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.

Articles similar to this:

• May 30, 2010 -- Tracy wins 100th on 1 year anniversary with Rockies (0)
  On his 1-year anniversary with the Colorado Rockies, ma...
• May 21, 2010 -- Rockies Enigma defies stats (0)
  Sitting at 20-21 and 4 games back in the highly competi...
• April 11, 2011 -- Rockies sprint to 6-2 start in 2011 (0)
  The Colorado Rockies have the look of a division winner...

The last time the Rockies won an extra-innings game, Chris Iannetta drove the solo game-winner over the left field wall at Coors.

That was a long three weeks ago, and now the Rocks needed a game-winner on the road at Petco Park.

Enter Ian Stewart, who rocked a 2-0 pitch through the dense San Diego air and into the left field bleachers to lead off the 12^th Inning Wednesday night.  Manny Corpas drew a groundout, a strikeout & a pop out to hold the lead.  The win closed out a 2-1 series clinch for Colorado, as the Rockies prepare to take on the LA Dodgers in the teams’ 2010 inaugural head-to-head.

The Dodgers have struggled all season, falling by increasingly wide margins since a mid-April loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks in 11 innings.  That April 14^th game mirrored the Iannetta’s game-winner versus the Mets in the 10^th, as LA went to 3-5 and the Rockies moved to 5-3.

Not that Colorado shot out to the division lead.

The Rocks have struggled too, managing to tread water around .500 through will alone.  When they’ve needed a W, somebody (usually Ubaldo Jimenez) has provided that winning touch.

Now the Dodgers will try to hold serve after getting blasted by the Brewers 22-9 over the last two games of LA’s 6^th straight at home.  After a 3-1 series drubbing of the Pirates, the Dodgers will have to trust John Ely and his 7.50 ERA to stem the tide of Milwaukee runs.

The Brew Crew opened up with 4 straight singles in a 4-run 1^st in Wednesday’s 11-3 pounding.

That makes Thursday’s match a huge must-win for the Dodgers as the Rockies rest.

Mark my words, if the Rocks smell blood in the water heading into Dodgers Stadium Friday night, they stand a chance of stealing LA’s most winnable game of the 3-game joust.

Game 1 will feature Nippon Pro League veteran Hiroki Kuroda, whose solid 3-1 start has helped keep the Dodgers afloat.  Kuroda has spent 2 solid but injury-plagued years in LA after a celebrated career in Japan.

Young Esmil Rogers will take the mound in his second start for the Rockies.  Esmil was the only rookie to make Colorado’s Opening Day roster, but dipped to triple-A to make room for reliever Joe Beimel.  Injuries pressed him back into MLB action for the first 4 innings of a 6-1 drubbing by Matt Cain and the San Francisco Giants.

Rogers seems destined to be fed to another talented pitcher, but the Rockies’ offense has the punch to go off in any given game.  Without the Game 1 win, Los Angeles would be looking at a brutal path towards salvaging their 10-game home stand… through twin terrors Jhoulys Chacin & Ubaldo Jimenez.

Jhoulys & U-bal combined for 21 K’s in their last outings.  An ominous sign for LA.

Articles similar to this:

• May 8, 2010 -- Colorado Rockies @ Los Angeles Dodgers 5-7-10 recap (0)
  This is about as close a game as you will get… the Do...
• April 15, 2011 -- Episode 8 – 2011 Colorado Rockies Week 2 (0)
  The MLB-best Colorado Rockies have shot out to a 10-2 r...
• January 19, 2012 -- Rockies depart from youth movement, sign Moyer to minor-league deal (0)
  The average age of the Colorado Rockies pitching staff ...

Hallelujah!  Baseball Season has begun once again.  It truly is the most wonderful time of the year (I don’t care what Christmas thinks).

To celebrate the return of our national pastime, I gave myself a little treat this year.  I flew out to Milwaukee for Opening Day 2010 to watch the Rockies open up (in my opinion) their most promising season ever.

Initially I was going to write a recap of the game as seen live from the stands of Miller Park, but the differences in Opening Day celebration styles between Milwaukee & Denver were so interesting (and since the average Rockies fan wasn’t able to go to Opening Day in Milwaukee themselves), I decided to compare the two instead.

Luckily, I made it back just in time to attend Opening day at Coors Field too.  In Denver, the Rockies opened up against the visiting San Diego Padres.

So, without further ado, I give you Opening Day Comparisons between Miller Park and Coors Field…

The first striking difference that must be understood is the locations of the ball parks.

Coors Field, as any good Rockies fan would know, is right downtown, planted amidst working business and residential lofts.  Miller Park, on the other hand, is removed from the heart of the city and placed in a more isolated area.

