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A tale of two teams

Posted on 2013-05-18 by Frank da Druid | Permalink 0

If one has been paying attention to the Rockies this year, it’s been very tumultuous. It’s as if the Rockies have a Jekyll and Hyde complex. On the one hand, the Rockies are a good offensive team, hitting base hits and runs, and home runs. And on the other, the pitching can let the team down, igniting a forest fire on an extremely dry forest and hoping home is still alive. Nothing is more prevalent than this weekend.

I went to the Rockies game on Thursday vs. the San Francisco Giants. Bear in mind that the Rockies had a dry spell recently. But that day was supposed to be different. The bats came out early for a total of 6 runs in 2 innings. Our starting pitcher, Jhoulys Chacin is one of our better pitchers. But alas, he came unglued in the 4th, allowing 5 runs to cross in the 4th, and 3 more in the 6th to be what was a changing momentum. Nothing could be so frustrating to Rockies fans as much as that one game. In fact, we had lost our previous 9 games to SF before this one. So it was understandable that Rox fans would be so confused as to what to expect from our team for the rest of the year. Would we compete, or just write it off?

In many ways, this team had the same image as last year’s Rockies team. Last year, the team had a wonderful April, and then May was the worst in history. In fact, there were records set for losses on a certain day, and in general. Injuries piled on, and pitchers like Jeremy Guthrie failed. Players were traded, and then showed success on their respective teams–more than they did in Colorado. I would rather want to forget about that year. Although it’s usually too early to consider games or series being a “must win”, this one had that feeling from many fans–even from objective writers like David Martin (@RockiesReview). If the Rockies could not win the next 2-3 games with SF, it would be a sign not to take the team seriously.

The next two nights, Rockies seem to answer that question. For Friday’s game, a team that is up 10 runs with their opponent having 4 errors are two signs that a team should win. Of course, this is Coors Field, and anything can happen–and has happened before. The team did win by a score of 10-9, though it was nearly subject to throwing it away in the later innings. And now tonight, it was a clear 10-2 victory for the Rockies.

So while tomorrow is nowhere near the end of the season, it has a lot of feeling. Juan Nicasio has been flat out terrible in his last few starts, and this is our worst rival (if we had one). Now would be the perfect time for the Rockies to try to capitalize on the other team. I do believe that it’s not necessarily the score that determines it, but more on the play of the game. If Nicasio cannot pitch, he should be optioned ASAP. If the team makes errors, or has many batters going hitless, this is a concern. But if the Rockies can show some effort of competing, we do have a team worthy of watching. And it’s always better with a win. Go Rockies

Baseball, National League, Rockies

Rockies, one month later

Posted on 2013-05-08 by Frank da Druid | Permalink 0

If one considers the first month of the Rockies to the expectations of the whole year, every critic (myself included) would have been bombed out of the water. The Rockies have come through with some good hitting, offense, and bases scoring. With the exception of the series at AT&T park, it was high rollers for the Rox. Lately, there have been some detours that have made an impact on the Rockies. In tonight’s game, I saw several gaffes that really impacted the Rockies. Part of them were in tonight’s game, but some of these issues are ongoing for a while. Let me summarize what I have seen:

* Pitching is a bit unstable. I need to clarify on this another time, but there are days where our pitching is rock solid, and then other days where the rock slides into disaster. For example, Jeff Francis, Juan Nicasio, and Wilton Lopez have had bad performances as of late. And then, while Chacin was on the DL, his replacement Chatwood was awesome.

* RISP and flopping on basepaths. The dreaded runners-in-scoring-position-leaving-them-stranded syndrome has been a chronic issue for the Rockies in past years, and this year is no exception. The Yankees game tonight has been especially tough when you waste 2 players (Tulo to pinch hit and get plonked, and Eric Young to pinch run for Tulo) in the same play.

* Lay off the Butterfingers®. This proved costly with Dexter Fowler making 2 errors in the same game, and Johnny Herrera failed to tag out a player because he opened his glove too soon.

