Yes it’s finally here, ready and raring to distract you from the riggers of other Colorado professional sports. What with the Avalanche and Nuggets sputtering along the Broncos fading ever so clumsily into the night, we could all use a distraction. (more…)
By far and wide, the most important resigning this off season has happened:
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20071129&content_id=2313978&vkey=hotstove2007&fext=.jsp
Yorvit is the catcher again for 2 maybe 3 years. It was he who brought along the Dose Fuegos. The both of them have a ton of pitching talent but a comfortability problems. A catcher who speaks their language sure helps keep them as comfortable as possible during their upcoming rookie seasons.
But alas, when God opens a window, He slams a door in your face:
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20071130&content_id=2314060&vkey=hotstove2007&fext=.jsp
Bummer.
You would think that the best fielding team in major league history would win at least one Gold Glove… no? Alright, alright… fine then, how about the best fielding short stop in the league in his rookie year, a man who provided a spark and very real leadership for his team’s amazing run to the playoffs. The guy that hit better than every other contender, he should win the NL Rookie of the Year, right? Hands down, right? No question, not even close, right? No!? Wow. These awards really are rigged. Okay, okay… how about the league leader in batting average, RBI’s, hits, total bases and doubles? Surely the most prolific hitter in the NL with more clutch hits (read: game tying triple in The Tiebreaker) than any other contender would win the NL MVP. Right!? RIGHT!?
…This Just In… the “Baseball Writers Association of America” changes its name to the “Northeastern American Baseball Writers Association of Northeastern America” after a lawsuit is filed by the rest of the country claiming obvious bias in voting for baseball’s 2007 season awards. The lawsuit was filed after sub-par Philadelphia Phillies players won the MVP award in consecutive years. In its first press release, the NABWANA announced that next year’s NL MVP award will go to Chase Utley.
i’m here. i promise. long story short:
i used to have no work, and lots of time. now i have managed to pick up a fair bit of work, which results in no time.
somehow, i feel like i have the same amount of money though. that doesn’t seem right. in either case, my time to write has shrunk to a precious few minutes here and there. this bums me out somethin’ fierce.
so. call off the search hounds! here are some things that have happened since i last posted anything here of substance:
1. the rockies got swept in the world series. the biggest sting of this was my tickets to game 5. my brother flew out from the NW on an expensive last minute ticket to go to game 5. verdict on the rockies: it was a great second half run. they’re going to lose a couple guys, hang on to a couple guys, and we’ll see next season how much of it was adrenaline and how much was pure baseball– i think we’ll be happy with what we see, but if all the new baseball fans in town just expect to make the WS again by default, we’re going to see a lot of ex-baseball fans real quick. the real fans among us know how difficult it really is to be the last team standing in your league, which says a lot about what the rox did this past season. i’m excited for next year, if only because maybe there will be butts in the seats, and mid-week games against the pirates won’t feel like they forgot to open the doors at coors.
2. the broncos got bitch-slapped by brett favre, then annihilated by the lions (?!?!), then came back with a solid effort against k.c. it was nice to see them play well, to see cutler continue to mature (that TD pass to graham? elway like. i don’t care what anyone says, that was bad-ass). the defense… well, let’s just say the defense didn’t give up 40+. KC was just plain bad though. the thing is… don’t take this performance as a reason to think denver’s D can stop a REAL offense. because they can’t. when it mattered, they really didn’t stop KC. brody FRICKIN croyle took the team down the field without nary a sneeze, and it was as much the chiefs’ incompetence as denver’s play that stalled those drives. yes, dumervil is awesome, and yes, it’s nice to see some pressure on the qb. these things are marks of progress, but in reality, denver is still a middle of the pack team, and will be until some things change.
3. i got to see my first NHL game live and in person. i’ve been to a lot of hockey, just never at the nhl level. let me tell you… i totally appreciate the athletic ability these guys have to have. they are big, fast, precise… wow. for a fan of the game as much as of one team, that was a pleasure to watch. of course, it was their one home loss that i was at… but you take what you can get. and what i got was a well played game. i want to go again later in the season when the fans actually care and don’t have to be prodded to make noise every 43.8 seconds.
