Boy this year is fun, isn't it? Alright, at least we're figuring out some things about our team, three thoughts on the last three days:
- I'm thinking that maybe, just maybe, Jamey Wright probably isn't going to be a good long term solution.
- Our lack of power needs to be addressed if we want to win on the road in the future. I answered five questions from the bloggers at Cubtown in a series preview that will be up over there sometime today (I'll post a link to it when it is) and one dealt with what I feel about the Coors Field conundrum, a subject I have mostly avoided answering here in the past. Well today you'll get my opinion on the subject. Frankly, I feel OBP is an overrated statistic for the Rockies. I'm not saying we shouldn't draw more walks or try to get on, no those things would be lovely, OBP is still important, but when we're on the road, our hitters will be hamstrung by an inability to adjust to pitches as well as physical impairment (R.C. over at Rox Head has posted a couple of nice articles dealing with the physiology of altitude ball). The OBP and average are most likely going to decline more dramatically than the effects of altitude alone because of this. However, we can make up for this somewhat by having players who can hit the ball out of any park scattered throughout the lineup. Right now, as far as I can tell Brad Hawpe and Todd Helton are the only two on the team who will be able to do this regularly. Preston Wilson when he's healthy, perhaps as well, but right now he's a vacuum. Matt Holliday seems to have power in spades, but his stroke is more conducive to sharply lined doubles when he's not in BP, I don't know if that's enough to cut it for this club. The homerun will keep us more competitive on the road and for that alone we miss Vinny Castilla and Jeromy Burnitz this year.
- Not a good series for Helton, let's hope he can heat it up in Chi-town.