Buy me some peanuts and crackerjacks...

Well it's a big day in the news - aside from the Rockies losing, Peter Jennings died, the submarine dudes were rescued, and it's the anniversary of the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima. And in breaking news, myself and cohort Sam will be hitting the ballpark tomorrow with a couple other members of the gang for the two-fer deal included with this upcoming day/night doubleheader. I'm excited to see Kim/Kim pitch, especially the latter, who should put on quite a show given his late hottness.

And yet, I still have a few notes about tonight's game:

1. Carvajal just didn't seem to be in sync. After giving up back-to-back homeruns to thel ikes of Clarck and Glaus, you'd think he would realize that hanging sliders and various other pitches doesn't work.

2. Okay, I'm gonna be honest. I'm in the minority in the blogging world because I'm of the opinion that Miles should be starting ahead of Gonzales. But, going 2-4 with a double and a single does give him a pretty good day. The only knock I can put on him is the strikeout, but as Sam constantly reminds me, Miles has the same disease with a worse OBP. I'm beginning to turn a little on this issue

3. Atkins continues to hit well, but here's the best part (even though he missed an RBI opportunity): he had 1 BB, but 0 strikeouts. What I'm liking more and more about Atkins, is that he gets good wood on the ball. I've rarely seen him in bad at-bats, and his defensive play has been very good.

4. The basepaths are still looking like slip-n-slides with Closser behind the plate. He allowed 4, count'em, 4 stolen bases today, three from the speedy but aging Craig Counsell. Now I'm not saying that Counsell is a bad person to let steal, because he's a damned good runner, but Closser just does not seem to have the arm to play a good defensive catcher. And even though he's been on an offensive tear recently, he went 0-3 with a walk, and is still batting 2 points below defensive stud Danny Ardoin. Yes, his OBP and slugging are a little higher, but it's my opinion that (at least on the road), defense is worth more than offense. When the Rockies are scoring 4 runs, I'd much rather get Counsell out twice than have our 8-hole man reach base .24 more times out of every ten at-bats. I realize that JD is a better slugger, so maybe my argument doesn't hold up as nicely at Coors field, but Danny Ardoin should be given many more road starts, especially considering the fact that pitchers perform better when he's behind the plate. Now I know I've spent a lot of time ranting about this, but all said and done, I'm rather content with our catching situation. JD will only become a better hitter (as will Ardoin, for that matter), and Danny will only get better defensively. Some have called this our weakest position, but even with TG out, I don't see why - we've got a pretty solid core.

5. Despite the fact that we only scored 4 runs tonight/last night, I've really liked how this team has been scoring lately. We've been able to put together good smallball with a lot of clutch hits and some decent power. Get Helton/Barmes back in the mix, and I think we'll have a damned good offense, especially as this team starts to come together offensively even more. Over the last few series, I've really seen an improvement, and we haven't had a 2-run night in a long time, which is a good sign. That said, we could use a little bit more production out of the likes of Corey Sullivan and Garret Atkins (the latter in the power department), but I think that will come.

6. This brings me to six. As I believe my co-blogger mentioned, Francis is considered an RotY contender even though his numbers have been sketchy lately. The reason he's won 11? Run support. Francis has been getting stupendous run support all season long, and that's half the reason why he's been successful. If, as I've mentioned, our offense continues to produce, we can put a winning team on the field. It feels a lot better to a pitcher when he's got a 2-run cushion than when he's hanging on to a 0-1 deficit, and I think more than anything, that's the key to Coors Field pitching. Every pitcher is going to give up runs at Coors Field, but every pitcher also tends to tense up when he's in a tight ballgame, especially in Coors Field, which is a park known for some of the quickest lead-switches in the game. So what's the solution? Give them run support, let them relax and throw their stuff, instead of dreading the sound of the airstream in left-center (I made that up). If this seems obvious, tell it to Dan O'Down and Monfort & Co. They traded Chacon purely because of record, when he had a great Coors ERA, and was getting 0 run support. Francis, on the other hand, is the opposite story, and he's still wearing a Rox uniform.

That's it for tonight. It's late, and I've got a ballgame to attend tomorrow. In fact, all of you should come out and enjoy the deal. It would be very cool to show the team a little more support than usual. So that's it, I'm starting a movement. It's the Double-Day-Disaster Movement. All 30 people who visit this site daily, come out and join us. You can't pass up a 2-for-1 deal! You just can't!

