In the final installment from this week’s podcast series, we finally get to talk baseball! Spring training is underway, and the Rockies have made some bold moves to sign and extend their core players, and to bring in a couple players to fill some holes. We talk about the Tulo and CarGo signings, and then discuss the new players. We end up with a quick-fire prediction round – what’s YOUR prediction for the Rockies season? Stay tuned for a more in-depth Rockies podcast next week.
Carlos is represented by super-agent Scott Boras, who has never given up potential free-agent market-mauling in favor of an extension. Gonzalez could have waited until 2014 to hit free agency, considerably driving up his price tag on the open market.
The Colorado Rockies are a team of players whose most defining attribute is their inherently natural approach to the game. Brad Hawpe, Carlos Gonzalez, Ubaldo Jimenez and Troy Tulowitzki, the Rockies’ youth core, are very simply a band of gifted naturals.
With a mere 87 games remaining, the Colorado 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…
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.
Both the Giants and the Rockies did ok, not great. The Giants got the hits with people on base while the Rockies couldn’t find the ball with people on base. Cook had one unlucky inning and one bad inning, and that was enough for the loss. Enough for Zito to work with.
The Diamondbacks won the first game in this series 5-3, a contest in which the Rockies squandered plenty of offensive opportunities. The series balancing on today’s afternoon slugfest, Arizona opened up with a 6-run salvo in the 1st Inning to chase troubled Colorado starter Greg Smith. The Rockies responded with 1 run in the 2nd, 6 in the 3rd, and 4 in the 4th before the offense dried up.
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 and the Rox find themselves searching for answers.
The Colorado Rockies have extended Todd Helton’s contract through 2013, tagging two more years onto a 9-year deal signed in March 2001 that already carried through next season. Helton will receive $9.9 million over the 2012 & 2013 seasons.
With the signings this week of closer Huston Street and reliever Rafael Betancourt, Colorado is a step closer to becoming a consistent playoff contender. You read that right; the Monforts are paying for pitching again.
