First of all, I freely admit that I have no right to use Dinger's name in this story.  If the ownership of the team wants me to stop, I'll quickly comply. Until then, I'll churn out an episode from time to time. 

It’s great to be back in Denver!  I’m not a fan of cold weather or snow, so I enjoy my winters down in Key West - hanging out with Jimmy, eating cheeseburgers, and engaging in piecemeal hibernation.  However, there is such a thing as too much rest and relaxation, and it was nice to return to my job as dinovangelist for the Rockies.

The season got off to a rocky start.  When I opened my office door – balancing pizza and breadsticks in my other hand – I was buried in an avalanche of ping pong balls.  Some fool practical joker had filled the entire office with the blasted things.  I’m not going to name names, but he wears #19.

I was forced to eat my pizza in Jim Tracy’s office because of my own office being unsuitable for the purpose.  Jeff Francis tried to snag a piece when he thought I wasn’t looking (he loves Canadian bacon) but I growled at him and he backpedaled out of the office.

I returned to my own digs and got the bat boy to help clear the place of the unwanted spheres.  We got most of the mess cleaned up in a couple of hours, although they are still popping up from time to time.

When I finally turned the computer on, Windows told me that it needed to install 376 critical updates.  Holy cheese balls.  I gave up and called it a day (although I did snag some nachos and cotton candy from the snack bar on the way out – important ingredients for Dinger’s famous Cotton Nacho Stew).

I returned to the office the next day at the crack of noon.  I slogged through thousands of emails.  Most of them were selling “enhancement” products and pyramid schemes, but there was also some good stuff – like the announcement of Dinger bobble head night!  It’s about darned time.  I’m the longest tenured member of this team, and I get no respect.  Tulo, Helton, Walker – they all get talked about more than Dinger!

The other mascots had already started trash talking.  That stupid San Diego chicken was clucking about something.  Ha!  His goose will be cooked soon.  Mr. Met was loudly proclaiming that the Mets were going to win the World Series and giving himself credit for many of the offseason moves.  That dude has a really big head.

There was also some paperwork to deal with.  Apparently, there was a problem with my TPS reports.  I resolved that quickly.  No TPS report means no paycheck.  No paycheck means no corn nuts!  Dinger is not going to risk a corn nut outage.  The great corn nut famine of ’03 is still a disturbing memory.

When I finished up the office work, I headed down to the field to join the team.  They were doing sprints in the outfield, and I jumped into line.  I faced off against Jason Giambi, and I absolutely smoked him.  I didn’t win a single sprint last April – this is a clear sign that Dinger is in great shape to start the 2010 season!

There’s good chemistry on this team, and a lot of good players.  I look forward to giving you the inside scoop during the season.

If you like this ... you may like my other fiction writing.  I write a new fiction short story every Friday on The Casual Observer and have also published PDF collections of them (as well as some audio versions) at my store.  The stories run the gamut from humor to crime, and range from a few hundred words to 10,000+.  [Editors: feel free to remove or tone down the shameless self-promotion, if you wish]

If you don't like this ... my sincere apologies :)

OK, we're on the cusp of the baseball season, so here is a blog post where I have reviewed what I consider to be the Best Baseball Sites In The World. Some of these are pretty well know (um, such as MLB.com) some are not particularly well known.

I stumbled across the college summer ball blog while I was writing the article. Enjoy - hopefully there's one or two good sites that you weren't aware of.

Is any one involved in any crazy fantasy leagues?

I wanted something completely unconventional last year, so I created the Alphabet Soup League.  The gist is that you can only start one player for each letter of the alphabet (i.e. if you start A-Rod, you can't start Manny Ramirez - you have to choose between the R guys).

This really puts a strange twist on player values.  Chris Iannetta is very popular, because he is a catcher at a very shallow latter (get beyond Iannetta, Ibanez, and Iwamura, there there's not much left.

You can download a PDF of the rules from my blog.  If you're looking for something new, crazy, and challenging, give this a spin.

I'm also in a keeper league where we keep every single player.  I drafted a team that was almost entirely prospects.  Year 1 (2007) was dreadful, because I got killed in the counting stats.  2008 was first place ... and I nabbed Fowler and David Price during their September callups, when everyone else was snoozing (or waiting for football)

I'd be curious to hear about other crazy formats.  I'm always looking for something new and different..

This is taken ver batim from my blog- The Casual Observer

Hope you enjoy it.  It is a satire (i.e. fiction)

Continue reading this post »

I have been trying to determine if the Rockies have a significantly different LD rate at home vs. road. To me, this would indicate a Coors Hangover with breaking balls (they would break more sharply on the road, and the Rockies would need to adjust for that after seeing flat breaking balls at home).

I found what I needed in baseball-reference.com's PI section (pay).  I took the raw data and massaged it to force it to give up its secrets.

