SB Nation User Blog: RockiesMagicNumber

Cincinnati Reds interested in Garrett Atkins

RockiesMagicNumber — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 22:00:21 -0000

More photos » by David Zalubowski - AP

Garrett Atkins has been a trade piece for the Rockies all season. Who will ~~lose~~ win the Atkins sweepstakes?

Troy Renck of the Denver Post is reporting that the Reds are talking to the Rockies about Garrett Atkins.

Atkins has clearly floundered with the Rockies this season, and may bring back relief help for the Rockies' ragtag bullpen.

A potential target coming back for the Rockies would be Nick Masset, and acquiring him would likely force the Rockies to eat some of Atkins' $3.4M remaining contract. David Weathers may also be a match.

Boston's interest in Atkins as an insurance policy for Mike Lowell is waning, Renck reports, as the Rockies would demand someone of the caliber of Manny Delcarmen in return.

	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	K	SB	CS	AVG	OBP	SLG
2009 - Garrett Atkins	68	232	25	52	7	0	6	25	25	34	0	0	.224	.300	.332

	W-L	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	BS	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP
2009 - Nick Masset	4-0	30	0	0	0	0	0	34.1	19	10	9	1	13	30	2.36	.93

	W-L	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	BS	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP
2009 - Manny Delcarmen	2-1	33	0	0	0	0	1	32.2	30	10	7	0	15	24	1.93	1.38

The Seattle Mariners and St. Louis Cardinals may remain a match for Atkins as well, with Renck suggesting Miguel Batista as a salary match for Colorado.

Miguel Batista is somewhat terrible, however, and I do not see how assuming his salary would help the club with anything.

Props to wolf213 for catching this before I did. Like minutes before, seriously.

--UPDATE--

John Fay of the Cincinnati Enquirer reports that the Rockies called the Reds to see if they were interested.

They were not.

Rockies interested in Pittsburgh's Freddy Sanchez

RockiesMagicNumber — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 16:47:21 -0000

More photos » by Gene J. Puskar - AP

Freddy Sanchez: Soon to be in the Purple Pinstripes?

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According to John Perrotto at The Insider On Pittsburgh Sports, the Rockies are interested in Pittsburgh's Freddy Sanchez. The Pirates have been known to be incredibly interested in Eric Young, Jr., and it would seem that some sort of swap of the two would be something in the works.

Sanchez is making $6.1M this season, with a $8M club option for the 2010 season. 2B has been somewhat of an offensive hole for us so far this season, but the benefits that Sanchez would provide are definitely above Clint Barmes' level of production, but his miserable 2008 suggests that he's somewhat of a crapshoot.

Sanchez is listed as a 2.4 WAR player this season, and is posting a .316/.355/.477 batting line this season, with 6HR, 33RBI, and a wOBA of .358.

Barmes has provided 1.6 WAR, most of it based on his fielding numbers, with .282/.324/.482, 10HR, 43RBI, and a .343 wOBA. He's also making $1.625 this season.

It should also be noted that Sanchez is a .858 OPS batter at home, .808 on the road, with about an even split between his plate discipline and power dropping away from PNC, and a miniscule drop in batting average. Barmes is putting up a .906 OPS at home, dropping to a .725 on the road, with a .040 split in his batting average and a massive power outage away from Coors Field. His weak plate discipline is consistent home and away. Young is showing a.331/.433/.459 line in Sky Sox Stadium and a .262/.335/.360 line on the road.

ZIPS projects Barmes to be a .330 wOBA player the rest of the season (read that as a league-average bat) with the defensive skills we're all familiar with, while Sanchez is projected at a .331 wOBA, and while his glove has been positive this season, it would definitely be a dropoff for the rest of the season.

Sanchez is also batting with a .356 BABIP, as compared to a career .329 BABIP, so there's a distinct chance that his batting average will drop, but there's also the infamous Coors Field effect that might boost his production.

