Sunday, June 27, 2010

Rock Solid Recrap: This. Team. Can't. Focus.

Angels 10, Rockies 3

They can focus and play out of their minds in front of a packed house against Boston in June.

They can focus and play out of their minds in August and September when their season depends on every result.

They can focus and play out of their minds when the manager gets fired.

The rest of the time it's just another ordinary Rockies team that makes all the mistakes you'd expect from a 4th or 5th place squad.

Strange and inconsistent plate appearances.

Sloppy defense.

Mind-numbingly stupid baserunning mistakes.

Pitchers that are always victimized by the error, because they make a horrible pitch to the next batter.

A manager that doesn't understand his bullpen. Seriously, Drew Goodman should lose one of his Colorado Sportscaster of the Year trophies every time he says Jim Tracy is a master of mixing and matching. Yeah? He's mixing and matching his way into a dead bullpen by July.

I know the grind of 162 games makes it virtually impossible to play at top form day in and day out. I understand that, accept that, and I think most other fans do as well. But this team just can't maintain the focus unless the atmosphere in the ballpark is at a fever pitch or their backs are against the wall... which they are dangerously close to being right this moment.

Also, this team absolutely can never blame injuries for their problems. Even though they've had a ton of them, they've never been physically outmanned on the field in 2010. Not one game.  Not one series.

Mentally, however, is a different story. Mentally they are almost always at a disadvantage.

Teams like the Angels and Twins, the reason they always contend is because they're the opposite of that. They rarely lose that focus or intensity. They rarely beat themselves because their minds drift away. In their minds, they can view each opponent and each game as equally important.

Until the Rockies can get that point, which might be a longshot to happen given how long some of these have been around now, this team will always frustrate us and leaving us wondering how good they could be.

That's all I really want to say about the team today. If you saw the game, you know the situation and how ugly it was. If you didn't see the game, consider yourself lucky.

1 comments:

Anna R. said...

It's frustrating, isn't it? We know these guys are good, can play like crazy, but the spirit and determination are missing. Even players who are 'hot' are not getting the team support they need. Something is sour in the club. New guys coming in from AAA or other clubs seem to do just grand for a while. . .I miss the old attitude.