"I Wanted To Be A Rockie"

The Rockies made 3 big moves this week:


1. Traded for Jose Lopez, a utility infielder with a good bat.

2. Extended Troy Tulowitzki's contract out to 2020

3. Re-signed Free Agent Jorge De La Rosa to a 2 year deal with options for 2013 and 2014.


Any deal will get criticized and many times praised, but the fact that the Rockies went out and got it done with Tulo and "George" shows that they are committed to try to build a winner.


While the National Press is obsessed with the saga of Derek Jeter and the Yankees, the Rockies have gone out and created a more solid core base of players for the next 4 years without paying outlandish sums to bring players here.


We won't try to claim De La Rosa is Roy Halladay or Cliff Lee, or C.C. Sabathia, but Jorge is a good fit as a starter for the Rockies, and when he stays within himself, can have long outings, and possibly win 15 games as the #2 pitcher behind potential 20 game winner Ubaldo Jimenez.


Meanwhile the emerging leader of the team as Todd Helton's replacement is more and more Tulowitzki. He had a rough year in 2008, but has matured over the past two years, and deserves the extension. That he was willing to commit to Colorado long term, says a lot about what this Franchise and this region offers to players.


The most significant quote was Jorge De La Rosa saying "I wanted to be a Rockie" speaks volumes about what this means to the future of pitching here. 10 years ago, the Rockies had to pay enormous sums to get players to come here and most of them flopped. Now we have a pitcher who could have gone East, albeit to current non-contenders Pittsburgh and Washington, who decided to come back and face the trials and tribulations of pitching here.

Saving the Worst For Last

A major league baseball season is a collection of 162 games, the composite results of which determine your standing. As Rockies fans have found out over the past few years, a bad stretch is not something that is insurmountable by a good stretch somewhere else. An 18-27 start in 2007 and a 20-32 start in 2009 were overcome by prolonged good stretches elsewhere in the season.

2010 on the other hand, never got that horrendous start, but never had the prolonged stretch of winning either, without a corresponding bad part. Part of that was because of the Jekyll and Hyde facet of their Road vs. Home performance--even more pronounced than usual. In the end there was just one winning road trip and one losing home stand.

Injuries are a factor, but then they always are. Having 4 of 5 starters and the closer down early didn't allow the Rockies to get a good feel for the rotation until about mid-season. Last year's amazing success of the starters avoiding injury, wasn't going to happen again, but 2010 was the Yang to last year's Yin. Perhaps 2011 will be somewhere in-between.

The injuries did lead to us Rockies fans getting a glimpse of the future. Jhoulys Chacin, Esmil Rogers, and Greg Smith had significant starts, and the 22 year-old Chacin looks like a mainstay in the Rotation going into 2011. We also got extended looks at Eric Young, Jr., Johnny Herrera, as well as a glimpse of Chris Nelson, and Michael McKenry.

This team was projected to win the NL West by a lot of the experts, and came up short. You will hear a lot of blame going to Dan O'Dowd for not making a move in July when San Diego and San Francisco were getting help. But looking at the Transactions San Francisco made, there were no major players, except for possibly Jose Guillen on the bench. They also take a starting lineup into the postseason with 5 of the 8 over 30. Their pitching staff is still rather young, but they will need to rebuild the offense around Posey and Sandoval in the next few years.

Meanwhile, the Padres major move in July got them Miguel Tejada and Ryan Ludwick. The Padres led the giants by 3.5 games on July 29th, but with their moves have gone 28-31 and will miss the playoffs again.

But even without the help of July trades, the Rockies still made a run, albeit late, and ran out of gas too soon. But they did not mortgage the future for one Division Title. They are 21-15 since August 22 6.5 games better than the Padres who were in 1st place at the time, and only 1.5 games worse than the Giants in that span.

The Rockies gave us excitement this year--a no-hitter by Ubaldo Jimenez who also flirted with 20 wins, and Cy Young; a 9 run ninth inning against the Cardinals to complete a 6-run deficit comeback win; A 12 Run inning against the Cubs all scoring with 2 outs; Troy Tulowitzki's Sizzling September; and Carlos Gonzalez' breakout year and contending for the Triple Crown.

