UN-BE-LIEVABLE

Unbelievable! Unbelievable!! How many more times do you want me to say it? Fifty? A thousand? It doesn't matter, because it still wouldn't adequately describe what I had the fortune and pleasure of witnessing last night. Coors Field was high-voltage from the start. I felt the right field stands shake. You know how the east stands at Mile High would shake? The right field stands at CF shook. I've never experienced that before. I didn't know they could. There has to be about 48,000 people waking up this morning that don't have a voice. Mine is gone.

Last night was, without question, the most incredible game I have ever seen. Every possible ounce of drama was squeezed out of 13 innings of playoff-caliber baseball from two teams that did not want to go home for the season. The thirteenth inning alone captured the entire experience of being a fan. The lingering hope of playing another day, those hopes being dashed in a moment and the ensuing agony of potential defeat, only to have your team restore your hope and carry you to the thrill of victory.

Whatever the outcome for the Rockies from here on out, they certainly have given us memories that will have a lasting effect. This team is gaining fans by the truckload, not just in Denver or the Rocky Mountain region, but throughout the country.

I apologize if this all seems fragmented and disjointed. I have so many thoughts in my head right now it's difficult to formulate them all and put them into words. For now, let's just enjoy this. This team has given us their all. Let's return the favor.

Until next time, go Rockies!!

All Lined Up

All the stars were aligning perfectly last night until Brian Giles' home run with two outs in the ninth inning in San Francisco knocked one, hopefully temporarily, off line. It's certainly nice to know that we single-handedly sucked all the life out of the Dodgers last week.

During the telecast last night they mentioned that the Rox are on pace to set the MLB record for team fielding percentage. I pulled out my trusty Lahman database and did a little research. The Rockies are at .9893 for fielding percentage, putting them .0002 ahead of the team which currently holds the MLB record for team fielding percentage, the 2006 Boston Red Sox. Prorating the Rockies' total chances through the rest of the season, I estimate they can commit two more errors and still set the mark. Here is a table of the top ten teams all-time in fielding percentage. Here also is a table of the Rockies' fielding percentages each season. I don't remember the 1993 season being THAT bad.

Until next time, Go Rockies!

Looking Ahead

Yesterday I began contemplating the possibility of the Rockies finishing in a tie with the Padres and/or Phillies for the wild card. First off, let's not entirely rule out the Rockies in the hunt for the division. I agree, it's a long shot and a few (not a lot though) things have to fall into place. The Rockies were considered a long shot just to be in the position they are in right now, so anything can happen. The Mets seemed determined to play themselves into the conversation too. The good news is, with two wins against Arizona in the series to end the season, the Rox would hold the head-to-head tie-breaker with every team that is currently ahead of them in the divisional and wild card standings. The RMN this morning ran down the scenarios of a tie and what would happen to determine the winner of the WC. The bottom line is this: IF the Rox can stay on their current path of playing baseball worthy of a postseason berth, they are in a decent position to earn that berth. Keep this in mind also: if the Rox can win one more game of the next three than the Diamondbacks (and the Padres continue their free fall), the final series at home with Arizona could be for the division title. Would there be anything more exciting than if the Rox could take the first two from the Snakes and the last game of the season would have the division title on the line for the two teams involved? Granted, the Rox have to beat the Dodgers AGAIN and the Pirates have to beat the Diamondbacks at least once, but if we have learned anything in the last seven days it's that anything can happen. It was just one week ago tonight that the Rox accomplished the improbable with late home runs off of Broxton and Saito to beat the Dodgers. Helton's bomb and subsequent run around the bases still gives me chills when I think about it.

The ongoing conversation regarding the NL Rookie of the Year, particularly the defensive short-comings of Milwaukee thirdbaseman Ryan Braun got me thinking. I've been wondering how bad, historically speaking, Braun's defense really is. This table lists the bottom ten thirdbasemen in fielding percentage since 1920 with a minimum of 200 chances.

Braun currently has a fielding percentage of .900, so that would make him the sixth worst thirdbaseman by fielding percentage since 1920.

Until next time, Go Rockies!

Innings and Outings

Tuesday night, Ian Stewart became the 60th player to hit their first major league homerun as a member of the Rockies. He became the second to hit a grand slam as their first MLB home run, Jim Tatum being the first in 1993. Other notable first HR's for the Rockies include Jay Gainer, who was the 15th player in MLB history to hit the first pitch he saw in the majors for a HR, and Jason Jennings, who is the only pitcher in history to pitch a complete game shutout AND hit a homerun in his MLB debut.

