The Rockies completed a sweep of the Coors portion of their "home and home" series with the Rangers last night in dominant fashion, moving to 21-14 on the year with a +48 run differential, only a game behind in the NL West.
Nolan Arenado extends hitting streak in "dramatic" at-bat for Rockies
As Arenado stepped to the plate in the 7th inning of last night's game, the Rockies had 20 hits, but none were by the man with the 25 game hit streak - adding some drama to an otherwise noncompetitive game. A line drive double on a 3-2 pitch that landed on the chalk extended that streak to 26 games.
Arenado's streak watched with ease by family, friends | Rockies.com: News
Nick Kosmider compares the ease of following Nolan Arenado's hit streak today with how America found out if Joe DiMaggio had continued his streak back in 1941. Also included are notes about Colorado's outside plate coverage and Tulo in the zone. Speaking of which...
Tulo Update: 3.6 rWAR, 3.3 fWAR, .421/.522/.794 batting line with in 134 plate appearances, 242 wRC+. His home line is a more ridiculous .608/.677/1.098, 346 wRC+ with 13 extra base hits in 65 plate appearances. Man, Tulo's so hot right now. That's why Tulo gets a tier of his own in fantasy baseball.
Hochman: Say WHAV? Troy Tulowitzki leads majors in hard-hitting stat - The Denver Post
Troy Tulowitzki leads baseball in WHAV, a metric that measures how often the ball is being hit hard. Click this link to see some of the many other stats that Troy Tulowitzki leads the league in.
Gonzalez rounding into form as Rockies roll
Arenado isn't the only Rockies player with a hit streak, as Carlos Gonzalez emphatically extended his nascent hitting streak to eight games with a 5-5 night yesterday. CarGo is emerging from his weeks-long slump (he's up to a .279/.321/.504 line, 112 wRC+), which is good news for Rockies fans and bad news for everybody else.
Rockies' Jordan Lyles doing his best work at hitter-friendly Coors - The Denver Post
On the pitching front, Nick Groke mentions the success of Jordan Lyles - particularly at home, where he sports a 1.25 ERA in his three starts at Coors. For a more in-depth perspective on why Lyles is succeeding, please see Chris Chrisman's take at his other blog, Check Swing Roller.
The Charlie Blackmon Phenomenon | FanGraphs Baseball
Tony Blengino of FanGraphs give Charlie Blackmon the full statistical treatment, which is well worth a read. His conclusion:
Blackmon hits the ball just hard enough to take advantage of the Coors effect, plays solid enough defense in the middle of the field to add real value, and - most importantly in Coors - has learned to make contact his friend. In the near term, he projects as the prototypical average player made to look quite a bit better than that by his unique home park.
I'll have a little more on Blackmon later this morning.
Baseball Prospectus | The Lineup Card: 10 Items on Our Baseball Wishlists
Read this free BP article for #10, which is Ben Lindbergh waxing poetic about a scenario that Rockies fans have dreamed about for years - Giancarlo Stanton playing his home games at Coors Field.
Keith Law joins Buster Olney to discuss the Rockies in the Baseball Tonight podcast. He has lots of good things to say about Tulo and Eddie Butler, among others.
Around baseball
Pirates beat Giants on replay walk-off - SBNation.com
The reason the Rockies are within a game of first in the NL West is that the Pirates-Giants game ended historically, with the first walk-off replay challenge going against the Giants. That's the best argument for replay I've seen yet.
BABIP: Separating fact from fiction - Beyond the Box Score
Jeff Wiser of Beyond the Box Score looks at BABIP in the light of hard hit data and speed scores. Basically, hitting the ball hard and running faster increase a hitter's expected BABIP (xBABIP), which makes sense.