Two Factors That Propel the Rockies

If the Rockies go on to make the playoffs, a big portion of their success is based on two factors, Inter-League and the NL Central. After Tuesday night's win, the Rockies now have a 24-10 record against the Central Division, with 8 games remaining. The only team closer in record against a division other than their own are the Phillies with a 20-13 record against the NL West. And only the Dodgers approach the win percentage with a 40-20 record inside their own division the NL West.

The other factor is the Inter-League games where the Rockies had an 11-4 record against the AL. The next closest record was St. Louis and San Francisco with 9-6 records. The combined 35-14 record is pretty much the difference from being a .500 team. The Rockies will need to find a way to win some of the other 15 games, which are all against the NL West which is currently 30-27 against the Rockies, but the Rockies are 14-9 against the West since the All-Star Break.

MEANINGLESS STATS REVISITED: Jim Tracy has now won 61 games since taking over for Clint Hurdle on May 28th. It is noted that this is only the 3rd time since 2001 (out of 30) that a manager who has taken over in-season has won 60 or more games that season only 3 times. Why it is meaningless? Well, let's throw out 9 right away since the replacement didn't even manage 60 games. So now we are down to 21. The other three who had 60 wins, Jerry Narron (62-72) of the 2002 Texas Rangers and Clint Hurdle (67-73) of the 2002 Colorado Rockies won 60 while losing more, and Jack McKeon who had a 75-48 record while taking the 2003 Florida Marlins to the World Championship. Only 8 of the other managers have even had a better than .500 record with 50 or more games managed.

What Jim Tracy has done this season is more than win 60 games. He's won 60 games while only losing 32. What this compares to is only McKeon, and the 48-26 of the 2004 Houston Astros Phil Garner. Just for the record Tracy was 49-25 after 74 games.

But Jim Tracy might just be in a class by himself at least for this millenium so far. By the end of the season he will have managed the Rockies for 114 games and it's possible he will have 70 wins and less than 40 losses.

As I said unless you put the numbers in perspective, they really don't mean much.