gone into rumored fire sale mode with his starters, who I correctly tabbed as mediocre. (At least I got SOMETHING right). Jon Garland, Javier Vasquez, and Jose Contreras are all on the block for the right price, as Williams tries to wring a king's ransom for average-to-bad pitchers. But since the market for starters is so thin, he may be able to command a decent return anyway. The same can't be said of his team, who will tread water at best. Second Half: Nothing worthy of note. The Sox already got their highlight with Mark Buehrle's no-hitter (conversely, the only pitcher that's definitely staying after he got an extension).

Kansas City: Like anybody's surprised. 43-57 and still solidly in last in one of baseball's toughest divisions, in this case by a 16.5-game gap. Gil Meche, the much-maligned, has been all right (7-7, 3.76) and, just as I predicted, got named an All-Star. While it wasn't quite the Mark Redman silliness, it still shows that the All-Star Game is a joke.... What? The Royals? They're still not worth mentioning and are a few years at least, possibly a decade, away from contending. Plus, they're still owned by David Glass. Second Half: Does anybody still follow the Royals? Well, if they do, they are brave souls, are to be commended, and will probably be treated to more bad baseball.

AL WEST

Anaheim: I refuse to call them by their full (and ridiculous) name. And they are fulfilling my prediction that they'd take the West, except they're doing it quite a bit more handily than I thought they would. They're leading by three and a half games, but their chief challenger is not the Athletics -- it's the surprising Mariners. The Angels have a stable of prospects to shop, strong pitching, and have a few holes they need to patch, but they still have Vlad Guerrero, who one of these days will probably swing at an intentional walk pitch and hit it over the fence. Second Half: I was right, there's no unseating the Ridiculous Names atop the West, who will probably win yet another playoff berth. As long as they take out the Yankees in the first round, it's all good.

Seattle: Everyone, myself included, didn't really expect the Mariners to make a push this year -- and then they went and did it anyway, kicking into a higher gear after a typically disappointing start to the season. They currently sit at 54-45, but are currently embroiled in a bit of a skid, just breaking a five-game losing streak. Mike Hargrove's puzzling resignation as the Mariners were their hottest didn't appear to matter much at first, and interim manager John McLaren has done a fine job. The Mariners locked up franchise cornerstone Ichiro Suzuki at five years and $90 million, which I expect will be another mistake contract by the time it's run its duration -- what big-money pact isn't? -- but I guess they weren't going to let him walk. The rotation is still suspect, but it remains to be seen how long Seattle can make it work. Second Half: May make Los Angeles Angels of Huntington Beach Lakewood hot under the collar, but doubtful that they'll unseat them.

Oakland: Well, I blew it. Perhaps I have a tendency (well, yes, I do) to bias my predictions in favor of teams I like, and I guess I failed to properly take into account that Oakland has a team made of china men who fall over at the slightest breeze. Well, I did, but one has to wonder what the hell Larry Davis is doing to make the A's use the DL whenever and wherever somebody breathes too hard. That and Joe Kennedy really is as bad as his numbers suggest, Chad Gaudin is becoming human again after a Cy-like start, and Dan Haren, despite starting the All-Star Game, has scuffled in July to tarnish his previously sub-2 ERA. The A's have been forced to use so many call-ups they might as well rename themselves the Rivercats, and I think I'm officially done with Rich Harden. Makes a few starts, does brilliantly, hurts himself and disappears. The best theory now is try to keep him in bubble wrap for a couple weeks and peddle him off on a GM who still thinks he's not the next Kerry Wood/Mark Prior/Mike Hampton. Second Half: The A's entered the break in need of a patented second-half surge to get them out of the doldrums and back into contention, but it's not going to happen. They're 48-53, under .500 and pretty much done for the season, and it'll be interesting to see who stays and who goes come July 31.

Texas: If the Rangers thought that hiring fiery Ron Washington was going to help light a fire under their underachieving rears, they were mistaken. They're a sad 46-56, solidly in the cellar (although Oakland has only three games to work with) and rumors have bubbled up of Washington's hard-nose style not playing well in the clubhouse and creating a schism between manager and players. The Rangers still have no pitching (hard to believe Kevin Millwood was the AL ERA leader a few years ago) and Mark Teixeira is seemingly a lock to be traded before the deadline. On the bright side, they have C.J. Wilson. Read his blog. Second Half: Nothing really worth remarking on. C.J. may write some more and make me laugh.