-Gabe

Do a Little Doublethink on Big Brother Dan

Throughout all of the trade talk and rumors, all of the coverage of what most have called the awful Chacon move, I think we've all felt that something's just not right. And it's probably struck us all by now, the questions we've been dying to ask: Wait a minute, weren't the Rockies building a homemade, Colorado dugout? These kids, who have been pitching in Colorado all of their lives, are the only way to win, right Dan? Apparently not. In a stunning move, Dealin' Dan O'Dowd pulled one right out of Orwell's pocket and asked us all to do a bit of doublethink in a press conference yesterday. The Rocky's Dave Krieger puts it well:

And so the faces keep changing. One day you are part of the building process and the next day you're not. Remember when Chacon and Scott Elarton were part of the grow-'em-at-home plan? These were Colorado kids who had always pitched at altitude.

That was the secret.

For about a minute and a half.

Somebody asked general manager Dan O'Dowd about the homegrown thing and he immediately veered off into his rap about kids the Rockies have drafted. He didn't even remember the grow-'em-at-home plan. No wonder. There have been so many plans.

From Rockies' newest profile: Kiss hope goodbye in Saturday's Rocky

Quite frankly, this is an insult to the intelligence of Rockies fans everywhere. We remember when a slightly more chipper Dan told us that homegrown was the way to go, and asked us to stay the course for a few years as we built a bullpen that would know how to pitch in Coors Field. So we did. But now, it seems, all hope of building some kind of Colorado Dream Team has gone down the drain, because the GM doesn't even recognize the plan anymore. For years, we've been told that we're building and building, getting better and getting there, but every year since the Bichette and the rest of the bombers left, the team has been completely different. Hopefully, this is the last straw for Dealin' Dan. Too long, we've been asked to wait patiently as year after year of "rebuilding" goes by, with a completely different core in every "phase" of rebuilding.

The entire situation is beginning to show what it has always really been: not an effort to put together an attractive product, but an effort to cut salary and make as much money as possible. I wouldn't be this pissed if they had told me the truth from the outset - but year after year we've been told of the comittment and dedication to a good franchise, and year after year it's looked more and more like a pipe dream.

The Rockies have enjoyed a pretty decent following for their level of incompetence - the blog community proves that, but I'm thinking that's about to change. I'll continue to be a fan of the team, but I don't have to be a fan of the management. I hope you'll all join me in my campaign to Deal Dan Out. And while we're at it, let's fold with a pair of Monforts. When the day comes that we have real management in town, hopefully we can laugh at all of this - but right now, I can't wait to say "good riddance".

-Gabe

Humor to help us get through the Chacon trade, as posted in a comment in the last post

In fact, I'm surprised that he hasn't traded Helton yet. I mean, he was just batting near .300 when he got injured, and he had tons of power behind him all season, he's seen all kinds of great pitching. Oh, and there's no way he'll ever fully recover from, gasp, a strained muscle. Not to mention the fact that he's never been seriously injured before, so this one will hit him hard...hrm, now seems like a perfect time to trade him. Why, I'll bet we could get three or four Yankees prospects for him!

-Gabe
P.S. This was sarcasm.

Welcome Back to D-Town

So there I am, feeling like I need to check my e-mail, in the midst of a 1-1 ballgame. Jamie Wright is pitching well, and the Rockies offense is making solid contact, it's looking like a good game in the making. Then I come back, ask pop what happened, and learned (not to my surprise) that Jamie had given up back-to-back homers. But that's okay, it's just 3-1, and we're good at playing catchup. Plus, I'm hungry and a Quesadilla is calling to me.

Long story short, I get back from my Quesdilla-making only to see Byrnes make a stunning diving miss on an insideout liner (though props for trying), allowing in another run to make the game 7-1. Now it's 9-1, and Carvajal's just allowed a 2-run double by the backup catcher. I guess it's just the Rockies welcoming me back from a 5-week break from glorious Rockies baseball.

Thanks, guys, I missed you too.

-Gabe

P.S. I'd like to send a shoutout to my co-blogger Sam "The Brick" Handler for his excellent work during my hiatus. Wow, he's such a better blogger than I.

I'd Like to Give a Shout Out...