This affects much of the difference in the pregame traditions of the two fan bases.  For instance, there is very little parking directly adjacent to Coors Field, so people will park many blocks away and walk in.  The Miller Park parking facilities on the other hand are massive and nearly encircle the ballpark.  Such vast parking lots so close lead to a great sports tradition: Tailgating.

The tailgating at Miller Park was not unlike a tailgate at Invesco Field @ Mile High Stadium, except that at Invesco people will trickle in all day so the lots gradually fill up.  At Miller Park everyone arrived at the same time causing long lines of traffic.  Once we were able to get in to the parking area however, it was remarkably efficient.  Cars were parked in the thousands within one hour and after parking there was a short period of hurried setup and jockeying for grill and game space.  But after 15-30 minutes of setup, people would know lock in and the tailgate would continue smoothly.  Conversely, at Mile High Stadium, the early arrivals grab large spaces that contract slowly as time passed and people arrived.

Invesco is useful to convey the differences in tailgating styles between Denver & Milwaukee (whose NFL fan base is split between Green Bay & Chicago), but the pre-baseball tradition between the cities couldn’t be more different.

At Rockies games we don’t tailgate, we barhop.

It’s up to you whether you prefer pregame tailgating or barhopping; they both have their pros and cons.

With barhopping you will be faced with lines to get into the best bars, and end up in close quarters once you get in.  With tailgating you can spread out a bit.   But barhoppers don’t have to clean up after themselves and sometimes get live music as a bonus.  For my money, live music beats the meshing of four idiots blaring competing car stereos any day.

(The big thing Miller Park’s parking lot got wrong was the restroom facilities.  Our section had to have between 300-400 cars each with 3-5 people and there were 3 port-o-potties.  It was terrible.)

The pregame at both ballparks was fantastic.

I commend both teams this year for exceptional fan unity.

At Miller Park I saw exactly 9 Colorado Rockies fans (myself include) in a full day of walking around.  I was more or less alone in a sea of blue pinstripes.  But four days later I didn’t see a single San Diego Padres fan (not that I was looking) in or around Coors Field.  Mad props to both teams’ fans.

When it comes time for the game, if you are outside Coors Field you all leave your respective bar simultaneously.  This results in long lines at the gate.   At Miller Park you get a nice mile to a mile and a half walk to the entrance, which produced surprisingly short lines at the gate to get in.  Once you are in, moving around in both parks is very easy.  Thank God we have finally arrived at an age in mankind’s troubled history where we consistently design ballparks to handle human traffic efficiently.

Aesthetically speaking, both parks are beautiful.

That said, the edge has got to go to Coors Field for two reasons: the setting right next to the mountains, and the wide open roof.

Technically the top was open for each game, but the Miller Park roof slides along a conveyor track on top of a wall around the park.  The wall has large windows in it to let the wind blow through, but even with those it’s difficult to see anything but sky.  Also, there are no centerfield seats, just a giant scoreboard behind the center field wall.  That just seem like a waste to me.

The playing field at Miller was similar to all major league fields except that the outfield is jagged.  I have never liked ballparks that have a bunch of weird angles along the outfield wall.  I suppose it gets very exciting when the home team hits a long fly to certain parts of the park, but it just isn’t my style.

When the Milwaukee opener began I got my biggest surprise.

The nice people at Miller Park play music every time a player comes to bat regardless of the team.  I thought that was very classy of them.  I cannot continue to endorse Coors Field’s policy of dead air during visiting teams’ at bats.  Miller’s approach is better for the fans, and that’s better for the game.

The one area Miller Park absolutely has Coors Field beat is the between-inning entertainment.

They play the same game that Coors does, where a cutie from the Park Staff will find a fan, put them on the jumbotron, and ask them trivia for prizes.  But at Miller Park when the fan gets it wrong, they are mocked by the overhead announcer and booed by the crowd.  It was awesome.  And you simply can’t go wrong with 5 people dressed up in top-heavy sausage costumes racing from 3^rd base to 1^st.  Very funny.

The fans at both parks were active in the game, but at different levels.

The Brewers fan were louder than the Rockies fans, but the Rockies fans cheered at times that made sense while the Brewer fans sometimes seemed to be cheering for no reason.

Also, the Brewers fans were definitely drunker per capita.  I can’t be too mean, though, as I expected to receive at least a bit of trouble from a random drunkard at some point, but not one person was rude to me because of my Rockies jersey.  Not one person was rude to me period.

Brewers fan are a classy group.

The trip out of the Miller Park was a stark difference to leaving Coors Field.

When leaving the Rockies’ house, you always have to contend with a good degree of congestion around the exits.  Miller Park had zero congestion.  It was amazing.  The crowds move fluidly and efficiently.  Whatever they’re doing right, we need to figure it out.  A home loss for the Rockies always leads to bad situations around the stadium’s corner exits as malcontent drunks get smushed together.

