Master Index of Archived Threads


KT Defending NL Champs: The Colorado Rockies

G-Fafif May 23 2008 01:07 PM

Remember 2001? The first part? When whatever euphoria remained from the pennant run of 2000 dissipated early and often? Welcome to the 2008 Colorado Rockies. They are not enjoying the sequel. The Mets head into Denver tonight to face a team in far worse 2007 doldrums than they are. Your defending National League champions are 18-29, mired in fourth place, ten behind the Diamondbacks, nowhere near contention. And while the '07 Rockies took a while to get in gear — 20-27 and in last at the same juncture — asking a miracle team (14-1 to make the playoffs then 7-0 to win the NLDS and NLCS before a long nap removed their World Series edge) to dip twice into the same bag of tricks seems daunting. Historical aside: After 135 games, the '74 Mets had the same uninspiring record at the '73 Mets: 63-72; the '73 Mets finished 19-7 from there and in first while the '74 Mets, in a more competitive division, limped home 8-19. No problem, however, we were back in postseason play a mere dozen years later. On ESPN.com recently, Rob Neyer asked Jonah Keri to mull how alive or dead certain slow-starting would-be contenders were. Keri on the Rockies: ]I say muerto. You can't deny this was a talented team that blazed through the league last September. Even more encouraging was the fact that this team was young, with core players like Matt Holliday, Garrett Atkins and Brad Hawpe in their prime, and Troy Tulowitzki, Franklin Morales, Ubaldo Jimenez and Jeff Francis looking like they'd only get better with age. But I look at it another way: Absolutely everything that could go right for the Rockies during last year's late surge did. Everyone was hitting, you had rookie pitchers doing reasonable impressions of a peak-era Lefty Grove, everyone was healthy … it was all just off the charts. This year Tulo started the year at a much lower level, and now he's out for a long time due to injury. As talented as Morales is, he's shown he's not quite ready to be effective over a full major league season. Holliday has predictably regressed from superhuman to just very good, second base has been a wasteland and Manny Corpas' deal with the devil ran out real quick. I still like this team's chances long-term, but I think they're done for this season. For a closer-up view, I visited Purple Row, one of the relatively few Rockies blogs (relative to the plethora of Mets blogs). It would break my heart if we weren't playing them this weekend (and getting our own psyche slapped around by our own team). This was the post du jour: ]It blows my mind when I see people posting that they aren't going to be going to games, that the season is over, that all is lost and to trade away the team. Things are not over. I am not going to turn the other way. This is my favorite team playing my favorite sport and I'm sure as hell going to support them. I am not a fair weather, bandwagon jumping "win or I'll stop supporting you" mentality fan Selected comments: ]• It just makes me sad to watch this right now. It's just HARD to CARE such. • We need to lift this team up, rather than trying to drive nails in their coffin. • It just makes it tough to sit and watch them losing all the time when you KNOW they can be better. • I support the Rockies 200%. 'Giving up' is not in my dictionary. I love the Rockies with all my heart & soul and always will and even when I die I'll be cheering them on up in heaven, but with this slump they're in, it's hurting me bad enough that I end up changing the channel if the other team's leading 6 to 0. • The toughest thing is that after last year, I really felt like the franchise had turned the corner. For the first time since the '90s, I went into a season with pretty high expectations. Last April/May weren't as tough because the team was doing what it had before. Last night, when we fell down 5-0 to the D-Backs, I turned off the game played GTA 4. I would never do that last season, but I truly felt that there was no way the Rockies were going to win that game. It is getting harder to watch this team every day. Rough stuff. 2001 rough. Starting Pitching Matchups: Friday: Oliver Perez vs. Greg Reynolds (RHP) Saturday (on Fox!): Claudio Vargas vs Jeff Francis (LHP) Sunday: John Maine vs Jorge De La Rosa (LHP) Reynolds "is on the short list of what's gone right for the Rockies," according to mlb.com's Thomas Harding. He took over for Mark Redman this month and "both his starts have been eye-openers". I assume this means we're screwed. Francis has gone to seed: 1-4, ERA near 6.00. I assume this means we're screwed. Guy on Sunday has name like guy who pitched nightcap for Braves...I assume this means we're screwed. None of our starters seem to have pitched at Coors Field. Hope the humidor's working. Notes: The last time we played at Coors Field, we got our asses kicked and our heads handed to us on a silver platter, as if both are simultaneously anatomically possible. The scores were 6-2, 11-3 and 17-7. The last of those was on July 4 and I was ticked off that the Mets scored their final run, because it would have been cool, sort of, to have seen 17 to 6 on the fourth of July. Back then the Mets were in first place and the Rockies were, at best, on the fringes of contention I heard Yorvit Torrealba is suing us. Eff him. He's batting .223 and, no, he's not hiding his value in more modern stats. To paraphrase something some press box wag once said about the relative values of Dock Ellis and Doc Medich, I think Brian Schneider is a better Yorvit than this guy. Kaz Matsui is on the Astros. I totally forgot. I actually just went to look up how he's doing in Colorado. I didn't bother checking on how he's doing in Houston. David Wright at Coors Field lifetime: .471 BA, 1.315 OPS, 5 HR and 20 RBI in 51 AB. Church, Anderson, Delgado and Reyes all have impressive averages as well. Beltran's hitting .240 there. Fernando Tatis: .170. Maybe Willie will give him a start. Todd Hundley hit 10 homers and drove in 35 runs in 106 Coors Field at-bats. He once pissed off Rockies pitching coach Frank Funk by saying the upper deck there whispered to him. As did a bottle of HGH (allegedly). Joe McEwing's career ended there on a dirty slide by whatshisname the busher...T.J. Hooker or some such useless name (J.D. Closser, it turns out...eff him, too). McEwing was Wright's first big league mentor. David has been avenging him in Denver ever since. I visited Coors Field in 1995. You can read about the beer I drank [URL=http://faithandfear.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2007/10/22/3306447.html]here[/url]. When I signed up for the Rockies, I didn't realize we play them three times this year.

