Random Thoughts for An Off Day

As the Rockies put South Florida behind them and head to the Nation's Capitol, before heading to the final stretch of the season never venturing East of the Mountain Time Zone for the final 41 games, a few thoughts:

LETTING GO OF HOLLIDAY: I was a proponent of trading Matt Holliday before he was eligible for Free Agency. The simple fact is that he is represented by Scott Boras, who never let's anyone sign before the deadline. Look at Steve Strasberg, the #1 draft pick of the Nationals, who is down to the final hours on being signed or going back to school for one more year and likely being drafted by the Nationals again next year.

Back to Holliday, it's not that Scott Boras is bad for his clients, it's just that his practices are proven, and no matter how much you like Matt Holliday, he would not have been a Rockie beyond this season. The cost would be too high, for a slightly above average left fielder. There's no denying his bat was productive, although as we are seeing this year, there are other ways to score besides sitting back and waiting for home runs to leave the park.

So what did we get for him? We've got a closer Huston Street who has been pretty much lights out all season with one blown save and one loss. He has 56 strikeouts in 48 innings. As other name brand closers are faltering (See Broxton, Lidge and Fuentes) Street continues to excel in save situations.

We also got Carlos Gonzalez, who started out slowly, but is starting to turn it on having hit over .400 over the past 4 weeks, 5 home runs including 2 yesterday, and his fielding has been spectacular. With the future combination of him and Dexter Fowler patrolling the vast pastures of Coors Field, there is a huge plus for the defense. He'll never hit 30 homers in a season like Matt, but he can make a lot of things happen, and if he continues to hit and get on base, good things will happen. And most importantly, the Rockies are 31-8 in games that he starts, and 38-13 in games that he plays in.

The Rockies also got Greg Smith a starting pitcher who has been hurt this season.

Street and Gonzalez are two important reasons for the Rockies success this year, and we have them next year and the next year also. In my opinion this was a good deal for the Rockies and their future.



ROAD RACE: The Rockies need to win 8 of their remaining 18 road games to have the first winning road record in Franchise History. Remaining Road games are 3 in Washington, 6 in San Francisco, and 3 in Arizona, San Diego and Los Angeles.

CHASING LA: A lot of attention has been paid to the Wild Card race, but it's time to seriously consider a run for the Division Title. The Rockies have slowly but steadily shaved off 10 games off the lead, and with 7 weeks left, have an opportunity to make a move for the title. This would require a minimum of 95 wins, but is still possible.

9 Run 13th: While Looking at the scoreboard yesterday, I kind of passed over the Angels 17-8 Rout of the Orioles, until I saw the Notation "F 13". Earlier the Angels had had a 6-2 lead, so I had just figured they piled it on. Turns out Closer Brian Fuentes had his 5th Blown save of the season. The 9 runs scored by the Angels in the 13th tied the record for most runs in the 13th inning, set in 1933 by Cleveland against Detroit. The most runs in an extra inning is 12 by Texas vs. Oakland in 1983 winning 16-4 in 15 innings.