There are certainly moves to makes and evaluations to consider, and I'll look at those later, but as disappointing as the finish has been, the 2010 Rockies leave behind a lot of great memories for us.

Sprint to The Finish

Baseball has long been described as a marathon, not a sprint, but with two weeks left in the season, it becomes a sprint to the finish for teams like the Rockies.

Despite the trip up in LA yesterday, the Rockies are positioned well if they can turn on the afterburners to the finish. Because they have been on a roll the past couple of miles, the question becomes do they have enough gas left for the finish?

The NL West Title is looking more and more the likely scenario for the Rockies to get to the Playoffs. The Rockies fell 3.5 games off the Braves pace for the Wild Card over the weekend. The Braves could trip up especially with 6 games left against their NL East opponent the Phillies, however, the Rockies like in 2009 should focus on the West regardless.

One thing many people have overlooked is that the Rockies have shaved 10 games off the Padres lead in 4 weeks. On August 22, the Rockies trailed the Padres by 11. Now they trail them by 1, an incredible move, although in 2007 with their 14 of 15 sprint, they gained 9 games on the NY Mets who although in 1st place in the NL East at this point, eventually fell behind the Phillies, Padres and Rockies to allow the Rockies play the tiebreaker with San Diego. And that all took place in two weeks.

This year from this point it doesn't take a miracle finish, all they have to do is play 2 games better than both the Giants and the Padres and their first NL West Title will be theirs.

Do they have it in them to accomplish that? Stay tuned for the final sprint in the marathon.

Rockies 2011 Schedule

The Rockies have released the full 2011 Tentative Schedule:

The Series (all series 3 games unless noted in Parenthesis)
April 1-3 Arizona
April 5-6 L.A. Dodgers (2)

April 7-10 at Pittsburgh (4)
April 11-14 at N.Y. Mets (4)

April 15-17 Chicago Cubs
April 18-20 San Francisco

April 22-24 at Florida
April 25-27 at Chicago Cubs

April 29-May 1 Pittsburgh

May 3-5 at Arizona
May 6-8 at San Francisco

May 9-11 N.Y. Mets
May 13-15 San Diego
May 16-17 San Francisco (2)

May 18-19 at Philadelphia (2)
May 20-22 at Milwaukee

May 24-26 Arizona
May 27-29 St. Louis

May 30-June 1 at L.A. Dodgers
June 3-5 at San Francisco
June 6-8 at San Diego

June 9-12 L.A. Dodgers (4)
June 13-15 San Diego
June 17-19 Detroit

June 20-22 at Cleveland
June 24-26 at N.Y. Yankees

June 28-30 Chicago White Sox
July 1-3 Kansas City

July 4-7 at Atlanta (4)
July 8-10 at Washington

July 12 All-Star Game at Phoenix

July 14-17 Milwaukee (4)
July 18-21 Atlanta (4)

July 22-24 at Arizona
July 25-27 at L.A. Dodgers
July 29-31 at San Diego

Aug. 1-3 Philadelphia
Aug. 4-7 Washington (4)

Aug. 8-11 at Cincinnati (4)
Aug. 12-14 at St. Louis

Aug. 15-17 Florida
Aug. 19-21 L.A. Dodgers
Aug. 22-24 Houston

Aug. 26-28 at L.A. Dodgers
Aug. 29-31 at Arizona
Sept. 2-4 at San Diego

Sept. 5-7 Arizona
Sept. 9-11 Cincinnati

Sept. 13-14 at Milwaukee

Sept. 15-18 San Francisco (4)
Sept. 19-21 San Diego

Sept. 22-25 at Houston (4)
Sept. 26-28 at San Francisco

More analysis later...

Now it Gets Very Interesting

After struggling so long on the road this season, the Rockies have finally found their bats and have now won 7 in a row on the road all against NL West Opponents. Of course one very big bat in Troy Tulowitzki is only part of the story. Carlos Gonzalez, Melvin Mora, Jason Giambi, and Todd Helton are all starting to deliver again.