* Knock off with the umpire bias. Tonight’s game was a low scoring game. Yet, when playing the Yankees, the umpires seem to have different rules in the 9th inning that overall affected the game play. The close call at 1st was ruled safe, even though replay had shown it was the 3rd out. The winning run was scored on this play. And on the first pitch from Rivera to Wilin Rosario, a strike was called, even when pitch f/x data and replays showed it was clearly a foot off the plate. Now, I’m not saying that balls and strikes should get reviewed, but the umpires need better accountability for such blatant calls.

* Get well soon. The injuries have been a mixed bag. In some cases like Helton and Tulo, not playing doesn’t help because the bench is short. Though Helton did join the DL as well as Chacin for a short time, it helped as Chatwood and others were able to produce results, and show the critics that the Rockies really have the depth.

Over the next week, I’ll talk a bit more on some of these qualities. and hope that the Rockies can prove they are certainly worthy of contender talks for postseason this year.

Baseball, Rockies

Opening day 2013

Posted on 2013-04-01 by Frank da Druid | Permalink Comments Off

It’s been hard for me to keep track of the Rockies during Spring Training. It also didn’t help that I was in the middle of moving. But It was also due to the Rockies doing little over the offseason to help assure us that 2012 was a fluke. Yet, some moves late in Spring Training might have helped changed things a bit.

Today was opening day, and the first real baseball game of the season for the Rockies. The show opened for business. Whether the Rockies, the front office, or the fans were ready or not, baseball was here. All of our expectations of doom and gloom were changed with a spectacular homer from Tulo and Cuddyer, and Chacin lasted 6 2/3 innings with 94p. A 3-1 game was looking good for us. And Weiss, unlike his predecesor, pulled Chacin at the right time.

Unfortunately, the bullpen was where it showed we needed improvement. This is unlike last year where our bullpen was pretty solid and a shaky starting rotation. Belisle only let one pitch in, and I wish he would have stayed till the 8th. Lopez not only let up 3 runs, and let the Brewers lead, but ruined Chacin’s good start. If it wasn’t for Fowler’s 9th inning tying homer, Lopez would have had the loss. Adam Ottavino ended up getting the loss in the 10th erroneously keeping the ball up on a sacrifice fly.

If you took the game as an insight to this year’s Rockies team, it looks like offense is going to be fine, except the one unnecessary out caused by the 3rd base coach. The starting pitching seems to be a good sign, so we don’t need to revert to last year’s crappy 4 man/75 pitch count rotation. If the front office can stay out of that, I’d be happy. Our bullpen pitching does need to shape up a bit, or else we will never reach .500 this year. Be prepared for a rocky ride, Rockies fans.

Since I’ve moved, I’m going to blog on a semi-weekly basis, I’ll try Monday and Thursday nights (after 9pm MDT.) until further notice. Take care.

Baseball, National League, Rockies

Welcome to 2013

Posted on 2013-03-08 by Frank da Druid | Permalink Comments Off

The leaves start to roll out its green leaves, the hot dog vendors start to grill their hot dogs and bratwursts, the crack of the bats make their first sounds, and Salt River Fields opens for business. Spring training has begun… and soon Opening day will be upon us. Baseball is back.

Yeah, it’s been a really boring offseason if you were a Rockies fan. The only breaking news was that Tracy quit and there was quite a soap opera until Walt Weiss was hired on as the Rockies Skipper. Unfortunately, the problems that plagued last year’s pitching was not addressed by the GM. Okay, I take for fact that injuries plagued the team last year. But for an organization that was panicked about pitching and altitude– even so much as to put in radical ways to change it last year, they did nothing to address it in the offseason. I’m very ashamed of this. This has led mostly to me being silent.

This year, I plan to blog again on once or twice a week during the baseball season. Since I’m in the middle of moving in with my girlfriend this month, I can’t promise being active until April. I don’t have a set schedule yet, but I look forward to announcing it by the end of the month.

But until then, enjoy the World Baseball Classic, and sing John Fogerty’s “Centerfield” during Spring Training.

Baseball, National League, Rockies

Tracy leaves

Posted on 2012-10-07 by Frank da Druid | Permalink Comments Off

Well, some breaking news. Troy Renck just reported that Jim Tracy resigns. To me, I feel bittersweet about it. On the one hand, I kind of wanted it, especially after last year. But I think this only highlights the root problem with the Rockies: the problem is further up.

