Reality is starting to settle in and it’s not pretty.

The bottom line is the 2010 Colorado Rockies are just not good enough.

This is a deflated, injury-riddled shell of the last year’s bunch, minus any semblance of timely hitting and solid defensive play.

Already sitting 6 games back of the surprising San Diego Padres, the Rockies will go to San Diego with the daunting task of winning games in a ballpark where they infrequently hit the ball and seldom win. The prospect of losing all three games (despite Ubaldo Jimenez’ scheduled start on Monday night) is very real.  The fate for such costly failure would be the Rockies finding themselves on late Wednesday night sitting an almost insurmountable 9 games back of the division with three superior baseball clubs to leapfrog to fulfill lofty pre-season expectations.

The NL Wild Card, the Rockies’ competitive salvation in 2007 and 2009, will not be so easily claimed with late-season heroics this year. Not with the Braves, Mets, Phillies, Marlins, Cardinals, Reds, Dodgers, Padres and Giants all executing far more effectively and far more consistently than the Rockies. For those of you keeping score at home that is 10 teams fighting it out for 4 playoff spots, and one of them will almost certainly trade for pitchers Cliff Lee or Roy Oswalt in the next 10-14 days.

With a mere 87 games remaining, the Rockies need to act and they need to act now.

The list of shortcomings on this suddenly flawed and underachieving team is long, but dramatic improvements could be made by doing the following…

1. Send Franklin Morales to the minors. The talented but errant left-hander is now a documented liability; blowing saves, blowing holds, and failing to keep a losing game close. This is no longer 2007 and this is no longer a developmental ballclub. Morales should work out his woes in AAA and have his fate decided in the off-season or in Spring Training next year. He should not be recalled in September for any reason, under any circumstances. The experiment, thus far, has failed.
2. Trade. Somebody. Anybody. Trade either for Florida’s Dan Uggla or Baltimore’s Ty Wiggington, either of which would instantly become the club’s homeruns leader, if not also the team’s RBI leader. Trade for Prince Fielder; gamble some of the team’s young stock of pitching on this Scott Boras represented mercenary. No one will blame the Rockies for having no part in Boras’ well-known desire to make Fielder one of the highest paid players in all of baseball. But to waste the Colorado Rockies best starting pitching staff in franchise history on a mediocre offense would be utterly shameful, if not deeply ironic.
3. Sit Todd Helton. I’m not going to waste words describing what this man has meant to the franchise or Rockies history. But to argue that the lineup wouldn’t be better served from a power standpoint is now statistically ludicrous. It would just as preposterous to contend that, defensively, the Rockies would be better served with Hawpe, Iannetta, Mora or even Smith at first base. But a .250 singles hitter who has no chance to lace a double or smack a 3-run homer is costing the team games. Period.
4. Hope. Hope that Jorge De La Rosa can return from the DL and be what he was before his torn tendon: one of the best pitchers in baseball. Hope that Tulo comes back and finally provides the offensive leadership that led some to call him the favorite for the NL MVP in the preseason.

And, most importantly, hope that in a mere three days it’s not too late for the 2010 Colorado Rockies.

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In this 2010 MLB season, one is at a loss when trying to analyze and explain the Colorado Rockies.

Sitting at 20-21 and 4 games back in the highly competitive NL West (the Padres, Dodgers and Giants all are within 1.5 games of one another), the Rockies can find some small consolation in knowing the bulk of their home games and divisional schedule remain. But the season is a quarter of the way through and time is running out for this team to find its identity.

Listing and repeating the numerous paradoxical offensive and pitching statistics at this point would be redundant.

Behind an offense that has shown a propensity for front-running, games have become fairly simple affair.

If the starting pitching is solid and the Rockies can find an early lead, they win. If the starters struggle or the defense shaky, the Rockies offense is incapable of coming from behind from even the smallest margins, if they are even allowed the opportunity by the bullpen to attempt a comeback.

Saberticians are of no use in trying to diagnose the woes of this ballclub, for the solution lays not within lineup juggling, bullpen matchups or stats about who has a higher 2-out basehit percentage, but with the fundamental premise of playing as team.

Night after night, the Rockies players look singular… un-unified and even robotic at times.

Though the game of baseball is based on individual matchups, the juggling of the lineup has clearly led to a lack of understanding of player’s roles within the offense. Carlos Gonzales, the team’s best offensive player at this point, has hit leadoff, 3^rd and 5^th, sometimes all within a week. The lack of hitting consistency can clearly be traced to the middle of the order where Todd Helton and Troy Tulowitzki share a troubling stat… the two have only combined for 3 home runs.