4. back to rockies news, in this instant baseball town (just add tulo!), tulo was brutally and mercilessly snubbed for rookie of the year. that was followed by an unceremonious brushing off of mr. hurdle for manager of the year. so when the east coast writers reveal their votes and rollins is handed the mvp over holliday next week, the cries of east-coast bias can rise again from the rocky mountains. shout it from the top of pikes peak, my friends: we don’t get no respect.
So. where do we go from here? I’m not sure. I’ll just keep being highly inconsistent with my capitalization, and will continue to pull for the local teams, even when the play calling in the redzone looks like something the local junior high flag team might have come up with. I’ll write when I can, and keep doing my best to make this a place for some fun interactions, and where opinions flow freely.
–jason.
ps: do you think the nuggets will be any good? i’m trying to care, i really am… it’s just that basketball ran me by years ago and it’s hard to bring back that lovin’ feeling, you know?
The Rockies historic run, stopped just short of being historic. It’s a shame, but it’s not so terrible. I ran some stats to find out how often teams that are swept in the World Series make it back and the stats are kinda promising. (more…)
well, i guess i’m not going to the world series after all.
crap.
the denver post put up these great little cutouts of the rockies lineup. now, in order to bring the best of luck, the lineup graces our living room just above the tv. (click for a larger version..)
From left to right (in proper batting order): Dinger (the mascot - yes he’s a purple dinosaur. Shut up.), Manager Clint Hurdle, CF Willy Taveras, 2B Kaz Matsui, LF Matt Holliday, 1B Todd Helton, 3B Garrett Atkins, RF Brad Hawpe, SS Troy Tulowitzki, C Yorvit Torrealba, P Ubaldo Jimenez (starting tonight’s game).
I mean really. You wouldn’t want to be the opposing pitcher having to face the heart of this batting order, would you?
What a terrible showing by the Rocks. We knew they’d come in a little cold and the Red Sox super hot, but that was ridiculous. I suppose we were probably going to lose this game anyway, and a blowout just gave our lineup the opportunity to take some batting practice in a real live World Series Game… not that the first game of the World Series is a good time to take batting practice, but there it is. Everybody was making good contact through most of the game (when they weren’t striking out,) and it was good to see Tulo have a strong game. He and Kazuo are the spark plugs on this team (contrary to popular belief Matt Holiday is not… he’s a playmaker; a finisher.) If we are going to have any kind of offensive success tonight it’s going to start with Kaz and Tulo.
As for pitching… I haven’t seen our bullpen pitch that badly since… since… well since the whole of Rockies history up until the last half of this season. The Sox got to Francis early and after that he was pitching scared. He even made some nice pitches, but that dangerous Red Sox lineup just found ways to get a hold of them and send them into the outfield. Having the best infield in baseball is pretty useless when 90% of hit pitches are elevated. Enough optimism though. We’ve got exactly one game to get back on track. Another blowout tonight and this is going to be a real short series.
A quick synopsis of the games in Boston.
Game 1:
Francis vs. Beckett
This one should be a pretty quick game as it feachers the best changeup in baseball vs. the best curveball in baseball, amoung starters of course. Francis and Beckett have played each other before. Francis went 5 inning of scoreless baseball and Beckett gave up 6 ER in 5 innings included a Grand Slam to Garrett. I don’t know if it will go the same way, but the Boston lineup is pretty bad against lefties.
Game 2:
Jimenez vs. Schilling
Kinda fitting for a rookie phenom to play against argueably the best pitcher of his fading generation. Jimenez has been smoking everyone, but he hasn’t played a lineup like this. Schilling got beat by Fogg, which happens to be the worse game I’ve ever seen Schilling pitch. Schilling is sure to want payback.
Lineups:
About the same. We’re having problems getting anyone hitting consistantly, and their having problem problems with the back end doing anything at all. I predict for both games the DH will not be Sulli or Spil, it will be Seth Smith.
Prediction:
1-1
I think the Rockies get the split but I don’t think they can sweep.
Well, it appears my brother managed to fight his way through the ‘page refresh hell’ and snag a couple tickets. I’m still nervous that it won’t be confirmed, but as of now it appears I’ll be at game 5 of the World Series. Unless there’s a sweep, of course.