Okay, that's done. Gah... that took too long, spanned the entire time it took for me to watch the Rockies lose 5-4 to the Dodgers, and didn't make me feel better about this royally rotten day. Seriously, everything that could go wrong did, and I'm hoping that tomorrow will be better. It pretty much has to be.

I'm out.

Exhausting Updates

2007-07-24T01:45:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the interminable hiatus, and in case you're wondering, I didn't suddenly become exempt from the earth's gravitational pull and take a spectacular plunge into space. However, I have been working full-time, and my time in the evening has been used to write my baseball novel, Elysian Fields, or talk to my friends on Instant Messaging, both pursuits which leave little time for bloggery. But since the novel is finished (and I do like it, if I say so myself) I now have time to issue periodic updates upon the state of affairs in Baseball-land. Not that I always want to, as the Rockies repay all my love and devotion by doing things like losing 3 of 4 to the Nationals and getting shut out for 20 innings by one of the worst pitching staffs in the game. At the time of this writing, they have miraculously managed to score a grand total of two runs, but are still trailing 5-2 to the Padres in the opening game of --

Okay, scratch that. Matty Effin' Holliday just cracked his 17th homer of the year to tie the game in the bottom of the eighth, a three-run blast off Scott Linebrink to bring it even at 5-5. This is more runs than the Rockies have scored in three games (cough cough) and it is good to see that they are not meekly trotting off and letting San Diego --

Hahaha, wow. Brandon (Brad Hawpe) with his 18th homer of the year, bumping Colorado ahead 7-5. He couldn't bear to let Holliday have the team homer lead, even for a few minutes. Manny Corpas gets a strikeout, gives up a single, then a forceout, goes 3-0 on Brian Giles, and then makes him look at three straight to end the game. The Rockies pull out a highly improbable win against the Pads in the opening game of the series, a seven-game homestand against chief competitors San Diego and Los Angeles -- a homestand that will prove once and for all if they should harbor playoff ambitions this year, or just be content with finishing over .500. It would be nice not to suck for once, so I think for now I'll be content with that, but if they should put together a Hollywood-schmaltz run and somehow manage to, you know, contend, I won't complain.

Perhaps it is a symbiotic link -- I revive the temporarily defunct blogging, the Rockies score as many runs in one game as they did in ALL of the Washington series (grrr). For the sake of my beloveds, I shall attempt to do so more often, at least until I start a new novel and the sticky m key stops driving me crazy. Ah well.

ANYWAY. As I have said, I have been very busy, and hope to make more time in the future. That said, I have several exciting things to report from the front lines of reality, a puzzling phenomenon that still soaks up far more of my time than I would otherwise appreciate. I'm still working at Starbucks, which is not a bad job but is not, well, baseball -- ah well, I just have to keep myself busy by thinking about it, which is something I do most of the time anyway. Aside from spending too much money and looking forward to getting back to school in September, I am also planning to rendezvous this Saturday, July 28, with a crowd of friends at the Rockies/Dodgers game. It's going to be fun -- me, my sister, and my friends Betsy and A.J. are going to meet up with three other posters from Purple Row, and we have seats seven rows back of the right-field wall, close to Hawpe and definitely not out of the realm of homer-catching possibility. It will have been exactly three weeks since I've been to a game (my last was July 7 against Philly) and it feels like forever. I have a problem. I also (finally!) got a digital camera, so I shall record the insanity that is sure to become contagious when seven die-hard Rox fans get together (seven fans, seven rows back, yeah, yeah, it's a coincidence) and cheer for their team against the Bastards in Blue, more properly euphemized as the Los Angeles Dodgers. No more waiting to develop film and save photos off a CD; it's nice to have and with a memory card I ended up getting for free, it's good for 200 photos.