The pitching has been there, at times and even on days when staff ace Ubaldo Jimenez isn’t pitching.

Yet, injuries, weather delays leading to doubleheaders, and roster juggling have led to a strange brew in the rotation and bullpen and the lack of a defined closer is becoming glaringly apparent. The defensive play in the field can almost at this point be classified as a detriment. One of the top fielding teams in baseball the last couple years; this year’s Rockies seem to lack the sizzle of a slick fielding team. Balls are miffed, muffed and bouncing into the outfield and the team’s fielding leader, Tulo, appears to be pressing.

All of the aforementioned issues are particularly magnified on the road.

Watching the games in the late innings, one can almost feel the Rockies grit their teeth in anticipation of the error in the field or mistake over the plate that will break a tie or balloon a one-run lead into several.

Yet, despite all of the above, there is hope. Hope in the form of the possibility of a return to 2007 form by the now healthy Jeff Francis.

In the form of the best pitcher in baseball, U-Ball, who is having a year that is reminding people of Bob Gibson in 1968. In the form of Taylor Buchholz, Huston Street and Jorge De La Rosa, all of whom are projected to return from the disabled list in the next 3 weeks to finally add stability and potency to the bullpen and rotation.

And hope in the form that this team, a team that has played so well down the stretch in recent years, will understand that all their hopes and high aspirations cannot be realized unless they start to play as a team, unified as Colorado Rockies.

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See Part One – Hitting

Pitching & Defense:

Continuing our look at the Colorado Rockies after 20 games, the team’s pitching has run the gamut from tremendous to terrible.

Starters:

The first and last word when it comes to the highlight of the Rockies pitching staff is “U-Ball”.

Entering his third full year of big-league play, Ubaldo Jimenez has blossomed into the first true pitching ace in franchise history.

In the 4 games started in 2010, he was won all 4 and, of course, thrown the first no-hitter in Colorado Rockies history. He has allowed 3 earned-runs in 28 innings.  The right-handed fireballer, who routinely touches 98-100mph on the radar gun, has refined his game and is throwing low in the strike zone, inducing more groundballs, and dazzling batters with his off-speed stuff.  As the season stands, he is the first candidate the Rockies have had for both an All-Star Game starter and a Cy Young Award winner.

The rest of the starting rotation is somewhat of a question mark.

Former ace Jeff Francis remains on the disabled list, and is not projected to return to the team until mid-May.  Aaron Cook has been the definition of inconsistent, with his patented sinker refusing to sink.  His April 24^th outing, however, was masterful.  Cook threw a complete game, inducing 19 groundballs.  Aaron Cook returning to form will be crucial now that the Rockies’ “second ace” Jorge De La Rosa has been placed on the DL with a torn flexor band on the middle finger of his pitching hand.

J-Dealer had been 3-1 to start the year, pitching solidly if not spectacularly at times.

Jason Hammel and his dreadful 9.16 ERA & 0-2 record will be joining De La Rosa on the DL.  Filling the void will be Jhoulys Chacin & Esmil Rogers.  Both have seen the majors before, but with mixed results.  The projected pitching depth the Rockies have been hearing about from the pundits prior to the season starting will be put to the test immediately.

Relievers:

The biggest question for the Rockies heading into 2010 has, oddly enough, metastasized as their greatest strength.

The Rockies bullpen has an NL-leading 2.29 ERA and has propped up the inconsistent starting pitching.  Manny Corpas seems to have returned to 2007 form, throwing 16 innings with a 1.13 ERA.

Situational relievers Matt Daley & Joe Beimel have been dominant.  Set-up man Rafael Betancourt has been steady, putting his spring training woes aside early.  Even the team’s largest question mark, the closer, has been relatively stable.  Franklin Morales has 3 saves.  At times showing his trademark wildness, Morales has only really been sidetracked by some bad umpiring calls and errant defense (we’ll get to this in a moment…)

Huston Street remains on the DL and isn’t projected to return until late May, perhaps even as late as June.  Mercifully, it appears that as long as the bullpen isn’t overworked, the team can hold down leads and keep games from getting out of hand.

Team Defense:

As seen in the hitting segment of the review, sometimes there are solid statistics that look great on paper… and sometimes those stats are just misleading numbers.  Nothing proves the point more than watching the Colorado Rockies on the field.

Statistically, the Rockies are pretty solid, only 12 errors on the season.  Oddly enough, almost half of those errors are courtesy of Ian Stewart & Troy Tulowitzki, arguably the team’s defensive cornerstones.

