Goodbye

Welcome Home DLR.....When's His Tshirt Jersey Nite?

Let's Hope He's The Anti-Hampton

Pretty damn shocking when the reports started circulating late last night that the Rocks had inked an extension until 2020 with Tulo that involved over $130 million. Unexpected, exciting, refreshing, and potentially a really smart, although somewhat risky, maneuver on the part of the Monfarts/O'Dowd. Of course as a fan, I'm thrilled that there's no chance Tulo could depart for the Yankees after three more years (unless he's traded, as the contract does not include a no-trade clause). Still, that's a large sum of guaranteed money for a team that doesn't have bottomless pockets. But what the hell, I'm not going to fret over the prospect of things going south for a guy who had 40 RBI in the last full month of baseball he played.

Almost equally surprising, and more important for the 2011 season, the Rocks somehow appear to be ready to sign DLR for at least two more years (potentially four years with player/club options). Hard to overstate how important it is to have a power lefty in a projected starting rotation packed with righties. Welcome back DLR. May 2011 be a healthy, productive one for you.

After a snooze fest of a hot stove season thus far, things got interesting quickly. Still, there is more work to be done. Let's not forget these aren't additions to last year's team - and Tulo wasn't going anywhere soon anyway. O'Dowd needs to find at least one bat out there that provides some backup for Tulo and Pony. The fact that these two deals were made gives me some hope O'Dowd has at least one more trick up his sleeve.

Boom, Barmey Outta Here

I'm guessing this was a low and outside slider that Barmes bit on to strike out. It's kind of sad to see him go: great fielder, good teammate apparently, could hit some dongs, and was actually sort of clutch during the first half of last year. On the other hand, his strike outs were a liability, his average sucked, and was probably going to be let go anyway, so at least we got something for him. The contingency of players that were on the '07 WS team is dwindling pretty quickly. I also don't like the implications of this trade on the DLR situation. Looking like he's gone, which is not good.

No More Corpas To Unwar

Not that he was going to play this year anyway, but the Rocks flat released Manuel today. They still owe him almost $4mil. That's as exciting as Hot Stove season gets in these parts. Corpas had a ton of potential and I'll admit I thought his contract extension was a good move by O'Dowd at the time. Things just went down hill after 2007. Maybe it's because he never used VH's Panama as his theme music....adios Manny.....

Yo Pittsburgh Pirates (and their down trodden fanbase)....you ready for a hell of a lot more talk that will involve the term "barrel"?

Golden Gloves

Way to go fellas. But you know, these personal awards don't mean anything if there aren't rings to go along with 'em.

Boom, Miggy Outta Here

Not totally sure how to react to this one. If it was the first half Miggy, this would obviously look foolish as hell. Hard to argue with wanting to go in a different direction than the 2nd half Olivo. Crappy at the plate and made some pretty horrible throwing errors that were costly down the stretch. All of that said, O'Dowd better not be putting all of his catcher eggs in the I-Dog basket. I would like to think Lansford is going to be the catalyst that transforms I-Dog into an every day catcher, but that seems like a big leap of faith (read: stupidity). There better be a hot stove Plan B that emerges from all of this....

King Buzzo takes in a World Series game

Pretty odd surprise mid-way through game 2 to see a random crowd shot that lingered on the odd visage of Buzz from the Melvins...cracked me up.
Looks like our NL West brethren, the Giants, have a stranglehold on this WS shit. Up 2-0 and flat dominated Texas in both games really.

Who's putting together our Spring Training itinerary?

I always took Buck to be more of a Riker....

and McCarver to be a dispensable "Redshirt" that gets offed after beaming down to a planet with the landing party, certainly not Kirk.

Like Rick James, the Rockies are dead.

It's been a frustrating and fun season. Expectations were way too high.
The pitching staff was made dicey with injuries, and there was the saga of an ace who started hot and really couldn't carry the club through various bullshit late. Props to Ubaldo all the same.
We can't rely on Cook or Francis...got a lot of love for the both of them but this ain't '07. Unwar Corpas eternally. Street? Can you quit making me sweat and giving up meatball homeruns? May Esmil keep the mohawk and not give up 4 run innings? Jason Hammel looks friendly, mellow, and normal. What does that mean?
Let the Chacin era begin. Keep DLR. Get more arms...and I don't mean Manny Delcarmen.

If you aren't Tulo or CarGo, you weren't consistently pulling weight in the box. Sure, Melvin, Spilly, Giambi, Miggy, and others had their moments or streaks...but no one could be counted on like the offensive cornerstones (yeah i said it) of the Rockies, Troy and Carlos. Sad seeing Todd continue to decline. Sad seeing I-Dog straight suck shit. Sad never being able to count on the bats that went with the speed of Dexter or EY Jr. Sad that Stew-bag got hurt (I guess?) and never reached his potential...again. Sad that Seth is just a mediocre outfielder...not Mr. Late Night.
So long Hawpe. Make some noise in the ALDS.

