I am happy that the Rockies are performing so well this season. I expected them to be competitive, but not this early. It seems like Dealin' Dan O'Dowd dealt this team into success. Is there a piece of wood I can knock on nearby? I"m not a superstitious man by nature, but the way the Rockies are going this season I expect them to be in the running for the NL West crown and for Jamie Moyer to be competitive in the Cy Young vote, if not win it.

Are you still there? Should I call 911? A 49 year old winning the Cy Young award? Well, Gaylord Perry did it at 40 and than Roger Clemens broke that record at 42. So, let me lists some reason why he could win it.

Pros

1. Jamie benefits from being out of baseball for a year. Batters don't know him that well.
   
2. Jamie benefits from being left-handed.
   
3. Jamie benefits from having very slow pitches which are great for Coors Field.

So that's the good news. And now the bad news.

Cons

1. The last time Jamie Moyer was in the discussion for the Cy Young award was in 2003. He had a 3.27 ERA and won 21 games.
2. He is coming off of surgery.
3. He pitches at Coors Field.

Please pass the purple-tinted Kool-aid and give me the purple-tinted glasses.

On another note, I believe Jamie Moyer will win 300 games for his career. Does anybody want to take me on that bet?

      In light of this season premature declaration of failure, better known as the trading of Ubaldo Jimenez for a few 'pieces of silver', I feel compel to bury my head in the sand and ignore the remainder of this season and the next. The Rockies getting four top pick draft picks for a meagerly paid ACE pitcher is not a good deal. Dan O'Dowd sold the farm way too early, trading Ubaldo away traded away at least two seasons.

I am extremely pessimistic of next season and the next one after...I do not care how much potential talent our four top draft picks are talked up, Ubaldo was a proven commodity. He was like a mocha at Starbucks that everybody look forward to having when he was pitching. Instead, we as Rockies fan, are left despondent , with no good baseball to enjoy in Denver till 2013 at the earliest. Meanwhile, it is raining cats and dogs today....

Speaking about cats....

        So for all you Rockies fans who just don't care anymore...please join me on this tangent and sign this petition to get pictures of cats on Starbucks cups. Maybe by 2013 Starbucks will put pictures of cats on Starbucks cups and the Rockies will be in contention again.   It's the least I can do to distract myself from the pain of the next one and half seasons; won't you join me and sign this petition too?

via 1.bp.blogspot.com

Recently I moved to South Korea and I have been following their baseball season somewhat. Shortly after I moved I read a good article from the Denver Post about how the Rockies developed some great international talent. The Rockies have developed some 'great international' talent with the TINIEST amount of money considering there are more baseball players outside of the US than inside. The Rockies should put more money into the international draft because their are more baseball players outside of the US than inside.

Consider, Ryu Hyun Jin, he is only 24 years old and he has some solid stats from pitching for the Hanwha Eagles. You know what I'm going to say next, right? The Rockies should draft him...sign him. Nobody in the US has heard of him yet. Let's get him now while he is cheap. Let's diversify. 

Thought?

Bud Selig wants to expand the playoffs to make more money. Not a bad idea in of itself....except he is missing one freaking concept...(wait for it)...MARGINAL UTILITY! The more you make of one thing the less you want it.

I love baseball and I love the playoffs but when the NHL and NBA start doing their playoff games I drown them out till it's the final series. Personally, I believe it is time for Bud Selig to go before he ruins baseball as we know it. He wants to put a salary cap on teams and expand the playoffs.

So my question is how to you folks at Purple Row feel about the expanding the playoffs and Bud Selig's tenure?

I sympathize with the Diamondbacks lost of a first round pick but their lost is our gain. Barett Loux should be seriously courted if not signed by the Rockies. I don't what the starting point is to sign him but I am incline to say that it shouldn't be more than $1M and 'maybe' a third of that money guaranteed.


Personally I think the Rockies are the best team for this first round draft (wink, wink) 'reclaim' project for the following reasons.

1. The Rockies have the money to do this.
2. The Rockies have the medical staff to do this
3. The medical staff is very well seasoned after working with Greg Reynolds, Casey Weathers, Jeff Francis.
4. A chance to have a scientific breakthrough with repairing labral tears.

