I thank all of RWOers for keeping this site active. Now that baseball is back, I’ll try to keep my weekly post writings. I hope jeem will be back, but I have not heard from him since he has had to take personal leave of absence from RWO. And we don’t know if we will continue to play baseball over the next two months now that half of the Miami Marlins team tested positive and the Yankees refused to go into the Phillies visiting locker room after the Marlins left. That game was cancelled as well as the Marlins home opener. Forgive me if picture looks familiar; the media has made it hard to copy without permission.
At least for now, I can summarize the weekend where the Rockies won their first road series in over a year at the newly opened Globe Life Park. There was no offense, but the pitchers pitched well enough to win two out of three games by the scores of 0-1, 3-2, and 5-2. The first three starters (German Marquez, Jon Gray, and Kyle Freeland) pitched very well. Four of the five runs were given up by the starters while the fifth run was given up by course Wade Davis. The top five of the batting order did as expected, but the bottom four were horrendous until Tony Wolters had the RBI single in the third game. They still had too many strikeouts as a team rather than putting the ball in play.
As of today (July 27, 2020) the Rockies are in first place with a 2-1 record. It looks like it might be the earliest in MLB history, that there are no winless teams (3 games). If baseball is still on, the Rockies play at Oakland for two games Tuesday and Wednesday. If baseball were to shut down today, Colorado has their first division title in franchise history with a big fat asterisk.
With the Marlins COVID thing, I’m not sure how long we’ll have baseball. I predict at a minimum another 3 week shutdown. Maybe a 40 game season? But one thing I’m happy about: no Bryan Shaw! No Jake McGee! I have no idea whether this new bullpen will hold up (Wade Davis is a disaster waiting to happen), but we’ve finally moved into the 2010s with a group of hard throwers. Estevez, Diaz, Bard (!), Kinley, Oberg (let’s hope he… Read more »
I think in a 60-game sprint, it’s imperative we go something like 31-0 or 30-1 when leading after 7 innings.
Thanks to Wade, we cannot afford another loss leading after seven innings. Diaz came close last night but he was cool as a cucumber. I still believe in Diaz despite last night by just the way he reacted after the last out was made. If he pumped his fist in exhilaration, it’s a sign that he felt he got away with the save. Instead, he had a stoic face which implied that he’s simply doing his job and looking confident.… Read more »
Thank you, RMH, for being the main engine here. 4 and 1! Wooooo! And the bats awoke in Oakland. Yep, it’s day to day on how far they get before calamity shuts it down. I’m seeing sketchy adherence to safety protocols (to be fair, within one team WHO FOLLOW THE RULES and with the frequent tests, they may be OK with half-***ed masking and bunching up in the dugout – what happened to players sitting in the stands? – but… Read more »
What’d I just say about Wade Davis? “A disaster waiting to happen.” Happen happened tonight. You just gotta let him go, Jeff B.
The game was lost by Bud Black. He intentionally left Gray in an inning too long. He intentionally left Davis in 4 batters too many. He intentionally put Owings in to bat for Hilliard when Owings can’t hit anything. Hilliard may or may not have come through but he has in the past come up with huge hits against left hand pitchers when it really mattered. In a year when every game matters, the manager has to be better than… Read more »
Going to Davis for the save? Ill advised, but I’ll give him a pass on that one. Leaving Davis in to allow the 2nd HR? Idiotic. We came back in the bottom of the 9th to make it close, and if Davis had been pulled as soon as he blew the save that one would’ve been in the win column. Bud can’t be concerned with preserving a player’s pride when every game counts in this sprint to the playoffs.
Bob, I believe you were too quick to say Chris Owings can’t hit anything 🙂
But hindsight is 20/20 for me here.
I’d like opinions on the canned crowd sounds now that we’ve had 2 nights to hear them in Coors. I sampled these at various stadiums earlier in the week and found the “quality” wildly varied. I like it better than a cavernous echoing/rushing sound, which seems to be the alternative. Also your view on the cardboard fans. I’m OK with this as well – a little levity, a little humanity (?). (And the Rockies were somewhat creative in creating an… Read more »
I thought I’d hate the fake crowd noise, but it’s like a TV sitcom with a laugh track … you get used to it. And the fake fans don’t bother me either. Now, as for the NBA — for whatever reason that’s been a much harder adjustment for me. It just has the look of a practice in a gym, maybe because that’s what they’re using for it – a glorified gym. On another point: Oberg out with a pretty… Read more »
Really sad and discouraging for Oberg. This issue has dogged him for awhile now.
I would give Tyler Kinley a chance as closer.
Canned crowd noise is fine. However, it seems to lag a bit. A Rockies hitter flies one to left and the crowd noise doesn’t ramp up until the ball is well into the outfield. I believe I read that the sound comes from some Sony video game and was put together by MLB and given to all teams. What the Rockies need to do is throw in the sound of that veteran beer guy on the 3rd base side with… Read more »
“Coooold Bee-ah” in that wall-penetrating baritone! Let’s do it.