Well hello, everybody. Been a while. I'm just here proving Sam wrong by blogging tonight, because I ended up getting MLB.TV, so I was able to catch the highlight reel, even though I don't have much time to blog. I've also watched a few games but like I said, I just don't have much time.

Anyhow, aftert showing up my co-blogger, I'd also like to congratulate Sam for calling it perfectly a few days ago in his analysis of Brad "Leather" Hawpe (Oh God! No Mohr). Tonight, Brad really showed everyone how to play in the outfield with two stunning catches and one damn good one. Plus, Hawpe had two RBI's on a respectable 1 for 4 night. It's was just an all around good game, and it's fun to see him maturing defensively. Now there's just no justification for putting Mohr out ahead of Hawpe for anything else than the very rare break or to relieve someone else in the outfield.

Some other notes about the game that I had:

Todd Helton is heating it up. 3 for 3 with a double and a run scored? I think he's finally feeling it, and I still hold my position that he'll be batting .300 by the All-Star break, which brings me to my next point:

Who in the hell is going to represent the Rockies in Detroit? If you'd asked me a month ago, I would've said Clint Barmes for sure, but barring another ceremonial nod for Helton, who's gonna be "representin'"? The only people I can justify going to the game are the newly hot Garret Atkins (who isn't even on the list), and perhaps Brian Fuentes, but you can hardly claim that he's one of the top five closers in the league. If anyone has some ideas, please let me know.

Finally, I'd like to say congrats to J.D. Closser, who got another home run tonight. 3 Down, 72 to go. Seriously skipper, what did Danny Ardoin ever do to you? Give better defense and better offense a chance.

I'm out.

-Gabe

Welcome to Good Baseball

Watching the game tonight, I was reminded once again of just how good our team could be, and it made me think of a day when Coors Field might again be as ecstatic as Campden was tonight. Before I go any further, let me touch on just that: noise. Atmosphere is a huge part of any sport. In Europe, soccer games draw screaming crowds who shake stadiums, and make the game fun to watch, even on TV. One of the reasons why nobody goes to Rockies games may be because nobody goes to Rockies games. When a ballpark is full, and fans are screaming, it's a totally different feeling. It makes fans appreciate the game, and it drives players to compete even more. It's what makes playoff baseball great even when your team isn't in it, and the atmosphere at Campden Yards tonight made the game so exciting, that I skipped most of dinner to see it. But onto the game.

Despite being a win against the division-leading Orioles (which, coincidentally, I've been in Maryland for the last week, hence my lack of posts), a number of good things fell into place.

First and foremost, Todd Helton finally got a homerun, his first since May 14th. While one hit may not seem like a big deal, consider this: Currently batting .253 in about 200 at-bats, the difference between Helton at .253 and Helton at .300 is only 6 hits. In fact, throughout an entire season, the difference between an average .270 hitter and a great .300 hitter is only 15 hits - but those 15 extra battles are so tough, only the best make it. Tonight, going 1-3 with a walk, Helton showed that he's still a great hitter - and hopefully he'll continue with a little confidence, especially with the homerun coming to the oposite field, against a good pitcher and good team, in a packed ballpark. Everything is in place for him to go on a tear.

Secondly, all pitching was solid, for perhaps the second time this year. What I liked especially was that even though two of our pitchers got in big trouble, they pulled it out in front of screaming fans hoping the worst. Jason Jenning's sixth inning-ender double-play groundball was obviously a terrific performance, but what pleased me more was Brian Fuentes coming back from allowing a run with no one out to put the stomper on and close up the game. After the run scored on a close play at the plate, the crowd went nuts, and Fuentes looked more nervous than I've ever seen a professional athlete. But you've got to give credit to him for ending the inning by striking out Surhoff (keeping him on track to have more strikeouts than innings pitched) and getting the dangerous Mora (batting .310) to fly out to Corey Sullivan, the same man who may have thrown out the ultra-quick Eli Marrero two plays earlier on a close play at the plate that started with Sullivan making a head-first diving catch on a line-drive off the bat of catcher Fasano. It looked like Ardoin had his foot underneath Marrero's slide, and speaking of which, let's talk about a guy who isn't getting nearly enough credit.