Also, I am planning two exciting baseball trips for next year. Betsy and I are scheming for her to drive out to New York to pick me up when school ends in May, then have the two of us hit up Yankee Stadium, Shea Stadium, and Cooperstown, probably in something of that order, depending on how the 2008 schedule works out. (We need that now to plan this all, grr). We would then drive back to Colorado from New York, possibly stopping in St. Louis and/or assorted other baseball cities on the way home. If things align accordingly, my friend Justin may fly out from San Diego to join us, which would also be awesome -- three hardcore baseball fans road-tripping it across the country, me fresh off my sophomore year in college and preparing to go abroad to Oxford in the fall. If all the stars line up, 2008 could be the best year of my life to date, which isn't saying much when you're only 19, but hey, it's good to be excited and to have plans.

When I get back home to Colorado, my sister will have graduated from high school, and we're planning a road-trip to California to celebrate. We'll drive to either San Diego or Los Angeles and then up the Pacific Coast Highway to San Francisco, obviously catching a game at every locale possible. If we get REALLY lucky, the Rockies will be making a West Coast swing (why isn't that
'08 schedule out yet??) and we can cheer them on in enemy turf. (Hey, if I can laugh off Shea bleacher creatures, I can take whatever venom the Blue Crew and Laptop Yuppies can dish).

I'm happy. I'm in a good place in my life right now. I have a decent job that's making money to fuel all my planned baseball/educational exploits, I'm enjoying a summer with a baseball team that I love, I have a lot of friends (for the first time in my life) and yet I'm really looking forward to getting back to school this fall. I have a single room (hurray!) which means that I can bedeck it out with tokens of my fanaticism and not have to deal with roommates. I'm looking forward to resuming my studies, want to get back to my happy places in Bronxville, and have planned out which classes I want to take. Some friends and I are planning to hit up Yankees and Mets games in September to make up for the lack of Rockies games, and I really feel as if I'm moving forward with my life at a good speed and I'm where I should be. I am a healthy, well-adjusted person (I really am, despite the conversations that Betsy and I have occasionally, all of which involving me laughing my ass off while squirming and wishing I had never seen some of it. No, I won't tell you the details).

So, if I fail to update regularly (and I'll do my best, given the magic mojo it brought my boys) it's not because I'm dead. It's just because I'm busy.

P.S. Chris Carpenter's one-start season officially came to an end a few days ago when it was announced he'll need Tommy John (not a great surprise, sadly) and will miss the rest of 2007 and part of 2008 as well. That five-year, $65-million contract is looking like less of a bargain and more of an albatross, but you can't plan for injuries and stuff like this is just part of the game. In conclusion, I suck at predicting things.

Fireworks and the Fourth (On the Seventh)

2007-07-07T17:08:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the lackadaisical blogging on a number of accounts: first, I'm working full-time and prefer to use my scanty time in the evenings to work on my novel instead of recapping the Rockies, and besides, until recently, the Rockies were a source of acute agony for me due to the 1-9 road trip they just suffered through, no thanks to Fuentes. (I am feeling marginally more charitable towards him now, if only because he's sitting out the next few games and seems to genuinely feel bad/be angry about his monumental fuckups). Thirdly, my computer has decided that it hates Blogger and freezes whenever I open the page in Netscape, or will not allow me to give the post a title in Internet Explorer, so I have to switch back and forth between the two in hopes of finding something that will permit me to actually update. I opened this post in Explorer, tiptoed through Netscape trying not to freeze it, and managed to get somewhere, but I remain convinced it will crash at any moment -- even though the new auto-save feature is great, I'm sure that clicking it will cause massive system failures. Oy.

