We Need Couch Time

All of us.

I'm frustrated. You're frustrated. Some Rockies fans are even talking to themselves in their tweets. This isn't healthy.

We all need to sit down and talk about the problems here. In place of my usual game preview, we are going to start doing just that. We're going to have little couch sessions to vent our frustations and hopefully make ourserlves feel better. At the very least I'm sure I'll feel better.

What would make me feel better today?

Well, I'd like to vent on Denver Post sportswriter Mark Kiszla.

Mark Kiszla remains one of the worst sportswriters I've ever read. I thought my ideas were all over the place. This guy jumps to conclusions and offers some of the dumbest solutions to problems you could possibly imagine.  And often offers even dumber solutions to problems that don't even exist.

I will NEVER forget the article he wrote after Game 1 of Round 1 in the 2007 NBA Playoffs. The Nuggets upset the San Antonio Spurs in that Game 1. Kiszla wrote a really long article proclaiming the Spurs to be dead. The Nuggets had ended the Spurs dynasty. No doubt they were too old and couldn't hang with the Nugs.

Two months (and four straight wins over the Nuggets) later, the Spurs claimed their 4th NBA Championship in nine years. That Spurs death certficate that he had signed was invalid. That is, until Sunday, when the Phoenix Suns actually did kill the Spurs.

Moving on to baseball. Here's one excerpt from his piece on the Rockies this week.

Blame it on the greed of Matt Holliday, if you want, but the Rockies have not been nearly as intimidating at the plate since he left town. For that trade to ultimately make sense, Carlos Gonzalez needs to be Troy Tulowitzki's sidekick for kick-starting the Colorado offense.

Hey, Mark, can I call you Mark? Do you realize how important that trade was to keeping the Rockies competitive regardless of how CarGo pans out? Have you seen the bullpen without Huston Street? Do realize how restricted in payroll and lacking in depth this team would by now?

That trade already makes more than all your ideas put together. Nothing more needs to happen for me to apporve of it.

Holliday, as good as he is, is not, was not, and never will be worth what he thought he was.

And honestly, as a fan, I don't want my favorite team to spend as freely and stupidly as you do, and as teams like the Cubs, Mets and Orioles have in recent years. It's a recipe for years of torture. Hell, we should already know that after the failures of Hampton and Neagle. I'd rather not go through that aftermath again.

One of these years, if Colorado wants to wrestle with the big bears of October, the Rockies might actually have to splurge on a pitcher without guarantee of success. This year it could be Houston right-hander Roy Oswalt, a 32-year-old veteran with a 139-74 career record, who could be on the block.

No thanks.

And have I missed something, or were the Rockies not in the playoffs two of the last three seasons without "splurging on a pitcher without guarantee of success."

They have wrestled with the big boys. They were in a World Series, and lost to a team so much better that no trade would have mattered. No team in the baseball matched up with those Red Sox. Last year, they were one out away from taking Philadelphia to the limit.

It's not like the philosophy currently in place isn't working. It's just not working right now, for a number of reasons. A number of reasons we'll get into as we spend more time on the couch.

I assure you most sessions won't like as long as this one, I just had a lot to get off my chest. And I do feel better, so we're off to a good start.

Everyone take it easy today and then get yourselves in front of that TV or at Coors Field to support our favorite team.  They're going to need it tonight.