It's almost as if the antithesis of everything that went wrong in the first 120 games is all bottled into the final 40 games. Although it's not quite in the Rockies hands, a big finish say at 10-4 could very well put them in the playoffs, with a little bit of help, from other teams.

Cautious Optimism

The Rockies are riding a 7 game winning streak and have won 14 of the past 18 after knocking off the Reds today to complete a sweep of the 1st place Reds. They can't afford a let down now as the last place D-Backs come to town while the Padres and Giants play 4 in San Diego meaning with every win, they will pick up ground on one of the two teams ahead of them. San Diego then comes to Denver next week which puts the Rockies in a head to head to make a move on first place.

Meanwhile the Dodgers are fading and are now 7.5 games behind the Rockies which gives the Rockies an excellent chance to finish ahead of the Dodgers for only the 2nd time in their history.

The Cardinals and Atlanta also have a 4 game series in Atlanta. The more games the Cards can win helps the Rockies in the Wild Card Race.

Lots of possibilities remain for both Playoff berths, but the Rockies need to continue the roll they are on especially while they are home.

Total Collapse by the Padres???

In my last post,I put a caveat in "barring a total collapse by the Padres". Scratch that now. The total collapse of the Padres over the last two weeks, has allowed the Giants to get within 1 of the NL West Lead, and the Rockies have gotten to within 4.5 games with 4 weeks to go. The Padres have only one off day the rest of the year (Sept 20). The amazing thing about their 10 game losing streak is that 7 of the 10 have been at home. The 2nd most amazing thing about the losing streak is that 4 of the losses have been to last place Arizona.

The Rockies have another big week ahead of them. Although at home they have to play 4 against the Central Leaders Reds, before playing 3 against Arizona, while the Padres and Giants are trading blows for first place in 4 games this weekend. Before that the Padres play the Dodgers, while the Giants play 3 in Arizona early in the week.

The Rockies still have a long way to go, but they can't afford any more 3 game skids like they did last week in San Fran and the make-up game with the Phils. Granted they picked off the first game by the bay, but had they pulled out one of the other two, and avoided the disastrous 7th inning against the Phillies, they'd only be 2.5 games out of first and in much better shape.

If anything the stop in Denver helped them pick up their bats for San Diego.

It's not over yet, folks, but the run needs to happen now.

In the Rockies Hands

The Rockies are hardly in control of their own destiny, but they get to have a huge say in a lot of destinies including their own. Of their final 39 games (which started last Monday) the Rockies play 24 of them against teams that are currently either in 1st or 2nd place in their divisions, and 9 others against the Dodgers who are currently breathing down the Rockies back. Only the 6 remaining games against the D-Backs are the only games that aren't in the race.

This of course could be a benefit or a curse. I'm sure the NL East 2nd Place Phillies were ecstatic that the Rockies swept the NL East Leaders, Braves at Coors this week, but at the same time the Phillies managed to lose a half game on the Braves by getting swept by the pitiful Houston Astros IN PHILADELPHIA.

My advice for the Rockies is to go out and play the games. Concentrate only on the games you play, the rest of the results you have no control over.

The NL West title is in all reality out of reach barring a total collapse by the Padres (and they have 29 games against contending teams), so we may become Padres fans when they take on the Phillies this weekend, and have 7 games remaining with the Giants, but also play the Cards and Reds. The Reds have 25 games against non-contenders while the Cards have 22 Non-contender games, but the cards have 14 of their next 17 on the road (including last night's 13 inning loss to Washington). Looking objectively at the schedule though, the Reds and Cards have the inside track to both teams making the playoffs as the Central winner and the Wild Card in either order.

But then again, that's why the games are played on the field.

A Word About Brad Hawpe

One of the things, we as Rockies fans will have to get used to is the fact that we won't have a lot of long term players. It's not because the Owners are cheap, it's the business model that seems to work for constrained budgets in MLB. As soon as you go outside that plan and sign too many players to long-term contracts, rather than bring prospects up, it usually requires a major rebuild--see the Pittsburgh Pirates, Oakland A's and even the early 2000's Rockies.