Anyway! The Rockies came home from said shitaceous trip to a tough assignment -- the Mets and Phillies for their last series of the first half. And either they really, really like Coors Field, or the road trip was just an aberration, and one that they should have gone 5-5 on without Fuentes' dubious services. (They left Coors on June 21 at 38-34 and returned home on July 1 at 39-43. Yeah... ouch). But they are again beginning to resemble the team that tore through May and most of June at a 20-7 clip after brooming the Mets in three, including two blowouts (6-2, 11-3, 17-7). In doing so, the Rockies became the first team ever to sweep both the Mets and Yankees in the same year, something which I am very proud of them for doing; living in New York for college has not made me feel any more charitable towards their sports teams. I hate the Yankees with a violent and unbridled passion, and just can't summon the energy to care about the Mets; I sort of dislike them as a matter of principle. But the last game of the series, the one on July 4th, where the Rockies provided offensive fireworks early and often and then put on an actual fireworks show afterwards... well, I was there. I got two field-level tickets for $23 total (sweet Player of the Homestand deals) and me and my sister headed down for a fabulous Fourth.

Aside from the fact that the stadium was sold out and almost everyone there actually were Rockies fans, the atmosphere was great. Everyone was really into the game (except for the bottom of the fifth when the Wave went around five hundred friggin' times) and cheered loudly every time the Rockies scored, which they did absolutely relentlessly. The bottom of the first and the bottom of the eighth were the only times they didn't put at least one run on on the board, and they hit every pitcher that the Mets trotted out there like so many pinatas. Brad Hawpe had a two-run homer, Todd Helton had a two-run double and two bases-loaded walks, and Garrett Atkins enjoyed a monster night, going 4-for-5/5 RBI with a deep infield single, an absolutely crushed two-run homer, and a laser of a two-run double, picking up Player of the Game honors for his sudden offensive resurgence. Ever since that miserable May, Atkins has come on like a machine, OPSing 1.050 since June 1st, and has jacked his batting average up to a perfectly respectable, if not yet stellar, .263 from its season-low mark of .219. He is again beginning to resemble the player that went .329/29/120 last year, and his 13 homers are only two shy of Hawpe and Holliday for the team lead. (Those two seem to be having a race. In last night's game against the Phillies, Holliday jacked his at-the-time-leading 15th about 460 feet into the center-field rockpile. In the bottom of the ninth, Hawpe crushed his 15th about 430 feet to tie the game). Considering Atkins had only 3 homers at the end of May, it's been fun to watch him put it back together.

The offense is now clicking very nicely -- tablesetters Willy Taveras and Kaz Matsui use their speed to get on base and discomfit the opposition, Holliday hits a double or a homer or something else that leaves the infield at a high rate of speed, Helton fouls off six and works a walk, and then Atkins, Hawpe, and Tulowitzki are waiting to take advantage. (Tulo is hitting .285 with 9 homers, is a fantastic all-around player, and is endlessly confident. Atkins remarked that Tulo's not happy with his numbers because he thinks he should be hitting above .300 -- I love the kid's swagger and the shot in the arm he brings to the club, especially with a manager who, um, doesn't really have the winning attitude). This is a very hard lineup to get through without getting hurt -- even Yorvit Torrealba and Chris Iannetta, the constantly platooned catchers, have shown signs of offensive spark and Torrealba is 8-for-16 in his past few games. The offense was never the problem on the Road Trip from Hell, just the relieving, and with Fuentes taking a seat due to a sore back (he'll also miss the All-Star Game, which clearly he was elected into before the previous week's debacle) the bullpen looks suddenly much more trustworthy. (They worked six shutout innings last night in relief of Jeff Francis, who only went five and permitted six runs against the Phillies).

But back to that Mets game. Not only did Atkins, Hawpe, and Helton hit, everyone else hit, as well. The problem was Josh Fogg, who permitted a first-inning three-run homer to David Wright that (very briefly) made the Rockies faithful nervous that they weren't going to get that coveted sweep. Fogg ended up allowing five runs in six innings, so in other words, he's lucky that his offense opened up a nine-inning can of whoopass. Clint Hurdle made remarks to the effect that both Fogg and Jason Hirsh needed to step it up or risk losing their rotation spots -- Hirsh responded with six shutout, three-hit innings against a high-octane Mets offense in the opener, before having to leave after spraining his ankle on the basepaths. Fogg responded with, you know, the mediocre-to-bad outing which is his trademark. Due to the All-Star Break, it's likely that Hirsh could only miss one start, and the Rockies are going to have to look seriously about keeping dead weight in their rotation (and the team in general) if they hope to have a prayer of putting together a strong second-half run. This means that young Taylor Buchholz could be seeing more action as a starter, after being used temporarily in that role during Rodrigo Lopez's injury. It remains to be seen if Hurdle will actually yank Fogg from the rotation, which I've been hoping would happen since day one, and put Bucky in there instead.