They had a Spilly cutout in the front row over there, as well as in the alumni group. Funny (haha, not peculiar). He’ll probably end up in the rally seat way high at some point.
I tweeted to both ATT-RM and Spilly that they need to move the Spilly cutout to the worst seat in the last row in the upper deck outfield. Good things seem to happen when he’s seated in a bad seat. Remember that Rockies rallied after Spilly moved to the roof seat at Chase Field?
Speaking of exorcising demons, ex Rockie Tyler Matzek pitched 2 shut out innings with 4 Ks on 36 pitches and the win for the Braves on the 2nd. He gave up 2 hits but did not allow a single walk.
I saw that, Bob. That’s awesome! I really liked Matzek. It’s interesting, this “case of the yips” or as we used to call it “Steve Blass Disease.” You’d think there’d be a personality type that’s most susceptible to this kind of performance anxiety. Matzek was kind of an introverted, anti-hero type personality who seemed to struggle with being on the big stage. But that wasn’t Daniel Bard, who had a little bit of the closer swagger in him. But they… Read more »
I wonder what happened to Dan WInkler? Do you know? Before we know it, Riley Pint will be pitching for Atlanta!
Winkler is with the Cubs this year.
A little jubilation at the record? Or have we been burned too many times by false hopes? They look pretty good to me!
Roxnsox, I’m sure we are all in jubilation over the record the team has, but most of us are just waiting for the train to jump the tracks as it has time and time again. When do we start to play the Dodgers? That will likely be the defining moment for this season. Let’s all enjoy the moment in the meantime. This team is 10-3 and lost 3 winnable games. It’s great that lately when they fall behind a rally… Read more »
All well said!
Yeah, but with the short season (assuming we even get in all 60 games) a fast start like this is huge! We are already approaching the 1/4 mark — the equivalent of 40 games in a normal season. Plus the expanded playoffs are there. Add it all up and this mediocre, somewhat under .500 team now projects as finishing 32-28, with (according to fangraphs) a 71% chance of at least making it as a wild card.You’re not gonna win the… Read more »
I’m still here – lurking!
Agree with all points Ag. I also sense building confidence and a bit of swagger.
Hey Carp, welcome back. I’m interested in everyone’s opinion here on this Rockies season so far. My take: First, the big picture: unless you’re a Cards fan, this is going better than I expected. I had thought we’d have a full 3-week coronavirus outbreak total shutdown by now. Second, the Rockes big picture: a little reality check these last 5 days, but still, 12-6 is way better than we had any right to expect. Starting pitching has been WAY better… Read more »
Another thing that sticks out – hard to watch Dahl struggle at the plate. He hung his head last night after a few more fruitless ABs and I felt for him.
Well, kids, that was fun while it lasted. We are now about to fall back to 1 game over .500 barring a late comeback. Here’s what Bud/Jeff did to address the problems: Bring back Edwin Diaz, the 3rd catcher (he had “violated coronavirus protocols”; hope he had fun), while keeping Crash Davis, err, Drew Butera on the active roster. Can’t go without that 3rd catcher! What if Diaz, like, takes off his mask to mouth sweet nothings to one of… Read more »
Turn out the lights; they’ve done it again, folks. Dodgers and resurgent D-backs on the road… Roster construction and management aside, what in the world is this team’s eternal problem? RISP? Supposedly good or at least decent pitchers actually an illusion?
Padres trade for Trevor Rosenthal, Royals (and former Cards) closer. He’s shown this year that he’s still got, and the Padres bullpen has been a problem with closer Kirby Yates down for the year. This instantly makes them the runaway favorite for 2nd place in the division. What about the Rockies? I think management doesn’t care. There isn’t much interest in baseball from what I can gauge (hey, look at this board!) and so they’ll just let this opportunity go.… Read more »
I’ve pretty much given up on the Rockies. It’s totally embarrassing to have visitors come to Coors and rake to the tune of 10 runs a game. While the home team can’t figure out how to hit the on the button. They can’t even hit a baseball even if it was the size of a beach ball. Blame it on the hitting coaches; they don’t have a plan at plate. What other teams are doing – ambush first strike pitch,… Read more »
Can we add that they’re cursed? It totally figures that they wasted Pillar’s inspiring go-ahead slam with a 5-run collapse by the pen. If they weren’t out before, forget it now. (Make me eat crow, boys!) In other good news, it seems that David Dahl is on the Walker-Tulowitzi Injury Trajectory. What a damn shame. I haven’t even heard him mentioned in quite awhile, so it must be another lingering thing. And of course they traded for a center fielder,… Read more »