The Rockies and their fans are sleepy this morning after playing/watching a six hour, 27 minute, 16 inning marathon game against the Cubs yesterday. As has often been the case this year, the night/morning ended in disappointment with a Rockies loss. Two links about this:
Lengthy affair brings records, rare feats for Rox, Cubs | Rockies.com: News
Time-wise it was the longest game in Colorado's 21 year history...and Chicago's 100+ year history. There's a few other bullets there, including one that thought Colorado's marathon against the Padres in 2008 went 28 innings. It only felt that long.
Cubs backup catcher throws inning, gets win, scores winning run - SBNation.com
Grant Brisbee has some commentary and video on the game as well (cameo from Brent Mayne!).
Trade rumors
Rockies' focus on short-term future at Trade Deadline | Rockies.com: News
In this article about Colorado's plans at the deadline, Thomas Harding writes about a few trade possibilities. As I wrote earlier this morning, I'm not optimistic that any moves will be made.
Rockies planning to keep 41-year-old closer LaTroy Hawkins - CBSSports.com
After Bryan wrote about trade interest in Hawkins yesterday, the Rockies indicated that they wouldn't be trading him at the deadline because he has been effective this year and has an affordable $2.25 million option next year.
Still no CarGo/Tulo talk with Mets with a day to go before deadline - CBSSports.com
I'm very ok with this.
Rockies news
Neck improved, Morneau returns to Rockies | Rockies.com: News
Justin Morneau was up with the Rockies from the DL, as was Boone Logan, plus Cristhian Adames (PuRP 16) got his first big league action last night. All that and more in Harding's news/notes column.
Boone Logan is healthy, rested and ready to go - The Denver Post
Patrick Saunders has more on Logan's return from the DL. The high-priced lefty reliever has thus far been one of the bigger disappointments in a season full of them.
Tulowitzki begins road to return after medical procedure | Rockies.com: News
Per Harding, Tulo had a painful medical procedure that involved needle therapy in his injured left hip flexor on Monday that he is recovering from. The timeline outlined by Harding is a mid-August return for Tulo. It's yet another instance of an injury originally diagnosed as day-to-day by the Rockies training staff turning into a much longer trip to the DL.
Top 20 Rockies prospects - MLB.com
MLB.com has their midseason top 20 Rockies prospects list out and it, like the Summer 2014 Purple Row Prospects List, has Jon Gray at the top. Overall, it aligns pretty closely with that list, though Trevor Story is down at #11 on the MLB.com list (#4 on the PuRPs list). Also, Sam Moll has an excellent pitch face.
Links from around baseball
Two good ones from the Hardball Times
Lost in the Sun: The Physics of Ballpark Orientation – The Hardball Times
David Kagan looks at optimal ballpark orientation (in terms of sun/shadows), and he shows that Coors Field is not particularly close to that orientation.
After the Hype – The Hardball Times
Alex Gillis writes about how top prospects are viewed after they arrive in the big leagues and initially struggle. We should bookmark this as Rockies fans when Eddie Butler comes back and Jon Gray makes his debut, just in case.
The 'problem' with sabermetrics - Beyond the Box Score
From Justin Schultz at Beyond the Box Score: "The problem with sabermetrics isn't that it's changing baseball. The problem lies with the people trying to stop it."