That said, it is still tough to see Brad Hawpe just get released, going from All-Star to released in 13 months is an incredible downfall. I wish Hawpe well--he's a class act, but I'm also glad the Rockies didn't go out and spend a lot on a long-term contract for him.

Get a Grip

When I "opened" the morning paper (I get it via Kindle), I read where one writer said (hopefully, facetiously) that because of the Rockies road woes (Currently 23-36) they would have to win their remaining Home games--All of them. I can state unequivocally right now that that will not happen, so let's look at the reality of where the Rockies are.

First off, it's definitely not good. In 2007 they were 6 games out of first and 3 games out of the Wild Card. In 2009 they were 5 games out of first and 1.5 games ahead in the Wild Card. This year they are 8.5 games out of first and 5 games out of the Wild Card.

The Rockies desperately need a run of wins, which is not just a winning streak but a prolonged period of time winning, something like the Phillies 16-4 streak prior to last night, which pretty much started with the sweep of the Rockies (after a getaway win in St. Louis) or the 20-3 record the Rockies ran off last year in June. Or even the 21-1 record they had at the end of 2007.

The good news is if they have any kind of a run they will be doing it at the expense of the NL West, where 33 of their remaining 47 games remain. Of course, NOT getting on some kind of run means they get buried. The Rockies have had spurts of good Pitching and Good Hitting at different parts of the season. They haven't gotten them both going at the same time.

Let's also look at the Road Record. It is true they have not had a winning road trip, but that just tells me that a team this good won't go through the whole season without a winning road trip. They have 4 left (ignoring the makeup game with Philadelphia in Denver on September 2nd. 3 trips are against the West and the final one in St. Louis.

And if you take out the disaster that was the 2-9 road trip, the Rockies are 21-27 on the Road. Their other Road trips were 1-2, 3-4, 4-5, 3-4, 3-3, 1-2, 3-3, and 3-4.

It's definitely a cross roads for the Rockies, and hopefully they will respond positively, but it also may not be their year, which would be a shame after all the big moments of this season.

The Road Woes

The Rockies have never been a good road team. Except for 2007 and 2009, they have never been anywhere close to .500 on the road. The biggest surprise of 2009 was the Rockies actually got kick-started on the road to the Wild Card on the road by winning the first 8 of their season high 11 game winning streak on an 11 game road trip. After dropping 3 in a row to Houston, they salvaged the last game, then swept 4 in St. Louis and 3 in Milwaukee.

Hopes were high this year as the Rockies headed into the All-Star break winning 8 of 10 at home and embarking on the season's longest road trip of 11. The Rockies of course, tanked it, losing 3 of the first 5, then dropping the final 6, to take them to 20-32 on the road.

The Rockies are gangbusters at home, winning 36 of 55 at home. Even if they were to continue that pace the rest of the season (18-8) they would finish 75-60, without the 27 remaining road games.

Simplified, they would need to go 15-12 on the road to hit 90 wins, which is always my target for the Wild Card slot. 20-7 and they would have 95 wins, and a probable NL West title as 18 of their remaining road games are against the NL West. A big road kick now would be huge.

Which brings up another point. The NL West still has 44% of their composite games against each other (79 intra-division games of 180 total for the season). That means there are 158 decisions to be made in direct competition with the West. Each team has 30-33 remaining games vs. the West. There are also 78 composite games against the Central Division with the Padres having the most at 21. The Dodgers have the most games remaining against the East with 13 of the 32 composite games left.

The Padres probably have the most favorable schedule left although they still have two 9 game road trips each going to two other time zones. The Rockies don't go East of the Mississippi after this road trip, and play all their games, except the season finale series against St. Louis in the Mountain and Pacific Time Zones.

The Wild, Wild West

The Rockies are finally hitting as expected, and had two tremendous comebacks against the Cardinals while the Giants pounded Milwaukee, bringing the NL West closer to a true four-team race.

The last weekend prior to the All-Star break brings the first-place San Diego Padres to town to face the (finally) hit-stroking Rockies. It includes the return of Jorge De La Rosa to the rotation, which would finally bring the Rockies planned 2010 Rotation to Full Strength. (My personal preference for the rotation after the AS Break--De La Rosa, Jimenez, Hammel, Francis, Cook). The Rockies are currently tied with the Mets for the Wild Card lead, but have a chance to chase down the Padres with another sweep. So far this year the Rockies lead the Series with San Diego 6-3.

