Guaranteed

With a win last night, the rox did not guarantee themselves a fifth straight series win on the road, but they did guarantee themselves two things. First, at 15-12 for the month of August and two games remaining, the rox will have a winning record for the month. The last month the rox had a winning record was July 2004, when they went 18-10. That was a streak of seven straight months with a losing record, including going 0-3 last October. Second, the rox have guaranteed themselves a winning road trip, giving them two winning trips in a row. I don't know when that happened last.

As mentioned in the RMN this morning, Fuentes has now set the franchise record for saves in a season by a lefthander, breaking the previous mark set by Bruce Ruffin in 1996. During last night's broadcast, they mentioned a stat that I found remarkable. Fuentes is second among all NL relievers in strikeouts behind Houston's Brad Lidge. Fuentes reminds me of Hoffman in the fact that you don't have to throw 95+ MPH to be an effective closer.

Mark at TGTBATB should be happy. For two games in a row the rox have walked more and struck out less than their opponent.

Garrett Atkins sure has quieted early season talk that he was simply a stop-gap at third until Ian Stewart was ready for the bigs. Part of that has been due to Stewart's slower progression than anticipated, but part also has to do with Atkins' play. He had a gem during the eighth last night, diving to stop a sharp grounder from Visquel.

I'm getting close to joining the movement to send George Frazier packing. Last night during the game recap he said one of the keys to the rox playing well is that they are playing all 27 innings. Please, bring back Dave Campbell, by far the best analyst this team will ever see.

Four in a Row, Going for Five

As most people know by now, this weekend the rockies won their fourth road series in a row for the first time in franchise history. Who would have thought? This is the team that has experienced enough road disasters this season for two teams. The rockies have always had difficulty winning on the road, so this season was not expected to be any different, but it was even worse than most people would have anticipated. So, to match, and then surpass an achievement from previous seasons is rather shocking. What is the explanation? Solid pitching, from both starters and relievers, and timely hitting. It seems simple, yet no team can win regularly without one or the other and a team will lose regularly without either. The latter has been the case for the rockies for the majority of this season on the road.

It's not very often that a team can turn things around this dramatically in the midst of a season. The re-appearance of Helton has been huge. What was the major weakness at the beginning of the season, the bullpen, is now the team strength. In April alone, the bullpen had seven losses and seven blown saves. Since July 1, the pen has blown eight saves and lost five games. That is an improvement certainly worth noting. Clutch hitting by nearly everyone at one time or another has been a key ingredient to the recent road success. Holliday came within about 10 feet of tying the game yesterday in the 8th. The rockies' inability to score him from third with no outs was one of the few failures during this little streak of good baseball.

Saturday, the rockies struck out 13 San Diego batters, a season high for the rockies staff. As a bonus, they only walked one.

Although there are some in the rockies' blogosphere that continue to dislike Danny Ardoin, I can't help but wonder if his arrival has something to do with the improved performance of the pitching staff. At the time of his call-up June 7 to the rockies, the team ERA was 5.79. Since then the team ERA has been 4.91.

Congratulations to Hawaii, winner of the 2005 Little League World Series. The USA youngsters rallied from three runs down to tie it in the bottom of the 6th and then hit a walk-off HR in the bottom of the 7th to beat the defending champions from Curacao.

Road Rarity

Generally, by the end of July you can tell the make up of a MLB team. Their strengths and weaknesses have been figured out by the rest of the league. Consistent positives are no longer considered good luck and negatives cannot be attributed to bad luck either. If a team has a good record then they must be good. Likewise for a team with a mediocre or bad record.

The rockies had a home record of 27-27 and a road record of 10-40 through July. There were numerous discussions about the possibility of the rox' final road record being historically bad. Words like "embarrassing", "pitiful" and "horror" were common when describing the rockies' road performances. The rockies were obviously a mediocre team when in the confines of CF and a downright awful team anywhere else.

That was through July. This is August. The rockies have continued to play a mediocre brand of ball at CF, winning six out of fourteen games. On the road it's been a different situation. The rox have won six of nine games on the road so far this month. As Tracy mentions in the RMN today, the rockies won a third consecutive road series for the first time since 2000 and only the fourth time in franchise history. Granted, they've done it against teams with records that would be considered bottom-feeders in almost any other season, if it weren't for the rox' terrible record. The rox have won 37.5% of their total road victories for the season in a nine game stretch. The other 62.5% came over 50 games. They have equaled the most wins for a month at 12 with six games remaining. Interestingly enough, the month ends exactly how it started, with a three-game series in SF. Hopefully the rox can find a way to duplicate their recent road success at CF.

Every now and then, a player really has an opposing pitcher or team's number. That would be the case this season for Oscar Robles against the rockies. Robles was plucked out of the Mexican League by the Dodgers and, for the most part, as been a solid utility infielder. Against the rockies has been a different story however. Robles is hitting .455 against the rockies with 9 rbi while hitting .254 with 12 rbi against the rest of the league.

