I was alerted by Larry Brown, the Rockies blogger at AOL Fanhouse, of a scoop he got directly from Dan O'Dowd himself. The news of Hirsh's ascendancy has certainly been expected if not official for some time now, but Larry's got the spoken confirmation of it.
How come I never seem to run into O'Dowd when I use the urinals? Oh wait. Never mind. And please, please don't try to explain to me what this uhm, game, that you boys play in there refers to. Although after cleaning numerous bathrooms used by exes, I probably could guess. Of course, other sources indicate the competition is still up in the air, so take the story how you will.