One of the "email's to the booth" during the telecast Tuesday asked about the possibility of Stewart playing second base. George and Drew didn't immediately dismiss it as a bad idea, going so far as to say that maybe the Rox should run him out there a few games yet this season and see what happens. Frazier said he might compare Stewart as a second baseman to Jeff Kent, a guy who isn't necessarily a defensive asset but will make the everyday play and won't cost you runs. I wonder if the idea has crossed the mind of either Hurdle or O'Dowd.

Taylor Buchholz has said for awhile now that he is more comfortable in his role as a reliever than he was as a starter. His performance sure seems to indicate that. As a starter his ERA is 5.98 while 2.31 as a reliever. With 3.1 innings of solid relief work Tuesday, he deserved the win.

They mentioned during the telecast that his last outing, Ubaldo Jimenez had the highest average speed for a fastball in any game in the majors this season. His 0.89 ERA over the last two starts is obviously the potential that prompted the Rockies to make him a part of the rotation at this stage of the season. Control continues to be an issue and will prevent him from going deep into games.

MLBTradeRumors likes the approach of Jimenez/Morales in the rotation versus rolling the dice on Mark Redmond (or any other veteran possibility for that matter), whom the Rox recently signed to a minor league deal. Clint Hurdle indicated, however, that the signing was strictly that, a minor league deal, without any thoughts of possibly helping the Rox during the stretch run. Hopefully we don't have anymore injuries to the rotation and Hirsch and Cook are back soon so we don't even have to speculate about a scenario where Redmond sees the mound for the Rox.

Last night, the Rox did not look like a team destined for a playoff spot. They didn't do anything particularly well. Splitting games evenly between the categories of good and bad will not cut it if we are to remain serious about playing past September. It could have been worse though. Texas beat Baltimore 30-3, tying a MLB record from 1897. Here's the boxscore for that mess. It's not as if the Rangers (or Strangers as my brother-in-law calls them) had been tearing the cover off the baseball. They'd only managed 28 runs over the last nine games. What a way for Baltimore to celebrate manager Dave Trembley's contract extension, which was announced earlier in the day.

Morales is on the hill today, but we're facing a lefty in Paul Maholm. Ever since I remember lefties have given us fits.

Until next time, Go Rockies!

Earning It Back With A Bang

The Rockies put on quite an offensive show yesterday, tying the franchise record for extra-base hits in a game and coming one shy of tying the franchise record for hits and runs in a game. The majority of the damage was done in the first four innings, making it even more impressive. Since splitting a 4-game set with the Cardinals at the end of May, the Rox have won nine straight home series and have won 21 of 27 games at Coors Field. For a few years now we have talked about the Rockies getting that home-field advantage back, recalling how dominant we were here in the mid to late 90's. Teams would leave Denver with their tails between their legs. Some opponenets literally HATED playing here, leaving with their bullpen in disarray and feeling like they'd just been beaten like a red-headed stepchild with a Louisville Slugger. The first evidence that this dominance was on the verge of returning was when the Yankees had just completed a three-game series here and had been swept. Joe Torre commented that he didn't really care to ever come back. The Rox managed that sweep in a different fashion than the recent sweep of the Brewers, by outpitching the Yanks. One of the wonderful things about this team is that they can out pitch you OR out slug the opposition. Back in the day of the Bombers, about our only choice was to out slug the other team, and we did that pretty well. Back then, in the pre-humidor era, players and managers would complain that Coors Field was a joke and you couldn't play "real baseball" here with the altitude. They wouldn't have complained if they'd won. Now that the game has been "normalized" with the humidor and 12-11 games aren't common anymore, they won't be able to use the "real baseball" argument. When teams start to come in here afraid that the Rox will take batting practice off them and they can't make a single mistake, then the LoDo Magic of the Bombers' era will have officially returned. That advantage can go a long ways to making the Rockies a team to be reckoned with year in and year out. A side benefit of recapturing this advantage at home is the attendance. The crowds are noticably larger than even at the beginning of the season and certainly larger than we've typically seen the last two seasons. I'm not saying that the average Rockies' fan goes to CF hoping to see a 19-4 drubbing or even a return of the "12-11, it's not over 'till it's over" type games, but they do want to know that the Rox have a pretty good chance of winning the game.

