SB Nation User Blog: Franchise26

Player Profile - Dexter Fowler

Franchise26 — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 18:25:25 -0000

Player Profile - Dexter Fowler

Baseball Prospectus' take on Dex's rookie year.

Scouting the Ghosts

Franchise26 — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 13:56:35 -0000

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):

Chris Balcom-Miller: I didn’t see Aaron Cook pitch when he was 20, but I imagine it looking a lot like what I saw out of CBM on Sunday. The kid ought to be after the Casper grounds crew to water down the dirt in front of home plate because just about every batted ball went straight down into the dirt and turned into a big hop. CBM’s sinker was running 87-93 on the gun and coming in to righties, and it was frankly hilarious watching Orem’s big swings turn into batted balls that nosedived into the ground and turned into two-hop outs. CBM racked up five strikeouts, three of them on off-speed pitches. It looked like he was throwing a straight change to good effect, even though I’ve read that pitch is a work in progress. His slider was pretty sporadic both in use and effectiveness, mostly thrown against righties, about 75-77 on the gun. He worked out of a couple of really tough spots and only one ball was really hit hard against him all game. There were times he would look to be in a rhythm and then go 3-0 on a hitter, which probably just means he needs to tighten his focus a bit. Overall, I’m very impressed - I saw a lot of poise, a lot of strikes, and a LOT of groundballs, and CBM looks like a legit prospect to me.

Nolan Arenado: Had three hits in eight trips over the two games while starting both at third base. The reports about his strong arm are true, as are the reports of his below-average speed. Facing all college pitchers – including a pair of first-rounders that started both games for Orem – he didn’t look overmatched with the exception of one really good slider that punched him out swinging on Saturday night. He’s got a good, smooth swing and when he makes good contact it seems like he’s guiding the ball through the hole or down the line. Even though his power was hyped, I didn’t see him swinging from his heels. He looks like a kid who knows there’s a learning curve and isn’t trying to do too much at the plate. Defensively, he did flat out whiff on one two-hopper on Sunday, but otherwise played clean and made good throws. I’ll be interested to see the power start to grow as right now I don’t think he’s really swinging as aggressively as he surely did in high school.

Mike Timlin: This young up-and-comer… oh, right, he’s old enough to have fathered every player on either team. I saw a lot of Red Sox apparel in the stands at Mike Lansing Field on Sunday when Timlin worked the seventh inning. I didn’t see any breaking stuff but the fastball sat in the low 90s and he got a double play to erase a leadoff single. I am sure the Rockies don’t expect Timlin to pitch for them this season, but it’s a nice opportunity for both Timlin and for the young players who got to spend the weekend learning from him.

Chad Rose: I didn’t see anything resembling a breaking ball in his two innings of work on Sunday, but when you’re sitting 92-95 and touching 96 with the fastball and painting the corners, you’ll be given some time to develop a second pitch. Rose just rears back and lets it rip. If a second pitch comes to him, he could be interesting.

I also liked what I saw in brief looks at Brandon Whitby’s bat (he went 2-for-4 on Sunday and hit three of his balls hard to center field), David Hernandez’s glove (looked to have very good range at short), and Avery Barnes’ legs (second fastest guy on the team behind Eliezer Mesa, who can absolutely fly – watching Mesa run was one of the highlights of the weekend). Thumbs up also goes to Hobart the purple platypus who is the mascot. Why a purple platypus is the mascot for a team called the Ghosts, I'm not sure, but platypuses (platypii?) are hilarious in and of themselves.

I tried to take some cell phone video of a couple of guys but I don’t know how it will turn out if I upload it and put it on YouTube. If it turned out OK I’ll share it, but I’m not optimistic.

Fhwee

Franchise26 — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:33:52 -0000

Fhwee

As fhwee-quested. Woody Paige's whistling in the wind taken to its next logical step.

Dan O'Dowd on Jim Rome Show 3/13 - A Summary

Franchise26 — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 17:50:19 -0000

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'.

The annual "baseball video games are fun" post

Franchise26 — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 14:26:15 -0000

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).

Dunn, Nationals come to terms - ESPN

Franchise26 — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 21:01:57 -0000

Dunn, Nationals come to terms - ESPN

Posted not so much for the Nationals getting him, but for the fact that neither the Giants or Dodgers are getting him, which is good enough for me. I don't care that he strikes out eleventy billion times a season - Dunn scares the crap out of me at the plate. Glad he's heading east.

The Gift - My Rocktober Story

Franchise26 — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 04:54:01 -0000

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.