John Cougar Lunchbucket May 23 2008 01:31 PM

The Rockies dismantling of us last year ... plus they kicked the Yanks' asses too ... accidentlly turned them into my "backup" team of 2007. I forget who said it, from Tom Boswell's article on the Yankees-Red Sox playoff "They won't play that well again as long as they have assholes."

Fman99 May 23 2008 01:47 PM

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: The Rockies dismantling of us last year ... plus they kicked the Yanks' asses too ... accidentlly turned them into my "backup" team of 2007. I forget who said it, from Tom Boswell's article on the Yankees-Red Sox playoff "They won't play that well again as long as they have assholes." Who are the players without assholes? I don't even know what that means.

John Cougar Lunchbucket May 23 2008 01:51 PM

"As long as they have assholes" = forever

G-Fafif May 23 2008 02:28 PM

At the end of the Coneheads movie, it was revealed Beldar didn't have one. But then again, they were from France.

metirish May 23 2008 02:33 PM

Great KTE G-Fafif - Quote: It blows my mind when I see people posting that they aren't going to be going to games, that the season is over, that all is lost and to trade away the team. Things are not over. I am not going to turn the other way. This is my favorite team playing my favorite sport and I'm sure as hell going to support them. I am not a fair weather, bandwagon jumping "win or I'll stop supporting you" mentality fan that's the spirit.

G-Fafif May 23 2008 02:36 PM

Thanks Irish. I like the one who will watch the Rockies in heaven but not when they're trailing by six.

Willets Point May 23 2008 02:40 PM

metirish wrote: Great KTE G-Fafif - Quote: It blows my mind when I see people posting that they aren't going to be going to games, that the season is over, that all is lost and to trade away the team. Things are not over. I am not going to turn the other way. This is my favorite team playing my favorite sport and I'm sure as hell going to support them. I am not a fair weather, bandwagon jumping "win or I'll stop supporting you" mentality fan that's the spirit. Wow, I didn't know there were Mets fans in Denver.

themetfairy May 23 2008 02:42 PM

Very nice recognizance Greg!

G-Fafif May 24 2008 02:18 AM

Faulty (or nonexistent) research earlier regarding starters this series and their previous pitching at Coors Field. To update: Vargas has thrown four games in Denver, three starts, 5.40 ERA. Coming into last night, OP had a 7.24 ERA at Coors; I'll bet it's higher now. Maine still hasn't pitched there. If he's smart, he'll get out of town.