Also, I have to relay this story.

At Miller Park, it took us twenty minutes or so to walk from our seats to the car.

When we left our seats, the roof of the ballpark was open.  When we arrived at the car, the roof was closed and I hadn’t heard a sound.  12,000 tons of steel moved 600 feet and you couldn’t hear a thing.  My friends in Milwaukee said there have been times when a game has been engrossing and you’ll look up and find the roof open or shut in the middle of a game without having heard it move.  That’s some pretty awesome baseball-related engineering.

The post-game at both parks is similar to the pregame, although Miller Park is much drunker after the game.  Although, it may be that the tailgating atmosphere in Milwaukee displays its drunken idiots in plain sight, while the drunken idiots might be attending a different bar in the Denver scene.  There will unavoidably by a giant mess left behind by the tailgaters that probably is left behind by the bar hoppers too, it’s just that the bars clean up quickly and in stages.

All in all it’s a good time both ways.

The battle of the beer-named ballparks is too close to call, but baseball fans attending either Opening Day in Denver or Milwaukee should count themselves lucky.  Both cities support first class baseball environments.  I highly recommend making your way to Coors Field or Miller Park for Opening Day 2011, as both ball clubs look to be competitive for some time.

Oh, speaking of competition, there’s one more big difference I forgot to mention.  The Rockies won their Home Opener.  Sorry Brew Crew.

Articles similar to this:

• April 7, 2010 -- Rockies give up 3-0 lead in 4-5 loss to Brewers (2)
  The Colorado Rockies looked ready to assert themselves ...
• April 11, 2011 -- Rockies sprint to 6-2 start in 2011 (0)
  The Colorado Rockies have the look of a division winner...
• February 5, 2010 -- Former Rockies catcher Torrealba signs with Padres (0)
  Yorvit Torrealba is staying the NL West, agreeing to a ...

The Colorado Rockies looked ready to assert themselves through much of a 3-run 1st Inning in Milwaukee on Wednesday.  But Colorado stranded two runners in that inning, and missed opportunities became a common theme throughout the day.

Aaron Cook looked good enough in his 2010 debut, limiting damage and staying out of trouble until a 1-run 5th bled into a 2-run 6th.  Randy Flores replaced Cook on the mound, and immediately gave up the second run of the inning on his third pitch.  That run proved to be the game-winner.

Unfortunately, Colorado couldn’t catch up after giving up 3-0 and 4-1 leads.  The rest of the Rockies bullpen held strong, especially Manny Corpas whose slider had the nasty bite low in the zone that has become typical of the Colorado setup man.

In the end, small fielding mistakes by the Rockies ballooned when the offense couldn’t come through.  Colorado scored in the 1st & 3rd Innings, but couldn’t manufacture another run despite having a baserunner in every inning except the 9th.  An unfortunate 9th Inning outcome considering the Brewers now trot the ancient Trevor Hoffman out as a sort of zombie closer these days.

The Rockies have a day off before making their Coors Field debut against the San Diego Padres on Friday afternoon.

Articles similar to this:

• April 12, 2010 -- Opening Day Comparisons – Milwaukee vs Colorado (0)
  To celebrate the return of our national pastime, I gave...
• July 7, 2010 -- Rockies rally past Cardinals with thunderous 9th (2)
  Seth powered a 2-2 split-finger fastball over the right...
• May 25, 2010 -- Rockies ready to take flight a year into Tracy reign (1)
  So certain is this information that it’s in the Farme...

Yorvit Torrealba is staying the NL West, agreeing to a $1.25M deal. Torrealba couldn’t come to terms with the Rockies on a new deal, which led to the Rockies moving away from the catcher who was well-known to be instrumental in handling the young pitching staff, and signing Miguel Olivo to backup Chris Ianetta. Torrealba figures to be a backup in San Diego as well, but if history is any indication, at the first sign of a misstep by starter Hundley, he’ll be ready to step in and make the management take notice. Yorvit’s time in Denver was marked by clutch hits and fierce competitiveness day in and day out.

The deal with the Padres includes a $750K salary this year, with a guaranteed buyout for next year of $500K, which could possibly be overridden by a club option of $3.5M. Either way, the Padres got what looks to be a sweet deal on a solid backup.

Articles similar to this:

• December 1, 2011 -- Rockies send catcher Iannetta to Angels, get young pitcher in return (0)
  Rockies make a trade as they slip ever further from the...
• April 12, 2010 -- Opening Day Comparisons – Milwaukee vs Colorado (0)
  To celebrate the return of our national pastime, I gave...
• January 29, 2010 -- Rockies Roster Shaping Up (2)
  I can smell spring in the air. My Helton jersey that I ...