Rockies beat Phillies, still anticipating April to be cruel month.

More comments after dinner.

having a solid start makes me feel ALOT better, but i’m still drunk – so I don’t know if it counts.

1) Helton can’t possibly rebound at his age even with back surgery. He’s a stiff out there defensively, an brings the team down
2) Barmes is a replacement level hacker. He can’t possibly have a 2008 batting average over .275. And his back up/platoon player is some kid that has a ton of strikeouts. And we ALL know that young power hitters NEVER get better at hitting.
3)SS Tulowitzki? Hell I can’t spell it or pronounce it, and his stats last year shows he can’t hit. I mean YOUNG HITTERS NEVER GET BETTER or more comfortable.
3) Atkins can’t hit at all. He’s a joke. I mean sure a career .297 hitter…but that’s not 300 & he doesn’t have near enough power. Last year was so bad he hit .287! I mean what other team in the NL west had a 3rd baseman that hit that terrible?
4) Iannetta is no Russall Martin.
5) Hawpe can’t hit. He’s never hit 30 home runs! and he’s not averaging 100 RBI’s over his last 3 years (pfft…95…sucks…worthless stat anyway)
6) Dexter Fowler Who’s this bum? I mean he can’t be any good, he’s not with the Red Sox. HIS CAREER BA is .167! That shows you how terrible this guy is! Look at all the stills Tavares had…who can replace that production?
7) Spilborghs? First off HE’S NO MATT HOLLIDAY! Holliday was an all-star, a super star even. Holliday has a career BA of .319, and Spilborghs is a messily .303 and never hit 14 doubles in a year so he can’t possibly have more power numbers than Holliday!

And don’t get me started on the pitching or the Defense

(note: This is sarcasm. it’s meant as a slap to all the stupid and wrong preconceptions everyone, and I mean EVERYONE has about this team)

compared to most Aprils, this one is starting pretty danged fine. The pitching (except Cookie) and hitting have been nothing short of great. And I really like being in the position of people overlooking us.

I mean, I became a fan because everyone told me how bad these guys would be. I mean, without Matt Holliday, the rockies are nothing, right?

Marquis did well and our offense is going to put up some huge numbers this year.

I don’t know what happened other than the Rockies won.

at this entire thread.

I perused the ESPN game conversation earlier, and when a couple Rockies fans were trying to convince the Phillies fans that the Rockies lineup could be just as good as the Phillies lineup, one guy actually uttered the following jems (spread between a handful of comments):

This is a classic example of a team having a few good players, a lucky year, and overconfident fans who don’t yet fully understand baseball.

It’s not about me not understanding; it’s about you completely overvaluing your players. The players you name are more equivalent to Rollins, Werth, Ibanez. When Hawpe et al win ROY or MVPs consistently, let me know.

Because clearly a team’s worth is solely dependent on awards given out by writers.

This is why there’s an East Coast bias, by the way. Because no one off of it understands baseball.

There’s one on the right showing the standings, but I don’t see one with the schedule. Should there be one? I thought there was one last season, and I know if I go to Pickaxe and Roll, for example, there’s one that shows upcoming games (and I think previous games).

Starting 3-1, including taking 2 of 3 from the Diamondbacks. Where have I heard that before? Oh, yes. I think it was when that team from Colorado that nobody thought was any good made it to the World Series in 2007. Let these people say what they want now. I’ll be very happy to say “I told you so” at the end of the season.

We already have as many wins vs. Philly and AZ as all last year combined.

That’s not an error. And we beat Haren and Hamels to get there, and very nearly Webb. Aside from Cook’s outing, is there anything to complain about re: the Rockies at all? Maybe Iannetta hitting under 100, but he’ll turn around

I’m most excited about the team’s approach to the game thus far. I’m sure you all remember last year’s edition of our Rockies. Trying to hit 8 run homers, making corkscrews of themselves at the plate, pitchers trying to throw 3 strikes with every pitch. I know it’s very early, but I’m encouraged that the guys are just letting the game play out, letting the game come to them as it were. Very much like they did during the infamous run in 07. No one’s trying to do too much, just doing their part. If they can hold on to that through the season, our boys are going to be just fine.

was when the coaches and the non-starters were introduced: the Phillies came out one by one as they were announced. The Rockies all came out together, and THEN were announced.

It is the same as when Hurdle said to the reporter, “Shame on you for not watching us during the season.”

Ken Rosenthal will at least pay attention to the Rockies. The folks at ESPN will not. Steve Phillips could not find Colorado on a map. I hear these experts at ESPN and it is disgusting.

I feel the same way about Baseball Prospectus. They are so blinded by reporting on Manny, the Yankees, Mets and Red Sox that they do not see any other team.

2009 Dodgers? Paper tigers.

2 of the 3 starters we have faced are Webb, Davis, Hamels and both Webb and Hamels were injured. Webb was shutdown after his Rockie start which led to an MRI and hit a snag in his contract extension talks. Doug Davis is nice, but he’s a #3 pitcher in a #5’s body. Then we have Cole Hamels. I checked gameday to see his fastball speed, and what i found was a significant loss in velocity.

According to Fangraphs, Hamels averages 90.6 on his heater. When we look at the pitch chart from Friday’s game we see that he only averaged 87 on the gun. While 3 mph might not seem like a lot, only 11% of his pitches approached his career average. He only registered 90 on one pitch which came during his 8 pitch battle with Todd Helton in the 3rd inning, trying to speed up Todd’s bat before going to two straight changeups. Atkins HR came on a pitch that was at 88 mph. Here is a stem plot of Hamel’s fastball speeds:

90-1
89-4
88-10
87-14
86-9
85-7

Today’s overflow game thread currently has exactly 303 comments. I don’t know why, but I’m getting a kick out of that.

about my reservations about this team.

Trust me, I would.

Buchholz comes back healthy in a month. If he does what he did last year, with him, Street, and Corpas, we’d be looking so pretty…