SB Nation User Blog: lizardlad01

Yorvit walks away???

lizardlad01 — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 08:57:03 -0000

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.*

Running a MLB Team by Voting (kinda of like Michael Bloomberg)

lizardlad01 — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 05:51:00 -0000

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.

Poll

Atkin's question: Do the Rockies tender a contract to him or let him walk?

Tender a contract

3 votes

Let him walk

50 votes

Let him walk and try to sign him for less

12 votes

65 votes | Poll has closed

Updated Quick & Dirty Cut List!

lizardlad01 — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 05:27:02 -0000

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 :)

	Fiscally conservative talent roster	2010 Salaries
Number	Name	Position	Salary
1	Todd Helton	1b	16.6
2	Eric Young Jr	2B	0.4
3	Ian Stewart	3B	0.4
4	Mike McCoy	3B	0.4
5	Chris Ianetta	C	0.45
6	Paul Philips	C	.4
7	Dexter Fowler	OF 1	0.4
8	Carlos Gonzalez	OF 2	0.4
9	Seth Smith	OF 3	0.45
10	Brad Hawpe	OF 4	7.5
11	Matt Murton	OF 5	0.4
12	Huston Street	RP	6
13	Taylor Bucholz	RP	1
14	Manuel Corpas	RP	1
15	Franklin Morales	RP	0.4
16	Matt Daley	RP	0.4
17	Matt Belisle	RP	0.4
18	Rafael Betancourt	RP	5.4
19	Ubaldo Jimenez	SP 1	1.25
20	Aaron Cook	SP 2	9.8
21	Jorge De La Rosa	SP 3	3
22	Jeff Francis	SP 4	5.875
23	Jasson Hammel	SP 5	0.45
24	Troy Tulowitzki	SS	3.5
25	Clint Barmes	UTILITY	2.5
		Total Salary	68.775

Sports Illustrated

lizardlad01 — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 07:06:50 -0000

Sports Illustrated

Warm fuzzy feelings.

Rockies VS Cardinals & NL Central Analysis

lizardlad01 — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 05:24:22 -0000

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.

Poll

What will be the Rockies record against the Cardinals in these next upcoming games?

Sweep....need to get a new broom

5 votes

Rockies just get manhandle by a bunch of birds and lose in the playoffs

7 votes

Or...perhaps we have a very competitve series with them and the best team wins.

29 votes

41 votes | Poll has closed

Post-seaston Pitching

lizardlad01 — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 19:49:29 -0000

Post-seaston Pitching

Rock the Vote (I would love to add something about Rockies in the sentence but I don't know how.)

Great right up by Mr.R, the Rockies actually have a great pitching rotation. Currently the Cardinals lead the poll but we can make it go to the Rockies.

If the Giants were in they would win it.

Now Yahoo! Sport is OMZ!!

lizardlad01 — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 04:40:53 -0000

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.

Self-fufilling prophecy or Law of Average

lizardlad01 — Fri, 22 May 2009 07:12:59 -0000

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.

The Greg Smith Conundrum

lizardlad01 — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 19:27:26 -0000

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.

Pitching Rotation...

lizardlad01 — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 06:42:46 -0000

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/