World Champion Cardinals everything the Rockies are not

When the Colorado Rockies and St. Louis Cardinals arrived to their respective spring training facilities back in mid-February, there was nothing you could have said that would have convinced me St. Louis had the better baseball team. 

Nothing. 

And that was before Adam Wainwright went down for the season.

I would have told you the Cardinals were a solid team with a chance to maybe reach the higher 80s in wins, which would position them to contend in the NL Central. I also would have told you the Rockies looked like a 92-93 win team with Ubaldo Jimenez established, Jorge De La Rosa back, and a lot of really nice pieces in place offensively.

Didn't work out that way. Which is strange, because both teams faced similar challenges with injuries, players not performing up to standard, stretches of poor bullpen work, more injuries, desperate searches for band-aids. Basically, both teams took a step backwards on several levels from where they were to begin the season.

Yet the Cardinals are celebrating their 11th world championship, and the Rockies are coming off their most disappointing season to date.

How the hell did the Cardinals overcome all of that, while the Rockies collapsed underneath it?

Well, to me it boils down to three things.

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My now annual Tim Tebow post

Yes, this is a baseball blog... 99.7% of the time. It's also just my blog, so every now and then I like posting about something else. You'll surely understand.

Before I get into Tim Tebow, I think it's always important I point out that I'm in no way a Denver Broncos fan despite my love for the Colorado Rockies. I'm not from Denver myself, I have no emotional connection to other Colorado sports teams, I just had an uncle in the Denver area at the time the Rockies were born that thought it would be cool to send me Rockies gear for my 10th birthday. I thought it was awesome. I loved baseball, but had no loyalty to the Cubs, White Sox, whoever. So I adopted them in 1991, two years before they ever stepped on a big league field.

Anyway, there's that. Now on to this Tebow character.

You think you can get a word in edge wise on Twitter when the Denver Broncos are playing?

Hell no!

Wait, sorry Tim.

Heck no!

My timeline just explodes with positive and negative thoughts on Tebow's performance and his future in the NFL. And that's before he takes the field. When he's actually out there running around, tossing a football, the Tebow spin becomes so relentlessly over-the-top in both directions that I don't think it leaves room for an unbiased opinion.

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Rock Solid Recap: Rockies finish strong, win third in last 14

It doesn't matter how awful, disappointing or discouraging a season has been, it's always nice to win games. That's especially true on the final day of the season... against the team you dislike the most.

Rockies 6, Giants 3 (boxscore)

So what if the Giants won the six matchups before the last one? Big deal! We got the last one! And really, so what if the Rockies won 3 of their last 14? They still take more momentum into this offseason than last year!

Anyway, pointless bragging aside, it sure was nice watching Drew Pomeranz finish his season strongly.

His line: 5 2/3 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, 0 HR, 72 pitches (49 strikes)

The three earned runs easily could have been one, but Matt Lindstrom allowed two of his inherited runners to score. But the big numbers to look at once again are the 0 walks and the 0 home runs. It's not impossible, but it's MUCH more difficult for any opposing offense to beat you with 0's in both of those columns.

Right now, I'll project Pomernanz as at worst the Rockies #3 starter to start 2012, depending on who they add, but could work his way to #1 very quickly. He's a really special talent. He seems to have a head on his shoulders. That really showed in how well he bounced back from the ugly outing in Houston.

Well done, Drew.

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Lackluster Recrap: If it's broke, why fix it?

Isn't that the saying? Or did Jim Tracy get it all ass backwards again by not firing a single member of his coaching staff in response to the most disappointing season in Rockies history?

Yes, you heard me, given a reprieve by Dan O'Dowd and the sole power to retool his coaching staff, Tracy elected to fire no one. In other words, the Titanic already hit the iceberg, and now he's not letting anyone leave. You're all going down with him.

Overall, this is a pretty embarrassing and discouraging piece of news. No one is being held accountable for again, the most disappointing season in Rockies history, but not only that -- this team is fundamentally pathetic, players are out of position all the time, players are regressing, pitchers are regressing, others aren't developing.

It's a cesspool, and there's no leadership in the organization beginning at the top with ownership, continuing down through front office, coaches, players and beyond. This decision just reaffirms that, and it guarantees nothing will be different next season either. Seriously, if you have expectations at all for next season, can them. Make them prove it first, and then make them continue to prove it.

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Lackluster Recrap: Chacin shines again in another undeserved loss

Giants 3, Rockies 1 (boxscore)

Ubaldo Jimenez could have been a 23-24 game winner in 2010 with a little help from his friends.

I don't know how many more wins Jhoulys Chacin could have realistically had in 2011 with a little help from his friends, but I assure you he doesn't deserve 14 losses. Sure, he's had his games that disappointed me and discouraged me, but not that many. Not nearly that many.

Disclaimer: I know, I know. Wins and losses aren't the end all be all for determining a starting pitcher's success. What I wrote above lends further evidence to that. But you can't discard what goes on a player's record. Until they stop keeping track, it's fine to be annoyed when a pitcher's record doesn't look as pretty as it should.

Anyway, Chacin was really good on this particular night.

His line: 7 IP, 8 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K

Not at all discouraged by the lower strikeout total, but definitely encouraged by only one walk. Save the strikeouts for when you really need them, but consistently throwing more strikes early in counts to get quicker outs is exactly what Chacin needs to do to get on those higher levels that await him.

Of course one of those next levels would be throwing 200 innings on a yearly basis. He ended up at 194 this season. Just think of where that number could go with even a little bit more efficiency.

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