Now, I’ve been advocating Tracy to be fired since mid-2011. He does have his faults, and I believe that if I could apply sabermetrics to Jim Tracy, he has a WAR of -5.00. WAR stands for “Wins Above Replacement”. So if we replaced him with a minor-league manager, that’s saying the minor league manager would give the team 5 extra wins than Tracy!!! That’s really sad to hear that. But why that many? Part of the problem is that Tracy misuses the double-switch. Also, pitchers are abused to either be out for too long, and he has been known to use favorite players more than others who deserve time. That was before 2012 came around.

However, the problems in 2012 go further up the chain. For even the faults that Tracy has, he has to work with the players he has on his active roster. And if we get players like Guthrie and Moscoso who can’t pitch, or players gone due to injuries, then what is any manager to do? One has to do the best he can. Until the front office starts to butt in and dictates how things are to be run. That’s where the real problem comes in. And to add insult to injury, this organization pulls a Walmart, and inserts an assistant GM in between GM and manager, and puts him in the clubhouse to watch Tracy like a hawk. Yeah, if I were Tracy, I’d walk away too. I don’t want to be micromanaged by some front office guy in a suit. That’s why I feel sad about this move.

I kind of expected this move to happen to be honest. With the initial delay after the Friday and Saturday meeting, I was surprised it would be announced today. Yet, with Tracy announcing it like this, it was like a laugh to the club, and also undermining how bad the situation really is. I fear that this means the management structure is only going to be worse unless we really get rid of the entire front office. That means O’Dowd, his assistants, and yes, Bill Geivett need to go. I think even the Monforts need to sell the team if they believe this model. This is a baseball club, not a factory industry. One needs to be competitive by putting out THE best product, and not use excuses. And sadly, I’ve heard more excuses this year than all the toilet paper I’ve bought in the same period. I guess I’m not wiping enough, or brown nosing enough.

Sadly, while Tracy has his faults, his leaving has given speculation as to how bad this organization really is. And unless change happens further up, I really seriously doubt this team will get better for years to come. The front office will probably promote Tom Runnels to the position, only because it’s an increase in pay. But not much more will come out it. This says how little I see happening from this team, and how little hope I have for our team. So long Jim Tracy, and thanks for all the fish. I shudder at the future.

Tomorrow’s column: Twitter awards for my baseball tweeps.

Edited 10-07-2012 09:08pm as the Jim Tracy link was not correct. The story has changed slightly since the original post.

Baseball, Rockies Bill Geivett, Colorado Rockies, Dan O'Dowd, Jim Tracy

The deathmatch of MLB

Posted on 2012-10-06 by Frank da Druid | Permalink Comments Off

The postseason has officially started, and the fight for survival has begun. The two wildcard games have happened, and we’ve seen our first casualities. While people debate the usefulness of a one-game wildcard, I think it’s shown its usefulness.

Let me start with the Rangers/Orioles game, as it’s the easier one of the two. Leading up to the game, the O’s were fighting to take the AL East, while Texas coasted in the AL West. Sadly, I was at work so I missed this game. But it sounded exactly like the Rangers ran out of gas. This does illustrate the importance of division and wild card games. If one is serious about competing in postseason, then earn the division when possible. O’s deserve to advance. Sadly, I think the Rangers may be shuffled up after this game.

The other game was more interesting. The St. Louis Cardinals took on the Braves at Turner Field. Sadly, I missed the earlier action (and I blame work/sleep schedule). But there was the 8th inning “infield fly rule” that made most of the action. To be honest, the game was not lost with this call, no matter how late or why it was called. The game was done with the Braves’ 3 errors and failure to score. In case anyone is concerned, the infield fly rule was created to protect the runners. It is also very specifically explained in the rules of the game. This isn’t like the balk rule (which is the most ambiguous rule in the books.) But for the fans to throw objects on the field I absolutely CANNOT endorse at all. That is very bad. The game was continued under protest, which was subsequentially denied by Joe Torre after the game (due to the situation of the game).

Sure, this might illustrate a potential pitfall of the one game affair. A bad call could ruin the game, just like the Monday Night Football game in the NFL that ultimately caused haste in signing the official refs back to the game. I don’t believe this was a bad call, though it was made rather late. The Braves still had runners in scoring position (RISP), which they could not capitalize upon. (This is why I shudder when I see RISP, after my Rockies game issues since 2011). They had 3 errors, and still could not produce. But right now, I think this 1 game matchup is proving great for MLB, the way it’s designed.