As you can see the risk of this IS very low considering the expertise the Rockies can bring to the table. If Barret Loux wants to pitch in the big leagues he better go sign with the team with most experience repairing labral tears. Thoughts, comments or random pictures are welcome.

This sounds like a rhetorical question, but it really isn't. How much time should a GM be giving to turn a club around into a perennial contender? There is the question of how much money the owner can spends, how much the city could support the team, the 'farm, etc.  Personally, I find it hard to grade the success of a GM because it so nebulous. He should be focused on drafting talent and making trades that pan out in year or two but sometimes these actions take more than a three years to pan out. It a long term investment, not short.

So if I was to rate a GM on how he is doing I would look at these things.

1. Winning records for all farm teams. The more, the better.

2. Turnover on coaching staff. The less, the better.

3. Fan attendance for the parent club.

4. How his peers and the media rate and rank the club and the 'farm' .

It seems like the best GM have been around six years or longer after they have discovered a good building philosophy. Brian Cashman, Dan O'Dowd, Bill Stone, Andrew Friedman, Billy Beane, Theo Epsetien, Walt Jocketty and Brian Sabean, are the shiniest examples I could think of. Right now, I would have a hard time to advocate for Dan O'Dowds removal because what he is doing is working and the consistency that he has provided for the Rockies that have prevented us from becoming the Pirates or the Royals. So in short, I'm glad the Monforts haven't fired Dan O'Dowd.

Anyway, please vote and comment on the poll let me know what you think is the minimum expectation time for a GM to turn around a team. No question is a stupid question.

Mark Kiszla wrote in the Denver Post that the Rockies should trade for another great starter while we are in contention. Personally, I think we should trade for a starter if we can't get any good pitching from Cook, Francis, and JDLR in the 3 pitching starts they each have this month. If they can't dominate one or two times than I'm incline to say that we will struggle in the playoffs. Assuming we trade I would like to get a 'cheap' pitcher such as Livian Hernandez or Ben Sheets. I know the Rockies fleeced the Lastros on the Jason Jennings trade but to do it a second time is asking a lot. Roy Oswalt is good but not $32M and 3 prospects good.

However, I should point out that the best option for fiscal and performance reasons would probably involve promoting Jholy Chacin to the rotation.

Thoughts?

It would be unprecedented, but having a pitcher that just started pitching in June leading pitchers that started in April in strikeouts by season end. Strasburg pitching performances have been unreal. Strasburg is averaging about 10k a game and has the potential to throw in about 18-20 games over the course of this season. To put in perspective, four more good pitching performances gets Strasburg on the top 50 leader board for all of MLB but he'll need just two to lead NL pitchers.

Personally, I think it's a safe bet to say Strasburg will be in the top ten of all strike-out leaders by season end barring injury. Heck, if the injury bug strikes Lincecum, Haren, Oswalt, Halliday, Kershaw, Wainwright, Oswalt, Lirano, Lester and Weaver, Strasburg could be the pitching strikeout leader.

Notice...I didn't include Ubaldo in the list...Ubaldo in my opinion won't be strikeout leader this year but probably the ERA, WHIP and games won.

Quick question...is it just me or do all baseball fans like doubleheaders? The reason I like them is because I'm guarantee at least six hours of baseball, provided we have good weather. The extra add benefit is we could jump up two games in the W column tomorrow or get quickly back into the cellar. So please just let me know...you prefer single games or doubleheaders?

I'm pulling for a Rockies to sweep, it would be a fitting memorial service for Keli McGregor, who was quite a superb gentlemen. Who's going by the way?

In light of Huston Street's recent injuries, the question is, who is the closer? Is it Manny Corpas, Huston Street, Betancourt, Daley or someone else? Just recently Eric Gagne was released by the Dodgers; do the Rockies take the chance on a guy they once offered a contract . Or do we just grab Joe Beimel? Please keep in mind, currently Huston Street's shoulder after taking a MRI is 'structurally sound'. Sounds familiar, Jason Jennings, Denny Neagle, Mike Hampton, Jeff Francis,...uh...Eric Gange?

Here's a poll please let me know what you all think.

If you haven't seen the previous two season of commericals you are missing out.

Here is a link to get the hype up.