Had some good times with the Rockies, and at Coors Field in 2010. Spent way too much cash on beer. Slapped numerous high fives. Ate 30PT's kettle corn. Enjoyed C-Bass' killer "10th row behind home plate" seats a couple time. Got on the field and ran the bases and the warning track multiple times with my daughter, Mini-ST. Drank badly disguised Natty light at Swanky's. Saw way more wins than losses at the ballyard over the 20? or so games I went to (I watched way too many L's on FSN though). Loved baseball amongst it all. I guess that's what it's about and why I dig this shit. Can break your heart.
Wish I was making my playoff ticket considerations right now.

Oh, the season isn't over and they're going to play the Cardinals through the weekend? I'm sure there's folks in St.L who have similar stories to tell.

The season is over.

Guess My 6 RBIs Aren't Enough

And that is how a season goes into the shitter. The offense has been spotty on this roadie, but it's clear right now that the starting rotation is a mess (3 out of the last 4 games the starters have been run before the 5th) and as a result the bullpen is completely gassed. Getting swept by a team deeply entrenched in last place is not what creates post-season births. The Pony made things interesting late, and a Tulo shot careening inches wide of the foul pole in the top of the 9th would have made for an incredible comeback, but it feels like those checks were long since cashed during the 10 game winning streak. The balls aren't bouncing their way and the calls all seem to go against the Rocks right now. Bottom line is they are making critical mistakes and not playing well enough to provide any margin of error. Still looking forward to a couple more games at Coors tomorrow night and Tuesday, but it's likely going to feel more like exhibition games than a pennant race. Bummer...

In lieu of a Rockies game. Das Boot flat hammered some new team to the E League circuit. Weird when you feel sorry for 'em after the 1st inning.
DAS BOOT! 4-0 record...Fall League spectacular. What was the final tonight? 26-5? Something like that?

The Rockies Are Kind of Dishin' 'em

Looked like the winning streak wasn't going to reach double digits and then a weird bloop double ties the game in the 7th, followed by a Giambino 2-out, pinch-hit, walk-off HR in the bottom of the 9th. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Pretty jubilant scene in ST's living room after the Giambi dong. The D-Bags kind of handed this one to the Rocks (despite excellent starting pitching), which I guess is what happens when you're riding a 9-game winning streak against a shitty team.

I like three straight sweeps a lot, but go ahead and make it four against the Pads before hitting the road.

Finally get a chance to post the 7-Seconds alteration!
Some heroes emerging over this run. Tulo, CarGo, even Giambi.

I'm feeling a little deja vu'. How 'bout you?

Respect the Little Pony

Of course a plea for the Little Pony in the All-Star Game is a little late, but shit, not a bad way to follow-up Player of the Week honors. Although he struggled early in the game, to come up with a, ahem, broken bat inside the park HR to drive in the only and winning runs of the game, is pretty phenomenal. I think I heard the Cowboy say this is the first road win this season when trailing after 8 innings (which is maybe why I dragged my lazy ass out of bed to post this). Even though the road struggles at the plate seem to be continuing, it's an excellent way to start this make or break road trip.

DLR solid on the mound too and definitely deserved a W. Despite a 1-2-3 bottom of the 9th, Street was hit very hard. The heavy Bay Area night air, Johnny Boy's leather at 2B, and Street's own handy work fielding his position thankfully prevented any significant drama. The Young Bear's Main Man Esmil needs to rebound after getting shelled last week and give his team a chance to win this series outright before sending Ubaldo to the mound on Wed.....

Hej fra Gronland

Sounds like I missed a nice little run from my Rockies while I was back in the homeland scouting for some young Greenlandic pitching talent.
Let's not forget about the wild card, guys...it is suddenly in reach. Also don't forget about the Carlsberg or the Tuborg. I was awash in that stuff the past few days.

That Was A Nifty 9-Run Comeback

Maybe nifty isn't the right word. Perhaps the word I was searching for was 'special.' Yes, that was a real special comeback that goes to show this team knows how to win. Maybe a game like this will trigger something inside this team that will allow its players to put their egos over here, so they can get back to a special place.

Nice that the team picks up Super Esmil after a disastrous start from the rookie. After letting him down AZ five days previous, it only seems appropriate. Pretty rad that Ken Burns was in town today too promoting the sequel (the 10th Inning) to his excellent baseball documentary. Hope he was taking notes for the inclusion of this game into his next installment.