The worst thing is that it's never gonna feel as good as it did then, those 21 days where we all walked around with CR caps and idiot grins, those days when all the time and energy we'd expended got repaid tenfold, those heady times when the Rockies - our Rockies - were the greatest team in baseball, the lead story on SportsCenter, the feel-good , out-of-nowhere tale that even Hollywood would have rejected out of hand as too far-fetched.

We can't relive that feeling. No matter how hard we try. It was there for 21 days, and then gone, and it left us with NL Champions shirts and flags and coffee mugs and other miscellany, all pleasant reminders of those times, but none of them coming close to capturing just what those days felt like.

All we can do is hold on to the memories. Not just the big ones, either - the little ones, because while those were what made it special for all of us, it's the small stuff that made is special for each of us as individuals. Like these...

***

On the night of September 21st, 2007, I lay awake in a hotel room in Monteagle, Tennessee, compulsively flipping my cell phone open every five minutes under my blanket so as not to wake the three others in the room sound asleep as the clock neared midnight. Without a reliable wireless internet connection at the hotel that the DePauw University football traveling party, which I was a part of by virtue of being the team's play-by-play announcer, was staying at, the mobile internet on my cell phone was my lone lifeline as I checked in on the Rockies-Padres game in San Diego that night. As the game went from the 9th inning to the 10th, and further on into extra innings, I faded into sleep myself, unable to keep going after having endured a six-hour bus ride that afternoon. Around the 12th inning is when I think I finally faded out, my phone resting on the nightstand next to me.

I bolted awake at around 5:15. Instinctively, I reached for the phone. Instead of showing the live updating box score, my mobile internet now displayed the AP game recap: "Brad Hawpe homered in the top of the 14th inning..."

The next day was a blur. DePauw beat Sewanee 14-10. There was another bus ride, six hours back through the Nashville and Louisville city limits on the way back to West Central Indiana. It was my 21st birthday, and the Rockies were playing the Padres, and with what little cell phone battery I had left, I kept hitting the refresh button on the live boxscore. Ryan Speier worked out of a big jam in the fifth and I silently rejoiced. When the game ended, I couldn't be silent anymore. I turned to my broadcast partner and said, simply, "One and a half out with six to play. This is incredible."

***

Trevor Hoffman came on to pitch the ninth inning in Milwaukee and I prepared to write a eulogy for the 2007 Rockies season. I was searching for the song and lyrics that could best fit the feeling of losing something that we had never really had in the first place. I found "I Know It's Over," by the Smiths.

I know it's over
And it never really began
But in my heart it was so real

I pasted it into a Word document, ready to start writing. Then my dad called. We began commiserating, and the Brewers began rallying, and Tony Gwynn Jr. stepped to the plate.

The 1,051 miles of separation between my dad and I evaporated instantly. We were both on the couch together, watching, hoping for the miracle that we both knew deep down wasn't going to happen... TIE GAME! And I could no longer feel the soil falling over my head.

My dad and I stayed on the phone through the 10th inning, and the 11th inning. The Brewers loaded the bases. As the next Brewers hitter approached the plate, my dad asked, "What is a Vinny Rottino?" I barely had time to answer before whatever it was drove in the game winning run.

We were still alive. I closed out of Word, choosing not to save my work.

***

The tiebreaker game... those are no small memories. I will say until I draw my dying breath that it was the greatest baseball game ever played, that Atkins' double was a homer and that Holliday did indeed touch the plate. But my favorite part of that game happened in the fifth inning, when Tulowitzki doubled and Holliday came to the plate. If you have a copy of the game on DVD or iTunes or whatever, watch that at-bat. If the chants of "M-V-P!" don't raise the hair on your arms, you don't have a pulse. And right in the middle of the bridge from V to P, Holliday laces one into center field to score Tulo and tie the game.

I just watched it again to see if I still got chills. Yep.

***

The night the lights went out at Coors Field, I was on another bus, a return trip from Birmingham, Alabama, where DePauw had beaten Birmingham Southern. Again, my phone was my lifeline. I never saw Ubaldo Jimenez baffle Phillies hitters. Never saw the stadium go dark. Never saw Jeff Baker's grounder through the hole. Never saw Manny Corpas pump his fist as the Rockies wrapped up their first playoff series win ever.

It was all in my head. And when it was over, I snapped my phone shut, turned to the Sports Information Director in the seat across from me, and said simply, "We're in the NLCS. This is unbelievable."

***

During Game 1 of the NLCS I was supposed to be hosting a bi-weekly sports talk radio show. That night's discussion was periodically interrupted with descriptions of the big plays (without the written consent of Major League Baseball).