Watching the games, one realizes the play belies the numbers. The Rockies just are not playing sharp infield defense.  Balls that are not recorded as errors but which seem playable (at least compared to the team’s defensive crispness the last 3 years) constitute a hidden statistic that is hurting this team.  No player has been a bigger culprit of this unseemly style of play than Tulo. Balls that were once outs are now clinging to the infield dirt or hitting off his glove, skipping into the outfield or even worse, missed entirely.

This has extended innings at times, adding to Colorado’s starting pitchers’ woes.

Catcher Miguel Olivo has thrown out would-be base-stealers at a reasonable rate, and is the one defensive jewel for the Rockies so far in the young season.  In order to achieve the lofty aspirations expected by this team and their fans, the Rox will need to follow Olivo’s example and sharpen their game with the glove.

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Nearing the end of April, the Colorado Rockies are 20 games into the season.

Yet, after 180 innings of baseball, the team and its direction remain an enigma.  Although currently at 10-10 in the standings (1.5 games behind division-leading San Diego), the Rockies are already feeling the sting of missed opportunities.

The Rox find themselves searching for answers.

We know Colorado is no stranger to slow-starting Rockies teams:

2007: 10-16

2008: 11-17

2009: 8-12

This year is different, however, and the 2010 model judges itself on the quality of the players on the field rather than the optimistic hopes that come each spring.  Thus far, the Rockies have fallen short.

Hitting:

So far this season, the Rockies have done both good things and bad things at the plate.

The “baseball card” statistics show a team that is hitting.  The club average is .265 and the Rox have scored 96 runs, good for middle of the pack in the National League.  Colorado has 305 total bases, 2^nd best in the NL.

Inherent power is evident in the lineup; Colorado has hit 24 homeruns (3^rd in the NL) and 71 extra-base-hits (5^th in the NL, but only 5 XBH’s behind the Brewers).

Lurking underneath, though, are some disturbing numbers.

The Rox have struck-out a frightening 161 times, only 1 K behind league-leader Arizona.  They have hit into 21 double plays (2^nd in the NL).  The clutch-hitting is woefully absent; Colorado has only scored 18 runs after the 7^th inning (last in the NL), and rank 14^th out of 16 teams in hitting with 2 outs and runners in scoring position.

Individually, the story is pretty much the same: stellar performances and sputtering starts.

Ian Stewart has clearly grown into himself, limiting strikes-outs and improving his pitch selection while losing none of his fearsome power.  Miguel Olivo has displaced Chris Iannetta by hitting over .300.  Brad Hawpe continues his tradition of fast starts, and Carlos Gonzalez is blossoming into a star.

The underside of this lineup is the lack of a defined spot for Clint Barmes, who remains sub-.200.  Dexter Fowler is only now emerging from an early-season slump, and has stolen just two bases.  Seth Smith started off terribly, but more recently last year’s Mr. Clutch is coming around thanks to more playing time.  (Due to minor injuries to Hawpe and CarGo.)  Jason Giambi remains a potent weapon off the bench and continues to have solid at-bats as a pinch-hitter. But as a starter, his bat goes quiet and he is an enormous liability defensively.

The offensive cornerstones of the Rockies lineup remain Troy Tulowitzki & Todd Helton.

Tulo seems to be adjusting lately, and his power will come around as a result.  Todd Helton remains an on-base machine with a respectable .274 average and a .357 on-base-percentage.  However, it’s clear his power is waning.  With only 3 extra-base-hits so far and no homeruns, one has to wonder how long it will be before manager Jim Tracy begins to consider Ian Stewart for the 3^rd spot in the lineup.

The Rockies clearly have the pieces to put together one of the more formidable lineups in the NL, if not all of Major League Baseball. The question is: can the pieces find a way to fit together before it’s too late?

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The hot dogs were sizzling, the beer was flowing and the red-white-and-blue banners draped over Coors Field hinted at the coming of summer and the promise of legend. The pageantry was on full display Friday afternoon and LoDo was abuzz with spring fever and dreams of possible October glory. And on a day where the weather was as grand as the expectations for the season, the 2010 Colorado Rockies sent a message to the San Diego Padres and the rest of the National League, winning their home opener 7-0.

Rockies starter Jorge De La Rosa dazzled an anemic Padres line up, tossing a dazzling 7 innings of one-hit ball. He struck out 9 and threw 65% of his pitches for strikes. Working generally from the windup, J-Dealer kept the Padres off balance with change ups and fastballs and continued to demonstrate the mental composure Rox fans saw at the end of 2009 and in spring training. Regarded by die-hard Rockies fans as “The Other Ace”, De La Rosa gave the Padres their first taste of what it will be like to face him and Rockies Ace Ubaldo Jimenez in the same series (Jimenez is scheduled to start Sunday against the Padres).