The real question mark is if the Rockies really want to give up a guy like Eric Young Jr., a potential fan favorite thanks to EY Sr.'s legacy, who has the speed to bring back a lot of the 1-2 distraction we had in 2007 with Kazuo Matsui and Willy Taveras.

Longterm thinking, I don't feel this is a smart move for the organization, especially if we're boosting payroll that could be used to support pitching instead. While Sanchez might provide a better bat at 2B than Barmes', I feel we'd be taking a potential weapon away from the lineup in EYJ and that Sanchez is just as streaky as Barmes, with less of a glove to support him during the cold spells.

On the flip side, this might be the kind of move that most people have been suggesting (in general): Move some of our prospect depth and get some MLB talent in the lineup. The issue is that while we have "depth" at the middle infield positions, the "real" talent we're expecting in Chris Nelson or Hector Gomez is a couple of years away.

Many here on Purple Row feel that EYJ could be a contributor now, and while he hasn't been explicitly linked to this trade, it's no secret that Pittsburgh wants a 1-2 punch of McCutchen and Young, Jr. at some point.

**UPDATE**

According to Perrotto, it appears that the Rockies are willing to part with Casey Weathers as a part of this trade. Carlos Gonzalez' name has come up as well, but I sincerely hope that we could get more if we were to move Gonzalez.

Poll

Would you be okay with this trade?

The Case for Bob Apodaca: Headcases and Ground Balls

RockiesMagicNumber — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 17:09:25 -0000

More photos » by David Zalubowski - AP

Well, candlesticks always make a nice gift...

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According to Wikipedia, a pitching coach's role is defined as such:

"A pitching coach, as the title suggests, mentors and trains teams' pitchers. He advises the manager on the condition of pitchers and their arms, and serves as an in-game coach for the pitcher currently on the mound. When a manager makes a visit to the mound, he typically is doing so to make a pitching change or to discuss situational defense. However, to talk about mechanics or how to pitch to a particular batter, the pitching coach is the one who will typically visit the mound."

Now, when your pitching staff just stinks, it's hard to really just blame the pitching coach. The Cleveland Indians currently have the worst pitching staff in terms of ERA. Outside of Cliff Lee being pretty solid again this year and Carl Pavano having a nice rebound to his time in the Bronx, the rotation has been pretty much putrid. With so little to work with, how much of the Indians' poor performance do you pin on Carl Willis? The Indians had a relatively bangup staff in 2007, only to see their future studs fall apart in the subsequent seasons.

On the flip side of the coin, you also have (arguably) the best pitching coach of the past 20 years in one Leo Mazzone, who ESPN rates as the best assistant coach of All-Time. Mazzone made some gems out of pitchers such as John Thomson, Denny Neagle, and John Burkett, which should give credence to the influence of the best pitching coach around. However, he also was the man who coached John Smoltz, Tom Glavine, and Greg Maddux. How much of Mazzone's success was inflated because of the sheer level of pitching talent he had? Or, to rephrase, did Mazzone make the Big 3, or did they make Mazzone? Mazzone was later hired by Baltimore and fired with a year left on his contract, and maybe that's just because Baltimore's pitching has stunk outside of Erik Bedard (and I guess Jeremy Guthrie) the past 4 years, Leo Mazzone or no Leo Mazzone.

So somewhere in the middle of the worst pitching and the best pitching is the Rockies' pitching, headed up by one Bob Apodaca. The guy is in the most precarious position in baseball coaching (outside of Joe Girardi's), trying to get the Colorado Rockies to pitch like a winning club should.

Years ago, the advanced baseball minds thought to themselves "We need to find a way to pitch effectively in Coors Field." Any fly ball was prone to landing on I-25, so the next thought was "well, maybe we just won't put the ball in play, therefore no fly balls!" but strikeout pitchers were always in high demand, and therefore expensive and oftentimes prone to being terrible in the high altitude and thin air. So the next thought was "well, let's get groundballers and a good defensive infield, that'll prevent homers!"

And so it came to pass that Aaron Cook didst taketh the mound and didst forceth batters to poundeth the ball into the ground...th.

