Boy I Hate Being Right

By Chris Jacobson

I made a promise I wouldn’t be the pessimist knocking the first place Rockies again this season. A deal’s a deal, but here’s the rub; when I said that the Rock Show had a 4 ½ game lead in the division and a soft schedule to open the month of May. Two weeks later, instead of using their powder puff schedule to extend their lead the under-producing Rockies are out of first and struggling at the plate and the mound. The Rockies are 3-9 during to start the month and have only played one team with a winning record during the stretch.

Despite this, it’s not all doom and gloom. Chris Ianetta has been better than his usual self. Granted he’s still batting in the low .220s he has proven clutch and no one expects him to bat near .300. Tulo and Cargo are showing signs of life and have begun to raise their averages. Seth Smith and Todd Helton have played well and great respectively and Jonathan Herrera has lingered somewhere between surprising and fantastic.

The mound has been hit and miss as well. Houston Street was perfect for so long it’s hard to tell if he’s been figured out or he’s been unlucky. It’s probably a combination of the two but perhaps it’s time to give off season acquisition Matt Lindstrom a few shots at closing. He has only surrendered three runs in his nineteen appearances so far this season. Jason Hammel has been pedestrian but has gone six or more innings in six of seven starts. Jhoulys Chacin has had a few speed bumps but looks to be on the cusp of stardom. Jorge De La Rosa looks hittable but, as he has for his career, just keeps winning and Ubaldo Jimenez, despite his record, has looked better than he did earlier this season. For the pitchers, the problem has been walks. Ubaldo has walked 19 batters in his last 18 innings pitched. De La Rosa has walked 20 batters thus far and seen far too many of them score. Overall, the Rockies pitching staff is 11th in the NL in walks and when combined with their 23rd in the majors batting average (.238) this team is destined for mediocrity until something gives.

It’s time for the Rockies to make a few changes. Swap Helton and Cargo in the order; Helton has earned it and Cargo may need a wake up call. Make Herrera and Ty Wigginton full time players. Herrera has solidly beaten out any competition and Wigginton is certainly the best of a very suspect bunch. Get Lindstrom some closes and eliminate some walks. The time seems to have past to acquire Michael Young, as the Rangers can’t be far from making him a full time starter again but there are guys that can be had from their respective sinking ships; two such third basemen being Alex Gordon from the ever salary dumping Kansas City Royals and Aramis Ramirez from the perpetually terrible Chicago Cubs.

Every team slumps, the good ones (see the Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays) battle back and the bad ones (see the White Sox and the Dodgers) let adversity hinder them season in and season out. Hopefully the Rockies more closely resemble the Red Sox than the white ones. There is no question that this team has talent, the most in the division, but it’s going to be interesting to see when they start using it.

So Now First Place isn’t Good Enough?

By Chris Jacobson

This will most likely be the only time you will see this fan ripping a first place Colorado Rockies team. As a long time fan of the club it is seldom I get to enjoy them in the top of the rankings, but there are a few things that seem disconcerting as the team moves forward.

The Rockies have gone 7 – 7 over their last fourteen games and they have lost series’ to their division rival Giants, had their hitters embarrassed by the Marlins and just lost a home series to the lowly Pirates. Granted, having a pitcher take a no-hotter into the ninth against your club and having a team score six runs on three hits like the Rockies had happen against the Marlins can demoralize your team; what happened at home against the Pirates was worse. The Rocks looked like they expected to win their series opener on Friday. They played flat, uninspired baseball. After rebounding on Saturday, the Rockies hoped to get back to their winning ways and get ace Ubaldo Jimenez back to the form that had him vying for a Cy Young last season. Instead of the return of Ubaldo, the start of a winning month and a series win against the Pirates, the Rockies added a series of question marks that could haunt them if the Dodgers continue their run or the World Series Champion Giants return to form. Jimenez looked as bad or worse than he has in any starts this season. He was wild and seemed to lack velocity. Jim Tracy decided to turn to Esmil Rodgers to relieve than Ubaldo and he was beaten around the field. All in all, the game was over before it started.