But anyway, about the rest of the game. The Rockies wiped their feet on the Mets 17-7, and then the real fun started. One of our friends works as ballpark security at Coors, and he told us that sections 148 through 160 were going to be brought down onto the field itself to watch the postgame fireworks. Our tickets were in section 146, so around the eighth inning, we got up, sallied nonchalantly past the ushers while they were checking someone else's tickets, and jumped the caution tape into sect. 148, clearly put there to make sure that people didn't do exactly what we did. Nobody caught us, we watched Matt Herges stagger through a zillion-pitch ninth inning (including half a zillion pitches to Paul Lo Duca) and then it took us a long time to manuever with the crush down the stairs and onto the field. But once we got there -- oh yeah. We walked down the outfield grass by the warning track, and got a first-hand look of what it is like to stand on a baseball field with forty thousand people watching you. My sister steered us to left field, aka Matt Holliday's spot, and we sat down in the outfield grass and took off our shoes, wiggling our bare feet against the actual hallowed ground. It was amazing.

Then they turned off all the stadium lights -- have you ever been in a full-to-capacity baseball field at night with all the lights off, except for the eerie glow from the guide lights and the hundreds of flicking flashbulbs? Neither had I, until then. AMAZING, especially when you're lying on the outfield grass of Coors Field barefoot, cheering loudly with everyone else as fireworks begin to shoot up just beyond the Jumbotron. Awesome fireworks, too, and they were playing some great music -- when "What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong came on, my sister and I just looked at each other and went, "Yeah." The fireworks were so loud you could feel them all the way into the ground -- it was just one of those moments that I never wanted to end. Another one of the best nights of this summer, and the reason that the hardest thing for me to leave when I return to college in the fall (something that I am looking forward to) will be the Rockies. God, I've gone crazy for them this year, it's a little sad, but who cares.

Last night they rallied back from a 6-1 deficit to win 7-6 in 11 innings, on Yorvit Torrealba's squibbler of a game-winning single. Who cares, I'll take them however they come, will probably be half relieved and half bored stupid during the All-Star Break, and look forward to see what my boys in purple and black do next. I'm going to the game again tonight, and since Rodrigo Lopez is pitching, I will have seen all the Rockies starters at least once.

Go Rockies!

Fuck Brian Fuentes

2007-06-29T00:01:00.000-04:00

Fuck him. Fuck him. Fuck him.

You think this wouldn't happen. You'd think that just once, on the first game of a road series, it would go differently.

No.

Yet again, Tulo hits a homer to put the Rockies ahead late. Yet again, Brian Fuentes gets two outs, with nobody on, and then proceeds to give up a game-winning hit -- in this case, a GRAND FUCKING SLAM.

We apologize for sweeping the goddamn Yankees. Now please, please let this misery stop. I thought it would hurt less the third time. It hurts more. I broke down like somebody just died.

Fuck you, Brian Fuentes. Fuck you. It feels good to say that and I will not apologize.

Someone Whack Brian Fuentes

2007-06-26T00:50:00.001-04:00

I lack the energy, the desire, or the masochism to rehash the latest events in Rockie-land, so let's just put it like this: If they can sort out their elbows from asshats, they'll still be good. In the meantime, they've made me cry with rage and fury twice in the past four days, and should be 2-2 instead of 0-4, thanks to Tulo and no thanks to Brian Fuckin' Fuentes.

Isn't baseball a funny game sometimes, so funny it makes you want to cry.

If you really want to know the details of the carnage, go to the Rockies' site. No recapping for me. Still struggling futilely to get over the pain, and my sister gave me the, "I think you need something in your life aside from baseball," talk. I think she doesn't get how I feel, she thinks I'm psychotic, you know.

Now, to make myself feel better, I'm going to write on my (baseball) novel.

Ideas for Hilary's next obsession and/or life may be left in the comments.