Lineup Card: 7-2-11 Rockies vs Royals

If you're looking for Rockies game lineups and you don't feel like searching all over Twitter or waiting for MLB.com to post them, check back to Heaven & Helton about 30-60 minutes before first pitch. They should be here waiting for you.

Links

• Yesterday's recap: Nothing beats fun at the old ballyard
• Blake Street Bulletin: Evaluating the Mark Ellis Trade (Logan's Take - Rich's Take)

Logan Burdine really summed the deal up with this perfect paragraph.

"To be honest, I really don’t care about his bat. I know, at the very least, he will produce at a comparable level to the group they had. In my mind, this deal meets two key sets of criteria for any trade. First of all, he improves the team, and, second, they didn’t surrender more value than Ellis is worth. The Rockies gave up a reliever that was without a place on the big club."

Lineups

Colorado Rockies (40-42)

1. CF Carlos Gonzalez
2. 2B Mark Ellis
3. 1B Todd Helton
4. SS Troy Tulowitzki
5. RF Seth Smith
6. 3B Ty Wigginton
7. LF Charlie Blackmon
8. C   Chris Iannetta
9. P   Greg Reynolds

Get used to this lineup; we'll be seeing a lot of it over the next few weeks.

Kansas City Royals (33-49)

1. 2B Chris Getz
2. CF Melky Cabrera
3. LF Alex Gordon
4. RF Jeff Francoeur
5. 1B Eric Hosmer
6. C  Brayan Pena
7. 3B Mike Moustakas
8. SS Alcides Escobar
9. P   Kyle Davies

Still bad. 

Rock Solid Recap: Nothing beats fun at the old ballyard

And finally the Colorado Rockies and their fans got to have a little fun at the expense of the Kansas City Royals.

The Rockies haven't been involved in too many laughers this season. That goes both ways. Just about every day we're sitting on the edge of our seats waiting for that one little thing to go wrong, but praying the Rockies can either overcome it or flat out avoid it. I prefer night's like last night, where the game is essentially over from pitch one to pitch done.

Rockies 9, Royals 0 (boxscore)

Juan Nicasio: The main reason it was over early was this kid. Now, it would be easy to joke that he continued his dominance of the Texas League with this win over Kansas City, but I honestly don't care who he owned. It was all about the confidence and command he had over his entire arsenal. It was damned impressive.

Watch Nicasio deal

I think it was an encouraging glimpse into what Nicasio's future could look like if the secondary stuff becomes more consistent. Either way this was a masterpiece. Just leave it at that and wait patiently to see how he follows it up.

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Lineup Card: 7-1-11 Rockies vs Royals

If you're looking for Rockies game lineups and you don't feel like searching all over Twitter or waiting for MLB.com to post them, check back to Heaven & Helton about 30-60 minutes before first pitch. They should be here waiting for you.

Links

• Yesterday's recrap: Rockies lose series to AL version of themselves
• Heaven & Helton: Thoughts on Todd Helton's 2000th game with Rockies
• Alanna Rizzo on Twitter: Two Rockies roster moves
• Purple Row: Know Your Foe: Kansas City Royals
• Purple Row: More on Mark Ellis

Lineups

Colorado Rockies (39-42)

1. CF Carlos Gonzalez
2. 2B Mark Ellis
3. 1B Todd Helton
4. SS Troy Tulowitzki
5. 3B Ty Wigginton
6. RF Seth Smith
7. LF Ryan Spilborghs
8. C   Chris Iannetta
9. P    Juan Nicasio

Welcome aboard Mark Ellis. He takes over officially at 2B batting second. I noted the team roster move above. Both Chris Nelson and Eric Young Jr. have been optioned to AAA to make room for now only Ellis, but for reliever Edgmer Escalona, who eases the bullpen load.

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Thoughts on Todd Helton's 2000th game with Rockies

Congratulations are in order for Todd Helton. 2,000 games in Major League Baseball. 2,000. All of them with our Colorado Rockies.

Of active players, only Derek Jeter and Chipper Jones can say the same thing. I couldn't be prouder of the player or the organization for making that happen.

I wish Todd could play 2,000 more. To this day he is still one of my favorite people/players to watch do their job. That counts any sport or any form of entertainment. He's just plain fun to watch. Especially when he's in the box spoiling tough two-strike pitches or make another slick pick at first base. I love those little things.

He's not the same player he once was, but he's still the same man with the same drive and the same professionalism. He's never given away one at-bat, or taken a day off mentally in the field. He's always getting the most out of himself, even when his body wasn't cooperating.

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Rock Solid Recrap: Rockies lose series to AL version of themselves

If the Rockies fired Jim Tracy tonight, it wouldn't fix everything - and very likely wouldn't fix anything - but I sure wouldn't be upset or angry. 

It's easy to say he's not the Rockies only problem or their biggest problem. That's the truth. But he certainly is a big problem. A problem that needs to be eliminated eventually. 

He was awful today. Completely overmanaged a very winnable game, helping turn it into a disaster. He used three pitches to get through the seventh, which I guess was necessary after Rafael Betancourt allowed the lead-off home run to Gordon Beckham? Or something.

He did allow Betancourt to face one more hitter, whom he retied, but then got the hook in favor of Rex Brothers. Personally, I would try to have a little more faith in Raffy. You know? You've demoted him to the 7th, which I can't argue with. But with a three-run, how can he regain his confidence getting yanked after one mistake?

Brothers came in and struggled again, which is totally on him. He needs to lock that down, but he didn't, so then we go to Matt Belisle. Belisle needs only one pitch to get the Rockies out of the jam.

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