The Designation Committee met late yesterday afternoon and voted to restore CapR. A general criteria that the Committee had determined was necessary for CapR consideration was getting to five games over .500. With the Rox reaching that goal and in convincing fashion, the Committee voted unanimously. This time the chairman really is going on vacation, so hopefully there isn't a need for any meetings in the near future.

Until next time, Go Rockies!

Back Where We Started

The rockies were unable to sweep the Phillies to extend their winning streak heading into the All-Star break. Nonetheless, the rockies go into the break with a .500 record, which is where we started the season, making this the second year in a row they've gone into the break with a .500 record or better. The rockies as a franchise have never accomplished that before. Unfortunately, that says more about rockies teams in years past than it does about this year's team. Despite the loss the rockies head into the break on a relatively high note, rebounding nicely from the road trip that sucked all the wind out of their sails just one week ago. They find themselves 5.5 games behind San Diego, easily within striking distance if they don't experience the second-half blues that have traditionally plagued this franchise. Oddly, the most memorable part of this game wasn't even the game itself, but the efforts of the grounds crew, as well as others, to get the tarp on the infield as the skies suddenly opened up. It was certainly strange to see the umpires actually kneeling on the tarp to keep it in place as the wind and rain came in a fury. Even stranger was Adam Eaton, the Phillies' starting pitcher and still in the game, working on the tarp. In all, about 12-15 Phillies players were either lying on the tarp to keep it down or getting sandbags. Jeff Huson said he'd never seen anything like it in his playing days.

In Saturday's game, Jimmy Rollins led off the game with a home run for the 12th time in his career. The most in a MLB career is 81, held by the colorful and oh-so-humble Ricky Henderson. That home run was also Rollins' 100th of his career. His first home run was against the rockies also, May 2, 2001 off of Brian Bohanon.

I was switching between watching the rox and the All-Star Futures game. I managed to be watching the futures game at the right time to see Franklin Morales strike out Ian Stewart. The future seems bright. The RMN has an article about the game this morning.

Both the RMN and DP had good articles about Matt Holliday over the weekend, talking about his relative anonimoty outside of Colorado and his quiet nature. From the DP article: "...he walked to a nearby restaurant through a couple thousand people and nobody recognized him. 'And it didn't bother me one bit,' Holliday said." He doesn't seem like the type to thrive in a NY or LA environment.

The website has undergone a redesign, making it what I believe is a little more user-friendly. Check it out.

Until next time, go rockies!

This Time Last Year

On July 6, 2006, the rockies had won five series in a row, were 44-40 and .5 games back of San Diego. July 5 was on off day and the Padres had won, so the rox had been in a three-way tie for first the day before. The last series before the All-Star break was at home against Arizona, who was in last place at the time. The rox were playing well enough to expect another series win and enter the break at least five games above .500. Instead the rox were swept by the snakes and then lost the first five games after the break. Four games over .500, feeling pretty confident, only to lose the next eight and fall to four games under .500. Hmm, sounds familiar. Hopefully this season the rox can win the series against the Phillies and be at .500 or better at the break.

How tight was the NL West last season? In a period of ten days, from July 5 - July 15, the rox went from tied for first place to fifth place. Unfortunately that is where they spent the majority of the rest of the season.

I was curious as to which teams have had the greatest changes in wins from last year to this year. Three teams tied for the most improvement of 12 more wins: Cleveland, Los Angeles Angels and Chicago Cubs; while the Chicago White Sox are by far the leaders in the other direction with 19 fewer wins than last year at this time.

This is interesting.

Until next time, go rockies!

Groundhog Day

It seems like we've seen this before. Troy Tulowitski hits a home run late in the game to give the rockies the lead only to see Brian Fuentes blow the game, leading the rockies to defeat. We have, actually. Three times in the last seven games. How bizarre is this? I mean, to have the same hero only to have the same goat three times in a period of seven days is almost unimaginable. Last night seemed like everything would be back to normal again as Fuentes retired the first two batters in the eleventh. Mr. 3000 for the night, Craig Biggio, hustled out an infield hit to keep the Astros' hopes alive. They say baseball is a game of inches and it wasn't more than a couple of inches by which Hunter Pence's groundball got under Fuentes glove to scoot through the infield for one of the strangest doubles you'll see. At this point I had a bad feeling. I won't go into the rest of the story because, quite honestly, it's a little difficult to even think about. I may need to devise a "cognitive coping strategy" in the near future. It would seem that the confidence that was high has to be at an almost season-low. I don't want to talk about this anymore.

