Tuesday Rockpile: Jim Tracy loves Ubaldo, did O'Dowd beat Beane?

“I sure do love the best pitcher on our staff”

Tracy further commented,

“He’s really good but he has to get better before he’s really there”

Tracy was later interviewed and revealed:

“The sky is blue and Houston is more humid than Denver. Baseballs are round.”

When asked about how he plans to turn this Rockies ship around,

“They need to hustle more and play good, winning baseball”

Hall of Fame commentator Joe Morgan was cited as saying about Jim Tracy,

“A very insightful man. Good grasp on the deeper and more intricate aspects of baseball and life itself.”

I think everyone needs to slow down on the Holliday is worthless campaign. I’m not saying on this blog, but just in general. I can’t believe how quickly everyone rushes to judgement on these things. The season is not even 1/3 of the way through. Holliday is hitting over .270 and hit his 7th HR last night, and took one away by the way. He could very easily still hit over .300 and if he hits 25-30 HR’s hitting in a pitcher friendly park he would still look good in free agency. I’m not sure he will get the monster contract he expected, but thats due to the economy more than anything.

Also I still like the trade. Gonzalez is really coming on strong and I can’t wait to see him get that promotion. Street is pitching very well for us, and Smith is helping us out by not being in our rotation. I think O’Dowd made the right call on this, but I still think Holliday is going to finish strong. He just hit .291 for May and he is starting to find his groove, it takes a little bit after switching leagues sometimes.

….“If and when he gets to that point,”. Which is it? If or when?

They’re old, 20-30 yrs old. That helps to evaluate players’ contributions given odd parks like Coors or Petco.

The thing that tired me out about Holliday (not on this site) is the assumption that to find the “true talent” level of any Rockies player, that is, what the player would do in a neutral park, is to take the road stats and pro-rate for a full year’s worth of PA’s. Ugh.

Some players are helped/hurt disproportionately by their park, but finding a “true talent” level is more complicated than just looking at road splits.

Holliday will be the first big player to leave since the humidor has apparently lowered the Coors’ field park factor (it used to be in the 120’s, now it’s more like 105-107). But in the old days, the performance of players who left was pretty much on par with their Rockies’ performance, one park adjustments are taken into consideration. Galarraga, Burks, Bichette. Vinny’s performance dropped off, but that had already started in Colorado with his 1999 season.

really want to understand why there’s a bias against Coors field hitters just look at the first comment for this post by RMN. It’s that type of rationale – shallow and shortsighted that perpetuates all this. Gonna be a long time until Coors hitters get respect

every time I read a case about steroids in baseball, I’m so, so disappointed that no Rockies are named.

If ya ain’t cheatin you ain’t tryin

While I’ve appreciated Tracy’s initial post game interviews so far being more candid and less ‘jerky’ (refraining from using more appropriate word) than Hurdle, last night my ears perked up when I heard some lines right out of Hurdlespeak. Particularly the “we hit a lot of hard balls right at em and that’s just going to change at some point” —think I heard Hurdle start repeating this mantra around the second week of the season!

Ringolsby made a quiet smart refutation of this cliche by saying (in short)…“If the pitcher hits his spot, the defense is set in position to make the play.” This means the onus falls on the hitter…there’s a reason why a (good) hitter is checking out where the defense is set before every pitch; it gives him a good idea how they are going to try and pitch him and what they are willing to give him. And this isn’t football where they can give you different schemes to try and confuse the hitter, generally the defense is set and not running around to try and confuse the hitter. It’s why everyone says Helton is such a smart hitter — I love it when he checks out the defense, figures out how they are going to pitch to him, where the holes are and drives one right into the spot. Of course, if the hitter figures out all of the above, has a good at-bat and still hits it right where they wanted him too – well, then the pitcher won the at-bat.

Amongst the many issues the rox hitters have suffered from this (last) season, it’s their failure to make these adjustments at the plate, be it at home or away. It also falls under the ‘team baseball’ umbrella Hurdle/Tracy have gone on about, if a couple hitters have smart at-bats and get a couple of singles/walks and then the next guy comes up and wildly hacks at the first pitch getting a GIDP/flyout it is really a deflating experience (for the fans and other players). Obviously, Tracy is/comes off as a smart baseball guy, so he’s trying to encourage his players publicly but my guess is this discussion takes place (too often) inside the clubhouse/office.

Anyways, this is a long ramble to say current Coors hitters may also not be getting respect because they have a reputation for being undisciplined and ‘little leaguish’ at the plate (as one Padres coach noted).

Sky Kalkman at BtB calculated it, and we’re about average. Earth-shattering, I know.