In other news, the Rockies cannot decide yet on the fate of Jim Tracy. Speculation has it that it will ultimately be up to Tracy whether he’s willing to work with the lesser powers he’ll have over the team. I may be a Rox fan and still support the team, I’ll support the players, and not the management/operations of the team.

American League, Baseball, National League Atlanta Braves, Baltimore Orioles, Detroit Tigers, infield fly rule, postseason, St. Louis Cardinals, wildcard

Imperial march

Posted on 2012-10-01 by Frank da Druid | Permalink Comments Off

Catching this morning’s Denver Post about Geivett meeting with Tracy, I could start quoting Han Solo’s “I got a bad feeling about this” line.

Ironically, it does feel like Star Wars, where Dan O’Dowd is Emperor Palpatine, and Bill Geivett is Darth Vader. Sure, I think this type of meeting between GM and manager happens every year. But I believe publishing this in the Denver Post about the Geivett/Tracy meeting was either a) not needed or b) an ominous sign Tracy may see his last days in purple pinstripes.

A team that has already had its worst season on record, and is on the brink of setting the centurion mark of losses says it all. Who’s to blame? Players deserve some share, except those who are injured or remained injured for extended periods of play. Coaches deserve a bit more of the pie. But ultimately, the blame lies on the front office. In particular, it is Dan O’Dowd, and now Bill Geivett. We can blame O’Dowd first of all for his extremely poor choice in signings/trades, and a bad plan (or a lack of a backup) when the first plan fails. Secondly, I’m so sick of their excuses, especially of altitude. If altitude is the problem for pitching and even injuries (rolls eyes), I’d like to take these two up to the summit of Longs Peak, put a noose attached to a bungee cord, and push them off the edge. Whoops! That’ll solve the altitude problem. No, I’m serious: O’Dowd blames altitude for our pitching problem. Geivett blames altitude as part of the injury problem. Um hello? Did the Minnesota Twins have problems with their altitude last year? Injuries do happen, and some years it’s worse than others. It’s just something you have to adapt to.

I am getting disenfranchised with the PR and the front office with this team. Does Tracy deserve to stay? Probably not. But if he’s gone, it’s probably for the wrong reasons. Does Geivett deserve to manage? I don’t think so. But he may act like he’ll take over next year. Does the front office deserve to be flushed? HELL YEAH! But I don’t see that happening. I’d like to see Tracy gone, but also to remove O’Dowd and Geivett. They seem to not know Jack&&8482; about running a baseball team.

As I am watching the standings, the teams are just about decided, and the positions are pretty much decided. There’s still a couple positions not totally set, but it’ll require luck and fate for it to happen. I’m going to look forward to the NL Wildcard the most, because I still like the Braves and St. Louis Cardinals to an extent. Hell, I like NL over AL teams*.

I will be blogging when I want/can during postseason, though this is my last regular Rockies blog. What I will do is blog what I want during postseason, and definitely on Twitter (@druidlove). During the offseason, I’ll blog here on Rockies or baseball sporadically. My hockey posts I’ll have another blog set up for it, if they can ever get out of the lockout.

Baseball, Rockies Bill Geivett, Dan O'Dowd, Jim Tracy, Rockies

What’s wild this playoffs?

Posted on 2012-09-27 by Frank da Druid | Permalink Comments Off

In the beginning, God created man. And man created baseball. And man created a pennant to declare the winner of each season.
And man was not satisfied. So some man spun off another league, and called it the American League. And there was strife between the National League and the American League who was the best. So, man created the World Series. And all was well.
From the book of 2 Baseball 1:1-4

Well, that’s the basics of how our playoff system came out. In case you’re wondering, the book of 1 Baseball talks about the rules and how the game came into play, at least in my bible. The book of 2 Baseball covers up to the 80′s, so the Selig era seems to be missing. So let me cover the brief history of how baseball changed its playoff structure:
Starting in 1903, the World Series is formed between the NL and the AL. (Exceptions are 1904, and 1994). At this time, the winner of each league faces each other to determine the WS winner. In 1969, each league expands enough to have 2 divisions. There you have a league championship to determine the winner… also known as the pennant. The winner then is eligible for the World Series. 1981 was an anomaly year using a Divisional series. But the modern day divisional series started in 1995* when each league split into 3 divisions. In order to have an even number of teams play, the wild card was introduced. This would be the best team on each league who was not a division champion. Suddenly, games got more interesting. Then, Bud Selig rushed and added another wild card team this year. The winner of the 1 game wild card winner faces the best team in the league in the division series.