Here is a link to the commercials.

And the classic Mario game...regulars know what I'm talking about.. This was truly well done by whoever thought up the idea. All we need is one more with Bowser dead. Anybody want to make a remake?

So here is to a great 2010 Rockies season. The one where we win it all!

Personally, I think people that follow the Colorado Rockies on a casual level hate the Boston Red Soxs more than the New York Yankees because they manhandled the Rockies en route to their 2nd WS trophy of the decade. So because I'm curious I have a poll up...granted it's not very scientific but whatever. The general impression I get on purplerow.com is that the Yankees is probably the #2 team we hate after the Red Soxs. Or am I wrong about that? 

P.S.

What else are we going to talk about ad naseum till the season start? Suggestions?

Here is a link to Yahoo! Sports. I think it's a decent idea, I would support it if Bud Selig got rid of the World Baseball Classic which is a freakin joke.  If he could make the  Global World Series consist of serious baseball countries such as the  US, Canada, Japan,  and Mexico,  I think it would have a chance as long as its done every two years and is a short playoff series during spring training.

What do you guys think? Personally, I'm for it if the winner can play less than games to be the winner in Hawaii during March...but this is vaguely looking like the Pro Bowl of the NFL....shudder....shudder....

P.S.

One thing I don't understand is why we bother with, is during the WBC is an Italian and Netherlander team, why? We(US) have to loan the country our players to be competitive!

I'll be a bit disappointed if the Rockies and Torrelaba split up over $500K according to this article. Personally, I think the Rockies would be doing a disservice to their fans, themselves and the players if they don't agree to it. Yorvit is offering quite a discount for a very serviceable platoon back-up player.

. Seriously, the Rockies are getting a heck of a deal for a starting/back-up catcher if all Yorvit is asking is $5.5 for two years. Just look at his competition. At minimum he should recieve a payday bigger than Schneider, Castro, Molina and AJ. However, I'll be amaze if he get Mauer's Money

*Disclosure: Yorvit is my most favorite Rockies catcher other than Iannetta. I still would like Chris being the starter though.*

This is perhaps the most pointless post I have ever written. I think almost everybody here, outside of new followers to this blog have a great idea of the Rockies demand and supply. So I felt the apparent need to test a working hypothesis, and that is by letting attentive fans dictate the Rockies Club moves. In summary I would like to see a series of poll questions that us( the fans) would vote on and compare the results where we have a super majority i.e. (66% voted in favor) to see if the Rockies follow it in the off season.

Here are some of those questions followed by a real one....

1.Starting outfield...

a) Hawpe, Spilly,  Cargo

b) Cargo, Smith, Fowler

c) Hawpe, Cargo, Smith

2. 5th starting pitcher...

a)  sign Marquis

b) let our farm system handle the problem

c) sign a minor league FA

P.S.

I hope this data wouldn't prevent a person from making a decision.

The Breakdown

The Roster

The Pay

The people we cut....

Omar  Q...because Barmes is better with a glove and bat. (Young needs seasoning)

Garrett Atkins... Stewart offense and D is good enough right now and we got a good back-up in McCoy

Hawpe or Giambi... we need to cut only one, I prefer cutting Giambi because Hawpe is younger and can play 1B

Alan Embree ....it's obvious

Matt Herges.... think about retirement please

The people we resign...

Yorvit Torreabla..... 2009 is reason enough to exercise a cheap $4mil option

Jason Marquis....I think Coors works great for him but if he doesn't want to stay fine. Hello Rockies Rookie Jholy Chacin (Christian Fredrich)!

Huston Street...I think he's out of our price range (secretly, I hope we don't sign him so I win the bet with RMN)

Bottom line:  I think there is a legitimate case to be made that the Rockies have the most talented and balance,  pitching rotation and line-up in the majors come 2010 if not in the whole NL West. All for under $80 mil :)