As Game 2 extended into extra innings, I made myself a cup of hot tea to soothe my throat and packed my suitcase for a trip back home to Denver. Willy Taveras drew a bases loaded walk and I set aside my tea and cracked open a celebratory Coors Light. It was 1 AM in Indiana.

Every time Josh Fogg induced a double play in Game Three, I leapt off my couch at home, now surrounded by my family as I watched. Yorvit Torrealba hit a homer off that fat piece of crap Livan Hernandez and for the first time during that magical run, I got to high five and hug somebody.

***

I was at Game 4. Made it in the stadium just in time, my brother and I sprinting four blocks with tickets from StubHub in hand to get inside Coors Field in time to see Franklin Morales warming up and 50,000 people waving their white towels over their head.

I stopped my brother on the concourse, in the right field corner, which provides a great view of the crowd. We looked at the towels waving and listened to the music pulsate through the ballpark and I saw the place I love the most in the world the way I had always wanted to see it.

"Look at this place. Look at this f***ing place."

I turned to my brother.

"Unbelievable."

***

When it was over, when Eric Byrnes had done his faceplant and a dogpile of black jerseys had formed and people started throwing brooms in the air in jubilation... I can't even do that moment justice except to say I wish I could live it over again every day. I looked at my dad's face and I saw him look like a little kid. I wrapped my brother in a bear hug so tight I thought I'd break him. And then the high-fiving and hugging of total strangers started - what experience other than sports can make us do that without thinking? - and there was more cheering and towel-waving and fireworks all blurring together into one glorious visage.

There was a woman standing next to me - I'd figure her to be in her late 30s - wearing a Casper Rockies cap and sobbing. I mean there were a flood of tears coming from the seat next to me. She had come alone. I turned to my right and gave her a hug, and simply said, "This is unbelievable."

The next day I went with my brother and mom to Sports Authority to get the NL Champions t-shirt. There were about 15 other people surrounding the merchandise tables that afternoon. Each person had the exact same look on their face - that idiot's grin, that look lie we'd all hit Scratch-and-Win and bedded a supermodel the night before.

***

The World Series wasn't nearly as much fun, but at least we got beaten by a superior ballclub. Never any shame in that. But that moment in the 9th inning of Game 4, when Jamey Carroll turned on a Jon Papelbon fastball and sent it screaming towards the left field fence... that instant the ball hung in flight, looking like it could tie up the ballgame... that was the last moment of the gift we had been given, that unshakable belief that the Rockies could pull it out. That game died in Jacoby Ellsbury's glove. But the gift never did.

***

There's a box in my closet at my parent's house. It's not my house anymore - I live alone and work in northern Wyoming these days. But it's my box, and it's full of everything I've got from the 2007 season. Game notes and press passes from the season's first two months, when I was interning with the Rockies' flagship radio station. Programs and ticket stubs from June to August. Copies of every Denver Post edition from the tiebreaker game on through the end of the Series. The Rocktober placard and white towel I saved from Game 4. It's all in there. Realistically, once I get it back and move it to my new home, it'd be the first thing I'd save from a fire.

But that box isn't big enough. It can't fit all of those memories. I can't store the way I felt watching Matt Holliday lift the Giles Trophy in a box. I can't relive that wild scene at Coors Field immediately following that final out in Game 4.

And that's the worst thing. But the best thing is that we got to feel that way at all. Those 21 days belong to us, always. It was a gift unlike any other. A team will win a championship this year and give their fans a thrill, just like the year before and all the years thereafter. And one of these days, the Rockies are going to win a World Series, and it's going to be awesome, and special. But even that won't top those 21 days.

NLCS Roster

Franchise26 — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 01:34:58 -0000

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.

MLB Mock Draft at MVN

Franchise26 — Mon, 14 May 2007 19:32:53 -0000

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.

Poll

Who should UItR take 8th overall in the mock draft?

Daniel Moskos, LHP, Clemson

0 votes

Beau Mills, IF, Lewis & Clark State

2 votes

Ross Detwiler, LHP, Missouri St.

8 votes

Jason Heyward, OF, GA HS

2 votes

Max Scherzer, RHP, Missouri

2 votes

Michael Main, P/OF, FL HS

0 votes

Andrew Brackman, RHP, North Carolina St.

2 votes

Phillipe Aumont, RHP, Canada HS

1 votes

17 votes | Poll has closed

AA Tulsa Roster

Franchise26 — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 04:14:21 -0000

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.