With apologies to the late John Denver, Colorado baseball fans are experiencing an all-time depression with respect to the local Major League ballclub. Last night, against the Miami Marlins, the Rockies started off like a real baseball team, scoring 3 runs in the top of the first inning, but starter, Juan Nicasio, went on to surrender 6 runs in 5 innings to remain winless in his last 4 starts. To his credit, on May 12, in Dodger Stadium, he held the Bums to one run in 7 innings, striking out 9 and walking none, but alas, our Punchless Pebbles could muster only one run in support, as the bullpen blew the game, giving up a run in the 8th. In the ninth, Carlos Gonzalez struck out, Troy Tulowitzki flied out (to the shortstop) and Todd Helton popped out, as the Rockies meekly wasted a strong pitching effort from Nicasio. That game, and last night's game in Miami, encapsulates the Rockies' formula for frustration in the 2012 season thus far. Poor starting pitching, inconsistent situational hitting, critical defensive miscues, questionable managerial decisions. Add it up, a 15-27 record, the second worst record in the Major Leagues (thanks Cubbies, you are one loss worse). The second worst record after 42 games in the Rockies' history. Three more losses this month will set a new franchise record for losses in May.
Fans and media are clamoring for changes in management, with General Manager Dan O'Dowd, field manager Jim Tracy, pitching coach Bob Apodaca and hitting coach Carney Lansford at the top of most lists. The brothers Monfort are also catching a lot of blame for their seemingly blind loyalty to O'Dowd and Tracy in the face of mounting evidence that this franchise is destined for eternal mediocrity. It is an age-old tradition in professional sports that you cannot fire a whole team, so the manager and coaches are the ones on the hot seat when a team under-performs. When manager Clint Hurdle's Rockie team began the 2009 season 19-28, he was fired. Enter Jim Tracy on May 29. The Rox then went on to record a franchise record 21 wins in June, as they entered July with a 42-35 record, battling LA and San Fran for the West Division. Tracy's Rockies finished the season with 92 wins, the most the club has won in a season, and won the Wild Card. They went on to lose to the Phillies in the NLDS 3 games to 1. Today, the Rockies are last in the West, 14-1/2 games behind the LA Dodgers, pretty much out of the playoff picture before Memorial Day!!!!! They are a dismal 9-14 at home, in the not-so-friendly confines of Coors Field. They have lost 6 in a row going into tonight's series finale against the Marlins and Carlos Zambrano, who sports a 1.96 ERA, allowing only 3 earned runs in his last 4 starts. Alex White (0-3, 5.09) starts for the Rockies, who were shutout at home by the Seattle Mariners in White's last start, wasting a strong performance by the young righthander (7 innings, 3 earned runs, 7 strikeouts, no walks). White, of course is one of the four players attained in the Ubaldo Jimenez trade last year. By the way, Jimenez is 5-3 with the Central Division-leading Cleveland Indians. White and Drew Pomeranz, the other starter acquired in the Jimenez trade, are a combined 4-10 since joining the Rockies. The other two players, Matt McBride (utility position player and catcher, batting .356 at AAA Colorado Springs) and Joe Gardner (right-handed starter for AA Tulsa, 1-2, 5.68 ERA) are not busts so far, but there's time. Pomeranz is currently at Colorado Springs while the Rockies kept Esmil Rogers here with the big club, because Rogers's next demotion will expose him to a waiver claim by any other Major League club.
Last night's game was a microcosm of this Rockies team: get an early lead, starter scuffles, can't hold the lead, get way behind, rally late, fall just short, with either Troy Tulowitzki or Todd Helton at the plate with winning or tying runners on base. In last night's game, Scutaro hit a liner to the gap in left-center that the normal left-fielder Austin Kearns would never have gotten to. But he tweaked a leg muscle earlier in the game, and his replacement, Chris Coughlan, speared the ball, leaving the tying run dead rounding third, rally over. Bad luck.
There seems to be little in the way of hope, or promise, for this year's Colorado Rockies team. A bunch of us went to the game at sunny Coors Field Sunday. The Rockies and MLB honored my Mom as the 2012 representative for cancer survivors and the Honorary Batgirl Award. She looked great out on the field before the game with her pink uniform jersey alongside my niece Melissa, who nominated her. Picture and name on the giant scoreboard, cheers from the 25 who accompanied the family to the ballpark, followed by a stinker of a game, swept by the lowly Seattle Mariners, to finish off a terrible 1-5 homestand.
Terrible starting pitching, should Bob Apodaca be fired? Awful plate presence by Troy Tulowitzki, Dexter Fowler, Todd Helton, Wilin Rosario, Marco Scutaro and EY Young, Jr, especially with runners in scoring position. Should Carney Lansford get a pink slip? The Rockies seem to be batting .400 in the first inning and .150 after. Pitchers walk too many batters trying to nibble at corners, or as Tracy puts it, "Our pitchers need to command the strike zone better." Brilliant! Let's try and pencil in a starting lineup and leave it the fuck alone for a few games, to, you know, build a little continuity. God knows, the results couldn't be any worse! Quit tinkering, let them settle in. Dexter, Tulo, Cuddyer, CarGo, Pacheco, Helton, Rosario, Scutaro. Bring Pomeranz back, throw him out there, let him learn at the big league level, not in the Springs. Pass/fail, NOW! This season is down the drain anyway. And last, but not least, quit propping up Dan O'Dowd, Dick Monfort! You and Charlie have been tranquilized by the fact that people keep coming to fill up Coors Field and buying the load of crap that masquerades as a Major League Baseball Club. The natives are restless. A so-called boycott of Coors Field won't work until next year. The Rockies already have advance ticket sales and season tickets to surpass two million paid attendance this year. And they have nerve to plead with us to fill out an All-Star ballot. Okay, on this team, Cuddyer and maybe CarGo might have a shot. After all, one player from each team must go, it certainly won't be a pitcher.
I keep looking for a spark, any sign that this team has the capability to go on a run, like back in 2007 or 2009. I see no hope. I do not often say that, in May, of a long baseball season. After all, I've been a Yankee fan longer than I've been a Rockie fan. And without Mariano Rivera, the Yankees are barely above .500, in 4th place in the AL East. So, it's about time maybe to start focusing on the Broncos' practices leading up to training camp in July. What, Peyton Fricking Manning is a Bronco !!!!!?? Holy sheepshit! Let me go get some of that orange kool aid, and get rid of this purple shit.
