Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Lackluster Recrap: What's the point?

Diamondbacks 9, Rockies 4 (boxscore)

What would you like me to write after this one?

Another paragraph or two on how Aaron Cook doesn't have it anymore?

No thanks. Been there and done that enough.

How about a blurb on how useless Ty Wigginton has been? I could mention his .160 batting average with RISP and then I could question...

1. Why the hell does Jim Tracy want his bat in the lineup so bad?

and

2. Why at the expense of Seth Smith?

I don't care how much he struggles about left-handers. Smith is the best option this team has right now to play everyday, and is a better bet against a lefty than Wigginton is against a little leaguer on most nights.

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Lackluster Recrap: Rockies avoid laying a goose egg, still fail miserably

"I don’t think the day will come when I grow tired of watching baseball. I hope not, anyway.

But I know I’m already tired of watching bad baseball. I’m tired of watching the (team) make outs every night. I’m tired of writing the same game story. I’m tired of finding new ways to ask the same questions."

Those comments may look familiar, but they are NOT mine. Those are actually the words written by San Francisco Giants beat writer Andrew Baggerly after their 7-0 loss to the Chicago Cubs on Monday night.

Turns out baseball life kinda sucks there, too. But dammit, at least they have a World stinkin' Championship to lean on when times are tough. We don't even have a division championship we can reminisce about. Sure, we have 2007. That will always be a fond memory, but I want something a little more solid than that.

Diamondbacks 5, Rockies 1 (boxscore)

Monday was Alex White's second start with the Rockies and his 23rd birthday.

It didn't start well.

It didn't end well.

It just flat didn't go well.

Arizona's very first batter, Ryan Roberts, greeted White with a longball to left. I don't know if that rattled White, which would be understandable, but his command immediately went missing. In total, White walked three in the frame. He also allowed one more hit, but thanks to Chris Iannetta picking off Aaron Hill, Arizona did not plate another run.

Monday, August 29, 2011

Rock Solid Recap: Sundays are fun again!

But to be truly be fun again, wins on Friday and Saturday would be necessary. 

Such was not the case for the Rockies weekend, but hey, it's nice to feel like the Sunday crap is behind us.

Rockies 7, Dodgers 6 (boxscore)

Here's something we've been saying a lot lately: The Rockies offense jumped out to a lead. And they did so against a pitcher they've never faced before in Nathan Eovaldi. I know what you're thinking... and I agree, that's a really strange name.

The Rockies plated five of Eovaldi in a near 40-pitch first inning. The 21-year-old righty could have trimmed about 10 pitches and 4 runs off that total with a little help from right fielder Trent Oeltjen, but Kevin Kouzmanoff's blooper to right center bounced off his wrist and actually turned into the weakest base clearing double I've seen in a quite awhile.

And that's taking nothing away from Kouzmanoff. Believe me. He got the ball in play That's something we haven't seen nearly enough of in those spots, so he earned it.

Eliezer Alfonzo would follow with his own two-out, RBI hit. That was also critical, because all of those runs would end up being important. As would the RBIs Seth Smith and Kouzmanoff collected in the 5th, which turned a 5-2 lead into a 7-2 advantage.

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Lackluster Recrap: Back to reality

Well that should be pretty much empty out the 2011 hopewagon for good. I know some fans were ready to (or already had started to) buy this team's playoff chances after the strong homestand, but reality has settled in once again with the Rockies back on the west coast. 

Dodgers 7, Rockies 6 in 11 (boxscore)

Even the best Rockies teams struggle on this west coast swings. There should be little question how a not good Rockies team will do.

That's the bad news. Here's some good news that's also depressing news. When the Rockies two legitamite superstars are rolling, this offense is just one consistently productive and impactful bat away from being unstoppable.

Todd Helton has been good, but he doesn't fit that description anymore. That guy should have been Ian Stewart, or could have been Chris Iannetta,but they fell short. Could have been Michael Young, but that was never very realistic.

It's just so frustrating to watch (in today's case listen to) Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez playing out of their minds at the same time, and not getting any sort of help.

Lackluster Recrap: Balk, balk, puke

Dodgers 6, Rockies 1 (boxscore)

Let's just cut to the chase.

Were the two balks called in the 7th inning legitimate?

To the letter of the law, yes they were. Any type of flinch, movement, awkwardness is going to be called. Meant or not, those are all in some way or another a method of deceiving the runner

However, when left open for interpretation by the umpires, you'd hope they would be smart enough to understand Esmil Rogers had no intention whatsoever to deceive a baserunner (no chance in Hell with Bob Davidson). The baserunner was actually deceiving Rogers, which is perfectly within the rules, but what a pain in the ass for a pitcher to have to divide his attention like that. I guess that's his problem for loading the bases.

It's also Rogers' problem for not staying composed and finishing the inning. He got beat by Justin freaking Sellers. That can't happen.

But up to that point he had his best outing of the season by a country mile, so hats off for that.

The Matt Reynolds balk was an easy call. No problems there.