Wednesday Rockpile:

by Russ on Sep 3, 2008 8:06 AM MDT in Rockpile

NL West Standings

	W	L	PCT	GB	STRK
Arizona	70	68	.507	0	Lost 1
Los Angeles	69	70	.496	1.5	Won 4
Colorado	66	74	.471	5	Won 2
San Francisco	59	79	.427	11	Lost 5
San Diego	53	85	.384	17	Lost 2

(updated 9.3.2008 at 9:34 AM EDT)

See, creeping closer. And you don't want to see the Wild Card standings widget since it's too long and the Rockies are, oh, 15 games behind Milwaukee.

Jason Grilli played a huge part in picking up the victory last night. According to FanGraphs, Grilli's WPA was .426, the most for last night. And he was doing it in high leverage situations, as his average Leverage Index situation was 3.02. Ryan Spilborghs, obviously, also made a huge contribution. He made the most of his one at-bat when he singled in the winning run. As Spilly says in the Denver Post's recap: " 'My attitude in that situation is that I can't fail,' Spilborghs said. 'If I get a hit, I am a hero. If not, I keep grinding.' "

Dexter Fowler explains what happened once he entered the game last night:

"All I saw when I peeked back was the catcher (Bengie Molina) step out like it was a pitch out. I thought I was hosed," Fowler said. "If I had gone, he probably would have made a perfect throw."

Franklin Morales, heading to instructs to work on his delivery, and Juan Morillo will both participate in winter ball later this the year. As Renck also mentions, Morillo is out of options heading into the 2009 season. You know, since someone on the internets erroneously reported that Morillo was out of options back in March, and Renck didn't even have the decency to mention where that was reported on the internets. Did you know that on the RMN's Rockies page there are links to Purple Row and other Rockies blogs? The Denver Post doesn't have any.

The Rockies nominated Jeff Francis for the Roberto Clemente Award, an award given to players involved with giving back to their community.

SB Nation launched a new blog yesterday, Blog Huddle. According to the introductory post, it will include:

Announcements of new blogs

Introductions of new features

Tips + tricks on using the platform

Scheduled downtime notices and outage explanations

Media mentions of our blogs and the network

General observations on the growth of sports blogging overall

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Clock stopage..

I believe today is Wednesday.

Jason Grilli is da man. He has really stepped up and filled a important roll lately especially since Herges has gone into the tank.

Nice trade Dan O’!

Couple that with DLR and you have a some nice work done by the Front Office.

by roxhead on Sep 3, 2008 8:38 AM MDT 0 recs

That's what

happens when you write the title of the entry and save it the night before.

"Keep your head down, and inch toward daylight." - Blade of Tyshalle

Purple Row - Covering all your Rockies needs!

by Russ on Sep 3, 2008 8:45 AM MDT up 0 recs

I'd say so

Gas Can has a 160 ERA+ and 54 strikeouts in 52 innings with the Rockies this year. O Dowd has always been good at filling up a bullpen on the cheap. It’s only when he actually decides to spend money on bullpen guys that he gets burned.

Second half run?

by moomacher on Sep 3, 2008 8:57 AM MDT up 0 recs

Agreed

And in an odd twist, it’s that strength – his understanding that it’s not a bad bet to get 60-70 innings of useful relief out of fungible talent – that dovetails with one of his weaknesses – making the same bet on getting 100-150 innings of rotation work from fungible talent. O’Dowd uses the same strategy to fill the back end of his rotation that he does to fill the back end of his bullpen – it’s not a mistake that the latter is generally a lot more successful than the former. But that, I think, is his mindset behind the signings of the Mark Redmans and Josh Towerses of the world.

Staying on the sunny side of Blake Street since 1993.

by Franchise26 on Sep 3, 2008 9:13 AM MDT up 0 recs

+1

by onholliday on Sep 3, 2008 10:48 AM MDT up 0 recs

Then it's a good thing...

…that we only need to sign one starter this offseason, and his name should start with Derek and end with Lowe. No need to go for the cheap fungible stuff.

Watching the purple row from high atop the big brown monolith on California Ave

by Mondogarage on Sep 3, 2008 11:06 AM MDT up 0 recs

hahahahahah

what is this how about not

career splits:

G GS W L SV CG SHO IP H R ER HR BB K ERA WHIP BAA
Coors Field 8 8 2 4 0 0 0 43.1 58 33 30 4 21 23 6.23 1.82 .326

It's Tricky to rock a rhyme, to rock a rhyme that's right on time It's Tulowitzki!...Tulo-witzki-witzki-witzki ..... rockiesmagicnumber.blogspot.com

by RockiesMagicNumber on Sep 3, 2008 11:22 AM MDT up 0 recs

2.4%!!!

Woot! We’re practically in like Flynn, here. Go Rockies!

Kidding. I think the remainder of this week/weekend will be telling for the team. August showed us to be just a .500 team after an encouraging July, and I think losing Spilly for most of the month was most of the reason. With him back, I think we’re closer to a .600 team (JDLR willing) which would mean we need the D-backs to be slightly below .500, the Dodgers no better than .500 and some luck. The problem is that I don’t think the first two happen, which means we probably need a lot of luck. A San Fran/San Diego sweep week would certainly qualify.

by Rox Girl on Sep 3, 2008 9:25 AM MDT 0 recs

Yes well lets not forget

That if not for EY junior on the second to last day of the season last year, we wouldn’t have made the playoffs. I think the required amount of ridiculous luck this time around is perhaps slightly lower.

Second half run?

by moomacher on Sep 3, 2008 9:36 AM MDT up 0 recs

TG Jr....

But your point remains absolutely true.

by Rox Girl on Sep 3, 2008 9:43 AM MDT up 0 recs

right

have EY on the brain because of the upcoming “retirement” ceremonyu.

Second half run?

by moomacher on Sep 3, 2008 9:47 AM MDT up 0 recs

Homestand

Actually we play the Houston Astros to close out the 6-gane homestand, which won’t be easy. They’ve only won 7 in a row going into today, and may be the hottest team we’ll play the entire second half (they are record-wise at 73-66).

by DeepPurple on Sep 3, 2008 10:45 AM MDT up 0 recs

True, but...

We’re throwing Francis, JLDR, and Jimenez at them, and frankly, Francis and JLDR have been really good their last few times out. Plus, we seem to have played the ’stros pretty well the last couple of years, no?

Watching the purple row from high atop the big brown monolith on California Ave

by Mondogarage on Sep 3, 2008 11:05 AM MDT up 0 recs

Agreed on Astros

I don’t have the splits but the Rockies have always seemed to play the Astros well in Denver, ever since Year 1 in fact.

Quite a bit of Rockies talk on ESPN national radio today. Everyone seems to think there is no reason the Rockies can’t make another run this year, especially considering the weak division. John Kruk’s only reservation is the current starting pitching compared to last year in September. Scott Van Pelt put it best saying, “So much of sports is about confidence and belief” …i.e., this same basic cast of characters did it last year, they know they can do it, so why not again?

by DeepPurple on Sep 3, 2008 12:18 PM MDT up 0 recs

Thnx for the correction...

I don’t know why I said SD, apparently I have Padres on my brain. Houston’s a bit of an issue, but they’ll be a lot more road weary by Friday after this series in Wrigley, and they’re only a so-so road team to begin with, getting a boost in August by a sweep at Cincinnati which as I recall might not be that huge an accomplishment.

I think the series will be a greater challenge than the Giants, but not by a lot.

by Rox Girl on Sep 3, 2008 11:26 AM MDT up 0 recs