Spent the weekend in Casper watching a little Ghosts baseball. It was my first trip down to see them in action this season and I was looking forward to seeing if there’s anybody down there worth getting excited about.

I’ve got a few observations about certain players who made an impression over the two games I got to see (Saturday and Sunday):

Continue reading this post »

Jim Rome interviewed Dan O'Dowd this afternoon on his radio show. If you didn't hear it live, here are some notes I took during the interview. They are presented without comment so that you may make your own.

Are you optimistic? Says the Rox have ‘got the talent to be competitive’ – ‘youth is who we are’ – depends on young pitchers making a difference.

What happened in 07? Did not get same fundamental performance – “We stunk.” ‘Major breakdowns in every aspects of the game.’ Attributes it to guys trying too hard due to high expectations. Got away from ‘team concept’ – played very ‘cohesively’ in 07, but did not have that last season.

Was it complacency? None of that – ‘great kids’ with ‘good character’ who ‘got outside themselves’, and it snowballed as things got worse. Lost their focus.

Expectations for Hurdle? Both Hurdle and O’Dowd had a ‘failed leadership opportunity’ last year and O’Dowd takes full credit – both tried too late to turn it around. Both men have a good relationship and talked about what each man has to do better in 09. Hurdle learned that leadership is something that has to be committed to every day. Talent level was misjudged in 08. Feels Clint will do better this year – calls him ‘anally organized’ which kind of sounds gross.

How does a GM handle a ‘contract year’? He can’t change his focus. ‘You’re only as true as the leader you are.’ If he expects things from Clint he must expect them for himself. Winning is ‘incredibly important’ and you can’t get caught up in the day-to-day winning and losing, but the day to day process of doing your job – getting the club in the right position.

Do GMs ever slump? The grind can be trying but baseball is a game about perseverance, optimism, and the right attitude. ‘Blessed’ to work for a great president and ownership – not a lot of anxiety in the process. Headed in the direction where ‘handshake and your word means more than words on a piece of paper’.

Holliday trade? Made Matt the largest offer they could make him. Understands why they were turned down. Continues to call last year’s situation a ‘distraction’, particularly because of the Boras angle. ‘Who we are is built on the sum of the parts.’ To get back to ‘being a team and being what we were in 07’ they could not afford that distraction.

Dealing with Boras? Complimentary of the job Boras does but disagrees with him fundamentally on certain things. Didn’t specify. Did not say he would not negotiate with him.

Expectations for Helton? “He’s doing great.” No guesses on games, will monitor rest and recovery. Todd’s OBP and pitches per PA sets up the rest of the lineup very well. When he stays within he’s still a great hitter.

Watching a young Manny Ramirez? He was ‘uncomfortable’ as a young player in every aspect of baseball and social life except for hitting a baseball.

Favorite players to be around? Names a lot of former Indians and Helton. Common theme - 'great teammates' and 'tremendous competitive desire' and 'no fear'.

So it seems like every year somebody posts something about the new crop of baseball video games, and every year I end up posting in the thread because I'm secretly a nerd who likes to talk about sports video games, which are the only ones I ever buy. With both MLB 09: The Show and MLB 2k9 having been out a little over a week now, I figured I'd see if anybody else were getting their baseball fix via joystick.

My bottom line is this: if you have a ps2 or ps3, and you like baseball, you need to buy The Show. If you have an XBox, you need to buy a ps2 or ps3 and then buy The Show. It absolutely laps the field when it comes to baseball video games, and I do believe this year's version is the best sports video game I have ever played, period. It's remarkably realistic, and even at the middle level I find it to be plenty challenging. In Franchise mode I'm 6-5 with the Rox through 11 games and three of my wins are in extra innings (my bullpen is TAXED). It is very rewarding to play a game that feels so much like real baseball - it's not a 'home run derby', it is legitimately tough to beat the best pitchers and get the best hitters out... I could go on and on.

Anyway, just wanted to see if I wasn't the only one who was completely hooked on this one (I haven't played MLB 2K9 yet, but as good as The Show is, there's no need to).

Hey folks. Some of you all might remember I used to be the lead Rockies blogger over at Most Valuable Network. I ended up leaving MVN last year and haven't really had a chance to do any long form writing in a while. This is the first thing I've done since December - with everybody else sharing their Rocktober memories, I was suitably inspired. I hope you all enjoy it. I certainly enjoyed the hell out of writing it.

Continue reading this post »

NLCS roster was just released...
http://colorado.rockies.mlb.com/news/press_releases/press_release.jsp?ymd=20071010&content_id=22 60400&vkey=pr_col&fext=.jsp&c_id=col

The Good:
11 pitchers
Willy's back
Seth Smith stays
Mark Redman goes

The Bad:
No Cook - guess he didn't show enough in his rehab start.

The press release also gives the order of the starting rotation... it'll be Francis, Jimenez, Fogg, and Morales.

Hey folks. MVN, the blog network that hosts Up In the Rockies (the blog that rockiesfan06 and I post at) is producing a MLB mock draft, as done by the MVN writers. You can check it out here. http://mvn.com/mlb-draft/

I know there's a ton of interest in the draft among a good many of you, so I thought you folks might want to see this. I'm picking for the Rox with the eighth selection, and my order of preference for who I'd like to grab looks like this:

Ross Detwiler
Max Scherzer
Jason Heyward

I like Michael Main, too, but I think he'd be a reach at our slot.

Anyway, enjoy the link. I'll post here again when the Rox have picked.

So there's an article over at tulsadrillers.com that outlines the expected roster for the Rox AA affiliate. http://tulsadrillers.com/news/drillers/?id=4534

Among other things we learn:
-Rotation will be Morales, Reynolds, Lo, Mattheus, Asahina
-Register moves to bullpen, will close
-Rifkin jumps from short season to AA, will start at first
-Gaetti, Miller, Czarniecki slated to start in OF

The team's roster page has 21 players listed of a possible 24. Since only nine are pitchers, I'd figure the last three guys are probably hurlers, and since Darren Clarke, Adam Bright, Judd Songster, and Jentry Beckstead are as yet unaccounted for, it's probably three of those four.

Still haven't heard anything about Matt Macri, Corey Wimberly, Doug Bernier, Samuel Deduno, Justin Nelson, and Jud Thigpen. I'd have figured on Wimberly, Macri, and Deduno being at AA for sure, especially since they're not on the Modesto roster that was posted here earlier.