Tuesday Morning Rockpile: please, everybody wait...

by Rox Girl on Apr 3, 2007 7:37 AM MDT in Rockpile

Oy. I've got some doozies here today that I'm not sure how to touch, so let me start off with a little tidbit from Baseball Musings on Jeff Baker. Sweet.

Okay. Now let's go on: Woody Paige. Alright, I know many of you agree on the re-signings of O'Dowd and Hurdle being terrible things, but you don't have a very good ally in Paige. I know many of you feel the same about Hawkins and Taveras, but it's just one frickin' game so far. How much better did 2006 Rockies MVP Garrett Atkins look at the plate yesterday? How much better did All-Star Matt Holliday? Shouldn't we be expecting more of them than Taveras? What about Aaron Cook? He wasn't exactly superior to Hawkins his first inning yesterday, either. Wait people. Don't rush to judgement just yet. It's okay to remain skeptical, but let's let the thing play out for a month. Well, okay, we could do less than a month if we're really really bad, but it doesn't look to me like that's the case.

We've got options. Brian Lawrence is begging for a chance to pitch. Manny Corpas has looked nigh unhittable most of the Spring, Hawkins can be bumped down as the season progresses if he continues to flail. One game and already Woody is raging around with the panic button. And what was all that about him trying to pretend the game yesterday wasn't a sellout. Yeah, okay. Several hundred empties in right is an indication that the franchise is doomed.

He's also looking for an accomplishment of O'Dowd's, and he and I both know that one need look no further than the bottom line of the Rockies payroll chart this year (or the last three) for that. This team is streamlined, and yet still talented enough to knock around the reigning Cy Young winner. If I was an owner and he did this for my pocketbook, I'd extend him too. Hurdle, not so much.

Anyway, my point is that it's too early to put Willy T on the bench, too early to say that LaTroy is doomed to screw up our season, and too early for proclaiming that Kaz is back to Japan Kaz, for that matter. We can't tell yet. Let's file this away as a strike for or against them, and move on to today.

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I didn't notice a

link to this yesterday, but Jon Weisman at SI.com referenced your weekend post about the Rockies winning the NL West.

by Russ Oates on Apr 3, 2007 7:46 AM MDT reply actions

Wow, maybe that will make up for him

helping push Bad Altitude to apparent victory in the SI poll. Great now everybody knows I'm about the only person on record as predicting the Rox to win this year.

by Rox Girl on Apr 3, 2007 7:50 AM MDT up reply actions

The sky is falling!?!?!?!?!!11

One game into the season and some people are already questioning the humidor!

by Russ Oates on Apr 3, 2007 7:56 AM MDT reply actions

Wasn't early April last year a little high, too?

Or maybe that was just Petco being Petco. Nope, I'm right, if you scroll down, you'll see plenty of high scoring games at Coors last April. And doesn't it maybe help that both these lineups are tremendously more talented? Yep, we all try to spot trends earlier than everybody else.

by Rox Girl on Apr 3, 2007 8:02 AM MDT up reply actions

that was supposed to say

"tremendously more talented than last season..."

by Rox Girl on Apr 3, 2007 8:02 AM MDT up reply actions

April scores

April scores are almost always higher then the rest of the season. Batters are ahead of pitchers this time of year. It's just harder and takes more time/games for a pitcher to get season ready then hitters. Usually about the last week of April, scores start to really drop on average, as the pitcher catch up.

I also think this piece you wrote to day was needed. It's just one game. We all need to relax.I hope the old saying; "It was just one game..it's a marathon, not a sprint" is right.

That said, this game was a micro-cosum of my worst case scenerio/fears for the Rockies season.

by Redhawk on Apr 3, 2007 8:13 AM MDT up reply actions

Spot on rox girl

To be perfectly fair to Hawkins, he is a good pitcher in the wrong role. I believe when we signed him that several regualrs here felt that way. Obviously he's had issues closing out games, and the last few years he's seen his numbers decline, but for the most part, he was a fairly useful pitcher for Baltimore last season. His strikeouts are down, but he's beginning to see his GB% rise as he ages (over the last two seasons) while his FB% lowers, and his LD% is roughly the same as it was since '02. Thus, he shouldn't implode without the help of bad luck in the form of BABIP. He can still get batters out, but should not be placed in such a high leverage role.

As I said in the post game thread, I don't think it will be long before Corpas takes over more and more responsibilities in the late innings, but having Hawkins around for the middle innings isn't a negative.

The problem lies in trust and bullpen management. Hawkins doesn't get to chose when he comes into the game, and pitchers want as many high leverage situations as is, it will just take time for some correction in bullpen roles. Hopefully, this will be corrected soon, because we have the pieces for a solid bullpen, ESPECIALLY if Kim finds some way to check his ego and pitch with some gumption out of the bullpen (slim chance, but he could). Kim has value as the "ROOGY" to Affeldt's "LOOGY."

by David OhNo on Apr 3, 2007 8:43 AM MDT reply actions

Thank you, Rox Girl!

This is EXACTLY what I've been telling everyone - we've played one game! One measly game - there are still 161 on our schedule! If the season ended today, we'd be giving playoff spots to the D-Backs, Braves, Reds, Brewers, Yankees, Angels, Indians, and ROYALS. Everyone needs to chill out. Of course Taveras will rebound - everyone has a bad game. If he's still striking out on every AB this time next week, then we can consider replacing him. Same with LT - he won't get as much face time after this appearance, but we can't expect Corpas and Ramirez to pitch the entire season for us, either.

Basically, everyone needs to calm down - we are 1 game into a 162 game season, just like everyone else in the sport. Wait until we've played 10, or 25, or 50, and THEN you can start jumping off buildings.

by oo_nrb on Apr 3, 2007 11:38 AM MDT reply actions

Exactly

everybody was freaking out yesterday, I think it's time to take a deep breath. Seems like people got ahead of themselves and forgot there are a measly 161 more games to go.

by Knepster on Apr 3, 2007 2:54 PM MDT up reply actions

Yeah

If we were to believe the results of one game, Gil Meche would be among the handful of best pitchers in baseball. Wow, Royals fans, yesterday he looked like he was worth $11 million a year.

The Coors Effect... thinking about changing the name to The Humidor Effect.

by Rox Fan in TN on Apr 3, 2007 12:01 PM MDT reply actions