My take on all of this? I think (normally), the 2nd wild card was not needed. Now this second wild card would be in cases like 2007 when the Padres and Rockies were tied and had to play a play-in game. But that play-in game counted a regular season game!! Sorry, I also believe that 162 games is regular season, and any play-in games do not count for the record books. (This affects batting title, for example). In historical times, only having the best two teams win reminded me a lot like seeing the current wild card list: if you’re not at the top, then you have nothing to play for.

Now, having a season end like 2011 did takes a lot of luck by all the teams partaking. But I just looked at the standings, and found a disappointment at the time of this writing. The NL is all but locked up. All 5 players are just about decided. Only Washington hasn’t clenched the division yet (4 games over Atlanta, who holds the 1st Wild card lead by 6.5 over the Cardinals), and St. Louis has a 3.5 game lead over the Dodgers for the 2nd wild card. If there were only 1 wild card team, then it would be worse, St. Louis has no chance (and all teams chasing the Cardinals) have no shot at all.

Yet in the AL, nothing is decided yet. Every race is still fairly close enough. It may be worth watching till the very last day. And it looks like even if there wasn’t a 2nd wild card, the races are still competitive from those left playing.

While I’m not too pleased with the extra team, and possibly diluting the postseason, at least it’s not like the NHL or NBA where the top 8 of each conference make it, and extend playoffs for 2 months. However, the 1 game wild card playoff doesn’t fit in well with a best of 7 series the rest of the rounds use.

Either way, I’ll looking forward to the postseason, even if my Rockies were eliminated ages ago.

Thanks to @gorox1983 for contribution

* Technically, this happened in 1994, but the strike wiped out the rest of the season and the World Series. So 1995 was the first year of this system.
Source: Baseball almanac

American League, Baseball, National League, Uncategorized postseason, wild card

The weakest link has been severed

Posted on 2012-09-24 by Frank da Druid | Permalink Comments Off

This season has been brutal for the Rockies, a complete embarrassment. The only thing that could be more embarrassing is if they do nothing about it.
–David Martin, on rockiesreview.com

You can say that again, as the team is already at 94 losses, 9 game losing streak, and 10 games left to play in this season. The question is not if they will make 100 losses, but when? And yet, is 100 going to do anything?

I had asked many people on twitter the one question I heard by Andrew Martin (@rockiesmagicnum) who mentioned this on Purple Row Radio (podcast). Is this Rockies organization missing the link from Keli McGregor? Everyone pretty much agreed that the answer is “yes”. Most felt that this was like being tripped at the top of a long stairwell. The first part hurt, but the further along the team got, the worse the tumble and the worse the injury is. After all, the team began a losing trend shortly after he passed away. Then some major changes happened in the 2012 season, including a trial oinking “piggyback pitcher” system, which was later all but abandoned. Then, a GM needs an assistant GM above Jim Tracy. Could there be any more radical changes? At least McGregor was a link between the front office and the players. But with this link severed, radical changes from O’Dowd were able to persist.

So I asked the next question: Do the Rockies need a new president (to fulfill McGregor’s place), fire O’Dowd, or both? This was unanimous as well. Both needs to be done. To be honest, Dick Monfort has already illustrated to us that he really doesn’t know Jack about a baseball team. In fact, put him in the crowds at Coors Field, and he’d be like a regular fan. So having a club president, even if he is hardly visible to the public, helped to keep some sort of order between the front office and the clubhouse. O’Dowd, I’ve blogged too much on him already, but he’s done too much workload for his work. That’s why he has an assistant GM between himself and Tracy. To be honest, if O’Dowd could do his job, he wouldn’t be so stressed out. But I believe he’s so out of touch with the club. He has to make excuses for everything that it’s pathetic. Why can’t he just tell the truth: The players he chose were not what he expected? So, I couldn’t even consider him to stay as GM, or even be promoted to President. Just let him go collect his mind while he can.

