What do Clint Hurdle and an elephant have in common? I'm not sure, but I do know that Hurdle might want a meal where elephant is being served:

"It's that old saying. 'How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.' . . . We've just got to focus on winning a series," [Hurdle said].

OK, so he referred to the season as an elephant, not about actually eating a real elephant. Anyone hoping PETA would get involved here is out of luck.

Anyway, winning series against the Giants this season has been a no-go so far, with a 2-4 record in six games. Aaron Cook started that crazy game on April 29 that the Rockies wound up winning. Pat Misch started for the Giants in the May 19 contest that the Rockies won (though Vinnie Chulk allowed the winning run). Making something out of nothing, that means the Rockies have a good chance at winning this one. Or if you want to look at the bad side of things, you'll say that the Rockies won the second game of the first series and the first game of the second series, meaning the Rockies will only win the final game of this series. I don't know, but I want that entire piece of elephant on the plate fully eaten and digested over the next three days.

Matt Holliday might want to slice off the biggest portion from that slab of elephant as he returns tonight from the DL.

Clint Barmes, after Monday's win:

"It's good for us to be home and have a long homestand at this point," said shortstop Clint Barmes, who got the Rockies' scoring started with a leadoff home run in the fourth, extending his hitting streak to 12 games. "We played a lot on the road early. I'm not using that as an excuse, but I will say it's good to play at home for awhile. We have a lot of guys who do well here."

Clint Hurdle today:

“We probably need to get away, take a breather mentally more than anything else,” Hurdle said. “It’s tough sledding right now; there’s no other way to put it.”

There are a lot of people who for some reason find it worth there while to spend time and thought on the Rockies. Obviously, some of us spend an amount that tips us well into the crazy column. But the type of people who I never clearly understood would give much time at all to the team, but for some reason will anyway, are those that see absolutely nothing good with the franchise, regardless of what happens.

These people will quickly write off success as a fluke, a one time deal, but then wholly buy into any and every negative narrative of the team and then seem most happy and boisterous when the Rockies are losing. I appreciate thoughtful criticism that actually explores how the team needs to get better, and I'm not talking about that, even if it leans negative, as there's usually a constructive element that goes along with it. Instead, I'm talking about people whose basic understanding of the game is so rudimentary that they should instinctively know their poseurs and should therefore keep quiet if they want to seem even half way intelligent. Instead, they still feel the need to just say something for the inflammatory effect. For instance, read the comments at Drew Litton's cartoon today.

One characteristic that will instantly alert me that an argument lacks the savvy I'm looking for is laying total blame for the first third of the season on the pitching staff, when it should mostly be shouldered by the offense. Any and every contemporary baseball fan should know about park effects by now, unless they're twelve years old.

Here's a current ranking of the NL teams by ERA+:

1. Arizona 127
2. Chicago 120
3. Atlanta 114
4. Philadelphia 108
5. New York 106
6. Los Angeles 105
7. St. Louis 104
8. Colorado 98
9. Cincinnati 97
10. Houston 96
11. San Francisco 95
12. Florida 94
13. Washington 94
14. San Diego 91
15. Milwaukee 91
16. Pittsburgh 84
    

Granted, we are a whole lot closer to the bottom than the top in this, and I'm not saying that more can't be done to fix the staff, but still the eighth place pitching staff in the NL isn't nearly as big a problem for us as the fourth to the worst offense in the league.

OPS+:

1. Chicago 116
2. Atlanta 115
3. Florida 113
4. St. Louis 112
5. Arizona 105
6. Houston 102
7. Philadelphia 102
8. New York 101
9. Cincinnati 101
10. Los Angeles 96
11. Pittsburgh 95
12. Milwaukee 92
13. Colorado 91
14. San Francisco 88
15. San Diego 83
16. Washington 79
    

Alright, sorry for the rant.

There are just three teams that rank below the Rockies in both ERA+ and OPS+ categories, the Padres, the Nationals, and tonight's opponent, the Giants. The Rockies better well keep it that way, at least in regards to our current opponent. Feel free to move up on the rest of the league anytime, boys.

Go Rockies!