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Thursday Rockpile: The Doubters: Adrian Gonzalez and others don't like the Rockies playoff chances

By Rox Girl

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"They're going to make the playoffs," San Diego Padres first baseman Adrian Gonzalez says. "After that, it will depend on how well they hit."

No, Adrian Gonzalez didn't say that about the Rockies. He said it about the Giants, which is a little definite, don't you think? No maybe, no, they're the favorites, nope. The Giants are the shizzle. It was nice of Gonzalez to provide some bulletin board material for this series we have starting in San Diego tonight. He's not alone in this opinion that there's nothing in San Fran's way to the playoffs, however, let's look at some of the other Kruks this morning:

 

We're pulling hard for the Dodgers and Giants to face off in the National League Championship Series, in a showdown for the ages.

 

Wild card: Giants. Their rotation and bullpen (Jeremy Affeldt was a great sign) have been strong and they figure to bolster their lineup via trade.

Knocking on the door: Cubs. They have to hit more than they did in the first half, right? If they do, they're dangerous.

 

Yes, Colorado has made a good charge, but don't expect a repeat of Rocktober 2007. The Dodgers AND Giants are in the way. San Francisco's Tim Lincecum (it's either him or Arizona's Dan Haren for the Cy Young) and Matt Cain are miles ahead on the mound of anyone the Rockies can put there.

...that's just wrong. Hide your fan stripes while reporting in hostile territory, guy.

 

11. Mariners (14). Nobody expected Seattle to be four games over .500. But would the Mariners be better off selling and gathering assets for a 2010 run?

12. Rockies (13). See Mariners, above.

13. Marlins (15). See Mariners and Rockies.

I think we should start to catalog these for September, it should make for some fun. All of this non-love heading our way may be why the Rockies popularity has dropped 10 slots among MLB teams in the last year. Of course, maybe the way the team played in 2008 relative to 2007 also had something to do with it. Bandwaggoners.

 

Dodger Thoughts' Jon Weisman isn't so foolish to write the Rockies off in recognizing that the team's pitching is a real strength, as he notes, it's the hitting that's been the problem thus far (more on this in a bit):

So about that hitting. The big question is whether this is as good as it gets from the Rockies, or if more offense can be squeezed out. Like any team, we can point to players that have struggled or been inconsistent like Ian Stewart and Chris Iannetta and see room for growth and improvement (category A), but fans tend to get myopic in this and not see that there's also room for a slide in the somewhat inflated to normal expectancy numbers of players like Brad Hawpe, Clint Barmes and Todd Helton (category B). For the Rockies to really improve they need to show that category A trumps category B. Patrick Saunders talks to some Rockies about their expectations for the offense in the second half, and unsurprisingly they're mostly optimistic:

I'm optimistic too, but I really want to see the offense clicking on all levels before the end of July. Other DP links:

Rocky Mountain Independent (Steve Foster and Jack Etkin):

SILive.com

SILive.com's been following Staten Island resident Jason Marquis at the All-Star game with a couple of solid in depth articles about one of the 2009 Rockies key components:

Other links:

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