Lord, do I hate the Diamondbacks.

No fancy header with standings today, you have an idea of what they may be.

I'm just going to put up some numbers.

I'll comment on them in the next writing.

Last 12 games: 1-11, 2 sweeps

During those last 12 games:

Batting Stats

*	H-ABs	BA	BBs	OBP	Runs	RBIs
Carroll	11-47	.234	9	.357	5	5
Barmes	13-40	.325	4	.386	6	5
Helton	7-42	.167	4	.239	3	5
Holliday	9-43	.209	3	.261	4	3
Atkins	16-43	.372	5	.438	11	5
Hawpe	9-37	.243	4	.317	3	1
Torrealba	9-35	.257	1	.317	7	9
Freeman	8-22	.364	3	.440	4	4
Sullivan	6-22	.273	1	.304	3	2

Pitching Stats

*	IP	ER	ERA	K	BB	Wins	Losses	Saves	Blown Saves
Jennings	20.0	9	4.05	14	6	0	2	--	--
Cook	18.0	9	4.50	4	6	0	1	--	--
Francis	13.0	5	3.46	11	3	1	1	--	--
Fogg	13.0	4	2.77	8	3	0	0	--	--
Kim	12.0	6	4.50	10	4	0	2	--	--
Ramirez	4.0	0	0.00	4	4	0	0	0	0
Martin	4.2	4	7.71	4	2	0	0	0	0
King	2.0	2	9.00	1	1	0	0	0	0
Mesa	6.1	5	7.10	0	2	0	2	0	2
Dohmann	2.1	4	15.43	1	2	0	1	0	0
Cortes	1.1	0	0.00	0	0	0	0	0	0
Fuentes (CL)	3.0	9	27.00	4	2	0	2	0	1

Note: Scott Dohmann, David Cortes sent to AAA Colorado Springs

Still in the hunt

Date: 7/21/2006
Position: 5th NL West
Games Back: 4.5
Elimination Number: 64

For those of you who haven't been keeping up with the Rockies, I'll begin by rehashing the ups and downs of the past 2 weeks.

UPs: Matt Holliday and Brian Fuentes were both selected for the All-Star game. Fuentes pitched a scoreless 6th inning, and Matt Holliday went 0-3 in RF.

Since the Rockies last won a series, the Starting Pitchers have compiled an ERA of 3.31 in 65.1IP.

Yorvit Torrealba has turned his game around, batting .314 with 8 runs and 9RBI in his last 10 games, seeing his BA jump from .200 to .250. While I was down on Torrealba earlier, I think he's snapped out of his funk and is displaying the bat that we expected to see when he was signed on. Torrealba has also caught 7/14 potential basestealers, making him, by far, the best at picking off on the staff.

Additionally, Barmes has slowly started batting again, but I still say ship him off. Lugo's available, right?

DOWNs: Everything else. The bats have been silent for the starters, and the bullpen has been absolutely awful.

And by awful, I mean that Scott Dohmann and David Cortes were sent down. Dohmann's ERA had started crawling up, despite the fact that most of the earned runs had come off of Ray King failing to strand inherited baserunners.

Manual Corpas, Jason Smith, and Ryan Shealy were all brought up.

NOTE - this posting will be cut short due to lack of motivation and joy.

Apologies

To my (any) readers -

Sorry about the lack of posting activity of late. My computer is in the shop for the time being, and any updates I make are from my computer at work.

As soon as my computer returns, I'll back, updating every game.

Until then, I'll throw a few more updates in.

Ray King is still terrible in my mind. Watching the Rockies down 3-4 to the Reds in the 8th last night, Scott Dohmann gave up a solo shot to Griffey, which almost missed, by the way (hit the foul pole), before getting to 2 outs with men on 1st and 2nd. Rather than trusting Dohmann to get himself of of the jam, Hurdle decided to go with Unreliable Lefty, Ray King, to face a right-hander. King gave up a single to the first batter faced to score 1 run, and then a 3-run homer to put the game out of the Rockies reach. He then put 2 more men on base before finally getting a groundout. The Rockies came back 4 runs in the top of the ninth, but too much damage had been done.

As a note, I am fully of the opinion that Hurdle pulls relievers entirely too fast. Someone on the Rockies homepage forums alerted me to this, I'd never really thought about it before.

Example: the earlier paragraph. Whether or not Dohmann could get himself out of the jam he'd put himself in, I don't know. But Hurdle showed zero confidence in Dohmann, and Dohmann had to suffer 2 more earned runs because of King's incompetence on the mound. I really feel that Dohmann could've gotten out of that jam with minimal damage.

Although, if Dohmann had gotten out of the jam, the score would still have been 5-3, and we might've seen Guardado earlier than we expected, and we wouldn't have been able to rough up a Reds' RP for 4 runs.

The point is, Hurdle isn't letting relievers clean up their own messses. With the exception of King. I think Hurdle leaving him in after giving up 4 runs is a way of punishing him.

Bottom line is, we need another lefty who isn't Ray King in our bullpen.

I'll try and update again sometime soon, but no promises.

Tonight, Jason Jennings (6-6, 3.67) will start against Reds' Strikeout Master Aaron Harang (9-6, 3.70). Last time Harang faced the Rox, he managed a career-high 12 strikeouts. He has pitched pretty consistent ball his last 10 starts, seeing his 3.70 ERA waver between 3.40 and 3.92. Jennings, on the other side, has not allowed more than 2ER in his last 5 starts, including 15 innings of shutout ball between Washington and Oakland.

