Diamond In the Rox

The season ended on a low note, being swept by the Diamondbacks in Arizona.  The games were absolutely meaningless.  Quite different from last year when the Diamondbacks and rockies finished the season in Denver with the division title and the NL wildcard on the line.  This season, the Tampa Bay Rays are the darlings of a postseason that shows signs of being fun to watch.  Without the rockies in the playoffs, I have to return to my traditional ritual of deciding which teams I am rooting for and which ones I am not.  Let’s identify the teams I will definitely not be rooting for:  Red Sox, nope;  Dodgers, nope;  Cubs, NOPE!  This leaves the Brewers, Phillies, Angels, Rays and White Sox.  The Rays are the best story of the season, but a World Series win for them would make the rockies the only modern expansion team without a WS Championship, so I’m not inclined to root for them exclusively.  A win for the Phillies would only fuel the bias of the media that already barely acknowledges that baseball exists outside of the east coast.  The Angels have in many ways become a member of the “spend until we get it right” club, and have thus eliminated themselves from consideration.  Also, they’re kind of like a cousin to the Dodgers, so that association, no matter how remote or off base, further removes them from the list of favorable candidates.  This leaves the Brewers and White Sox.  The rockies benefited last season from the Brewers playing games 161 and 162 like they meant something.  If the Brewers had packed it in against the Padres, then there wouldn’t have been a play-in game and Rocktober never would have happened.  So, nothing against the White Sox, but I will personally be rooting for the wide bodies of C.C. Sabathia and Prince Fielder and the rest of the Brew Crew to go deep into the playoffs.

Clint Hurdle and Dan O’Dowd met on Monday and admitted that changes are pending, both with the coaching staff and the roster.  The past couple of off-seasons have seen almost no changes to the coaching staff and minor changes to the roster.  This year we will likely see major changes in both.  Most notably, mainstays such as Matt Holliday, Garrett Atkins and Brian Fuentes will probably be in different uniforms come Opening Day 2009.  The starting centerfielder the last two seasons, Willy Taveras, could be dealt in the offseason as well.  Of the four, Fuentes is the only one not under team control and he will take the best contract offer, which will not come from the Rockies.  If Holliday, Atkins and Taveras are no longer with the team, it will mean that they left via trade.

O’Dowd has indicated Holliday and Atkins are available for pitching.  Let’s take a look at some trade possibilities involving Holliday.  One potential deal mentioned involving Holliday would be to San Francisco for Matt Cain.  If we are going to trade Holliday, then this is the kind of deal I would be in favor of.  Cain is a young, yet established pitcher that would make any rotation immensely better.  I don’t think this trade will happen though.  San Francisco GM Brian Sabean has indicated that Cain is untouchable.  In addition, Sabean has stated very clearly that Fred Lewis will be his leftfielder in 2009.  Even if San Francisco were to entertain the idea of trading Cain, a reluctance to deal within the division might mean that this offer wouldn’t make it to the table from either side.  Another possible destination for Holliday is the Yankees.  The Yankees have two young pitchers, Philip Hughes and Ian Kennedy, but neither has established themselves as a member of the NY rotation, both splitting time between the majors and minors this season.  The Yankees don’t have much else that would interest the rockies.  The other usual suspect when a  big-money player is being discussed is Boston.  The Red Sox have Clay Buchholz, a 24-year old righty who threw a no-hitter in his second major league start in 2007.  Buchholz struggled this season, however, and isn’t on the Red Sox’ playoff roster for the Division Series.  For this deal to make sense, Boston would have to find a seperate trading partner for Jason Bay to clear left field for Holliday.  Another team I’ve seen mentioned as a potential suitor for Holliday is Philadelphia.  The Phillies have Pat Burrell’s contract expiring at the end of this season, so they could replace him in the lineup with Holliday.  The Phillies also have Kyle Kendrick, another 24-year old righty who made his MLB debut in 2007.  Kendrick started 30 games for the Phillies in 2008, but isn’t on the roster for the Division Series against the Brewers.  The Phillies also have their own upcoming contract issue to contemplate with Ryan Howard, so the money that could be used to sign Holliday long-term might go to Howard instead.

My final assessment is that none of these deals will likely happen.  They each have their own drawbacks, both from the rockies’ perspective as well as the other teams’ perspectives.  The rockies prefer a proven starter in return for Holliday.  I don’t see the market out there to support that preference.  I think the rockies will end up with a top prospect or two and a couple of fringe prospects.  Whether this happens late in the offseason or closer to the trade deadline in 2009, I don’t know.

I’ll take a look at likely destinations for Atkins and Fuentes later.

Until next time, go rockies!

After an unintentional and extended hiatus, we here at DITr are determined to finish the season strong and build some momentum for the off-season.

After getting to only one game this season prior to this past weekend, I managed to attend two, Friday and Saturday.  The way I’ve always looked at it is that it’s great to be at the ballpark and if the rockies win, then it’s a bonus.  Well, no bonus, as the rockies lost both games to the dreaded Dodgers.