Well, I’m back from my first Astros game, they played the Cardinals and ‘shock’ lost. I ran into two Russians girls there surprisingly and they wanted me to explain baseball to them in 5 minutes or less. Let’s, just say they quickly lost interest in the game and left after the 3rd inning and then I turned to the baseball fan of choice for me, a mathematician who worked at MD Anderson. (for some odd reason it seems like the number crunching people are attracted to baseball like none other sport). He and I quickly dissected the Cardinals and the NL Central…in rather very rough terms. Basically we broke up the six teams in the division by management/ownership and their history involving building team recently.
1. Cardinals-Cardinals have a very impressive management and ownership group, they are perhaps the model of well run mid market team. Except for that minor feud with Walt Jocketty.
2. Cubs-Dear God, how the heck did this management team screw up so badly? They need a little stability.
3. Reds-New ownership group hired Walt Jocketty, their native, their smart and they stole Walt (aka Branch Rickey). I expect the Reds to once again rise as the Big Red Machine.
4. Brewers-Mark Attansio knows what he is doing, have you heard of this group doing anything dumb lately? I haven’t.
5. Pirates-Looking at how lacking their success is, it’s obvious there is failure in management…so don’t expect them to be in contention within a decade till management/ ownership changes philosophy.
6. Astros-This club is FUBAR till somebody comes up with a decent plan. Dayton McLane, God bless him, but randomly signing big bats without good starting and bullpen pitching is waste of money.

Anyway, that’s my long term analysis of the NL Central division and I pretty much expect only the Cardinals and the Brewers to be the only contending teams in the division for at least 3 year till at least the other teams figure something out. Short term analysis- the Cardinals better pray that they don’t get the Rockies because the Rockies are coming from perhaps the 2nd toughest division in the league to the weakest division in all of baseball. The Cardinals stats are simply inflated because their competition is that bad, Rockies in four.

I like it. I follow only one teamvery closely, but apparently not close enough compare to other fans here. I kinda of follow the Dodgers because I grew up in L.A., so I follow maybe two teams. However, shouldn't baseball analysts be follow all 30 teams?

I could've told them this was going to happen at the beginning of the season but now they look like they are caught with their pants down. Look at Passan and Brown! Did Passan seriously say he expects the Dodgers to win the West?!!! Bartender! I want whatever he is drinking.

Brad Hawpe situation blows my mind or rather
 his critics blow my mined People said he couldn't hit lefties but there wasn't a huge difference in his batting average between lefties and righties in 2008, 2009 and 2005. To me it seems that the law of average says any batter would eventually hit his ~b.a. regardless of whether the pitcher was a rightie or a leftie. As another example look at Pujlols stats. Sure there are some batters who have drastic deviations in the b.a. when it comes to lefties and righties but those are really rare, in my opinion (i.e. I should probably research my opinion). Anyway my point is how do we not know that Brad Hawpe was in the start of a slump in 2007 when he goes against leftie pitching? What if the critics were just saying that he couldn't hit left handed and it became the self-fuffiling prophecy for 2007. Now all of sudden in 2009 he's an All-Star, please who didn't see this coming, he's a great player!

Anyway, for lack of a better conclusion. I think more analysis is needed on the lefty vs righty b.a. differences. Coming soon to you an Excel spreadsheet!!!!! Let me know if anyone of you guys want to join in on this madness.

If you are Clint Hurdle and you have Greg Smith as a flyball pitcher in your rotation and Coors Field as your park....

A) Do you pitch Greg Smith on the 5 day rotation or...

B) Do you just try to make Smith pitch on the road and/or against teams that suck at hitting homeruns when he has to pitch at home or...

C) Hope to God Dan O'Dowd trades him quick.

I'm leaning towards option B/C but I don't know if anything like that has ever been done in baseball.

Bronson Arroyo, Aaron Cook, Jeff Francis, Ubaldo Jimenez and Glendon Rusch....seems like a decent rotation in the playoffs if we trade for Bronson. However, Bronson is more of wild card than the other four pitchers.  Even if we don't trade for him, the Rockies are in great shape pitching wise in AAA. What do you guys think?

FYI, I post few and far between....

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/jul/23/rockies-5-dodgers-3/

I think everybody is underestimating the Giants. I think we have forgotten how much of a chain Barry Bonds is around the Giant's neck. Once you remove the ailment from a team they generally start playing better, harder and faster.

Bottom line: The NL West is going to be the toughest division of all-time this upcoming season. Every team is loading with talent.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/nl/giants/2008-02-19-giants-offseason_N.htm?loc=interstitial skip