Ok, silliness aside, we know that groundballers are going to never really be Aces, but they're going to be very effective in a big park like Coors Field, especially with a strong middle infield and Todd Helton at 1B. So our new strategy is: draft groundballers. Seems cut and dry, but what happens when we need to make acquisitions, or when a guy who is MLB ready doesn't show the ability to keep the ball low and the infield busy?

That's where Bob Apodaca comes into play.

Join after the jump and we'll examine what Apodaca has done with some of our starters.

Looking at Jason Marquis, Ubaldo Jimenez, and Jorge De La Rosa, I'm going to propose that Apodaca is doing something right. Maybe not the same thing for each pitcher, but something is being done right.

Marquis is kind of a no-brainer at the moment. His NL-leading 11 wins (shudder) and All-Star selection have forced baseball fans and sportswriters alike to notice our unassuming stud. Coming into 2009, many pundits made the claim that Colorado would be disappointed with Marquis, thinking that we would be getting a groundballing-inning-eating back end starter, but the sad reality was to be that his groundballing ways had tapered off and he'd simply be batting practice in the form of 170 innings.

2007 and 2008 seemed to lend credence to this pessimistic view, as his GB% had dropped from a career-high 55.2% in 2004 with St. Louis to 47.6% in 2008 with Chicago. While still passable, you couldn't really call him a groundballer. Since arriving in Colorado, Marquis has improved this tally to 57.8%, good for 2^nd highest in the majors behind St. Louis' Joel Pineiro.

Interestingly, a lot of this is to be credited to his fastball. Fangraphs rates Marquis' fastball as a negative pitch since 2005 with the Cardinals, and it hit its absolute lowest in 2006, costing the team 1.13 runs per 100 fastballs. From there, Marquis did his best to rely on his slider, with it peaking as a 1.84 runs/100 pitch in the 2008 season. This season, however, Marquis' fastball has saved the team 10.6 runs (0.98 runs/100), and while his slider's value has dropped to only 0.38 runs/100, the improvement in his fastball is clear in his improved GB%.

Adam Dunn was quoted by Owen Perkins (MLB.com) as saying "When I first faced him, eight or nine years ago, he threw about 95, straight as an arrow, and then someone taught him a sinker. The difference between him now and in the past is he throws every pitch for a strike."

Adam Dunn knows a thing or two about straight fastballs.

Dave Krieger quoted Marquis in yesterday's article as crediting Apodaca for his improvement: ""I'm glad I came here, worked with 'Dac,' and it got me right to where I need to be. I feel like this is where I want to be, and this is where I want to stay."

Clear-cut proof that Apodaca is good? Probably not, but we can see the improvement in Marquis, and he feels as if Apodaca has been instrumental in this turnaround. To quote Crash Davis, "If you believe you're playing well because you're getting laid, or because you're not getting laid, or because you wear women's underwear, then you ARE! And you should know that!" Well, hopefully Marquis isn't bringing that kind of information (the Too Much kind) to the ballpark, but if he thinks Dac is helping him, he probably is.

Our next 2 cases will be far briefer, because I just felt that Marquis needed more attention from me.

Ubaldo Jimenez was the big pitching thing to come out of our farm for the longest time, promising 100 mph heat and a slider that breaks like movie glass. Well, he's here, and he's delivered. Am I attempting to credit Apodaca for Jimenez being good? Well, maybe a small bit, but the fact of the matter is that Jimenez is a prospect that simply panned out. Good talent makes good pitchers in a general sense.

However, it's not to say that Apodaca hasn't left his mark. Jimenez came to the majors carrying a career minor league 40.8% GB%. Granted, it had bumped itself up to 47.2% by 2007 in AAA, but he clearly was on the flyball side of things.

To date, Ubaldo has a 53.0% GB% to follow up his 54.4% GB% from 2008. Currently, he ranks 8^th in the majors in GB%, behind fellow Rockies Jason Marquis and Aaron Cook (who are incidentally 2^nd and 3^rd), but also behind prolific groundballers Roy Halladay and Derek Lowe. Additionally, we have watched Jimenez' BB9 fall from 4.67 last season to a respectable 3.69 this season.