With the Gigantes and Phils both losing today, our little Home 9 are only four games out of the wild card. Out of it? Not entirely. Need this to continue when the Dodgers come calling Fri. Until then, I'm going to savor this win and this series.....

Vintage Todd Tonite. 4-4.....game-winning RBI.

The '10 Entry On This Card Will Not Be Pretty

No idea how Street can still be our closer. It was hard to believe before last night and even more astounding when I read this morning that Tracey has declared him to still be our closer. As DT mentioned to me last night, it reeks of Shawn Chacon. Street is a likable player and had a great year in '09 (despite the playoffs), but it's time to face facts that running him out there in the 9th at this point is killing the team and whatever shred of confidence he has left. Let him pitch in a different role the rest of these meaningless games and put Belisle, Corpas, Bettencourt, or Biemel out there to finish games for now. Hell, throw that huge rookie Reynolds out there. He looks like he has a closer's physique. Give Street a chance to compete next year for the closer spot.

Of course this game should not have been as close it was going into the 9th. Once again, the Rockies' offense failed to break the game open in several innings when the D-Bags were desperately trying to give it away. So predictable that it would end the way it did when you see all of that LOB.

Oh, and now that Johnny Boy has been called back up, please bench Barmes. He has been garbage for quite some time now. Go Reds?

Hawper, boom, outta here, I guess.

I'm starting to run out of valid T-Shirt jerseys at this point. Sadly I file my Hawpe along with my Holliday, Tavares, and Carroll. Thankfully I never achieved Marquis status. At this point this season I wouldn't argue with the notion of sending my Cook into this pile.
Seriously. Sign of the times. Just over a year ago Brad was an NL All-Star rep. He's pretty much sucked since the '09 break. Not sucked on the level of say, an Iannetta, but still pretty disappointing. I-Dog has the luxury of a fat contract to rest his ~.200 average on. Hawpe was a free-agent in a couple months...expendable with the current outfield. That said, a real shame that Smitty was on a 0-fer 22 streak until last night. Shame about it all really.
Frankly I don't want to know these Rockies without Carlos Gonzales, Tulo, and Ubaldo. Perhaps I'm being harsh, but everyone else is either a fringe player, streaky player, a player who has yet to "reach his potential", or a player that is showing that their usefulness is expiring. Brad fell into two of those categories on some level. I wish him the best. He's not a seed chomping, Boras knob-slobbering assface like Matty is. Thankfully Holliday touched the plate and also gave us CarGo. Too bad Hawpe had to fall in the mediocrity ditch and lose all value. (anyone seen G-Dog lately?)
Nice win last night by the way...not that it really matters beyond pride anymore. Love the stat that the Rockies are holding the longest "current" streak of win-loss-win pattern games at 14 or so. Last team to run that bizarre stat up that high was the 2007 Rockies I believe. No wonder insane streaks to close seasons are so crucial here in Colorado.

Tulo delivers last night. Going to need heroics like that from here on out to have even a chance at making the post-season. (or maybe play all home games)
Great to see some later inning come from behind magic recently...
Sure would be nice if the Padres or the Reds or the Cardinals or the Phils could get on a nice long slide. Just doesn't seem very likely. Rockies are certainly going to need some help, remains to be seen if they are at least going to do their part and get rolling.

Midget Army In Full Effect

After the previous 15 innings, I'm sure everyone saw that coming. Thanks Melvin for keeping the season alive at least a little longer.

Take me out to the Ball Game and shit....

this is a tad delayed due to some insurmountable post-game drunkenness on the day-of pic from Wednesday. The Rox getting a split against the Giants at home in an odd 2-gamer. 6-1. Tons O' Fun. A Business man's special actually being funded by the excellent business that I am a part of. (and TD who has some fine PTO benefits I think, getting in on the action).
Rockies were thankfully able to right the ship tonight after an opening series dud against a Pirates team that they categorically should kick ass against, but don't. Shit, the Bucs' record would be even worse (it is the NL worst already, I think) if it weren't for the wretched tendency for the Rockies to play "down" to the competition. They need to cut that shit out, and make some damn hay against these teams. The Padres do for god's sake.
One club is running away with the division, the other is a quandry of what-ifs and should-haves.

Perhaps it's relevant to post one of my favorite pictures ever taken outside of Coors Field.

The 7th Inning Beer Cutoff Does Not Apply To Tom Helmer

And he had plenty to get whacky about tonight. Pretty excellent win after Bettendump threw gasoline on the 8th inning. God bless the Little Pony.

Taz shirts and shitty midseason swoons

At the game last night I got to thinking as the Rockies' were losing to the Pirates that man this season sure has gotten pretty lame. Tried to think of something that had parallel lameness. And as if he had been placed down in front of me from the heavens, a man appeared in a mid-90's Rockies shirt emblazoned with the Tazmanian Devil bedecked in purple. Yes, lame. Lame like the direction that the 2010 season is taking.