Expect a lot of K's from Harang, and 6-7 innings of solid ball from Jennings. I expect a low-scoring game, that's for sure.

Bay vs. Holliday

Can anyone explain to me what the fuss is over Jason Bay? Why is he so much better than Matt Holliday?!

Holliday vs. Bay

*	ABs	BA	HRs	RBIs	Runs	SBs	Home/Away	Strikeouts
Bay	316	.282	20	62	53	6	.273/.291	78
Holliday	322	.339	16	56	60	4	.363/.315	54

Bay is batting a full 57 points BELOW Holliday, he has 6 more RBIs, 7 less runs, 4 more homers and 2 more stolen bases. Bay's OBP is a full .005 over Holliday's(.391 - .386). Matt also hit slightly bigger, as his OPS is 59 points higher than Bay's (.979 - .920). Splits? Give me a break. Holliday is batting better than Bay both home AND away. Holliday has more ABs, and he even strikes out less.

So, therefore, Holliday hits more than Bay, hits better than Bay, and is younger than Bay. Bay has a couple more RBIs, which may be competely different in 3 games.

East Coast Bias is all I can think. Nobody takes the Rockies seriously because A. They're such a young team, and notorious for losing, and B. They're in the NL West, which, despite how close it is, is completely swept under the rug by the Mets and the entire AL. The WORST TEAM IN MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL is getting better attention than the Rockies. "Oh, it's just the humidor, no need to take them seriously!"

I'm not even really referring to specific All-Star votes. It's more just the lack of recognition. Everybody considers Bay to be just so much better, and I completely disagree.

Source of disdain and anger: http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=sportingnewsmidseasonall&prov=tsn&type=lgns

5 series in a row!

Date: 7/6/2006
Position: T-1st NL West
Games Back: -
Magic Number: 77

Apologies for the lack of updates, a trip to Houston combined with shipping my computer in for warranty work resulted in not being able to write about our team.

To start, Seattle.

The Rockies came into Seattle after 3 series wins against the A's, Rangers, and Angels. Looking to finish off Interleague play in good form, Josh Fogg led off the series with a 1 hour, 52 minute complete game shutout, the shortest in Rockies' history. The Mariners struck back, rallying from a 7-2 deficit to take game 2 8-7. Late-inning bats arrived in game 3 to steal the 3rd game, and the series, from the Mariners.

After coming back off of their AL West road trip, the Rockies stayed in good form, taking the first series of the 6-game homestand from the San Francisco Giants.

Game 1, Aaron Cook allowed 4 runs in 6.1 innings, and the Rockies carried a 5-4 lead into the 8th, where Ramon Ramirez and Ray King gave up the lead and allowed a total of 3 runs. David Cortes then topped it off by giving up a 2-run homer to complete the 6-9 loss.

Game 2, the Rockies rebounded, and despite a 2-hour rain delay, pitched 8 innings of shutout ball before a solo shot from Lance Niekro in the 9th to finish the game 6-1. Francis allowed 1 hit over 5 innings, Tom Martin 1 hit over 2, Mesa 1 hit in the 8th (along with 2 walks), and Ramirez 1 hit...a home run over the left field wall. Ramirez has allowed 8 ER in his last 9IP, raising his season ERA to 2.75, and proving that the Rookie is, in fact, mortal.

Game 3, Josh Fogg came back out in excellent form, allowing 2 runs and 7 hits over 7 innings pitched. The Rockies had a 4-run 2nd inning, and Josh Fogg had his first hit of the year in the bottom of the 6th to add another run. King pitched a scoreless, hitless 8th (I'm as surprised as you!) and Fuentes gave up a solo home run to catcher Eliezer Alfonzo (his second of the game) on route to his 16th save of the year.

In other news, Luis González has been recalled and Ryan Spillborghs send down. Why? My only guess is to keep Spillborghs playing. Spillborghs has the potential of starting in CF or RF, whereas González has more the look of a Utility infielder.

The entire pitching staff has been commendable, if not very good these past 2 series. The starters have, for the most part, given the bats enough breathing room to take games away, and the bullpen, while not as lights-out as they were earlier in the season, is staying solid: where one pitcher falters, another steps up to pick up the slack. Example, Ray King, beside being a constant reason to criticize the bullpen, has struggled as of late, what with his inability to strand inherited baserunners and all, whereas Tom Martin has stepped up his performance and become a solid reliever once again.

Taking another series at home is good for the momentum, as the Arizona Diamondbacks are coming in hopes to reclaim their 1st place spot in the division. Friday evening, Byung-Hyun Kim (5-4, 4.83) will lead off the series against Miguel Batista (8-5, 4.94). Kim has a career ERA of 7.88 against the Diamondbacks, but is posting a 3.26 ERA at home over 6 starts. Batista is posing a career ERA of 5.56 against the Rox, with a 3.99 ERA on the road this year; however, he has also allowed 6 or more runs in 3 of his last 5 starts. If the Rockies can take advantage of Batista's recent struggles, they have a good chance of starting this series off well.

So until then, Rockies fans, enjoy the game, Good Luck, and GO ROCKIES!!!