The Rockies swung the bats as well, with 6 runs coming from the bottom half of the lineup. Ian Stewart broke the game open in the 4th inning, driving Tulo and Brad Hawpe in on a single to center. In the 7th, Clint Barmes smashed 408 foot, three-run homerun, batting in Hawpe and starting catcher Miguel Olivo. Overall, the Rockies peppered the Padres with 12 hits.

Barmes fireworks notwithstanding, it is has never been more clear that the days of homerun derbies at Coors Field are gone forever. The 2010 Rockies are fielding a team of speed and the homeruns have been replaced with doubles and timely hitting. They expect to win games with pitching and defense, even in Coors Field. Today, the team played error-free baseball, something that had eluded the team during their first 3 games in Milwaukee and looked sharp, despite De La Rosa keeping the ball in the infield for most of the game.

A winning home opener does not a 162 games make, and the grind of the season lies ahead. But even after one home game, Rockies fans have good reason to believe the team will need to re-hang those red-white-and-blue banners again a few more times in 2010. After all, October awaits.

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Editor’s Note:

The evolution of Denver, Colorado as a baseball town completed another stage on Thursday, October 1st, 2009.

On a beautiful fall day at Coors Field, Franklin Morales struck out Alcides Escobar for the final out of the Rockies’ 9-2 win against the Milwaukee Brewers, and the Rockies clinched the 2009 National League Wildcard Championship.

It was their third postseason birth in franchise history, and their second in three years. The game ended a spectacular journey that saw the Rockies climb back from 12 games under .500 to finish the season 22 games over the break-even mark. The Rocks even challenged the Los Angeles Dodgers, a team they once trailed by 15.5 games, for the National League West Divisional crown.

For the casual fan, the Rockies’ postseason berth meant the thrill of Rocktober once again coming to Denver, conjuring up memories of the team’s magical 2007 World Series run. Over a span of less than three weeks, the Rockies conquered all comers in the NL before eventually being swept by the Boston Red Sox.

Remembering that thrill, the bandwagoners dusted off their “CR” hats and pink “Tulowitkzi” shirts, filled a chilly and wintry LoDo area (and their shot glasses), and watched the 2009 postseason unfold. Many of them were blissfully unaware of what transpired to get the Rockies back into the postseason, despite all of the changes since that 2007 run.

Among the differences…

All-Stars such as Matt Holliday and Brian “Tito” Fuentes played for a combined three different teams this season, and 2007 staff ace Jeff Francis sat on the disabled list for the entire season. Ex-manager Clint Hurdle watched his former team from a broadcast booth on the newly created MLB Network.

Yet, as the national media finally started to turn their heads to Colorado for the playoffs, tales of 2007 were repeated, ad-nauseum. Long-time Rockies fans know the truth: 2007 was lightning in a bottle.

Back then, it took less than a calendar month for the Rockies to go from a moderately talented afterthought to a team surging through the playoffs to the World Series. Absent in their historic sprint to their first NL pennant (in both the play of the team and the fans that follow it) were the qualities that define baseball: endurance and patience. It is these two qualities which can be found in every aspect of the Rockies ’09 run– qualities the fan base is learning as Denver becomes a better baseball town.

Two years ago, the sports world witnessed a phenomenon, complete with its own trademark-able name: Rocktober. Winning 21 out of 22 games en route to their first World Series, the Rockies’ run was the stuff of storybooks and legend. There are those who insist the play-in game with the San Diego Padres goes down as the best regular season baseball game in 25 years. A football town used to the instant gratification of big hits, the long pass, and last-second victories was gifted with the baseball equivalent in 2007.

In 2009, a different tale has been told. After starting the first two months of the season 20-29, the Rockies posted a 21-7 record in the month of June and found they had won…absolutely nothing. They had merely returned themselves to respectability. During the final 85 games of the season, the Rockies battled and went 51-34, winning a franchise-record 92 games.

Though brief, the Phillies series was memorable, and not just for the poor calls by the umpires. The gritty Game 2 start by right-hander Aaron Cook tamed the Phils potent left-handed lineup, and catcher Yorvit Torrealba improved upon his 2007 postseason success by launching a 3-run home-run, only his third of the entire ’09 season. An early October chill in Denver provided the backdrop for Games 3 and 4 in Colorado, both nail-biting heart breakers. And yet, at the end, fans were left not with the hollow emptiness that followed the 2007 Red Sox sweep, but a glimmer of a team that is transforming from lightning in a bottle to a perennial National League contender. If the last three years of Rockies baseball has shown fans anything, it is how thin the line between success and failure truly is.

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