Until next time, go rockies!

So Soon?

After only 16 days with CapR, the Designation Committee has stripped it from the rockies. I use the term "stripped" because, frankly, it was out of disgust and utter disappointment. When the committee restored CapR the general feeling was that it would be for awhile. Sixteen days wasn't what we had in mind. The Chairman of the Designation Committee was actually thinking about taking a vacation since it seemed as though the rockies were cruising right along and there wouldn't be much business for the committee to tend to, but the rockies apparently had other ideas. So, the committee met this morning and the vote to repeal CapR was unanimously "yes". The rox still have a chance to avert complete disaster on this road trip with four in Houston against a team that isn't particularly good so far this season. They do, however, face Oswalt tonight whom they have typically struggled against, their last game against him notwithstanding. They'll also face Jennings, which will be interesting and strange. The optimism is rapidly waning and they need to come home on a positive note to keep the fan base interested.

Until next time, go rockies!

Disappointing

Unfortunately, the Rockies have followed up one of the best stretches of baseball in franchise history with the first four game losing streak of the season. As good as the pitching had been during the period of close to 30 games, that's how shaky it's been in the last four. And it's not just the starters, with the bullpen giving up runs and Fuentes blowing two saves when he had converted 9 of 10 save opportunities during the Rockies' surge. Overall, the bullpen that gave up only two blown saves in a span of 27 games has three blown saves in the last four games. Despite all the talk from the players that the series against the Yankees was just three games like any others, you can't help but wonder if they didn't get caught up in the hype as much as most everyone else. The pessimists outnumber the optimists right now. I'm not ready to go there. We've seen what this team can do. Hopefully they can recapture it soon.

The RMN has a good article about Ryne Duren, the only home pitcher in Denver baseball history to throw a no-hitter. I first read about the feat while researching for my "History of Baseball in Denver" series back in March of 2005. In January 2006 I added a Ryne Duren autographed baseball to my small, yet significant collection. To Duren's credit, he considers his biggest accomplishment in life not as pitching in the big leagues, but overcoming an addiction to alcohol. Also to his credit, he has focused his life after baseball on helping others with the same addiction. Way to go Ryne!

The staff at DITR want to offer a belated congratulations to Rick Cummings, the great-great nephew of Candy Cummings, on his partial retirement (for the Nth time, I can't keep track). As has been mentioned here before, Rick as one of the inspirations for the DITR blog and had a role in the naming process. Rick traditionally takes the summer off from blogging, but you can find him here when fall arrives and he resumes.

May I Have Your Attention Please

I turned on SportsCenter this morning and the first story was: the Rockies sweep of the Yankees. At first I thought it would just be about the Yankees and that stranger things have happened than them going into Coors Field and getting swept, scoring only five runs in the process. Yes, they did talk about the Yankees, quoting Torre as saying he didn't expect this and didn't care to see the Rockies again. But, they gave equal time to the Rockies, pointing out that since the Yankees got swept, the Rox did, in fact, do the sweeping. They didn't stop there, delving into the basis for the Rox' hot streak: better pitching and better hitting. Despite the fact that this streak has been an entire team effort without one or two players carrying the load, ESPN did single out Holliday. Buster Olney went so far as to say that he should be starting in the All-Star game and encouraged fans to stuff the ballot box to get him into the starting lineup. The bottom line is: the Rockies can't be ignored any longer and are starting to draw attention. No matter what your feelings were about the buzz surrounding the series with the Yankees, it made a lot of people pay attention to the Rockies that wouldn't have otherwise, both fans and media. You can just see the level confidence rising with this team. With the Padres losing the last two, the Rox are merely 3 1/2 games out of first. Success on a measurable scale is within their reach. Hopefully they take hold and don't let go.

Here's one thing that I don't understand. Back in the day when the AL and NL had different umpires, there were minor differences in each league. When MLB went to one crew of umpires for the entire league many of these differences went away. One such difference was when a pitched ball hit the dirt. In the NL the umpire called time and replaced the ball. In the AL the ball remained in play. Now all umpires replace a ball that has hit the dirt. The reasoning behind replacing the ball is that the dirt could cause a smudge or discoloration on one area of the ball that would make it more difficult for the hitter to pick up the rotation, etc. So, with this in mind, what I don't understand is why catchers volunteer the ball to the umpire when it would supposedly be to his pitchers' advantage to keep the ball in play. My thinking would be that the catcher wouldn't want the ball replaced and only give it up if asked. It's certainly a minor thing that likely would have little or no impact on a game, but good, smart players should accept every advantage that is within the rules, no matter how small.