Young, wild pitcher, refining his game, his control, and his ability to keep the ball on the ground? I'm detecting a trend here.

Now DLR is kind of the wild card here. He has his proponents and opponents on this website, and has shown the ability to absolutely dominate the opposition (7/3 - 8.0IP, 6K, 4BB, 0R or 5/15 - 7.0IP, 1ER, 10K, 0BB) or become batting practice (6/16 - 2.1IP, 7ER, 4K, BB). But the things he's doing as a whole look pretty decent, at least for a back end starter: 5.14 ERA, 3.81 FIP, 9.37 K9 (6^th in the majors), 2.21 K/BB. You look at everything but the ERA and you might think you had a upper-end starter.

Since he's been with the Rockies, we've seen his K-rate jump 5.68 in 2007 with the Royals to 8.86 and 9.37 in 2008 and 2009, respectively. While his fastball is very hittable, his changeup and slider have been excellent weapons for him, and we've seen his GB% jump 5-6% over the past 2 years (from ~40% to around ~46%). While it's not extreme in any way, he's making more use of his infield defense to complement his high strikeout ability.

Now this is where the opponents step in and reference more of his Jekyll/Hyde propensity, and how Apodaca can't handle De La Rosa and therefore isn't a good coach. My response is that it's a coach's job to work on how a pitcher pitches, and with the more stable guys, be able to provide a calming word or two. De La Rosa is clearly not a more stable guy, being prone to having emotional outbursts in the forms of profanity and baseballs in the seats. But before we hang Apodaca for not fixing De La Rosa, take a look at the game logs from DLR's 2007 in KC. Looks pretty familiar, doesn't it? Maybe it's just DLR, but the point is, he's harnessing his tools and abilities very well, and playing to the team's strengths more than he was in KC.

Looking at the big picture with DLR, in fact, the only thing that has really changed about his peripheral stats is that he's striking more guys out. His BB9 is .06 lower than last year, and his HR9 is .01 greater. His BABIP has jumped .004, but his FIP has dropped 0.25 runs. For an inconsistent pitcher, that's downright consistent.

So to summarize, Apodaca has had varying degrees of talent to work with the past few years. He's worked with prospects, veterans, and reclamation cases. He's worked with Jason Marquis to fix his fastball and get the ball back on the ground. He's started to rein in Ubaldo Jimenez and added a groundball propensity. Finally, he's taken Jorge De La Rosa and made his breaking pitches start to work for strikeouts again. Granted, he's still a headcase, but that's what we have shrinks for.

Despite criticism and spells of bad pitching, I really think that Bob Apodaca has done a good job with what he's had to work with. He's improved areas of strength, worked around weaknesses and made these guys into pitchers that play as part of a team, and not just hurlers surrounding by 8 fielders.

White Sox acquire Pena from D-backs

RockiesMagicNumber — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 14:50:54 -0000

White Sox acquire Pena from D-backs

Tony Pena for 1B Brandon Allen. The Dbacks appear to be selling. Qualls may not be available, which leaves Doug Davis and Jon Garland as pitchers we may be interested in, but probably not.

Troy Tulowitzki’s 1st halves: 2007 and 2009

RockiesMagicNumber — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:54:06 -0000

More photos » by David Zalubowski - AP

Keep on beltin' them, Tulo, we're gonna need it.

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In Patrick Saunders' notes from yesterday's game, he points out the fact that Tulowitzki's 1^st half '07 looks similar to his 1^st half '09 based on his statlines. The funny thing is that I sort of agree with him, but not for the reasons Saunders cites.

He points out that in 2007, Tulo batted .281 with 8 HR and 36 RBI. In 2009, he's batting .248 with 13 HR and 33 RBI.