But the problem is bigger than losing a home series they probably should have swept and their number one starter being ineffective at best. The biggest issue at this point is that their offense has been toothless. Their premier three-four hitters have been less than average over the last two weeks (both Tulowitzki and Cargo are hitting just north of the Mendoza line over that period) and there hasn’t been anyone, save Todd Helton, with a heartbeat over the last fourteen games. There have been some really bright spots on this team, such as the afore mentioned Helton, Huston Street (10 saves 2.20 era) and Jorge De La Rosa (4-0, 2.61 era) but the bright spots are currently being doused by the average, stale play of the last few weeks. The team itself is batting a paltry .237 which is good for 23rd in baseball.

This team isn’t bad, quite the contrary. This is a ball club with aspirations of winning its first NL West title and of going deep into the playoffs. It’s not often Colorado fans have had the opportunity gripe when the team only wins half its games over a couple of weeks. When has this team ever been around .500 at home and so good on the road? Every team has lulls in their season and it’s nice to have one and maintain a 4½ game lead. They are not a team in freefall. They are simply a team that will allow a few teams that are not playing very good baseball to hang around. As a Rockies fan, how nice would it be to see the ballclub put an early fork in someone?

Maybe I’m complaining because their early standard was set so high this season. Maybe it’s because I took my daughter to her first game of the season just to see the hated Giants rough up Ubaldo. Mostly, I think that it’s early in the season and as much as I would like to write a little something about Jimenez shutting down teams and Cargo and Tulo sending souvenirs into the Rockpile, it just isn’t happening this week. Like I said, this is the last time I’ll be ripping our first place Rock-Show. Either they’ll start hitting or they won’t be in first very long. My bet is that this is a team that lost concentration a little bit and will be ready for a nice run starting with Arizona on Tuesday.

The Simple and the Stupid, 2011 MLB Predictions

By Chris Jacobson

Okay, so this is a little late; the missus is a few weeks away from the birth of my third girl and the “honey-do” list seems a little more pressing than the 2011 MLB predictions…that being said, here we go.

In the American league the Rangers seem to be back to old form and those predicting the Texas playoff hopes left town with Cliff Lee forget that the Rangers had a strangle hold on the division before Lee got to the club. The Red Sox made major improvements and despite their slow start, this writer is forced to stick with his pick despite their poor play thus far. With the health concerns of the Twins and the liver concerns of Miguel Cabrera, make mine the White Sox. To take the coward’s way out I’ll take the Yankees for the wild card and the eventual American League Championship Series loser to let the Rangers to advance the World Series once again.

The National League has its favorite and I will also choose Philly and their All World pitching staff to win the east. The Brewers are improved and will get better when pitching anomaly Zach Greinke gets back on the mound. They may beat out a very good Reds team who should show enough to get at least the wild card. In the West it’s the Rockies and their lethal middle lineup with Tulo and Cargo vying for MVP honors. Come October, look for the pitching of the Philadelphia Phillies to hand the Texas Rangers their second consecutive World Series loss. While the Rockies may fall short of their ultimate goal, they look to win their first NL West and advance to the National League Championship Series.

In terms of individual awards, in the AL look for Adrian Gonzalez to use the hitter friendly confines of Fenway to push his numbers to MVP status. *Incidentally, that is another choice that was made before the season and some sort of bizarre integrity forces me to keep it. For Cy Young look for C.C. Sabathia to earn the honors as the voters will probably keep under .500 King Felix Hernandez in check due to his teams poor play. Manager of the year is Ron Washington’s to lose if he can get his ball club back to the World Series and the rookie of the year could go to Zach Britton of the Orioles if Buck Showalter makes good on his plans to upset the AL East.