Until next time, go Rockies!

Tamed

The second hottest team in baseball tamed the hottest team in baseball, for one game at least. I certainly hope the Rox decide to not play favorites in the AL East and take at least two of three games from the Yanks and Jays. Maybe the East Coast media will actually know who the Rockies are after our swing through the division. Josh Fogg outpitched Mike Mussina, who hasn't been fantastic this season but is no slouch. Francis and Pettite tonight should be a dandy. If you like lefties who can be dominating then this game is your dream matchup. Francis, who began the season miserably, has a 1.93 ERA over his last eight starts.

To expand from the previous post on the Rockies' surge, our average over the last 30 days is .289, tops in the NL and at .268 only three points behind New York for first in hitting for the season. It doesn't seem that long ago that we were close to the bottom and people were scratching their heads wondering why our offense was so mediocre. As for pitching, our ERA over the last 30 days is 3.46, second only to the Padres. The Rox have climbed to 9th in the NL for the season at 4.43. If that wasn't enough, our defense continues to be the best in the NL with a .991 fielding percentage.

As well as the Padres have been playing they are last in the NL in hitting at .247. There are two sides to this. On one side, how much longer can San Diego keep playing this well without hitting and, the on other side, how scary will they be if they DO start hitting? The Rox haven't made up a lot of ground on first place, but they have put some distance between them and the Giants.

Kansas City is asking fans to vote on a replacement song for "Take Me Out To the Ball Game" during the 7th inning stretch. Doesn't the word "tradition" mean anything? I mean, there are some things that you can change and then there are some things you just don't mess with. "Take Me Out To the Ball Game" was written in 1908 by Jack Norworth on a train ride to Manhattan. It was first sung during the 7th inning stretch in 1971 at a Cubs game by Harry Caray and quickly became popular throughout the league. As if Royals' fans don't have enough to complain about.

Until next time, go Rockies!

Even

With the unexpectedly easy victory last night over Josh Beckett and the Red Sox, our beloved team has reached the even .500 mark for the first time this season since April 13 when they were 5-5. The point where things really turned around was May 22. The Rockies had just started a six-game road trip with a loss to Arizona after losing two of three to Kansas City at CF. Spirits were down. The mood was lousy and Rockies' fans were, in general, grumpy. Somehow, and for some reason, this team just started playing a different type of baseball. Since then they've played seven series and won six of them and split the other. Four of those series have been on the road where the Rockies now have more wins than losses.

During the periods where the Rockies' struggled, it wasn't just one element that cost them games. The starting pitching wasn't awful, but it by no means was a strength. The bullpen woes were mighty and even the dedicated fan needed a pre-game roster analysis to determine which relievers were here and which had been sent away. The hitting was inconsistent and unreliable, especially in scoring and clutch situations. Conversely, since May 22 every element has seen vast improvements and each have contributed to this stretch of good baseball. The team ERA since May 22 is 3.36. At the time the team ERA was 5.00. The starters and relievers have equally solidified their portions of the pitching staff. Relievers that were terrible (Affeldt, Martin, Hawkins) have actually become worthy of a call when the game is tight and on the line. Likewise, our hitting has seen improvements also. On May 22 the team batting average was .253. Since then our average is .288, but the real improvement has been hitting with runners in scoring position and in situations where a single at bat can dictate the outcome of the game. Tavarez, Matsui, Holliday and Hawpe have really been the driving forces of the offense recently, with Tulo adding his flare when it really counts.

Granted, it is only .500 and there's a long way to go in this season, but the turnaround is impressive no matter how you want to look at it, especially since winning the series in Boston. It doesn't get easy though. Tonight the Rox face another unbeaten starter and the Devil Rays and then the hottest team in baseball next week in the Yankees.

In an unfortunate turn of events, the Los Angeles Dodgers have fired Eddie Murray as their hitting coach. As a kid growing up, Murray was one of my favorite players.

Correction: Yesterday I said that the Rox had signed 19 of their draft picks when they have actually signed 27. The part about the draft file being updated is, however, still correct.

Until next time, go Rockies!