Now, as many of you know, I don't take kindly to RBI as a good indicator of a player's skill. RBIs, however, seem to be the most similar thing between both sample sets. Given that I prefer a slash line and/or wOBA, I whipped up some quick numbers that AREN'T RBI:

Split	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	HR	BAbip	wOBA	IsoD	IsoP
2007	.286	.358	.432	.790	9	.340	.353	.072	.146
2009	.248	.337	.465	.802	13	.264	.350	.089	.217

The similarities really come when you look at his OPS and wOBA numbers. Pretty similar, but for all sorts of different reasons.

Just looking at these numbers, we can see that Tulo's low batting average is really crushing his OPS and wOBA. He's also suffering from a low LD% (15.1%) as compared to the season line of 20.1% in 2007, as well as a cripplingly low BABIP to stack up to the unsustainably high BABIP in 2007.

What he's doing well is being patient and hitting for solid power, as evidenced by the improved IsoD, IsoP, and HR total. His .350 wOBA puts him at a good level above average, so there's no reason to fret there (in a general sense anyhow - for comparison, the Cards are trotting out some combination of a .318 and .296 wOBA hitter at SS).

Based on his peripherals, a more normal BABIP might show us something like a .275/.364/.492 line, good for a .856 OPS and somewhere in the .360-.370 range for wOBA.

So to summarize the above, yeah, his OPS and wOBA look very similar, but 2007 was more OBP driven while 2009 is more SLG driven. The funny thing to note is that despite his higher OPS, he's actually "cold" right now. You toss that .248 average in the microwave for 1 All-Star break on high, and we just might have a piping hot SS coming out of the gates.

Which then leads me to mention his 2007 2^nd half split:

Split	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	HR	BAbip	wOBA	IsoD	IsoP
2007 (2^nd)	.296	.360	.531	.891	15	.329	.391	.064	.235

Those are some numbers to hang your hat on. If Tulo can keep up his current IsoD and IsoP (patience and power), we could see a similar statline coming out of him during the 2^nd half, and maybe even a wOBA improvement.

What does that mean in not nerd-speak?

We might just have another huge bat to ride for the rest of the summer.

Matt Herges: The reason we look at peripherals

RockiesMagicNumber — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 04:22:50 -0000

[Reposted from Purple Row]

2007, Matt Herges was a hero. Sported a low ERA, pitched in some big games during Rocktober, and most importantly, tossed 3 scoreless innings of relief in the game 163 tiebreaker to send the Rockies to their 2nd ever playoff berth.

Herges, who sported a career-low WHIP in 2007 (and his 2nd lowest season ERA) in 2007, watched his numbers fall apart to an ERA near double his 2007 tally and his whip skyrocketed to levels near his career worst.

So what has really changed?

Well, it's honestly hard to say. Take a look at the past 3 seasons of Matt Herges:

Season	Team	ERA	G	IP	TBF
2007	Rockies	2.96	35	48.2	191
2008	Rockies	5.04	58	64.1	294
2009	Indians	3.55	21	25.1	107

Just based on those numbers, it's looking as if we're dealing with 2 separate pitchers here: a downright solid long reliever in 2007, a mopup guy in 2008, and a decent middle reliever in 2009.

Let's check out his peripherals:

Season	Team	K/9	BB/9	K/BB	HR/9	FIP
2007	Rockies	5.55	2.77	2.00	0.74	4.00
2008	Rockies	6.44	3.36	1.92	0.70	4.06
2009	Indians	6.39	2.13	3.00	1.07	3.87

You can that Herges' K rate has actually improved a bit, but isn't too far off of his career K rate (6.14), and while his BB rate has fluctuated from year to year, it's actually better than his career BB rate (3.37). His HR rate has inched up a bit, but it's still at a decent level, just a bit above his career (0.84). Just looking at his FIP, it's pretty clear that Herges hasn't really changed TOOOOO much over the past couple of seasons.