I have added a small section to the webpage about the projects I am currently working on. Please check out my page on missing information and let me know if you can help. I would appreciate it.

On a note completely unrelated to baseball, I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later. Last night I was figuring it was just another initiation into parenthood, as I had the toilet in the garage, upside down, trying to fish a toy out that had been flushed and was stuck. I did get the toy out and it was exactly what the kids said was in the toilet. In case you were wondering, WalMart does have wax rings, for only $.98.

Iron Chef?

Since last August, there has been a fair amount of talk, both from the rox and various media outlets, that Aaron Cook was set to emerge as the team ace and frontline pitcher that the organization envisioned when he was selected as the 70th player overall in the 1997 MLB amateur draft. August 7, 2004 was the day in which a blood clot was discovered in Cook’s lung, thus ending his season and possibly entire baseball career. During Cook’s nearly full year of rehabilitation from the clot and ensuing corrective surgery, he was labeled as the closest thing the rox had to an actual number one starter and team ace. His recovery and return to form were keys to the ultimate long-term success and competitiveness of the rox. One (mainly me) couldn’t help but wonder if this analysis was another version of wishful thinking on the rox’ part or, in fact, reality.

When Cook made his return to the mound on July 30, it seemed to have been wishful thinking. However, since then Cook has been the pitcher that the rox have so far only been able to dream about this season. UITR documents Cook’s statistics and performance in August, so I won’t go into that. I will, on the other hand, talk about Cook just before and just after the clot. In the five games prior to the clot and the five games since returning, Cook is 5-2 with a 2.99 ERA. That includes his shaky first outing where he allowed seven earned runs in 4.1 innings. It is difficult, if not impossible, to accurately determine a pitcher’s future performance given two five-game stretches, separated by nearly a year. Nevertheless, the folks here at DITR are ready and willing to anoint Cook the team ace until he proves otherwise. Incidentally, when the DITR polls asked the question as to who would emerge as the team ace for the rox in 2005, Aaron Cook’s name was not among the possible selections. Clearly this was an oversight on the part of the Poll Committee.

The draft file on the website has been updated with the recent signing of RHP Kyle Hancock, taken in the 3rd round. Tracy, however, reports today in the RMN that Hancock joined Casper for three games, threw one bullpen session and left the team without explanation. Stay tuned to DITr for further developments.

After a fairly lengthy absence, there is a new poll on the website. If there is a poll topic you would like to see in the future, let me know.

Toying With Us

I know it's been far too long since I last posted an entry. Hopefully I can finish the year strong.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the ballpark. The month of August began on a relatively high note for the rox. Through July the rox had a record of 37-67, fighting off the royals for the worst record in baseball. They started the month on the road playing in one city, San Francisco, where they have traditionally played downright awful, and another city, Phoenix, where they have played okay, given it's the rox we're talking about. The rox proceeded to take two of three games in each series, equaling the most road victories in any other month this season. Optimism was running high, again, relatively speaking. Talk on the radio and print in the papers was that this team had turned the corner. The youngsters had learned how to win and win often. The majority of the pitching woes had been eliminated. We were on the verge of seeing what DD and the gang believed this group of players could eventually do. They returned to CF to embark on the longest homestand in franchise history thanks to a makeup doubleheader with Florida. The rox started the homestand by sweeping the Marlins, 4-3 and 5-3. Quite impressive by CF standards. The team ERA was at a season low.

As it turns out, they were only toying with us. The rox have won only two of the last nine games, losing two to Pittsburgh, the only team the rox have any hopes of catching to avoid the worst record in the NL. They wrap up the homestand with three games this weekend against the Cubs. The rox need to sweep the series to finish the homestand with a .500 record. Given the Cubs' success in the past at CF, that is unlikely.

Unfortunately, the truth is that this team will be bad the rest of this season and part of next season. The best case scenario is that the rox will turn the corner, if they do, sometime the second half of the 2006 season. Players like Francis and Atkins will have a full year under their belt. Holliday will have two. The rox are noticeably better with Barmes and Hawpe in the lineup and hopefully will have them for more of the season next year. DD and Hurdle have observed the value of a veteran bullpen and the youngsters who have remained have made drastic strides in their development. I think we may have seen glimpses of what the future holds for rox' fans, but glimpses are all we will get for the time being.

On a separate baseball note, the royals' current losing streak of 18 games has brought back memories of 1988. During the pre-rox era I was an Orioles fan. In 1988 the Orioles started the season my losing their first 21 games. Talk about depressing. You know it's going to be a long season when after only a few weeks people are already saying things like "Will the lady who left her nine kids at Memorial Stadium please come pick them up. They're beating the Orioles."