Guaranteed

Interesting. Here's an exerpt from 38 Pitches, Curt Schilling's blog:

Man, the Colorado Rockies sure put a whooping on us last night. I obviously didn't have the same stuff as the last time out when I one-hit the A's. I didn't shake off Tek once last night and see what happens. So much for my superstition that I pitch better with Hunt's on my sock than Heinz. Who are these guys anyway? Holliday, Hawpe, Matsui? I remember hearing something about Todd Helton in the off-season, but these other guys I don't know anything about. As Keith Jackson would say, 'Whoa Nellie!'

One thing about Schilling, he always speaks his mind. Anyway, with the Rockies' win last night they guarantee themselves a .500 road trip. Things are looking rather encouraging. Our ERA is the lowest it's been since April 30 and the batting average the highest since May 1. The batting average over the last 10 games is .300 and five of those games have been away from CF. The last two games have been encouraging in that we now know that we can compete with the top-tier teams, on their field no less.

The Rox signed 19 of their recent draft picks. The draft file will be updated in the next day or so to reflect those signings.

Until next time, go Rockies!

Its' About Time

After 322 straight days without the Capital R (now simply known as, CapR), the Rockies have earned it back. The Designation Committee met yesterday and determined that either winning or tying six straight series warranted a full restoration of our beloved team's name. This is by far the longest the Rockies have gone without CapR. Last season was the first time since in the history of CapR that the team played so poorly down the stretch that the Committee had no choice but to withhold CapR for the entire off-season. It sure would be nice if the Designation Committee had to go another 322 days without changing CapR.


I'll be the first to admit that the competition the Rox have been facing during this recent surge doesn't exactly strike fear, the combined winning percentage of those teams being .459. However, there are a number of elements in the current version of the Rockies that have greatly improved over what we were seeing for much of the first seven weeks or so. For one, the problems that were plaguing the bullpen have seemed to right themselves. No longer do we feel like we need a 5+ run lead in the 7th to give our pen a good chance to bring it home. Jeff Francis, after a dismal start to the season has found his form as the dominant starter we expect each game. The team as a whole is hitting better with runners in scoring position. I don't have data to back up this claim, just my observations, but the improvement has been talked about in various circles. The three games at Fenway will tell us a lot. After Boston the Rox don't play a winning team again until July 2-4 against the Mets. We don't play San Diego again until July 23-25, so hopefully the Rox can keep up the momentum and have the confidence they need when they start playing some of the better teams.

The draft file on the website has been updated with the Rockies' 2007 selections. As is tradition at DITR, the staff would like to offer their congratulations to Larry Day, the 1,453rd, and final, pick of the 2007 draft. Day is a catcher from the University of Connecticut selected by the New York Yankees.

What's in Store for 2007?

Two years ago, the question that everyone was asking about the rockies was, "how bad will this team be?". The answer was, bad enough to tie the inaugaral team in 1993 for worst record in franchise history. Last year the questions seemed to hinge around which side of mediocrity they would land. After flirting with the possibility of being a good team for the first half of the season, the rox came back to reality in the second half and finished on the south side. This season, there doesn't seem to be a consensus as to what the question is. Some say the rox will be worse than last season, some say they will be better, but most really don't honestly have a solid idea. The subtraction of Jason Jennings and the lack of acquiring an impact centerfielder have led to a degree of pessimism. (The rockies' string of losing records and lack of confidence in ownership might have something to do with that too.) Couple that with the likelihood of unproven youngsters in some key positions and there's reason for pessimism. On the other hand, there seems to be a thread of optimism out there that hasn't surfaced in quite some time. The very fact that we have unproven youngsters that have potential to be pretty good ballplayers leads to the possibility that our beloved team could actually be good this season. We're not to the point of asking, "how good will this team be?", as opposed to two seasons ago, but we might not be that far away from that question. I'm not endorsing either the pessimists or the optimists, but I do want to get a gauge on how the rockies' fanbase is feeling about the 2007 campaign. I've posted a poll on the website asking how many games the rox will win this season. Please vote. At the end of spring training I'll average the responses and publish a target for wins based on the fans' expectations. It should be interesting to monitor as the season progresses.

Spring training games for the rox begin today. Nifty 850 will be broadcasting the game, so if you're within range of the flagship or its affiliates, tune in. It will be a nice change of pace to listen to baseball, especially with snow flying in Denver today.

Only 33 days left until the Designation Committee embarks on its annual field trip!

Clint Hurdle had this quote about Alan Roach, the first, and only PA announcer for the rox, who resigned earlier this week. "I remember the day in Fantasy Camp when he ran upstairs, announced himself, and then came down and hit."

Until next time, go rockies!