Opening Day 2010

As the TotallyGruntledRockies blog heads into it's first full season, the excitement of Opening Day is upon us. The Thrill of what was an amazing 2009 season is replaced by a somewhat very optimistic outlook for the Rockies 2010 season.

Here at TGR, we welcome that optimism but hope to shed light on how the pace is going. The Rockies defied all odds last year by going 72-40 during the last 4 months an incredible .648 percentage, over 70 percentage points higher than the 2nd best team in the NL over that span.

This year Jim Tracy molds the team as he wants them from the beginning. Can they maintain the focus and attitude that gave them such a good run last year and keep it the entire season. Will the Hitting improve especially with runners on base. Will the pitching be anywhere near as good as last year?

These are all questions that will get answered over the course of the next 6 months and 162 games. Here at TGR we'll analyze the results, the schedule the pace and where they are in relationship to the NL West Title and/or the NL Wild Card.

My feeling always is that it takes 95 wins to be division champs and 90 wins to gain the Wild Card. Sometimes it's a few more, sometimes it's a few less, but if you follow the pace to either one of those plateaus usually you make the playoffs.

The Rockies finished the spring with a 17-13-2 record going 6-4-2 in the final two weeks. A few questions about their pitching, but the hitting seems to be ready for the start of the season.

The first week includes 3 games at Milwaukee followed by three at Coors starting Friday afternoon. Not sure of the significance of starting the season at two beer parks, (Miller and Coors) and also finish the season at the 3rd (Busch).

It's all optimism from here, follow the Rockies and their pace along with other statistical tidbits during the season.

For now, PLAY BALL!