The point to all this is Herges is pitching well now. He's not stellar, he's not mindblowing, but he's pitching above the level that he was in 2007 when we went to the World Series. I really think that he could be a solid addition to this ballclub. If the fact that he's still as decent as he was back when we was fab isn't enough to sell you, check out ZIPS' projections on him the rest of the season:

Season	Team	K/9	BB/9	K/BB	HR/9	AVG	WHIP	BABIP	LOB%	FIP
2009	ZIPS	6.28	2.67	2.35	0.94	.264	1.31	0.299	---	3.89

Frankly, those kind of numbers are the kind of numbers I want in my pen. We'd probably sign him to a MLC and then from there, wait until one of the relievers starts to fall apart. We need bullpen help, and I think Herges could be some of the help we're looking for.

Just like in 2007, Herges' money pitch has been his changeup, which Fangraphs lists as 2.80 runs above average per 100 changeups (I don't really know what this means, but it's his good pitch) but his fastball is lacking in excitement. He's lost about .5-1mph off of it since 2007, but at the same time, it was barely cracking 90 as it was.

So in essence, he still has some tools that we might need to use, and he could probably fill in where we're hurting. Is he the key acquisition we're looking for? Probably not, but he certainly can't hurt. Especially given the performance we saw tonight out of our other ragtag relievers.

Matt Herges: The reason we look at peripherals

RockiesMagicNumber — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 02:42:52 -0000

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View full size photo uploaded July 4, 2009

Herges, who sported a career-low WHIP in 2007 (and his 2^nd lowest season ERA) in 2007, watched his numbers fall apart to an ERA near double his 2007 tally and his whip skyrocketed to levels near his career worst.

So what has really changed?

Well, it's honestly hard to say. Take a look at the past 3 seasons of Matt Herges:

Season	Team	ERA	G	IP	TBF
2007	Rockies	2.96	35	48.2	191
2008	Rockies	5.04	58	64.1	294
2009	Indians	3.55	21	25.1	107

Just based on those numbers, it's looking as if we're dealing with 2 separate pitchers here: a downright solid long reliever in 2007, a mopup guy in 2008, and a decent middle reliever in 2009.

Let's check out his peripherals:

Season	Team	K/9	BB/9	K/BB	HR/9	FIP
2007	Rockies	5.55	2.77	2.00	0.74	4.00
2008	Rockies	6.44	3.36	1.92	0.70	4.06
2009	Indians	6.39	2.13	3.00	1.07	3.87

Season	Team	K/9	BB/9	K/BB	HR/9	AVG	WHIP	BABIP	LOB%	FIP
2009	ZIPS	6.28	2.67	2.35	0.94	.264	1.31	0.299	---	3.89

At Bat/Entrance Music: 2009 Edition

RockiesMagicNumber — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 18:02:44 -0000

Ok, we did one of these last season, time to do it again.

What music is played when our Rockies hit the plate or come into a game?

What I've gleaned:

CF Dexter Fowler - "Get Up" by 50 Cent

1B Todd Helton - "These are my people" by Rodney Atkins

3B Garrett Atkins - "The Way I Are" by Timbaland (still)

SS Troy Tulowitzki - "Roll with me" by Montgomery Gentry

3B Ian Stewart - it WAS "Paper Planes" by MIA and NOW it's "Turn my Swag On" by Soulja Boy

RF Brad Hawpe - "Rock Star" by Nickelback

LF Seth Smith - "Jesus Freak" by Dc Talk

OF Matt Murton - "Strong Tower" by Kutless (yes I know he's in the Springs thank you very much)

P Huston Street - "Hate Me Now" by Nas

2B Clint Barmes - "8 Second Ride" by Jake Owen

P Alan Embree - "Chicken Fried" by Zac Brown Band

OF Ryan Spilborghs - "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor

P Ubaldo Jimenez - "Crank That" by Soulja Boy

Other songs:

The song they play between outs in the 9th (and eventually strikes) - "Palladio" by Silent Nick

The song they played before the fireworks montage - "Let it Rock" by Kevin Rudolf

The song they play before the game starts between the Star Spangled Banner and the team coming onto the field - "Burn it to the Ground" by Nickelback

What songs are we missing?

Edit: Now - With YouTube Links!!