Everyone always talks about the pitcher who gets it done, but what about the guy behind the plate? Besides being an excellent catch-and-throw guy (he proved that with three baserunner throughouts in his first two appearances), Danny Adroin seems to be a guy that pitchers like. With all due credit to JD Closser, calling a ballgame and recognising what pitches to throw against batters is something that Danny seems to have. Recognising the hard slider as the pitch that struck out Slammin' Sammy Sosa three times during the game is a testament to the fact that Ardoin may have the gift of calling the game. But don't take my word for it. In the last month, in the six games featuring Ardoin (minus the 15-5 Chicago effort which was largely Matt Anderson's fault), Rockies pitchers have allowed just 19 runs. In contrast, in the just three games with JD closser, pitchers have allowed 21 runs. Even though the team has gone just 3-4 with Ardoin behind the plate, this is more due to offense than pitching. The Rockies lost a 2-1 game to the league-leading White Sox, and a 7-6 game to Cleveland. Plus, Ardoin is batting a respectable .250, whereas Closser is well below the Mendoza line, at a mere .188. What I'm getting at is that there's more to catching than blocking a ball behind the plate, and Ardoin has it. He knows how to call a game, and he has some hitting potential. I'm wondering why management chose Closser to ascend the ranks instead of Ardoin, and I will not be happy if Ardoin is cut when veteran Todd Greene returns for the DL after pulling a hammy in a tough play walking across home plate.

Overall, we could be a really good team, but I don't think all factors have clicked yet. We're winning games with EITHER good pitching OR good offense, but not both. Once Helton pulls out of his slump (and I maintain that he will), and the clutch hits start coming from a few other guys, I think this team is ready to go on a tear. The question is, who will be there when it happens?

-Gabe
Back from Maryland, en route to Lawrence, Kansas.

P.S. - If someone wants to buy me MLB.TV for the next five weeks (I'll be away) and somehow remove blackout restrictions on my Denver registered account, please e-mail me at potterhead4@comcast.net . Thanks.

A Complete Game: Rockies 2, Tigers 0

The Rockies' main problem this year hasn't been starting pitching. Sure, the starters have had their fair share of bad outings, but every pitcher, and more importantly every rotation has a few bad days. So far, if we can say one good thing about the Rockies' pitching, it's that our starters have not even come close to being the worst rotation in the league. And this has all come without Aaron Cook, who was supposed to be our ace this year.

No, the problem for our beloved Rockies has occured well beyond when the starters have been pulled, in the realm of middle relief, specifically in the dreaded 7th inning. Rockies middle-innings pitchers have struggled all season, and their failure has been the defining point of another loosing season.

Not so tonight, however, and most of that credit goes to Mr. Wright, who pitched 7 and a 1/3 scoreless innings, and dropped his ERA below 6 with this outing. If there's one weakness with our starters, it's been durability. The five starters average a mere 5.74 innings, which means more games than not, the Rockies have had to break into the bullpen early, forcing pitchers like Dohhman (ERA 18.9) to throw. Jamie's stellar, lengthened performance tonight behind a mere 2 runs of offense allowed the Rockies to cut past some of their not-so-successful relievers, and go straight to 8th-inning ace Jay Wotasik, and the recently dynamite Brian Fuentes, both of whom pitched well, allowing no runs.

What I'm getting at here, is that for the first time that I've seen this season, the Rockies may just have played an all-around complete game. Though they didn't get much offense, they didn't have to, because behind stellar defensive play from the likes of recently-hot Garret Atkins behind solid, prolonged starting pitching carried the team to victory. The main component behind Rockie failure this year has been the un-timely error, coupled with bad middle-relief. Today, the Rockies avoided all of that in a tight game, and were able to pull a tight one out when it counted. How many times have we been able to say that this year?

Overall, I'm beginning to like the way the Rockies have been playing, even against the White Sox, who swept them. In all three Sox games, the starting pitching was great, and the score was close going into the later innings. I'm also seeing the Rockies' hitting develop. Though the White Sox incredible staff seemed to shut us down, we're getting timelier, clutch hits from people like Corey Sullivan, and our outs are getting more productive too, with guys like Dustin Mohr hitting groundballs to move a runner to third. Though the Rockies may not be putting everything together nightly yet, they played a good series against the league-leading White Sox, and looked like a Major League team. I've seen plenty of other series where it's looked like the Rockies are a AAA team trying to hang with teams not nearly as good as the Sox. Whatever the result of the season, our young faces are finally coming together into a baseball team, and based on the latest ballgames (which have been really good games), I think we're going to enjoy the rest of the season. At least, it's looking better than this Monday.

Gabe