Somebody Better Put Their God Damn Ego Over Here In A Hurry, Or There Will Be No Returning To A Special Place

A Melvin Mauling

Although I'm typing this in the 8th inning, I'm going to go ahead and say you couldn't have drawn this game up any better for the Rocks after last night's meltdown. Mora knocking the ball all over the place and collecting 5 RBIs (one shy of an RBI for each of his half a dozen kids), Frank-Dog pitching an impressive 7 innings after 3 shit outings, and the Marlins looking stupid a day after celebrating a regular season win like they just won the World Series. Looking at the pitching matchups these next two games, getting a victory tomorrow with HamBone on the mound might be critical to avoid a series loss (Josh Johnson goes for FL on Thursday).

Earlier this year I was down in the bowels of Coors Field and stumbled upon this vault. Turns out this is where Aramark stores all the cash I blow on stadium brews.
Good thing they have a lock on that. It must hold a small fortune.

My new Rockies commerical.

Cargo: "So your pregnant? Well good for you, I didn't make the NL All-Star team and got the shaft."
Miggy: "Me too."

The End.

No All Star Snub For Dugger

First Rockies trainer to ever get the honor of being named to the All-Star team....Congrats Duggey (DuggDog?)!!

It remains Hammel-time

A suddenly rare non-taco win. 1 game back. 1 game back. 1 game back.

Lovin' me some Stew-bag dongs....

...not to mention his 6RBIs. Another comeback win for the Rockies. This one still left enough time for the pitching staff and defense to record a hold and save.
Critical series off to a good start as the league heads into the All Star Break after this weekend. Really don't much care for the Padres I've found watching them this year....even in games when that pipsqueak Eckstein isn't in the lineup. You got your Headleys and your Hundleys and your 37 different Hairstons. I don't like 'em.
Good win, but DLR looked pretty shaky last night, and Barmes drops a couple E's on to the statsheet that lead to runs. The offense can't bail this team out of games forever...

Anyone Care For Another Dramatic Comeback?

I know Cardinal fans don't, but largely thanks to a very clutch 3-run HR by Dexter in the 8th, I-Dog was up to the task of spoiling yet another evening for the Redbird faithful populating Coors last night. ST, 30PT, and myself got to enjoy the latest improbable comeback by a team that suddenly can hit (especially in late innings?) but has shaky starting pitching (except Hambone of course). Quite the opposite of the first 2 1/2 months or so of the season. Hopefully Super Ubaldo can shake the recent pitching trend for starters and get things back on track this afternoon against Carpenter.

The C-Bass and I will be there for the finale (weather permitting). I hope to see brooms in the stands and more Redbird fans crying in their beers at their favorite Denver bar - Swankys - after the game.

A very special 9th inning

I'm just now getting over the craziness of last night's game, so sorry for the tardiness of the post. 8 hits in one inning? Jeez Louise, we're lucky to get 8 hits in a single game. Not sure what motivated me and Apup to stick around for the game's completion, probably because deep down we knew we had group of some very special players. There were so many egos over here it was ridiculous.

I think the picture to the right accurately shows the reaction of Cardinal fans after some 9th inning heroics.

.... "and it was beautiful".

I guess you're supposed to play all 27 outs....

I'm finally getting to a special place where I think that this team can come back and win games. Holy Shit.

The Hell Just Happened?

Is Manny Corpas loose in the bullpen?

What You Pricks Need To Understand Is That We're Dealing With A Really Special Player Here

It's Time For You Pricks To Get Off My Back

This Is How Much Johnny Boy I Can Take

How Much Jonathan Herrera Can You Take?

Silencing A Nation

Thank you very much Mr. Giambi. Such an awesome game to be at, even in the Rockpile. DT and I had a pretty grand view of both Stewbag and Giambino's blasts in the bottom of the 9th against Papplebaaawwwwnn! Doesnt' get much sweeter than that. Although Super U got roughed up a bit (against two dudes I've never even heard of - who is this Nava dude?), the offense finally picks up the slack and generates a late-inning victory. Could stand to see much, much more of that. And would whoever took DT's and ST's Little Pony tshirt jerseys in the post-game celebration madness kindly return them? A small price to pay I suppose for a finale like that...sweep 'em boys.

Nice to have another pitcher on the Rockies who currently likes to stymie opposing batters. Amusingly, his last name is quite congruent with a stupid rapper from the early 90s.
Pretty big win. 2 Runs is Enough? (to fill our lives with love?)
The staff already has 9 shutouts this season?