Casey Fossum becomes a Free Agent

RockiesMagicNumber — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:34:42 -0000

Casey Fossum becomes a Free Agent

As long as we're caught up on picking up barrel-scraping pitching, we might kick the tires on Fossum. While his career numbers are nothing special, he's done well between AAA Buffalo and AAA Scranton Wilkes-Barre.

Speaking of AAA SWB, we might also take a look at Sergio Mitre. He's showing impeccable control vs AAA batting (20K/2BB), but could also be a trade candidate if we start getting hurt or something.

The past 28 days: Sample Size? We don’t need no stinking Sample Size!

RockiesMagicNumber — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:34:56 -0000

More photos » by Chris Carlson - AP

15 days ago: Colorado Rockies' Troy Tulowitzki watches his solo home run against the Los Angeles Angels during the fourth inning of a baseball game in Anaheim, Calif., Tuesday, June 23, 2009. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

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Caught up in excitement of a lot of winning, we've had mostly heroics. It's been a team game the past 28 days, and here's where the Rockies stack up:

The Rockies are 1^st in AVG, OBP, SLG, OPS. - .285/.362/.477/.838

They are 5^th in terms of IsoD, or basically patience, behind Washington, San Diego, Milwaukee, and Cincinnati. - .077

They are 1^st in IsoP, or how hard they hit the ball on average - .192.

They are 4^th in SBs, behind the Dodgers, Mets, and Dbacks - 18.

They are 2^nd in homers behind the Phillies - 33.

They are 2^nd to last in GDPs (in the good way), with only Philly with less - 14

They are leading the league in BBs - 101

However, they are also leading the league in BABIP, at .321, compared to a league average of .293

So what do we draw out of this? Click past the jump and we'll take a look.

Also check out this spreadsheet if you'd care to take a look at what the whole crew is up to:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=rDrR5jMVWjorV5RiApqasxg

Well, they're clearly hitting the ball well, and waiting for their pitches. That team slash line is the kind of line you'd want to see out of any good ballplayer on your team. A .838 OPS player would be a starter on any team in baseball. The downside is that that high BABIP would suggest that they are batting at a higher average than you'd expect, and suggests they're due to cool down.

The biggest individual offenders in this regard are Seth Smith (.424), Brad Hawpe (.406), and Clint Barmes (.390). Out of these 3, this is going to hurt Barmes most, which we're all pretty aware of, as his plate discipline is rarely existant. His IsoD is at .018, suggesting that if he doesn't hit it, it's an out. As it stand, Barmes' .884 OPS is being mostly driven by slugging. As Hawpe and Smith have much better plate discipline in general, it won't completely sap their high OPS once their BABIP returns to normal levels.

What is good to see is that the team's OBP is at a healthy .362, leaps and bounds above the competition, and even with a normalized BABIP, it probably wouldn't drop too terribly low. We have a top-notch offense, and there's really no denying it anymore. Also, with the high BABIP, the fact that we've grounded into so few DPs tells us that we're not making terrible contact with as many pitches, in terms of rolling one right to the SS.

Outside of Hawpe, the OF has been offensively disappointing, at least in terms of Gonzalez, and somewhat Fowler, but these two are their own discussion entirely.

The real superstud on the team the past 28 days hasn't been who you'd expect. Granted, Hawpe is OPS'ing 1.013, but Troy Tulowitzki had dialed up his game, batting to the tune of .353/.447/.750 with a team-leading 7 dingers. What's more impressive is the fact that he's doing it all with a .340 BABIP, suggesting that while his numbers should come down, they won't drop TOO far when they do drop. Granted, I don't see Tulo averaging more than a double every time he gets a hit, but at the same time, I wouldn't be terribly shocked to see a .320/.410/.520 line out of him once he cools down a bit.

So what am I getting at here? Well, basically that the team is awesome. Sustainably awesome? Well, probably not at the head-and-shoulders level we've been batting above the rest of the NL. Some has been luck, and some has been players just stepping up their games.

How should we feel?

Proud.