Here is the data. Strikeouts, bunts, and fielder's choices are excluded from the rates. There were only 8 FC all year, so they are statistically insignificant. Bunts were excluded because the hitter is not trying put good wood on the ball. Since I only included at bats, sac flies are not included (they are PAs, but not ABs)

Without further ado:

5557 total at bats.
Overall
4270 full swing BIP
Ground: 1861 - 43.6%
Fly - 1499 - 35.1%
Line: 910 - 21.3%

Home:
2153 full swing BIP
Ground: 906 - 42.1%
Fly - 751 - 34.9%
Line - 496 - 23%

Road:
2117 full swing BIP
Ground: 955 - 45.1%
Fly: 748 - 35.3%
Line: 414 - 19.6%

Analysis:
3.4% more balls in play are hit for line drive in Coors than on the Road. Line drive are very commonly hits (I haven't calculated BA for the various types yet) so the extra LDs are going to boost BA and slugging.

Also, Rockies hitters struck out 651 times on the road vs. 549 on the road. It seems logical that this is due to more sharply breaking moving pitches, although there might be other explanations.

The extra 100 BIP at home (due to the fewer Ks) would result in 30 extra hits (assuming a BABIP of .300) - or an extra 0.4 hits/game.

I have not run the numbers for any other teams, so I'm not sure if this is a typical home/road split of not. I'll probably run the numbers for the rest of the NL West to get a decent baseline.

I'll calculate the numbers for each player when I get time.

Check out my blog (http://somecasualobservations.blogspot.com) for articles on baseball and other subjects.

Assuming that the Rockies become sellers, where will the players go?

Everyone should feel free to chime in with their thoughts.  Throw in some predictions of the players/prospects you think the Rockies will get, if you feel like it.

Fuentes - Devils.  I keep hearing Bo Sox, Yankees, and Devils.  The Devils are loaded with prospects, and I can see them pulling off a couple of trades to make a run.  After all, how often are you going to have a chance to make a playoff run in a division with the Yankees and BoSox.

Holliday - I can see Holliday hanging around until the offseason, and I could also see him getting traded.  I wouldn't be shocked to see the A's grab him for a playoff run, and cash him in for compensatory picks at the end of 2009.

Atkins - Haven't heard any rumors in a while, and I've mostly been hearing Cleveland.  So I'll say that Atkins goes to the Indians.

First, I'll admit that I'm an interloper in this forum - I'm a Rockies fan.

However, I am a big fan of one particular Brewer - reliever Brian Shouse.  Brian's brother is a friend of mine (we work for the same company).

Anyway, I've been looking to acquire some of Brian's baseball cards.  At this point, I have 0 cards, so I'd be happy to obtain any run of the mill cards.  I'm willing to pay for the cards (a small premium - I won't pay $1 a card or anything crazy like that).  Or I'd be willing to trade Brewers cards for Shouse card.  I think I even have a few Pilots cards for those who are really interested in the history of the franchise.

I'd prefer to work with folks who might have a few dozen cards of Shouse (to avoid pay $1 postage for a 5 cent card). 

The cards don't necessarily have to be of Brian with the Brewers - any cards would be great.

Does anyone have extras of the trophy and ring that they are looking to sell?  I'm trying to find one on eBay, but it would be nice to buy one from someone here and cut out the eBay and Paypal middlemen (eliminating the ebay and paypal fees for the seller).  I'm guessing that there are several other Rockies fans who want to buy one of these.  Why not keep the trophy "in the family"? :)

On April 28th, the Rockies were 10-16, 9 games behind the front running Diamondbacks (19-7)

After struggling mightily and recording a 12-22 record in games since April 28th, the Rockies are 22-38.

10 games behind the first place Diamondbacks (32-28).

While it is true that we have missed a golden opportunity to make up ground on the snakes, we're really not in much worse shape than we were on April 28th ... except that 5 weeks have fallen off the calendar (and the injuries).

Hopeless optimism - perhaps.  But if we can't make the playoffs, hopefully we can at least rally to finish within a respectable distance of the first place team in the division.

Let's keep the wins coming and make a run!

I participate in a simulation baseball league (fake players, the computer simulates the games, player development, etc).  There are 32 people in the league (we have expanded to Vegas and Indy), spread widely across the US and Canada - literally from sea to shining sea.

I spent 1.5 years as the Braves (somebody left and there was an opening, so I jumped in).  Then the Rockies became available and I immediately jumped ship - in the middle of the season.

Under my leadership, the Rockies quickly righted a meandering ship and made the playoffs in 2028 and 2031 and narrowly missed in 2030 (lost a tiebreaker) and 2032 (missed by 1 game).  We're currently in the midst of the 2033 season (we play 5-6 seasons in a calendar year).  We're 3.5 games back of the front running Dodgers.  We have a shot, but our ace (Travis Wolf) just went down with an injury and will be out for a couple of months.

Last night was the draft.  I submitted several Rockies related names to the commish.  Roy Tulowitzki, a good hitting, slick fielding SS, went #1 overall to the Yankees.  SP Maury Wimberly went #19 to my Rockies.  RF Jackson Holliday went #26 to the Devil Rays.  SP Lane Lindsay went to Cleveland at #34.  Rory Wimberly (twin of Maury) went to my Rockies at #41.  I actually didn't "reach" for the Wimberlys - they were simply the best available value.

We also picked up SS Brandon Mullins at #20.  He's a great contact hitter with decent pop.  He will likely be shifted to 2B to replace to aging OBP machine Jamie Caboe.

Just thought some folks might like some positive Rockies news :)