Interestingly enough, many people also thought Tracy should go as well. Yeah, with your season already in the dust as of May, and getting worse, what can you say? He wasn’t handed a good staff to manage. But having it be “ok” to lose is even worse. Maybe he got burned by O’Dowd’s joke of a lineup and his “out of the box” ideas. Or maybe he has been as bad as the critics say.

Either way, if you practically change your roster from one season to the next, and the team only performs worse, there’s a bad sign. I believe it’s time to start over. Flush the front office. Find a new president who can be that link that was cut. And then give O’Dowd and Tracy a nice vacation. … a long vacation, away from Colorado.

Contributions to today are (twitter names only): @Rockiesmagicnum @gstanwood @poseidonsfist @rockiesreview @townie813 @pixei @stars5steve @gorox1983 @trevor_irvine @capitulate

Baseball, Rockies

Rockies organization needs to grow a backbone

Posted on 2012-09-20 by Frank da Druid | Permalink Comments Off

This week was rather interesting. Yesterday, I planned to go to the bank, and then go buy me a ticket to the game next week. I’m on a strict budget and tickets were not in the plans. But I also didn’t plan on having $40 extra in my last paycheck, thanks to overtime. So, indeed, I could have spent that money on a ticket. At the end of the day, I didn’t get a ticket, and decided to put that extra money to use elsewhere. Why? There was another PR meltdown that happened earlier the same day that pretty much talked me out of it.

What happened is that Michael Cuddyer of the Rockies was nominated as the Rox candidate for the Robeto Clemente award. His choice of where the proceeds would go happens to be A precious child, one that was set up by Aurora Town Center victim* Jessica Ghawi and her co-worker at Mile High Sports, Peter Burns. So far, so good. But this turned sour because Mark Kiszla, columnist at the Denver Post, has ruffed some feathers with the front office. He has a second job at Mile High Sports, as an on-air personality. Where this becomes toxic is that the Rockies in turn, initially declined Peter Burns an opportunity to interview Michael Cuddyer on air. His intention was to give the guy some air time, promote the award, and which cause promote the charity that he’s in charge of managing. But the Rockies organization also released a message that they couldn’t support their guy openly for the nomination of the award.

Naturally, denying a member of the media an opportunity causes what we Americans know as “freedom of speech”, and it gets echoed both on the airwaves, and spills over to Twitter. As it spills onto social media, then everyone and their best friend’s cat knows what has happened, and now, a nomination is looking like a tainted (potential) hall of famer like Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire and possibly Roger Clemens. I don’t know if they finally changed their mind, but the point is, it doesn’t matter anymore.

Here’s the big problem: the front office put itself in the spotlight in a bad way. First of all, if your club is on pace to lose 100 games in a season, losing day in and day out, then yeah, you deserve criticism. After all, it was you who brought the players in. Some of the blame is shouldered on the players, no doubt. But it was your decision when it came to scouting, signing, and recruiting to your team. It’s not your ballpark, sitting at 5187 feet above sea level’s fault. Coors Field can’t tell the players to pitch and bat worse up here. Last I checked, it didn’t have legs, and it doesn’t have a voice. (Now the fans give it voice, and there is a voice of the Rockies, but that’s a different issue.) We as sports fans want to have to talk about something with our team. And all we see is the negatives, which is naturally what comes up. In the past, in the pre-Stanley Cup era in Denver (1996), or even pre-Rocktober (2007), Coloradoans would tend to not talk a lot of our teams, as if they were a minor team. You’d get a lot about the Broncos, because they are THE sports team this town’s ever known, but the rest would get shunted into silence. Not so anymore. But you can’t just block people from your twitter follows and from Toyota Talk, and even into your place just because they’re talking critical about your team. You have to earn it now.

If you really don’t like how you’re treated, you really need to prove it. Quit making excuses for your sorry team. Don’t use altitude or Coors Field as an excuse. Prove it by getting in quality. Once you finally do this, and produce quality teams, then everyone will have no excuse but to shut up, and admire the hard work to finally produce. And then it’s music to your ears.

Baseball, Rockies