A lot of local discussion lately has centered on whether Ubaldo Jimenez should start the All-Star game. He will certainly pitch early in the game regardless. The bigger travesty is that Catcher Miguel Olivo won't even be on the roster. I used to love the All-Star game, but they now have bigger rosters and seemingly more undeserving players going than ever. Why Votto wasn't on the roster to begin with was beyond me. Arguably he's better than Pujols this year, Votto certainly should have been picked over Gonzalez or Howard. And did they seriously only pick one player from the Padres for this game (Prior to Heath Bell Being Added)?

The Current Run

You can only look back from the future. For all the belly aching on the radio and in the paper about the Rockies struggles scoring runs, blown bullpen outings, and the need to shake things up if the players don't respond, you have to look at reality once in a while.

Here are some things you wouldn't know if you only listened to the naysayers:

1. Rockies are in a tie for 3rd Place with the Dodgers in the NL West 4 games behind the Padres. In 2009 at this point they were in 3rd, but were 10 games behind the Dodgers.

2. The Rockies are still a game ahead of last year's pace at 38-33. After 71 games last year, the Rockies were 37-34. After 72 they were 37-35.

3. Last year through 71 games, the Rockies scored 4 runs or less in 35 games, and were 9-26. This year they have 7 more games with 4 or fewer runs and have won all 7 for a 16-26 record.

4. Last year as with this year through 71 games, the Rockes held their opponent to 4 runs or fewer 43 times. This year they have 2 more wins at 33-10 vs. 31-12 last year.

5. Since May 19, the Rockies have compiled a 19-12 record (.613) 3rd best in the National League. Only the Mets and Braves have better records over that period of time.

This not to say, there are no concerns, but it's certainly not time to overreact and panic. Fortunately, the writers and talk show hosts don't make the personnel decisions.

A Big Stretch

The Rockies enter an opportune time to make a move in the NL West race. Over the next 5 weeks leading up to the All-Star Break, the Rockies have 3 Homestands and two Road Trips. That's 23 of the next 32 at home. In the first two months of the season the Rockies have only played 24 home games and 32 on the Road. The Rockies can use this stretch to get their bats back and get some consistency on defense.

After the All-star Break the Rockies have an 11 game road trip and 25 out of 36 on the road.

Week in Review May 24-30

The Rockies swept the D-Backs and lost 2 out of 3 against the Dodgers to have a 4-2 home stand for the week. The Rockies outscored their opponents 36-19. Meanwhile The Padres went 4-2, The Giants were 5-1, Dodgers were 3-3 while the D-Backs were winless at 0-6.

This week the Rockies take to the road against the West including their first trip of the year to Phoenix completing a 12 game stretch. After this week, only 9 games remain against the West until August.

Results:
May 25--D-backs 2 ROCKIES 3
May 26--D-Backs 3 ROCKIES 7
May 27--D-Backs 2 ROCKIES 8
May 28--DODGERS 5 Rockies 4
May 29--Dodgers 3 ROCKIES 11
May 30--DODGERS 4 Rockies 3

This Week:
May 31--Rockies @ Giants
June 1--Rockies @ Giants
June 2--Rockies @ Giants
June 4--Rockies @ D-Backs
June 5--Rockies @ D-Backs
June 6--Rockies @ D-Backs

PLAYER OF THE WEEKCarlos Gonzalez got back on track hitting .421 including 3 HR's and knocking in 5 with 2 Swipes.

PITCHER OF THE WEEKIn 1972, I watched what up to this year was one of the most impressive pitching performances, when Steve Carlton won 27 games for a Phillies team that won only 59 games in total and had a 1.97 ERA. Whether Ubaldo Jimenez can get anywhere near 27 wins is doubtful, but his dominance so far this season is amazing. He threw 8 shutout innings against the D-Backs to lower his ERA to 0.88 and is now 9-1 after 10 starts.