The game Friday was the annual Field Trip for the Designation Committee.  The day began cool and rainy, but Greg, Staff Meteorologist,  forecasted the rain would stop by gametime and we’d have a pleasant evening for the game.  His forecast was surprisingly accurate and, as a reward for his performance, he’ll be receiving a stunning watch with the CU Buffs logo on it.  Shortly after the game began, I presented a trivia question that Greg had asked me about a couple weeks earlier.  How many players have gone directly from high school to the Major Leagues?  Scot, Senior Research Analyst, responded that A-Rod was one of them.  When I said that A-Rod was not one of them based on my research, it threw a cloud of suspicion and doubt over the entire exercise.  Rick, Roving Contributor, was rather amused by the ensuing confusion and actually “cracked up” a little bit.  I’m considering demoting Scot to Research Analyst over the debackle.  To Scot’s credit, however, he did distribute an email Saturday morning stating that he was incorrect and that A-Rod had played in the minor leagues.  A final decision on Scot’s status is pending a thorough review of his performance as Sr. Research Analyst.  For the record, three players have gone from high school to the majors without any time in the minors:  David Clyde, 1973;  Mike Morgan, 1978 and Tim Conroy, also 1978.  The rockies’ offense didn’t show up for the game, the defense committed three errors and the Dodgers continued their recent trend of playing good baseball by beating us 7-2.  Probably the best part of the night was seeing Eric Young in Denver again.  It was Eric Young Day, as he was signing a contract and officially retiring as a rockie.  All in all, it was a good time and the committee confirmed in person what a lot of people have been saying all season: the rockies are not a good team this season.

On Saturday, my wife and I were invited to go with our friends Tim and Liz.  They had four tickets several rows behind the visiting dugout.  Unfortunately, the seats were in pairs and as Tim and I sat in row 10, our wives were two rows behind us in row 12.  Other than that and a similar outcome to the game, it was a great time.  It was fun to boo Manny from that close to the dugout.  The best thing I saw all night was a guy in a dreadlocks wig wearing a Manny jersey.  One thing I will likely always think about when it comes to the Dodgers is the demoralized look on Grady Little’s face as we eliminated them and propelled ourselves into the playoff picture last September.  Ahh, good times, good times.   What a difference a year makes.

Until next time, go rockies!

With the season at its virtual mid-point, let’s take a look at the current state of the rockies and some of the reasons for why they are where they are:

• With roughly 60% of the season completed, the rockies are 18 games below .500 and 8.5 games out of first place. Eight and a half games out of first isn’t horrible, but 18 games below .500 is embarrassing. As it’s been well noted, the only reason the rockies aren’t much, much further out of first is the overall mediocrity of the NL West. ESPN reported this morning that this is the first time since 1994 that a division has reached the All-Star break without a team over .500.
• The rockies have had seven losing streaks of at least four games and two streaks of eight losses. Conversely, they’ve had only three streaks consisting of at least four wins.
• The team ERA is 4.95, ranking them 15th in the NL. The starting rotation has collected only 27 wins with 11 of those belonging to Aaron Cook. The ERA of the starting rotation is 5.28, also good for 15th in the NL.
• The offense is hitting .258, ranking 7th in the NL, and has scored 419 runs, ranking 10th. These are disappointing results from a team expected to have a “prolific” offense.
• Key young players struggled early on: Troy Tulowitzki, Manny Corpas and Franklin Morales. Tulowitski tried to play through his struggles until getting injured. Corpas lost the job of closer to former closer Brian Fuentes and Morales ended up in Colorado Springs. Jeff Francis, not a youngster, but key to the rotation, struggled all season until going on the DL July 2nd.
• Despite all this negativity, there have been a few bright spots: Willy Taveras’ proficiency at stealing bases, Aaron Cook’s emergence as the staff ace that the rockies’ have envisioned him for years, and Chris Iannetta’s development into a solid starting catcher.

What’s next? What should the rockies try to accomplish in the remaining 66 games of the 2008 season? The rockies’ chances of playing meaningful games in September have evaporated to almost nothing, their proximity to first place notwithstanding. If they were going to make a move in the division they should have done so by now, so nothing at this point leads me to believe the next 66 games will be much different than what we’ve already witnessed. So, a lot of what the rockies do from here on out should be with an eye to the 2009 season and beyond. How do they do that specifically? I think that largely depends on whether or not they honestly believe they can sign Matt Holliday.

This article in the RMN suggests that Dexter Fowler could be in a rockies uniform much sooner rather than later if the rox trade Taveras. Fowler is considered by many to be the best center field prospect in the game right now. Fowler plays great defense and would add an element of power to the center field position that we haven’t seen at all since Preston Wilson and haven’t seen on a regular basis since Ellis Burks.

Let’s root on the NL in the All-Star game with Clint at the helm. It would be nice to see the NL get into the W column again after going 0-10-1 over the last 11 seasons.

Until next time, go rockies!