In the Senior Circuit look for Troy Tulowitzki to beat out teammate Carlos Gonzalez for the MVP and the pair to both finish in the top three of voting. The combo is simply the best middle lineup in baseball and their batting near each other will help them both. It would be foolish to choose a pitcher for Cy Young that doesn’t play in the City of Brotherly Love and I won’t buck the trend; look for Roy Halladay to repeat his award winning performance from last year and claim his third Cy Young. Jim Tracy could win his second NL Manager of the Year Award in three years if the Brewers Ron Roenicke and Cincinnati’s Dusty Baker stay out of the way. Finally for the NL Rookie of the Year, San Francisco’s Brandon Belt seems like the obvious choice but make mine Cuban fireballer Aroldis Chapman once he wrestles the closing job away from Francisco Cordero.

So, here's to a great season, Go Rockies, best of health Ubaldo, and wish me and the missus luck come May 10th.

"Fundamental" Changes in 2011: So Long Baylor Ball

By Chris Jacobson
Photo By Ferry-Getty Images

The 2011 Colorado Rockies were scheduled to report to Salt River Fields at Talking Stick until February 26, but many of the Rockies players couldn’t wait that long and arrived long before the report date. The 2011 Rockies have a lot to prove and the players know it. In that there are a lot of questions that need answered and Manager Jim Tracy’s ball club seems eager to get to them.

The 2010 version of the Rockies were a team of streaks. They went through stretches where they couldn’t win and couldn’t lose, the most maddening of which was a stretch where they won twelve of fourteen and pulled within one game of the NL lead only to lose thirteen of their final fourteen and finish the season nine back. This was a ballclub that looked completely out of the race early and then, just before the all-star break reeled in the surprising Padres. The team needed stability and Dan O’Dowd seems to have made moves to get it. Since their inception the Rockies ownership group headed by the Monfort brothers have been accused of, at best, winning on the cheap, and at worst siding with low payroll and poor teams as long as it meant a solid profit margin. This year seems different; after the long term extension signed by All World shortstop Troy Tulowitski, the Rockies turned around and made a long term commitment to five tool player Carlos Gonzalez.

They didn’t stop there. The offense has been reworked and revamped. There were some departures that will hurt this season, sure, but there are as many improvements that should be recognizable very early even if their names are not. Out are utility players Melvin Mora and Clint Barmes and clutch hitting catcher Miguel Olivo; in are underappreciated Ty Wigginton and former all-star Jose Lopez (seen above). Wigginton has played all of the infield positions in his career but this year will do fine spelling both Ian Stewart and Todd Helton and at some point may push Stewart for real playing time. Lopez is a whole different animal. His best seasons were 2008 and 2009 where he batted nearly .300 in 08 and swatted 25 home runs and had 97 RBI. Seattle’s offense was so anemic last year it is pretty tough to gain any trajectory for this player but if the 27 year old can return to a semblance of his former self Eric Young Jr. and Jonathan Herrera will be battling for pinch hitting opportunities.

Also gone is hitting coach Don Baylor. He makes room for no-nonsense Carney Lansford. In his career Lansford was seen as a blue collar workhorse who took every game seriously. That kind of mentality could work wonders for a team that was in 58 one run games in 2011. The Rockies hit a franchise low .226 on the road in 2011; Lansford will have to get Chris Ianetta, Seth Smith and Stewart to hit much better than they have of late if the Rockies expect to turn around last years road woes. With the unique combination of speed and power the Rocks have, an infusion of a little discipline and situational hitting could very well be the thing that pushes this team to the next level. With the talent they have it is time for a return to fundamental baseball.

Dexter Fowler, Cargo, Tulo and the rest fill out a squad that can win in a variety of ways. Long gone are the Blake Street Bombers and the 12-9 pitchers duels that they brought with them. While it was fun watching Bichette, The Big Cat, Vinny Castilla and Larry Walker beat the ball out of the park, this team is built with team speed, an aggressive attitude and a top ten pitching staff that doesn’t need eight and a half runs a game to be .500 at seasons end. At the end of the day, anyone who has seen a game at Coors Field in late September would much rather a pitchers duel to a shootout.